Representatives of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths have joined together to call for a “million acts of hope” with the aim of bringing multi-faith Britain together and countering division.
This week has been described as a “national week of activity” in which over 200 charities and thousands of community groups have attempted to “counter the voices of hate and division” through acts of “kindness, solidarity and hope”.
Community events, communal meals and other acts of service are taking place up and down the country in the hope that people from different faith traditions can find common ground.
Sarah Mullally, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said, “When I visit churches and communities, I see people serving one another and looking out for those in need. This gives me hope. They pick up litter in local parks, they donate to food banks, they coach children’s teams, check on neighbours and work together to make their communities safer and kinder. These acts of hope happen all the time yet so often they go unseen.”
She added, “There is far more that connects us than divides us. And when we choose hope we help build the kind of country we all long to live in.”
Senior Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg echoed Mullally’s views, saying this his community always remembered the value of acts of kindness in their prayers. He also referred to concerns about rising antisemitism, with a number of attacks, some of them deadly, taking place in Britain following the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war.
“I experience them [acts of kindness] between communities, like the solidarity of many Muslim and Christian colleagues during this spate of antisemitism," he said.
"I see them in sustained support for refugees, despite the ugly slogans. I’m conscious of them across the community of all life, like the woman who travels fifty miles to fill the birdfeeders on the hillside she loves. These acts of kindness express the true heart of our country.”
