Conference to help faith-based charities in public sphere

The Heythrop Institute for Religion, Ethics and Public Life (HIREPL) is staging a one-day conference this November to help faith-based voluntary organisations to articulate their contribution to charitable activities in this country.

The free Words in Action Conference on 4 November will be looking at the distinctive character of faith-based charities and the contribution they make to society.

The conference aims to ensure that the religious rationale for the work that faith-based charities do in areas of care and compassion is recognised and clearly expressed in the public sphere.

Organisers also want to help faith-based charities to articulate their ethos, so that they can collaborate with state agencies without compromising their distinctiveness, and facilitate inter-faith collaboration at a practical level in areas of common concern and charitable needs.

"Words in Action will also address the concern that the state's categories of 'public benefit', 'social cohesion', 'value added' and so on should not be the only terms in which faith-based organisations may speak of their work in the public forum," says Dr Patrick Riordan SJ, who is Associate Director of HIREPL and lectures in political philosophy at Heythrop College, London.

"Religious organisations are faced with this danger, given the urgency of obtaining charitable status, licence and funding. So it is vital that they find the words to express clearly and unambiguously what they do, and why and how they do it."

Speakers will also include Professor Oliver Davies from King's College London who will be addressing the issue of compassion, and Staffordshire University professor Peter Gilbert, whose topic will be 'Spirituality and Mental Health'.

The conference will be held at the Methodist International Centre in London on Tuesday 4 November 2008, from 10am to 5pm.

On the web: www.heythrop.ac.uk/HIREPL