The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2019 – Activists: Faith

Anglican parliamentary chaplain
This political cleric is the feisty pastor to the most unruly congregation in London… parliamentarians. Officially chaplain to the Commons Speaker, she is now also the bishop-designate of Dover.

Supreme Governor of the Church of England
The Queen is not only, like Henry VIII, Defender of the Faith, and herself a devout Anglican, she has done sterling work in acknowledging all religious communities, recently hosting a tea at Buckingham Palace for individuals from groups across the religious spectrum. Her Christmas address to the Commonwealth always features a spiritual and Christian element.

Historian | NEW
An award-winning historian and committed Anglican, who was born in Oxfordshire but now lives in Brixton, Holland’s latest book, Dominion, is a powerful argument for the continuing and abiding influence of Christianity on the culture of the West. He’s also campaigned to save London’s diminishing hedgehog population.

Bishop of London
Mullally was an unusual appointment to this historic see, as a former chief nursing officer and the first female occupant. She is deployed in some sensitive areas, including the group of bishops responsible for reflecting on LGBT issues. She herself is a self-described feminist. As one of the Deans of the Chapels Royal she gets the chance to preach before the Queen.

Concert pianist | NEW
As a man of profound faith, and a convert to Catholicism, his Mass of Innocence and Experience and Missa Mirabilis were commissioned by Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral respectively. His first novel, The Final Retreat, deals with a broken priest and a collection of his blogs and writings — Rough Ideas, Reflections on Music and More — discusses religion as well as music... and sometimes both together. He’s an influential thinker as well as musician.

Labour MP for Slough
Dhesi last month drew applause in the Commons for calling Boris Johnson out on past comments in which he likened women wearing burqas to letterboxes. The Sikh MP has renewed calls for the Conservative Party to begin its promised review into Islamophobia. Dhesi made history when he became Britain’s first turban-wearing Sikh MP following the 2017 general election — one of only two Sikh MPs in the Commons.

Archbishop of Westminster and leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales
This campaigning cardinal has been at the forefront of work to combat human trafficking. He co-ordinates the church’s efforts here to help victims (including the establishment of a refuge) with the Pope’s initiatives to address the problem worldwide, through the Santa Marta group.

Hero imam of Finsbury Park mosque
Mahmoud was presented with an OBE by the Duke of Cambridge earlier this year, having intervened when a van driver hit worshippers in the Finsbury Park terror attack in 2017. He had ensured the attack suspect was not seriously harmed, urging the crowd to be calm until police arrived.

Journalist, engineer, politician
Even at 87, Singh remains editor of the Sikh Messenger and is widely known as a frequent presenter of the Thought for the Day segment on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He has advised the Commission for Racial Equality and Prince Charles, Anglican bishops and the Metropolitan police have consulted him. Prominent in the national and international interfaith movement, he was invited to Kate and William’s wedding as a representative for the Sikh faith.

Voice of pluralist Islam, former Islamist activist | NEW
Husain is a campaigner against Islamist extremism, as well as a writer, broadcaster and senior fellow at the British think tank Civitas, and a global fellow of the Wilson Center’s Middle East programme. He is respected for his work against extremism as well as against anti-Muslim prejudice.

Pop priest | NEW
Coles is probably the best-known media cleric and almost certainly the only one ever to feature in the pop Top 10. He is co-presenter of Radio 4’s Saturday Live programme, and a former member of the 80s pop duo The Communards. He is less well known as a New Testament scholar.

Rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John’s Wood | NEW
This trailblazer was the first female senior rabbi in England. She is a campaigning feminist and a significant figure within British Liberal Judaism; she also teaches classical Hebrew.

Promoter of religious ethics in public life
Vadera, chair of Santander, is a potential candidate for next Governor of the Bank of England. But she also wears another hat as a pro-vice chancellor of the (Catholic) St Mary’s University in Roehampton where she helps promote the integration of religious values in public life. Although of Hindu origin, as an international aid minister she had close links with the Vatican and persuaded Pope Benedict to buy a UK government bond to help fund immunisation for the world’s poorest children.

The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standard’s celebration of the people changing London’s future for the better. #Progress1000