Faith in government - do we have any?
I am in the middle of prepare=ing to chair a meeting in Welwyn Garden City this evening on the theme of Faith in Government. The speakers will be the Rt Revd Christopher Herbert, Bishop of St Albans, Stephen Timms MP, Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform at the Department for Work and Pensions, Alistair Burt MP, Assistant Chief Whip and Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. Stephen Timms, who describes himself as a Christian Socialist, is Labour Party Vice Chair for Faith Groups. Alistair Burt describes himself as an active Christian.
The meeting, which has been organized by the Welwyn Hatfield Inter Faith Group aims to tease out a better understanding of how faith perspectives are brought to bear on parliamentary and central government affairs.
The three panel members are all parliamentarians and all Christians. I will be the only non-Christian on the panel and, as chair, I will endeavour to ensure that non-Christian voices and viewpoints are heard. I will also have an opportunity to ensure that my viewpoint as a Baha’i is part of the mix. It’s a pity that there won’t be a Humanist or other secularist on the panel - there’s a very interesting debate going on in the UK about whether religion should have a role in public life at all.
I am really looking forward to the evening. There are so many fascinating questions to be discussed and I hope that the questions and comments from the audience will give the speakers a good opportunity to address topical issues such as:
- religion and sexual orientation
- prohibition of religious symbols
- abortion
- religious education
- mental health legislation
- the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill
- the position of religious minorities in UK public life
More on this tomorrow.
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Christian, inter-faith, Welwyn Hatfield, public life, parliament, government
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6 comments
sounds fascinating, but it always makes me wonder when they have such events with a homogenous group of people…I’m glad you’re going to be there, look forward to hearing more about it.
Sholeh, I agree with your comment about the homogeneity of the group. Really the panel itself should be multi-faith - and include a non-religious speaker. I shall be interested to see who is in the audience this evening.
I’m looking forward to hearing about this. As someone who will be moderating a panel at Greenacre this summer, any pointers and good moderating Barney?
The crucial thing is to keep a cool head!
Actually, Phillipe, there are one or two things that I have learned over the years of moderating or chairing meetings:
1. Be in charge! This may seem obvious, but I have experienced moderators and chairpersons who might just as well have not been in the room. Assert your authority. This doesn’t mean that you should be dictatorial - not that I could imagine you being dictatorial, Phillipe - but a courteous and calmly authoritative moderator gives the audience confidence and helps them relax.
2 Ensure that you keep to time. I hate it when moderators allow meetings to run substantially beyond their scheduled time. My particular dislike is reserved for moderators who take three difficult questions five minutes before the session is due to end.
3. Scope the room and, if you know the names of participants, list them on a piece of paper (or list a characteristic, such as “red shirt” or “bald with eyeglasses”. Read out the list from time to time, so that people know (a) that their wish to speak has been noted and (b) how far down the list they are. This also has the benefit of helping to ensure that people don’t just jump in and speak across others.
4. Turn-taking is important, but sometimes the moderator should be flexible if a particularly interesting issue has arisen and someone is dying to speak to the point the speaker has just made. It’s a difficult call, but that’s where the cool head comes in! Sometimes, though, the moderator must be firm and stop someone who has intervened without your permission.
5. Ensure that as many viewpoints as possible are heard and as many questions as feasible are aired and answered.
6. Be positive, even if an audience member says something completely foolish or off track.
But you knew all of this already!
Look out for my post on tomorrow’s meeting.
Barney, you are like the Yoda of panel moderating. Thank you for sharing your knowledge of the force with this young Jedi.
Seriously though, the points are well taken. I’ll give it my best shot.
You’re welcome, Phillipe. I hope the points help. I’m sure you will do very well.
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