St Albans reverend talks to students

ST ALBANS — Iain Lane, a reverend of St Albans Abbey and an adult educator at the Christian Studies organisation, came to talk to Citizenship AS students about religious tolerance, community values and mutual respect.

Iain discussed his background and why he got involved with the church when he came from a family that were not religious. He explained what it was like to be a student thinking about religion and also being an educator and helping adults to consider religious values.

He discussed the value of dignity, respect and love and how they should be applied to everyone, despite different backgrounds, ethnicity, belief, sexuality or disability.

He talked about community values and how to help instil these within our society by getting involved in the locality. He shared his experiences of living and working within Bradford and the challenges that this brought with it – but by treating everyone as our brothers and sisters, questioning those who don’t and having a sense of self-awareness we can all live in more peaceful communities with less negativity. Instead of challenging negativity with hate, and vice versa, he asked us to consider that ‘perfect love casts out fear’.

The session was very moving and helped everyone in the room  consider how to better value and show respect to each other.