Tens of thousands gathered in central London on Saturday for the Unite the Kingdom (UTK) march and a separate Pro-Palestine Nakba Day rally, which prompted the Met Police to deploy thousands of officers and make 43 arrests across the capital.
Christian groups collaborated to set up listening stations during the demonstrations, to create spaces for conversation with people on all sides of the protests.
At the event, organisers from Better Story, Red Letter Christians and Christians Against the Far Right said they aimed to engage both marchers and those who felt affected by the protests, emphasising their focus on listening rather than confrontation.
The groups stated that dialogue and not division is needed in response to growing tensions because people feel “they are not being listened to”.
Bishop Anderson Jeremiah said: “I feel that… the most important thing I have to do is to listen and to hear their pain.”
The UTK rally was said to be supportive of free speech and Christian values. It's organiser, far-right activist Tommy Robinson told supporters at the march: “Are you ready for the battle of Britain?"
He also urged marchers to get politically active when he said: "2029 we have an election. We’re not asking anyone to go out and fight, but this is the most important moment in our generation.
“If we don’t send a message in our next election, if you don’t register to vote, if you don’t get involved, if you don’t become activists, we are going to lose our country for ever," he said.
When addressing the crowd, he added: “We have to get political, we have to get involved. I’m not going to tell you which political party you need to join. We’re a cultural movement. I’m going to tell you that you have to join a political party. I don’t care if it’s Reform, if it’s Advance, or it’s Restore, or it’s the Conservative party. We have to locally get involved in politics.”
Meanwhile, Tommy Sharpe, co-founder of Better Story, said: “Across the country, we’ve got far more that unites us than divides us. We set up listening stations today to try and find those areas of common ground that unite us.”
The Metropolitan police said both demonstrations had “proceeded largely without significant incident”, despite the scale of the events and tensions in parts of the capital.
Rev Sally Mann said the Christian groups were acting as “peace envoys”, while Rev Rachel Summers said they were present “to listen” and respond to fear with faith-based dialogue.