Fr Luke Miller

  A government consultation reveals some significant concerns for churches and places of worship.  As chair of the Faith Sector Panel of the London Resilience Forum I have a lot to do with London’s Faith Communities’ response to terrorism (see here for my role). So it was with interest that I heard that there was to be a consultation on a new “ Protect Duty ” to “make the public safer at publicly accessible locations.” The proposals follow campaigning by Figen Murray, whose son Martyn was tragically killed in the Manchester Arena attack , to introduce “Martyn’s Law” which aims to legislate for a duty on those who own or manage publicly accessible places to take actions to reduce the threat of terrorism. The ‘simple common sense security’ for which Figen Murray calls must be right; but the legislation now being consulted on causes considerable concern. The proposed legislation has very significant unintended consequences for places of worship. In my view it needs to be...

The London Resilience Forum gathers together those who respond in London to major incidents. Chaired by Deputy Mayor of London, Dr Fiona Twycross and supported by the London Fire Brigade , London Resilience is a partnership comprising the emergency services, local government, the army and other responders such as the RNLI, Public Health England, and the Environment Agency. There are three 'sector panels' for the Business Sector, the Voluntary Sector, and the Faith Sector, which I chair. Last week the London Assembly's Resilience and Emergency Planning Committee took evidence about how the partnership works to enhance London's ability to cope with stresses. You can watch my evidence to the Committee from 1:06:45 Five years ago when I took the chair of the Faith Sector Panel the question was ' why is there a Vicar in the room ?' It is now recognised that the contribution of the Faith Communities to London's resilience is of huge importance and the qu...

As I came back from meeting on March 21, 2017 I was called by a colleague who told me that I should look at the news. Almost the same time my phone buzzed with a message from the police chaplain. I lead for the Faith Sector across Greater London for what is known as "resilience". That means that I chair the group that tries to make sure that people of faith respond well in the face of major incidents. That afternoon I was in touch with the police chaplain was with his colleagues providing support for officers, and with the chaplain to Parliament who was locked down with MPs and peers, staff and all those others who had been in the Palace of Westminster at the time of the attack. Every incident leaves us with a lot to learn. A few days after the attack I had a conversation with the lead chaplain at St Thomas's Hospital about a vigil they were holding. Thousands of patients and staff had seen the incident and that community needed hel...