Aug 6, 2022
Statement of Support from Lambeth Conference for Pakistan Sponsor: Bishop Azad Marshall
We, the bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion, called together by the Archbishop of Canterbury for the Lambeth Conference in 2022, from the provinces of the Anglican Communion express our solidarity with the Church of Pakistan.
We support their call for:
1. An end to forced and under-age marriage and proper legal protection for all girls and particularly those from minority communities so that their physical and religious freedoms are not violated
2. An end to the abuses enabled by the blasphemy law that gives license to unscrupulous accusations against Christians and other religious minorities, and recourse in statute against such false accusations
3. Freedom from imprisonment for all those currently detained by false accusations of blasphemy
4. Western aid to be accessed by minority religious communities in Pakistan so that they have equal opportunity to access funding for education and development. We pray for strength and courage for the Church of Pakistan, for comfort for the oppressed and for the joy of salvation that they
Follow up at Press Conference
Church of England Newspaper:
Please could Bishop Humphrey Peters expand on the Statement of Support for Pakistan about access to funding for education and development from Western governments and agencies to give substance, weight and action to that support?
Bishop Humphrey Peters, former Moderator of the Church of Pakistan, Bishop of Peshawar
We are pressing for freedom of religion and meeting the Parliamentarians and the church to encourage them though the Church are 3% of the 222 million Pakistanis. The UK makes a big contribution to education in Pakistan. At the Ministerial Conference last month in London we urged the UK government to see that support from the UK and European Countries should also go to minority groups who have difficulty in getting support. They should bluntly and openly allocate certain specific funds for minority groups, some of whom are under huge pressure. We encourage our friends around the world and other Governments to come forward and tell our Government that we are supporting you but we would also like your support also to go for the marginalised communities, so that that is also monitored. and to see where their support is going. Unless this support is monitored carefully money can be wasted and people will buy houses in the UK out of that money. That becomes a problem.