Yesterday I represented the UK Baha’i community at the wonderful Service of Remembrance in St Paul’s Cathedral for the victims of the 7/7 bombings in London. It was a solemn occasion, a wonderful opportunity for reflection and rededication. The service took place in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen and HRH Prince Philip.

The cathedral was full, with victims of the bombings, their families, the bereaved, members of the emergency services, transport staff, representatives of the major faiths of the UK, all come for this national act of mourning. St Paul’s have a wonderful way with these occasions. The cathedral itself is a wondrous building, light and with a great sense of space and dignity. The service, basically an Anglican one, had been put together in such a way that those of other faiths could not find it difficult to join in. The words and the hymns had been chosen to be inclusive.

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone) read from Isaiah (51:1-6), rather ironical, given that he is an avowed atheist. But it was appropriate, given his office, that he should have a part in the service.

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon was, as is usually the case with Rowan Williams, powerful and appropriate. He contrasted the way in which terrorism arbitrarily kills anyone and everyone, without any sense of the individuality and preciousness of those who are killed or wounded, with the message of Christianity (and of other faiths) that each one of us is irreplaceable, that in the eyes of God, every life is special:

The terrorist is the enemy not just of a system or a government but of the whole idea that we are each of us unique and responsible and non-replaceable. If it were true that one victim would be as good as any other, which is what the terrorist believes, the human world would be a completely different place, unrecognisable to most of us…

Every life is a special sort of gift. When we behave as if that were true, we do what?s most important for the defeat of terror and indiscriminate violence. We want to live and work as though each person mattered; as if we did indeed believe in a love that forgot nothing and no-one.

There followed a moving act of remembrance and thanksgiving, a minute of silence. Immediately before the minute of silence the choir sang the Kyrie from Durufle’s wonderful Requiem and four candles were carried from the four corners of the cathedral by representatives of the emergency services and transport staff, accompanied by representatives of the families of those who died, and place on the altar. On each candle was printed the name of one of the locations of the bombings.

Then the Bishop of London and representatives of some of the faith communities of London (omitting the Baha’i, Jain and Zoroastrian communities) stood in front of the altar under the dome of St Paul’s and affirmed our hope for the future of London as a multi-faith, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural city bound together by mutual trust, common values, our common humanity. Young representatives of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist faiths lit the six wicks of a single Candle of Hope, as a sign of our shared commitment to stand united in the face of evil.

After the service, the faith representatives were invited to go over the road for a cup of tea in the Chapter House. There we shook hands with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Cherie, Michael and Mrs Howard, Charles and Mrs Kennedy, Home Secretary Charles Clarke. I had a chat with Gordon Brown, and quite a long chat with Rowan Williams, whom I thanked for acknowledging that:

Time gives perspective and may bring healing; but the trauma of violence, and even more the death of someone we love makes a difference that nothing will ever completely unmake.

It seems to me that the Church of England, for all its troubles, still provides a necessary point of reference in England for national acts of remembrance, mourning, celebration and so on. And my experience of working with senior Anglican church people is generally one of openness and welcome to those of non-Christian faiths. This is not to say that there’s a kind of bland, grey inter-faith soup. Far from it. The Archbishop’s sermon clearly came from his Christian faith, and those of us representing our faiths are rooted in our faiths. In some ways, that rootedness makes inter-faith activity possible without itself becoming a substitute religion.

The next step, though, is to recognize that all the faiths come from one Divine Source, that all are part of one grand metanarrative of human religious development, and that that metanarrative has a clear direction - towards the uniting of all humans in one common faith.

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