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What does it mean to have faith at work and what does this look like in today’s society? Over the Summer there were a multitude of sporting events, where seeing the sight of sportspeople giving thanks to the presence of the divine in whichever faith or religion they followed, was commonplace. We saw Michelle Agyemang, the young Lioness who helped see the Women’s England football team, hold on to the European Cup for a subsequent four years, praising God for where he had taken them, in a post-match interview with football commentator Alex Scott.

Staying with football, last weekend saw Liverpool FC playing against Arsenal FC’s men’s team, in a game which the former went on to win. Ever since his arrival, it has been commonplace to see Liverpool legend Mohamed Salah, a well-known Muslim player, expressing his faith on the football pitch, by performing the ritual Islamic prayer and by pointing up to the sky before the game starts. The pointing of the finger both indicating the oneness of Allah and being used here to pray to Allah too.

Ellie Rattu the England Roses netball star, recently featured on Songs of Praise: Faith on the Touchline on BBC One, speaking about the importance of, as she put it, faith and sport, going hand in hand in her life. She turns to her Christian faith and speaks about her relationship with God, during times of struggle and challenges she has had to overcome in her life.

Moving away from sports, last month we also heard, which is not entirely new in the world of politics, of the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, speaking about how his Christian faith impacted his politics, and whilst it was something he did not talk about often, it was something he could not separate from policy.

“And although .. other people say religion doesn’t impact your policy, it does impact mine. I don’t talk about it very much. But on this I had to be very honest. I’ve thought and prayed about this. I really have.” – Sir Ed Davey

No matter the arena of work, openly speaking or proclaiming one’s faith can be a tricky conversation to have, especially where shifting attitudes of religion in the UK, show that British society is becoming more secular. In a study by the Pew Research Centre in March this year, addressing the phenomenon of ‘religious switching’ globally, characterised as “a change between the religious group in which a person says they were raised (during their childhood) and their religious identity now (in adulthood)”, figures indicated that those who belong to no religion outnumbered Christians, at 46% to 43%. This being significant, given that Christianity was the most affiliated religious denomination in the 2021 census of England and Wales, at 46.2%, 27.5 million people.

So, what does it mean to practice one’s faith or religion in the workplace, and what do both actually mean? How might they be practiced in the workplace and what is the humanist dimension. Are they one in the same or are they all separate?