The interaction between politics and religion has come increasingly to the fore in recent years. But can religion and politics mix and is it right for religious leaders to intervene in national political issues?
Ordained rabbi and social reformer, Baroness Julia Neuberger DBE, will be posing this challenging question when she presents the 2009 Hansard Lecture at the University of Southampton next week.
‘Faith and politics: do religious groups play a major role in the United Kingdom?’ will look at how specific faith groups (and some ethnic groups) examine legislation and lobby parliament. The lecture will deal particularly with questions of medical ethics.
The annual lecture, established to commemorate John Henry Hansard (1895–1979), an honorary graduate and benefactor of the University, focuses on ‘the way we are governed’.
Political heavyweights Douglas Hurd, Roy Hattersley and Hugo Young among others have all presented the lecture in the past.
Baroness Neuberger DBE became a rabbi in 1977, and served the South London Liberal Synagogue for 12 years, before going to the King’s Fund Institute as a Visiting Fellow. She has been a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, the Medical Research Council and the General Medical Council, a Trustee of the Runnymede Trust and the Imperial War Museum (until 2006).
Until recently she chaired the independent Commission on the Future of Volunteering, is President of Liberal Judaism, and last year she was appointed the Prime Minister’s Champion for Volunteering. She is now the new chair of the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board and has also just been appointed Chair of the One Housing Group.
The lecture takes place at 6pm on Thursday 5 February in the Nightingale Building on the University’s Highfield campus, with refreshments available in the foyer from 5.30pm. To register for a free place to attend the event, visit www.soton.ac.uk/about/events/register.html or call 023 8059 9114.