Faith institutions must show strong moral leadership to heal people’s “collective trauma” and fill the void left by international political failure, according to the UN’s deputy head and the leader of one of the UK’s major NGOs.

Amina Mohammed, the UN’s deputy secretary general, who is a Muslim, and Amanda Khozi Mukwashi, the chief executive of Christian Aid, have called for faith-based organisations to take a lead in facing up to global challenges such as poverty, inequality, migration and the climate emergency. “The world has experienced a level of collective trauma, as a result of many different things – conflicts, extreme poverty and hunger, loss of home and shelter, climate impact. Even here in the UK we have a country that is divided on many fronts,” Mukwashi said.

There was “a need for a collective healing”, she said. “As faith institutions, we have to be really bold and brave, and we need to bring all the tools, the skills that we have to try to help the world to heal. We can come up with economic solutions but when people are so hurt and divided, they need something extraordinary that touches the humanity in us. Nobody can stand on the sidelines, it’s a moral imperative.”

Source: The Guardian