[Lambeth Palace] The Archbishop of Canterbury May 8 hosted the fifth multi-faith dialogue on international development at Lambeth Palace. This year the event was co-hosted with Islamic Relief Worldwide, Catholic Overseas Development Agency (CAFOD), Progressio and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

Participants from over 30 UK faith-based organisations explored how the values and beliefs contained in different faith traditions can offer fresh perspectives and innovative responses to development.

Building on relationships and knowledge generated by previous meetings, the seminar provided a space for a range of development organisations, from across the respective faith communities in the UK, to engage in dialogue around the contribution faith communities and faith-based NGOs make to poverty alleviation and social justice.

Quoting Pope John Paul II, the Archbishop drew on the theme of ‘being more and having more’ in his reflections on the morning session.   He spoke about international development as more than simply economic growth:

“Running through all that we have been saying, running through all that we do, as people of faith [working in international development], is that notion of what a Christian would call life in abundance – ‘I have come that they may have life and may have it in all its fullness’ (John 10:10)

And I think that the whole of our development discourse needs to be shot through with that sense of what abundant life is, not just a life of sufficiency but a life of abundance, not in the sense of material abundance but in the sense of a powerful and rich solid sense of who I am in communion with my neighbour. That’s abundance, that’s what I believe we’re about here.”

The Archbishop went on to discuss the shared moral responsibility those of faith have for others:

“Living with a sense of being answerable to my neighbour’s good, living with a sense that we are genuinely in one condition, one situation, can feel quite risky. There is going to be no safe place to stand as long as one of my neighbours is at risk.

Their lack, their danger, their insecurity is mine and…however much we may want to live in the moral equivalent of a gated community, with all the unstable and difficult people somewhere else, religious faith of whatever kind simply does not allow that and that can feel a bit insecure, because it is.”

In the afternoon, participants worked in small groups to consider how to establish collaborative platforms for action on key development priorities, such as the economy, the environment and the MDGs, which are due to be completed in 2015.