Of the many things I expect from the Church of England – great vocal projection, gorgeous music, a chocolate at Christmas – digital expertise is not one of them. That churches around the UK managed to pivot to hybrid or online services during the Covid pandemic was little short of a miracle. That some vicars use social media to connect them more closely with their parish and a broader flock is very impressive, and a sensible way to minister wherever people are.
Last week, at the Church’s Lambeth Awards, Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally awarded the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation to the cleric Maulana Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi. The award was presented as part of the Church of England’s interfaith work – I can hear the gentle screech of “Woke!” drifting across the hills, to which I would reply, “Gosh, wait until you hear about Jesus…” – and it honoured Ashrafi’s “longstanding support for religious minorities in Pakistan, particularly the Christian community.”
This presentation took place on September 11, when the world commemorated 25 years since the 9/11 attacks. A comms delight, you would think. It has since become someone’s nightmare.
Lambeth Palace issued a statement saying that the honour had been withdrawn after learning of comments Ashrafi had made in 2007, praising Osama Bin Laden, architect of the attacks, and comparing him to Salman Rushdie, a man whose novels have caused great disruption in areas of the Muslim community but who has, to date, committed no acts of mass murder.
It was a pretty measured statement from Lambeth Palace, ending with the news that it had contacted Ashrafi to let him know (not always a guarantee in this age of “panic first, consequences later” media training) and that: “We continue to pray for the Christian community in Pakistan, and for all those working for interfaith dialogue and harmony in Pakistan and around the world.”
There has been significant chuntering about Mullally having made a mistake in presenting Ashrafi with this award, and that her first months as Archbishop have been filled with conflict – certainly, pretty much the entire conservative wing of the Anglican church is furious that she’s there at all, convinced as they are that only men should govern, and uproar from a vocal minority about her rightly apologising for the Church’s role in slavery and in forced adoption.
But do we really want to end up in the situation we’ve landed in with our prime ministers, where we churn over a new archbishop every couple of years? No, thanks.
To paraphrase Jesus in John 8:7 (very useful on hypocrites, of which there continue to be many among self-declared Christians), let him who is without sin cast the first stone at her. Given the backlog of problems in the Church of England, that’s going to be a pretty long wait.
‘The award was presented as part of the Church of England’s interfaith work – I can hear the gentle screech of “Woke!” drifting across the hills, to which I would reply, “Gosh, wait until you hear about Jesus…”’ (Neil Turner/Lambeth Palace/PA Wire)
Yet, we’re arguably well-established as living in an era when any connection will need to submit to a vetting process on a par with either the secret services or a women’s WhatsApp group researching someone they’ve met in a bar.
The BBC and most newspaper archives carry articles nearly a decade old advising how to tidy up your online history, each pegged to news stories of public figures being embarrassed by their past comments. A cursory Google for “old social media posts” or “resurfaced tweets” shows that, if anything, today’s prospective MPs, Oscar nominees and ambassadors to the US (cough) have neither read these useful articles nor learned accordingly.
Similarly, Ashrafi’s group said his comments in 2007 were not endorsing Bin Laden, but intended to show anger over the knighting of Rushdie. Ashrafi told the BBC that his comments were taken out of context. But they’re not exactly great when put in context, either – and hence, the church’s ongoing efforts to build relations externally and to clean its own house.
It was almost a relief to delete my X account last year so Elon Musk’s ghastly AI tool, Grok, couldn’t use it to train on. I’ve certainly said some bewilderingly stupid stuff over the years, in the course of growing up – but nothing racist, homophobic or misogynistic. When people say that stuff as adults, and have the confidence to post it online, they can’t really get away with pleading “immaturity” because they’ve been caught out. Complacency isn’t the same thing as immaturity – although it does echo the suggestion that it’s not just under-16s who could do with having their access to social media regulated.
The Church made a sensible decision in rescinding this award. But it was also sensible in its measured response, making it clear that this had no impact on its prayers for Pakistan, and for its work for interfaith harmony.
We have seen only too clearly this week, in the temporary closure of Portsmouth’s RNLI station after far-right attacks, the importance of upholding Christian values: ones of welcoming strangers, kindness, sharing and tolerance. The Holy Family fled Bethlehem and took refuge in Egypt to avoid Herod’s attacks on newborn boys.
The events of this past month can serve to remind us what sort of Christians we want to be. Dolly Parton or Donald Trump. Sarah Mullally or Danny Tommo.