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News / An OBE and F&BF in 2025 – 5 Things to Expect

An OBE and F&BF in 2025 – 5 Things to Expect

Blog / Director's blog / News

Raahim

16 / 01 / 25

Phil Champain, Director of the Faith and Belief Forum

Honours shared at the start of a new year 

I began the new year having been named in the new year honours for an OBE for services to faith and integration.

What to make of it? I feel a sense of recognition and validation, of course. I also know that this personal recognition is only possible through partnership with others. I give my thanks and congratulations then to the many colleagues I have had the great fortune to work with over the years, some of whom have also received honours. The success of the work we do to bring communities closer together requires a collective effort. And in the spirit of this, here are my top 4 reasons why F&BF and our collaboration with others is so important as we reflect at the beginning of another year.

1. The shared values that guide us. In June 2024, on the eve of the general election, the newly formed Faith & Belief Policy Collective published a letter to an incoming government . In this letter, representatives of the UK’s diverse faith & belief communities reminded us of a not dissimilar period 80 years ago when Britain had to physically and morally renew itself following the destruction of the Second World War. The starting point for policy at that time, leading to the birth of the welfare state, was the theological and philosophical principle, shared in some form by all major faith and belief traditions, that every human person possesses an inherent value and dignity. Today we face multiple societal challenges, including climate change, the cost-of-living crisis, fast paced demographic change, social polarisation, and a lack of trust in some of our faith institutions. It is vital that we tap into the shared core values of our different faiths and beliefs to collectively tackle these challenges.

2. National, impartial and inclusive platforms. The effectiveness of such a collective approach is vulnerable to marginalisation in the face of the strong campaigns and agendas of individual faith and belief communities. Whilst the validity of individual agendas is not in question here, there must be platforms for more collective approaches that harness the strength, networks and leadership of our diverse faith and belief communities. With the demise of the Interfaith Network in 2024 it is vital that collective platforms are strengthened and supported. I am lucky to be working for one of them – the Faith & Belief Forum. It’s important to celebrate bridge building organisations and to advocate for their impartiality and the important role they play. My blog back in February 2024elaborated on this theme. 

3. Dialogue in a globalised and digitalised world. The phrase ‘think globally, act locally’ has been well used for decades to articulate an approach to tackling climate change and sustainability. It recognises the link between what we do locally and globally. But thislink is not always easy to handle. Notably, continued violent conflict in the Middle East, an issue attracting global attention and with far reaching consequences, continues to have deep impacts at the local level here in the UK. And the recent devastating wildfires in Los Angeles remind us of the growing local impacts of global climate change. At the same time, communities are becoming increasingly digital, stretching across local and national boundaries. These challenges create an increasingly complex context requiring new thinking and approaches for dialogue. This was demonstrated through F&BF’s Young Interfaith Leaders dialogue initiative  in 2024 addressing the impacts of conflict in the Middle East. Further innovation will be required as we look ahead.

4. The younger generation. During my years at F&BF perhaps the most common critique of interfaith work has been the difficulty to engage the younger generation. This has always struck me as strange since the majority of what F&BF does so well is with young people under the age of 30. One of our key partners, The Feast, also focuses on this age group. Indeed, there is much being pioneered in this space. Organisations such as Culham St Gabriel’s Trust are advocating Religious Education be part of the School Curriculum and Assessment Review due to present recommendations to government in autumn 2025. F&BF continues to improve its ParliaMentors youth leadership offer to university undergraduates with 3,582 hours of training and mentoring delivered to young people by F&BF staff and Members of Parliament in 2024. And our partnership with the Cambridge Interfaith Programme is making headway with approaches that draw in parents to school education through object orientated learning. Investing in young people is not only important for the future it is important for now. It is with younger people that we are perhaps most likely to reach through to the other side of the challenges we face. As one young participant in our youth leadership programme put it, “This generation is one of the best placed generations for interfaith work. We are more open and honest than older generations. We’re ready to make the change.”

So, what can we expect from F&BF in 2025? Here’s my top 5! 

1. Further consolidation and development of our education programmes in schools. We are planning to expand our object orientated learning programme to draw more parents into school education in religion and worldviews. We will also continue to link schools with different faith and belief ethos’, facilitate our wonderful volunteer school speakers as they tell their stories in primary and secondary schools, and make accessible a wider range of online resources for hard pressed teachers.

2. A louder and more focused interfaith youth voice on the issues that matter to young people, Our ParliaMentors youth leadership programme will continue into its 19th year, reaching hundreds of students and community beneficiaries in different regions of England through training and social action. The now significant alumni network will continue to explore ways of bringing influence to bear on the climate crisis, through theInterfaith Youth Summit in February and other campaign initiatives. 

3. Bringing the faith & belief sector together. In the wake of the closure of the Interfaith Network in 2024, we will be working with other interfaith organisations to facilitate a comprehensive consultation process aiming to provide recommendations in March 2025for the future of Interfaith Week (IFW) and for strengthening the sector in England. This promises to deliver exciting prospects for IFW in November 2025. 

4. Tackling faith-based hate. As reported incidents of Antisemitism and Islamophobiaremain stubbornly and worryingly high, we will be supporting community facilitators in addressing selected local incidents of faith-based hate in England and Scotland, repairing the harm done to communities and building resilience to further hate . Our partners in this work are Interfaith Glasgow and the restorative justice organisation Why Me? 

5. Continued celebration and validation of faith and belief inspired organisations2025 will be the 9th year of the London Dangoor Awards which recognise and celebrate, in November, the local unsung heroes who work tirelessly to improve the lives of Londoners. In addition, we will be facilitating a Partnership Group of diverse faith and belief organisations to deliver the first Interfaith Wellbeing Festival in May, which aims to bring faith and belief communities together through activities, music and food around the theme of wellbeing. 

As we kick off another year let me take this opportunity to thank everyone who supports uson Our British Encounter of faiths and beliefs! The work we do to strengthen relations between people of different faiths and beliefs is vital for improving the lives of us all. 2025 will be challenging, as was 2024. We face it together as a staff team, together with those who participate in our programmes, and together with those of you who we are lucky to have as partners, supporters, and stakeholders.

A very happy and hopeful New Year! 

Phil 

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