The palace and the parish: the Church of England's approach to interreligious relations with Muslims nationally and locally, 2005-2021

Thesis

This dissertation examines the character of the established Church of England’s engagement with Islam from 2005 to 2021. It contends that there is a dual method which can be understood on the levels of the national and the local. With a view to the national, the year 2005 marked the Church of England’s founding of Presence and Engagement, a programme whose remit is “to think about the reality of religious diversity and how it might shape mission and ministry.” There are five core Presence and Engagement reports spanning 2005 to 2017 which are analysed alongside their concomitant General Synod debates. The Church of England’s approach to interreligious engagement with Islam on a national level is a process of inward-facing dialogue, wherein the Church of England’s chief concern is how its own identity qua national church is affected by the growth of Islam in England. As such, the Presence and Engagement reports are analysed as documentary evidence of the Church of England’s emerging subjecthood as it encounters an increasingly multireligious England. The discussion of the national level forms Part 1 of this dissertation. Part 2 of this dissertation considers the local level through a case study of the Church of England’s Diocese of Birmingham. The case study is based on ethnographic interviews with parish priests and other central Anglican figures, conducted in 2020 through 2021. It finds that the local church participates in outward-facing interreligious dialogue with Muslim individuals and communities through diverse activities in everyday life, challenging the notion of dialogue as formal. While the national and the local levels have differing priorities, they share a common vocabulary, e.g., hospitality, witness, and love, and the central motif of the parochial system. This vocabulary is used by actors across the Church to understand how they should engage with Muslims.

Authors: Morry, LC

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zbr6yxdpb
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: religion in the United Kingdom; anthropology of religion; Church of England; Christian-Muslim relations; Anglicanism; interreligious dialogue; Islam
• Subjects: Religion