hindu,other faiths | GS 2026 Candidates

Tim Edmonds Election Address
I want to serve the church in a general way but in particular I want to push the church to build better bridges with other religions. I also want to build on my studies which led to a degree in Theology and a Master’s in the Philosophy of Religion, though I earned those quite a long time ago now. But I’ve never done anything with them, and spent my professional time in IT.
I think the church needs better bridges with other religions because increasingly the world is multi-cultural, and not just the world but increasingly, again, individual countries within the world. Britain is a good example. We pray for peace, people of other religions pray for peace, and perhaps exploring and celebrating what we can share with people of other faiths is a good basis, not just for trying to build a coherent society, but even for a debate about the differences between religions. It would be a better basis for that debate than distrust is.
I’m certainly not saying that the differences between the religions don’t matter; I just think that the similarities matter too, and perhaps matter more. Differences matter because everything matters, even sparrows, but sharing belief in God and in a life after death matter too.
We need to reconsider our relationship with other religions in order to push back against atheism and agnosticism. It is not the only thing we need to do to counter atheism and agnosticism but it would help. For centuries religions have competed for adherents, but the development and spread of atheism and agnosticism changes things.
Respect for other religions is good but it is not enough. It leads to people thinking that religions are cultural constructs: stories that societies tell themselves, which is what myths are. We need to present society with a claim to truth which is supported by many religions. Consider: Jesus said I am the truth, perhaps not the most important thing he said, but I think it’s the most puzzling.
I think this is particularly important in schools. RE needs to present something which Christians claim to be true, but which is acceptable in a multi-cultural society. We need those bridges!
Bridges could be at more than one level. We need our religious authorities to know and publicise what we have in common, but we need bridges at grass roots level also. Most weeks I attend a midweek service at the Hindu temple in Southampton.