On behalf of Hindu Council UK, may I congratulate Dame Sarah Mullaly on her selection as the new Archbishop at Lambeth Palace. I was invited to deliberate on the selection in a meeting held in March 2025, along with other faith leaders from our interfaith perspective.
Privately I had hoped for Sarah’s elevation for her listening skills, very much in a pastoral way, and then giving an apt reflective response, leaving room for the questionnaire’s further enquiry. I believe such respectfulness abounds among all faith leaders but in the recent years an increasing gap has been developing with our collective influence at Government level. Politicians who are busy with temporal matters, with decisions for short-term outcomes, are leading to a broken cohesive system in the country. I hope under Sarah’s leadership, we can develop our interfaith relations not just bilaterally, but with all faiths, multilaterally, with round-table discourses. Even if such a mechanism facilitated an annual round table discussion on interfaith issues, I believe it could well feed into Government policy for a more cohesive approach by politicians, looking after the interests of all communities.
Certainly as Hindus we are delighted that a woman is elevated to the position as whilst we believe in One God Brahman or Omkar we have the pantheon of Gods and equally Goddesses to worship connecting to that One God. The Church continues to be progressive and our best wishes to the Archbishop.
Anil Bhanot
Managing Trustee
Hindu Council UK