The new Lord Mayor of Westminster describes the importance of his Catholic faith

One day in 1976, while a student at Ampleforth College, I heard the great bell at the Abbey Church ring out to mark the appointment of the-then Abbot Basil Hume as Archbishop of Westminster. As teenagers we heard those momentous peels from the bell, designed by eminent architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, echo across the Howardian Hills. It was a poignant and memorable day which always stayed with me.

And those bells – mentally at least – were in my mind on Wednesday this week when I received the great honour of being voted Lord Mayor of Westminster, the 60th person to hold that coveted title.

I say that because faith not only informs how I was brought up – Ampleforth was something of a family affair with my two brothers, my late father and uncle going there and my cousin later becoming a Benedictine monk. It is the guide rail to how I have done my job as a local councillor and how I will act as Lord Mayor.

“Listen” and “humility”, the two dominant themes in the Rule of Benedict teaching, have been crucial to how I have tried to do my job as a public servant – I have been a councillor in Westminster since 2010. My local authority duties have involved chairing the busiest planning committee in the country while also working on housing and parking.

The important thing for me is putting faith in action. That is why one of my charities for this year is the Cardinal Hume Centre, an amazing organisation which offers hostel accommodation and help to dozens of young people who end up homeless. Cardinal Hume himself was aghast when he saw the young people who had ended up on the streets around Westminster Cathedral on Victoria Street and knew he had to act. The centre named after him does just that – offering advice, counselling, and a roof over the heads of those who, for often complex reasons, have fallen through the cracks. Teens from traumatic backgrounds learn to cook with food donated by supermarkets; a refugee mother who crossed the channel in a boat clutching a baby in her arms learns to bring that child up in a safe and modern nursery at the centre.

Westminster – the capital of the capital as we often call it – is a truly cosmopolitan city whose population of 230,000 celebrates many faiths. It is home to more than 11,000 historic buildings and famous palaces and to communities with different backgrounds extending across the world. This sheer variety was brought home to me only last month when I attended a citizenship ceremony at Westminster City Council where more than 20 different countries were represented. The Lord Mayor’s parlour on the 19th floor at City Hall is regularly home to receptions for Musim, Hindu and Jewish residents. The diversity of Westminster was symbolised by the Mayoralty itself when in 2022, my council colleague Hamza Taouzzale – British but with a Moroccan background – became at 22 years old not only the youngest but also the first Muslim Lord Mayor of Westminster.

As Lord Mayor you have the privilege of visiting Westminster’s many diverse and vibrant communities; you can also bring them together and that is something my predecessors have always sought to do. In an era when politics and world events can polarise our communities, I believe that convening power – sharing what unites us as Westminster residents – is a force for the good.

I plan to use that convening ability for my other big theme for the Mayoral year – getting our young people engaged in sport. The second of my two charities for 2024-5 is the MCC Foundation, which leverages that famous sporting name to bring cricket to communities where people might not have thought the sport was for them. My love of cricket exceeds my technical skill in the game by some margin, but I hope to transmit some of that enthusiasm to young people and see if I can get them involved. I also want to reinvigorate the Daily Mile, the initiative which encourages primary age children to run, walk or jog for at least 15 minute a day.

And I hope to do that by hitting the ground running, literally, by doing two half marathons in my Mayoral year for my charities (full disclosure – I am a dedicated runner, and the Mayoral staff have braced themselves for this by even making a Lord Mayor running tee-shirt, complete with heraldic chains emblazoned on the front!)

Sport and exercise are fun, but they are also serious. We are still in the aftermath of a lockdown era which saw some children fall away from any regular physical activity and it is essential we restore that habit. Issues around the mental health of teenagers and children are rightly in focus, and I profoundly believe that for wellbeing of mind and body, exercise habits learned at a young age pay dividends in later life.

A fantastic and frenetic year’s activity lies ahead. To help me through, I am delighted that Father Christopher Colven has accepted the role of Chaplain. Fr Christopher is currently chaplain to the Houses of Parliament having also recently been the Rector of St James Church, Spanish Place, Marylebone. St James is a church with a special personal connection for me. I married my wife Emiko there and my parents married there in the 1950s. As a former chair of the Catholic Union, I look forward to renewing friendships old and new across the Catholic community, at the diocese of Westminster and further afield, in this coming year.

As a final heraldic footnote, the Lord Mayor of Westminster also has the honorary role of Deputy High Steward at Westminster Abbey, which is given to the Lord Mayor by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.

Tablet readers will of course know it was the Benedictines who founded Westminster Abbey in 960AD, which returns us neatly to where we came in – with that bell ringing joyously in 1976 at Ampleforth. Across the hundreds of receptions and visits, the pageantry of civic occasion and the quiet times of talking to residents that this year will bring, the chime of that faith will continue to reverberate.