I had a meeting this afternoon with Paul Keeping, the Council's Equalities officer. He invited me to his office in County Hall to discuss the work he's preparing to start on 'faith equalities policy' - how people of varied and different religious convictions and behaviour can be regarded and treated with equal respect and consideration by Council and public service workers. This a requirement of the new Single Equalities Act. which seeks to be more specific and practical about the cultivation of proper social attitudes than simply penalising discriminatory practice.
Paul and I met when we were both invited to attend a local pilot training course on faith equalities over a year ago. Every time we've met since then, we've promised each other to meet and talk, so that he could pick my brains on the subject, as someone with broad experience of faith diversity. Until he mentioned it, it hadn't really occurred to me how unusual and privileged my working life was in terms of encounters with people of so many different faiths and cultures. The Spiritual Capital research project was just the latest expression of an interest that has spanned my working life. One of these days I must make an attempt to write properly about this. Who else might be interested, I wonder?
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