Portfolio: Our leading religious figures

In Britain today, faith is a more divisive issue than it has been for centuries. Photographer Giles Price brings together our leading religious figures in an iconic and revealing portfolio.

The Muslim: Maulana Shahid Raza

Since the death in January of Dr Zaki Badawi, his colleague at the Muslim College in west London, Raza has taken on his mantle as a leading representative of mainstream opinion among Britain's 1.6 million Muslims. Born in India, he came to Leicester in 1978 as principal iman at the city's Central Mosque. He is executive secretary of the Muslim Law (Sharia) Council for the UK as well as one of the leaders of the British Muslim Forum, an organisation representing 300 mosques around the country. "I want respectful integration of the Muslim community into the mainstream," he says of the main thrust of his work. "We still have a lot to do to deepen our dialogue. We constantly explain to our community and our youngsters Islam's messages of peace, dialogue and tolerance. However, every night on the TV they watch scenes from Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, humiliating Muslims."

The Anglican: Rowan Williams

Initially hailed in 2002 as the charismatic man of God to resuscitate both a shrinking Church of England and the divided 77 million-strong worldwide Anglican communion that he heads, the 56-year-old Archbishop of Canterbury has struggled to impose his authority or his opinions on his fractured flock. Over gay priests, women bishops and even female ordination, he has sent out mixed messages that have alienated his natural liberal supporters without winning round the evangelicals and traditionalists who opposed his appointment. Weighed down by internal church matters he has failed to make the expected impact on the national stage, despite intelligent interventions on climate change, nuclear weapons and parenting. But his undogmatic view of God has a great appeal to those outside his church. There is no proof for God, he admits. It is rather a question, he says, of "silent waiting on the truth, pure sitting and breathing in the presence of the question mark."

The Jew: Sir Jonathan Sacks

Only 43 when he was appointed Chief Rabbi in 1991, Sacks speaks for the 300,000 Jews in Britain, but is officially spiritual head only of the Orthodox minority among them. The former academic angered those in the Reform and Liberal traditions by refusing soon after his appointment to attend the funeral of one of their leaders, the widely admired broadcaster and writer Rabbi Hugo Gryn. He argues passionately in favour of religious pluralism: "God has spoken to mankind in many languages. No one creed has a monopoly of spiritual truth. In heaven there is truth, on earth there are truths. God is greater than religion. He is only partially comprehended by any faith." Such views have angered hardline Jewish opinion but, while he picks his words carefully, the Chief Rabbi will not back down on the principle.

The Buddhist: Ajahn Sumedho

The 72-year-old abbot of the Amaravati Buddhist Centre in Hemel Hempstead is a respected leader among the different traditions followed by Britain's 150,000 Buddhists. First drawn to Buddhism while serving in the medical corps in the Korean war, he says: "The Buddhist's goal is not happiness - happiness is unsatisfactory. It is not rejection of the sensual world, but understanding it so well that we no longer expect it to satisfy us."

The Druid: Bobcat

Head of the Druid Network, an international body, Bobcat (41-year old Emma Restall-Orr) is based in the Cotswolds and is one of 70,000 Druids in the UK. "In a world of constant change, it is tempting to seek out certainties," she says. "The Druid finds instead richly articulated and ancient teaching in the currents and tides of nature's changing; learning the respect and courage to live with nature in all its beauty and brutality."

The Baptist: David Coffey

The Didcot-based president of the World Baptist Alliance, Coffey spent 15 years as General-Secretary of the Baptist Union, representing 250,000 regular worshippers in Baptist chapels nationwide. "A lot of Christian mission," he says, "much of following Jesus Christ, is not about firework displays. It's about simple obedience and perservering in the Spirit. It's the keep on keeping on principle."

The Zoroastrian: Jehangir Sarosh

This 68-year-old Indian-born former member of the RAF first travelled to Britain overland by car in the 1950s. A successful businessmen, he is leader of the 10,000-strong community of Zoroastrians in Britain, who follow the teachings of the 800BCE Persian prophet, Zarathushtra, who saw the world as equally divided between forces of good and forces of evil. "Our Ashém Váhu prayer," he says, "affirms 'Good is best' - good for the sake of goodness."

The Sikh: Dr Indarjit Singh

The voice of Britain's half-a-million Sikhs, 74-year-old Singh edits the Sikh Messenger and is honorary director of the Network of Sikh Organisations (UK). Born in Rawalpindi, he came to Britain when he was a baby. He trained as an engineer and spent most of his career with employers such as the National Coal Board. In 2004 listeners to Radio 4's Today placed him second behind Bob Geldof as the person they would most like to see given a seat in the House of Lords. "If God had human emotions," he says, "I believe the dominant one would be total exasperation at the antics of our human tribe, coupled with a determination to keep us isolated from any truly intelligent life in other parts of the infinity of his creation."

The Hare Krishna: Gauri Das

The Scottish-born temple president of Bhaktivedanta Manor, the British centre of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (or Hare Krishna) taught in India for 10 years. He now leads the 20,000 people in Britain who follow this branch of Hinduism. "When a person is in the knowledge that God is the fountainhead of everything, or when he acts in that spirit, he acts for everyone. The sufferings of humanity are due to forgetfulness of the Lord as the supreme enjoyer, the supreme proprietor and the supreme friend."

The Methodist: David Deeks

John Wesley's followers have never been keen on hierarchy and so have a revolving presidency, but Deeks, 64, has been general secretary of the 300,000-strong Methodist Conference since 2003. A scientist by training, he has spoken with authority on issues of medical ethics and genetics. "The major challenge facing Methodists today," he says, "is to renew our confidence in our relevance at a time of institutional decline."

The Catholic: Cormac Murphy-O'Connor

Despite his Irish name, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and leader of England and Wales's five million Catholics was brought up in Reading and educated in Bath. A surprise choice in 2000 as successor to the saintly Basil Hume, 74-year-old Murphy-O'Connor is a staunch defender of the rights of migrant workers in the UK. He has never fully shaken off allegations that he mishandled the cases of paedophile priests in his former diocese of Arundel and Brighton. With dented moral authority, he has failed effectively to tackle the decline in Mass-going. However, he sees positives in the changing face to Catholicism. "People respect the Catholic Church, even if they do not agree with its teaching in the moral sphere. They recognise the rationality here and, I think, increasingly they see that what the Catholic Church teaches, it teaches it because it is true."

The Bahá'í: Barnabas Leith

The 68-year aristocrat was secretary general of the National Spiritual Association of the Bahá'is in the UK for seven years until 2005. He and 6,000 others nationally follow the 19th-century Persian nobleman Bahá'u'lláh, who they believe was sent by God with a message of peace, co-operation and environmental concern. "If the Baha'i community has something distinctive to offer to the peoples of the world," says Leith, "it must surely be of being part of a single human family for whose spiritual and material health we all have responsibility."

The Hindu: Swami Nirliptananda

Based at the temple in Shepherd's Bush, west London, Nirliptananda is the religious head of the London Sevashram Sangha, one of the leading spiritual and community organisations among Britain's 800,000 Hindus. Born in Guyana in South America in the 1930s, this monk came to Britain in the 1960s at the suggestion of his spiritual teacher. He is one of the founders of the Hindu Forum of Britain, which links 280 temples and speaks in the public arena on their concerns. "What I want most to share with everyone," he says, "are the central messages of Hinduism - mutual respect and harmonious coexistence on an endangered planet."

The Evangelical: Joel Edwards

A former probation officer, 55-year-old Edwards is general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, an umbrella body representing one million evangelical Christians in over 3,000 separate churches. An ordained minister of the New Testament Church of God, Jamaican-born Edwards says that "the church is still God's best idea for changing society."