When Justin Welby spoke to the Parliamentary press gallery today, he took great care to emphasise a number of points. One was about the influence the Church of England has in public debate, and the other was about the church’s influence in local communities and the strength of its connections in those communities. He didn’t give the impression initially that he didn’t want to intervene in the public debate about immigration when asked about it, but then couldn’t resist commenting anyway. He told journalists that he was worried about the language in the debate, and that local churches were seeing a rise in racism, which he seemed to think was linked:
‘Yes I think with some people we have a duty of care. We also have a duty of care to the poorest of our own land, and to managing the process of immigration prudently and carefully but also generously and hospitably. I’m finding it very hard as you can see to say absolutely nothing. Do I worry about the language? I’m wondering how honest to be. ‘Yes I do, I really do. I think we’ve got 9,000 clergy working in 16,000 parishes, living in these parishes, we have better reports from the grassroots than almost anyone and what we’re seeing is an upsurge in minor racist, anti-semitic, anti-Islamic, anti-foreigner, xenophobic, just not major things, just comments being made, things being said, that which are, for people who come from those backgrounds, seriously uncomfortable, really quite frightening. ‘We have to be careful and you can’t over-burden the community, you have to be realistic about that but also we must never – part of the Christian, at the heart of Christian teaching about the human being is all human beings are of absolutely equal and infinite value and the language we use must reflect the value of the human being, and not treat immigration as just a deep menace that is somehow going to overwhelm a country that has coped with many waves of immigration and has usually done so with enormous success and it is part of the strength and brilliance of this country that we are so good at this, and I would hate to see us lose that tradition.’
Welby declined to comment on Michael Fallon’s ‘swamped’ comments at the weekend. And he clearly avoided talking about any specific policy. But given Downing Street is always very anxious about the Archbishop’s comments, this intervention won’t be lost in the noisy overall debate.
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