PA

Lord Williams

"Cities need lots of imagination to work," said the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Rowan Williams at an event in St James's Church Piccadilly yesterday.

He was speaking to a mainly Christian and Muslim audience on the themes of the city, spirituality, and trust.

Lord Williams spoke about how spirituality was vital for holding cities together into the future, giving people "a vision of human dignity" and transcending diversity.

"Either the city is a challenge for our imagination, or it is a desert and chaos," Lord Williams explained, as he spoke about the need for imagination to see past differences.

He discussed the need to understand the stranger, saying, "I am not going to be fully human without that person."

Spirituality was, he said, a means of better achieving the vision of a unified city, saying, "Urban faith is something which at its best can be part of the process, providing respect for people who belong together."

However, he distanced himself from the usual definition of spirituality.

"Spirituality is a modern word it seems to say that religious belief is a bit difficult and not all that attractive, but we quite like the warm feelings," he said.

Excerpt from:

Spirituality makes unity in diversity possible - Rowan Williams