A Guardian of Values

“We value people not for what they earn or what they buy or how they vote but for what they are, every one of them a fragment of the Divine Presence. We hold life holy. And each of us is lifted by the knowledge that we are part of something greater than all of us, that created us in forgiveness and love, and asks us to create in forgiveness and love. Each of us in our own way is a guardian of values that are in danger of being lost, in our short-attention-span, hyperactive, information-saturated, wisdom-starved age. And though our faiths are profoundly different, yet we recognise in one another the presence of faith itself, that habit of the heart that listens to the music beneath the noise, and knows that God is the point at which soul touches soul and is enlarged by the presence of otherness. We celebrate our commonalities and differences, because if we had nothing in common we could not communicate, and if we had everything in common, we would have nothing to say. Perhaps we should all aspire to be creative minorities, inspiring one another and bringing our different gifts to the common good.”

Opening address for Papal Visit, Twickenham, 17 September 2010