Tony Blair to call on faith leaders to 'awaken the world's conscience'

Ruth Gledhill

Tony Blair will today spell out why he believes faith and young people can solve the problems of the world and will call on religious leaders to work together to "awaken the world’s conscience”.

In his first major speech in the UK since leaving Downing Street last year, the former Prime Minister will address the whole area of faith in a global context, a subject about which he is passionate.

Mr Blair is expected to be greeted by anti-Iraq war protesters when he speaks this evening at Westminster Cathedral, the UK’s Roman Catholic flagship and Mr Blair’s “spiritual home” for his time in London as Prime Minister. The cathedral has attained even more significance since his conversion to Roman Catholicism shortly before Christmas last year.

Mr Blair, a Middle East peace envoy, will use the speech to flag up the work of his new Tony Blair Faith Foundation which he will launch officially next month. He has high earning capacity as a popular and charismatic speaker. Earlier this year he earned £300,000 for a speech to the banking giant Goldman Sachs in Florida, and last year he earned £240,000 in Dongguan, southern China.

The extent of his commitment to his work in the faith area is indicated by the fact that he is not being paid either for tonight’s speech or for any of the work he will do for the foundation.

In his wide-ranging speech, titled “faith and globalisation”, Mr Blair will say that he is passionate about the importance of faith in the modern world and will emphasise the need for people of faith to reach out to one another.

The aim of the foundation, thought to be modelled along the lines of former US President Bill Clinton's foundation, is to contribute to better understanding of the different faiths. It comes at a time of increasing fear and misunderstanding of religions around the world, particularly of Islam.

Mr Blair will describe why he believes that faith can be a progressive force, helping to advance humanity and end global poverty. One of the key goals of the Foundation will be to bring people of faith together to deliver the Millennium Development Goals, he will say. "Tony Blair believes that the capacity of faith organisations to do good is immense and that their reach is unparalleled,” an adviser said.

Mr Blair will say that the Millennium Development Goals are “the litmus test” of the world’s values and that, while faith groups do great individual work in this area, they could do even more, if helped to work better and more closely together. “The Millennium Development Goals are stark in their ambition and necessity. We are falling short as a world in meeting them. It would be a great example of faith in action to try to bridge the gap and awaken the world’s conscience.”

The foundation will work with faith leaders and with grassroots organisations, finding the best examples on the ground where faith is used as a progressive force and providing the backing of the Foundation and its partners to give this real global impact.

The Millennium Goals as described by the United Nations are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV and Aids, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development.