Three of Britain’s leading religious figures, in a letter to The Times, have commended a pledge made by the Catholic Church forty years ago to work with other churches and religions by establishing closer dialogue and collaboration.

|TOP|Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, and President of the Council of Mosques and Imams, Sheikh Dr Zaki Badawi, praised the declaration, Nostra Aetate, or “In Our Time”, which was issued shortly before the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965.

In the letter to The Times, entitled Celebrate This Great Stride Towards Peace Between Faiths, the British faith leaders expressed their desire to “pay tribute to Nostra Aetate and to note with thanksgiving the changed atmosphere which it has helped to bring about”.

The leaders said: “We wish to celebrate the fact that a spirit of mutual tolerance and respect between our faiths is today possible both in principle and in practice.”

The three also acknowledged the role of Nostra Aetate in precipitating a shift in Catholic-Jewish relations by acknowledging the Christian contribution to anti-Semitism, and the contribution of the declaration in inspiring a new understanding between Christians and Muslims.

“This new climate, unthinkable 50 years ago, has enabled collaboration between scholars, papal visits to synagogues and mosques, and the unprecedented meetings of faith leaders in Assisi in 1986 and 2002,” read the letter.|QUOTE|

The leaders also expressed their gratitude for the call in the declaration to “encourage, preserve and promote” the spiritual wisdom and values of each other’s faiths.

The letter ended: “In our own time, when bigotry and prejudice, notably anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, are provoking hatred and misunderstanding, we pledge ourselves anew to this mutual respect between faiths in the UK in the same spirit of humility and gratitude which characterise this remarkable document.”