The ++ABC has issued a called for greater collaboration between faith based and secular development agencies.

 

Rowan’s vision for development

Can giving to the poor be seen not simply as alleviating the suffering of others, but about receiving a gift in return?

 

  * Mark Vernon
 
Rowan Williams has called for a broadening of the development agenda, so that secular agencies working in developing countries might become more fluent in the language of faith. Conversely, he stressed, faith-based communities must be more open to the imperatives of the “development establishment.” Learning from each other would not only be good for development. It might make possible the “distribution of dignity”, alongside the establishment of rights, he said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has a remarkable ability to highlight key issues of our day, issues that many then recognise, even though they don’t share his faith commitment. He has done so again with his analysis of the work of development. It came at the culmination of a series of RSA-sponsored lectures entitled New Perspectives on Faith and Development. (He also achieved what must be a rare eclecticism for public talks, commending to his audience both a papal encyclical by Benedict XVI and a volume written by George Monbiot.)

Williams’s analysis is premised on the observation that there has been, and remains, a longstanding unease between the development establishment and faith communities.

read the rest at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/13/rowan-development-aid-faith