The Lion and the Ledger: The Joseph Centre at 2026 Dare to Overcome

Some time in the seventeenth century, a London merchant named John Gayer found himself alone in the desert. He had been trading in the Levant, the great commercial crossroads where Christian, Muslim and Jewish merchants bought and sold alongside one another, when he became separated from his caravan. Night fell. A lion appeared. Gayer did the only thing left to him: he knelt and prayed. The lion looked at him, and walked away.

Sir John came home, prospered, and in time became Lord Mayor of London. He never forgot that night. He left money to St Katharine Cree so that every year a sermon would be preached in thanksgiving for his deliverance, and bread given to the poor. This week, on Wednesday 14 October, we will hear the 377th Lion Sermon.

It is a good story. It is also a useful one, because it reminds us of something the City of London is prone to forget: commerce has always been an encounter across difference. The merchant in the desert was not in a monochrome world. His livelihood depended on trust with people who prayed differently from him. His survival, he believed, depended on God.

This week London hosts Dare to Overcome, an international gathering of leaders from business, investment, government, academia and civil society. It began in partnership with the UN Global Compact more than a decade ago and has since met in Rio de Janeiro, Seoul, Tokyo, New Delhi and Washington, DC. Now it comes to London. Its conviction is simple: the faiths and beliefs which shape our lives also have something essential to say about how we shape our businesses, our economies and our common life.

This year’s theme is the Economics of Kindness, and its central question is a pressing one: how do organisations become more human as they become more technologically powerful?

The Joseph Centre is proud to play its part. Tomorrow morning we host a breakfast at Mansion House, where we will be welcomed by the Lady Mayor, Dame Susan Langley. Dominic Llewellyn OBE will chair a panel on the state of the impact economy, here and around the world, and on the role of faith-inspired enterprise and investment within it. He will be joined by Dame Elizabeth Corley, Chair of Schroders and Chair Emerita of the Impact Investing Institute; Luke Fletcher of Bates Wells; and Heather Davenport of the government’s Office for the Impact Economy. Dame Elizabeth is among this year’s winners of the King Husein Global Business and Interfaith Peace Awards, and we will meet the other winners too, and hear why, from their very different traditions and countries, they have faith in the impact economy.

Then on Wednesday evening, St Katharine Cree will host Choral Evensong sung by Lloyd’s Choir, at which the Lion Sermon will be preached by Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.

Why does a centre for dignified work, born in a Church of England guild church, give its energy to conversations between people of different faiths about business and investment?

There are two reasons.

The first is that this is simply what the City is. The people who keep the Square Mile running are drawn from every corner of the world and every tradition of belief. The cleaner arriving before dawn may be a Muslim from Somalia or a Pentecostal from Ghana; the security guard may be a Sikh, a Hindu, a Catholic, or none of these. The capital that flows through these streets shapes working lives in Lagos, Mumbai and Jakarta. If we believe, as we do, that every worker possesses inherent dignity, then we cannot speak about that dignity only in our own vocabulary and only to ourselves. Solidarity that stops at the edge of our own community is not solidarity at all.

The second is that faith is already at work in the economy, whether or not the economy notices. Across the world, people of faith found businesses, run investment funds, establish cooperatives and build social enterprises because their traditions tell them that wealth is a trust and not a possession. They have long experience of asking questions the market finds difficult: what is enough; who bears the cost; what we owe to the stranger? Dare to Overcome’s argument, which we share, is that this is a resource organisations overlook at their peril. As artificial intelligence takes on more of what we once thought only humans could do, the qualities that matter most are those of character: trust, judgement, courage, honesty, kindness. These are formed in families, communities and traditions, many of them religious. A wise organisation will make room for them.

None of this makes the differences between us disappear. They are real, and they matter, and honest dialogue does not pretend otherwise. There will be things we cannot agree on. But difference is not the same as distance. It is possible to disagree about God and still agree that a cleaner deserves a living wage; to pray differently and still recognise that an economy which treats people as disposable has lost its way. In a polarised and anxious age, the opportunity find such shared ground may be among the most precious things we have.

Join us

The 377th Lion Sermon at Choral Evensong, St Katharine Cree, Wednesday 14 October, 6pm. All are welcome: reserve a free ticket.

The full Dare to Overcome programme is here.

About the Joseph Centre

The City of London is vital to the UK economy, providing more than half a million jobs and generating more than £100bn in output each year. The financial, cultural, social, and human capital concentrated here offers an extraordinary opportunity to transform the lives of millions of people for the better.

Our vision is a City that works for everyone, rooted in public service and moral purpose, which secures the common good for all.

The Joseph Centre exists to help make that vision real. We curate conversations, publish research, convene events and exhibitions, and support leaders who want their work to serve something larger than themselves. We draw deep on moral and spiritual resources, connecting ancient and time-trusted wisdom to very modern challenges.

The Centre grew out of the pioneering ministry of the Guild Church for Workers at St Katharine Cree. Our core conviction is simple: every worker possesses inherent dignity and good leadership begins there.

If you share that conviction, we would love to hear from you.