Bradford’s ‘changed’ and predicted birth and death rates show that it will keep changing. The churches will be listening carefully to people who experience those changes most closely.

Change can be threatening, fearful. But change is constant, and it’s not good to live in a constant state of being fearful.

How can we become confident enough in ourselves not only to withstand change, but even to flourish in a changing society? Can churches inspire such confidence in Christians and communities that we flourish in the changes to come?

Let’s look at questions of community, presence, faith … and confidence. How do Christians live alongside people with different and strong views? How do we build friendships, respect, good community, even when neighbours don’t always want to engage? We might want to convert each other; can we acknowledge that and then get on living together for the common good?

What’s the nature of confident Christian presence, especially where most neighbours are Muslim? That big Victorian building might no longer be appropriate, but there can be no withdrawal. For all Christians, but especially for the established Church of England, every place, every street and every person matters.

How can we understand other faiths and scriptures, confident of our own? Can we learn together? How do we address things we strongly oppose: assumed male dominance and perceived lack of freedom for women, for example?

Are we ready to hear cultural criticisms – of perceived alcohol abuse or assumed promiscuity, say? We’d say they’re not Christian behaviours, but they might be assumed to be by others.

Can people be encouraged to be confident about faith, to speak openly and not apologise for it? If we admit who we are, we feel good about who we are. Confidence removes fear and mistrust; it is not fazed by change. It gives us the power to address all these questions.

Christians from different churches, who work with people of other faiths, are considering starting a network to build Christian confidence. Let’s encourage each other, and build up each other’s confidence. We’d be better neighbours in a better Bradford.

Clive Barrett