On the day the first woman is ordained as the Archbishop of Canterbury, one of her colleagues has warned of “prejudice and intolerance” in Britain.
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, told Sky News that Dame Sarah Mullally’s ordination was a “happy” and “historic” day. But he warned of a “problem of prejudice and intolerance” and “we do see that in Britain”.
Dame Sarah will be enthroned in a formal ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral later on Wednesday. It comes two days after an arson attack on four ambulances run by the Jewish volunteer-run service Hatzola.
Two men have been arrested over Monday’s arson attack in Golders Green.
The cleric said the “appalling” attack on the ambulance service, which was “actually serving the whole community”, represented “an attack on all of us, on all people of faith and on all people of goodwill”.
He said that Dame Sarah “would be reminding us that the message of the Christian faith is a message which at its heart, invites us and requires us to love our neighbours as ourselves”.
It was, he said, “a simple message, but, goodness me, it’s one our world and our nation really, really needs.
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“Sadly, in our world, there are all different kinds of hatreds, and often religion becomes a banner for that hatred, if not the cause of that hatred.”
He said people of all faiths “share together a belief in the dignity of every human person”.
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People are “tribal”, “greedy”, “selfish” and “fearful”, he said, but added that he preferred to see the current situation “as a challenge and an invitation for us to love our neighbour even more, to build friendship across difference in our communities. And I want to be part of a church that’s in the forefront of this.
“The prayers of the Church of England and the Christian Church go to the Jewish community,” he added.
