The Prince of Wales has been awarded the prestigious Bridge Award from the Council of Christian and Jews for outstanding efforts to build bridges and understanding between communities of different faiths.
In previous years, the Bridge award has been received by the Smith family in 2017 for Holocaust education work, by the former Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, in 2018 and by Lord Rothschild in 2019.
Throughout his life, the Prince of Wales has been the patron and supporter of many faith-based charities committed to education, social action and activism. He founded the Islamic Mosaic network which has its focus on mentoring in schools and has given patronage to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, the British Asian Trust, and World Jewish Relief.
The Bridge Award is an annual award for someone who has made an exceptional and leading contribution to building bridges between peoples, in a Christian-Jewish or wider setting.
Zaki Cooper, CCJ trustee and founder of the Bridge Award, said: “The task of building bridges remains as necessary as ever, as an antidote to polarisation, division and ignorance. The Prince has been a long-standing champion of this important work between different religious groups, and also as a particularly steadfast friend to minority faith and ethnic groups. While diversity and inclusion has become a buzzword recently, the Prince has been championing this agenda over many years, out of a sense of humanity and the common good. He not only has an acute understanding of the value of faith in theory but is also a friend of all the faiths in practice.”
Prince Charles, who has a keen interest in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, has visited the monastic retreat of Mount Athos in Greece. He has also met Pope Francis twice, most recently when he travelled to Rome for the canonisation of St John Henry Newman in October 2019.
The current chairman of the CCJ, the Anglican Bishop of Lichfield Michael Ipgrave, said: “We are delighted to present our Bridge Award to The Prince. Since 1942, CCJ has been building bridges between peoples and communities. In a similar vein, His Royal Highness has been a bridge builder extraordinaire, supporting diverse faith and ethnic communities over several decades. He has been a steadfast friend of all the faith communities, reflecting the duality of the monarchy’s role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England but also at the helm of a multi-faith country and Commonwealth.”
Prince Charles oncluded his remarks at the awards ceremony by praising the importance of the CCJ, especially its standing in the modern world, before ending with a quote from Isaiah: “Never, I would say, has the CCJ been more needed in our conflict-torn world. With God’s help, Christians and Jews – and, for that matter, Muslims – must continue to work together for peace and harmony. Words given to the Prophet Isaiah should perhaps be our inspiration: Thou wilt keep them in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.”
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