The South West region of England consists of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and CUBA, which is local government slang for the-County-that-Used-to-Be-known-as-Avon, that is the cities of Bristol and Bath and surrounding areas. You didn't think local government officers had such a wry sense of humour, did you? Nor I am sure did you know that the 51 local authorities in the 7 sub-regions of the South West had set up a South West Regional Chamber which is the unelected forerunner of what might one day become an elected South West Regional Assembly. At the moment the members are "indirectly elected" because they are chosen by the local councils and the political parties represented on them, from among the representatives that were elected in local elections.

In addition to the politicians, the South West Regional Chamber has other members called the "Social and Economic Partners" with a varied background including trade unionists, business people, people from the arts, voluntary and environmental groups, and there is one seat for the Faith Communities, representing all the religions in the South West. John Harrison, a retired Church of England vicar, who acted as the church's advisor on regional affairs, was the first representative, but worked from December 1998 to set up a Council of Faiths to represent all the communities, not just Christians, but Jews, Buddhists, Bahais, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Pagans take an active part in the group which is the support group for the Faith Communities representative in the Chamber, currently Aubrey Hill, a Quaker from North Somerset.

The goverment has also set up a South West Regional Development Agency, which is not elected but appointed, and has a money oriented and economic brief to bring success and prosperity to the region. It is an interesting fact that the members of the different faiths on the Council of Faiths have found a lot of common ground in trying to get more emphasis on human, community based and environmental values along side the economic ones in the RDA's planning. There have been deep discussions around such concepts as "sustainability", "competition", "social exclusion" and "spirituality" in the context of regional planning. It must be understood that the Council of Faiths is not an interfaith conference. We do not spend time discussing our religious beliefs. We assume this work of mutual understanding has been largely accomplished, so that we can talk about social and economic issues.