Nick Spencer, Director of Studies at Theos, was, today, a key-note speaker at a day conference held by the Consultation Institute.

The conference, entitled Best Practice Consultation with Faith Groups, was held at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors on Parliament Square.

Over 60 people, from a wide range of organisations attended, to discuss how religious groups and statutory bodies could best consult and work with one another.

Speakers included Rabbi Herschel Gluck, of the Jewish-Muslim Forum; Ramesh Kalidai, of the Hindu Forum of Britain, and Dr Indarjit Singh, Director of the Network of Sikh Organisations.

Nick Spencer spoke about the future of the faith groups in British community life, exploring the challenges that partnership between faith-based organisations and statutory bodies presented. These, he argued, were genuine and demanded serious attention, but none was insurmountable and, given the right atmosphere of openness and communication, the future for communtity faith groups was a positive one.