International
Tony Blair on Faith and Development
This week I went to the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce, in London where Tony Blair gave a speech to launch a seminar series on Faith and Development.
He talked about the foundation that he has set up (the Tony Blair Faith Foundation) and described how they’ve developed a programme aimed at working towards the UN Millennium Development Goals as well as an anti-malaria campaign. He also talked about the importance of people in the development field engaging with those in faith, and vice versa: “faith can benefit action for development; but action on development can also benefit faith.”
The thing that resonated most for me was his suggestion that the best way to build bridges between faiths was through action not conversation. People of different faiths working together to beat a preventable and treatable disease like Malaria surely is worth a thousand conferences and seminars.
You can read the full speech here.
-Oliver Buston
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