ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the bishop of Oxford has been at the forefront of helping the nation to tackle the important issues of our time, be they political, as in war and weapons policy; social; scientific; purely religious; about sexual and personal morality; or about fair trade and ethical investment. In 1994, the Runnymede Trust, an organisation dedicated to combating race prejudice, published A Very Light Sleeper, a report on 'the persistence and dangers of antisemitism' from commission which was chaired by the bishop of Oxford. As a bishop of the Church of England, Richard Harries was raising exactly the right political and religious questions: the need to study the relationship between liberal democracy and religious pluralism; and the need for continual vigilance on matters relating to the tension between freedom of speech and freedom from threat. The bishop of Oxford and a good section of the Anglican Church were recognising the equal status, equal rights, of Jews and Muslims.
