A prestigious award which honours those who promote understanding and peaceful relations between people of different faiths has been presented to a Cambridge Professor of Divinity.

Professor David Ford (pictured left), who is founding director of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme, received the Interfaith Gold Medallion at a ceremony at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, on Wednesday evening (July 16th).

The award is being made in recognition of his work promoting tolerance between the three Abrahamic faiths: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Established by the Sternberg Charitable Foundation in 1987, the Medallion honours outstanding individuals who have helped promote peace and tolerance between people of different faiths.

It is awarded by the Three Faiths Forum, an organisation co-founded by the Hungarian-born philanthropist and champion of interfaith dialogue, Sir Sigmund Sternberg (pictured right), along with Christian and Muslim representatives. Past recipients include the former head of the Habsburg Family, Dr Otto von Habsburg; the investor and philanthropist, Dr John Templeton; and Sir Anthony Figgis (Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps).

Professor Ford is director of the pioneering Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme. Based at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity, the Programme focuses on research and public education across the three Abrahamic faiths and collaborates with scholars and institutions across the globe.

Its aim is to foster a deeper understanding of these religions’ traditions and mutual relationship – in the process forging stronger foundations for dialogue among them. Last year, for example, it was involved in the historic launch and receipt of “A Common Word” – a letter from 138 Muslim leaders to the Christian World, stating love and friendship from people of one faith to those of another and underlining two of the most important teachings of both the Qur’an and New Testament: Love of God and love of one’s neighbour.

Professor Ford has also been involved with a number of other projects to promote deeper inter-faith understanding and engagement. He was a co-founder of the Society for Scriptural Reasoning in 1996 and is a member of the Community of West-Islamic Dialogue in the World Economic Forum. Relations between faiths and the place of theology and religious studies in universities today are among the topics in his recent book, Christian Wisdom (Cambridge University Press 2007).
 

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