Report from Oxford Council of Faiths AGM
Richard Seebohm
The Oxford Council of Faiths held its AGM on Tuesday 15 November at the Richmond Road Jewish Centre. Our guest speaker was Charlotte Bannister-Parker, Associate Priest at the University Church having also Diocesan and academic responsibilities. She has an extensive range of current and past involvements such as a children’s radio project in South Africa, teaching beekeeping to Nepalese women, and founding the Oxford Inter-Faith Walk, to name just a few. She is part of the Oxford Three Faiths Encounter, a body that perhaps we should know more about.
Charlotte had our meeting split into groups to identify issues of concern to us in Oxford. Our responses (and hers) became the substance of the meeting.
Climate change came first, but this broke down into more specific matters. One was agriculture – we should grow local and buy seasonally, and not fly in produce from Africa. We should surely change our own carbon footprints, but how far would our example change those of other people, or public policy?
Immediately, the County Council’s Oxford traffic calming proposals dominated discussion. Charlotte said that the consultation replies were 80 percent opposed, but this was at risk of being disregarded. One of our number was a taxi driver who said that the closure of Cowley Road side streets had already turned a 10-minute journey into 45, with extra exhaust fumes and extra costs to the passenger. We had already heard a bid for less air pollution; but the taxi firm had had to lay up its three electric cars and stick to hybrid, as their batteries wouldn’t last a whole shift’s work. We agreed that there was indeed a car problem, often carrying a single person. Better bus services by better buses could help, including more care for the needs of the disabled.
Housing was an issue we couldn’t pursue fully. The young were disadvantaged; we needed younger voices in our (interfaith) group. Polarised ideologies blocked sensible debate and we should be setting more store on faith. Our chair (from the Bahá’í) urged us as a Council to be more ready to speak truth to power. Local authorities needed our sympathy, and our thoughts for the challenges of the coming winter.
Lastly, the lack of Oxford burial sites was (again) raised as a near-desperate issue for the faiths that did not accept cremation. Where there were facilities, Oxford insisted on a fee of £3,500 for burials of those from outside who had not been City Council tax payers.
Postscript
Charlotte had the impression that abandoning the traffic measures would require the Council to repay grants already received. I gather that it is future grants, conditional on the schemes, that would be lost.
Churches Together in Central Oxford met on Wednesday 22 November. Our main preoccupations were rough sleepers and the homeless, and the need for volunteers in the various relief services – young adult Friends might be especially welcome. I can forward a full report.
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Forty-Three Newsletter • Number 524 • December 2022
Oxford Friends Meeting
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