Category Archives: Camden

Upcoming events

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Extremism eventHow can our multifaith society respond to increasing religious and political extremism?  A talk by Sayed Ali Abbas Razawi on Sunday 14 September 3-5pm at Corpus Christi Church Hall, Trent Road, Brixton, SW2 5BJ.

Mainly for Islington people (but ask Roz Miller if you are interested in attending from another borough), Islington Faiths Forum is holding a conference with Islington Council and Police – Making Islington Safer Together on Wednesday 17 September 10am – 3.30pm in the Council Chamber, Islington Town Hall.  Download the flyer here.

Not in London, but featuring several friends of LBFN, the Inter Faith Network for the UK‘s National Meeting in Birmingham on Monday 29 September 10.15am – 3pm.

Speakers include Acharya Modgala Duguid of Islington Faiths Forum, Angharad Thain of St Ethelburga’s, Jon Dal Din of Westminster Interfaith, Revd Daniel Otieno Ndale of Hillingdon Inter Faith Network and Phil Rosenberg of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and formerly of Faiths Forum for London.  The National Meeting is open to everyone** open to member organisations – download the programme here and the registration form here.  The theme this year is “Tough to talk?”.

Christian_Muslim_Forum_LogoThe Christian Muslim Forum is holding Lunchtime Dialogues at St Joseph’s Hospice, Mare Street, Hackney, E8 4SA at 12-1.30pm on 2 October.

On 25 October 10am – 4pm, there is an Interfaith Community Event at Trinity at Bowes Methodist Centre in partnership with Oakthorpe Turkish School, Palmerston Road, Enfield, N22 8RA.  Download the flyer here.

And don’t forget our own Peace-Building in the 21st Century on Monday 15 September at St Ethelburga’s and the next LBFN meeting on 23 September in Camden, looking at how our local work is supported and funded.

** Thanks to Bessie White for correction below – only open to members of IFN UK, so if your faith forum isn’t yet a member, consider applying this year!

Towards a More Equitable Religion and Belief Landscape

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Full house at ENORB UK’s third meeting, which included presentations from the Religion & Society Programme, Equalities and Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Consortium.  The afternoon ended with William Barylo’s new film “Polish Muslims”.

The University of Derby’s Professor Paul Weller was one of the speakers at the recent ENORB UK meeting as guests of the Human Rights Consortium, University of London.  You can download the slides from Paul’s presentation here – he has asked that we respect the request on the first slide © Not for direct quotation or reproduction without permission of the presenter.  Summaries of the research for distribution can be downloaded here and here.  Download a list of participants here.

Dr David Perfect of the Equalities & Human Rights Commission reported on recent research by the EHRC with Goldsmiths, University of London and the Coexist Foundation.  The meeting was well attended and it was good to see LBFN members, including John Lester (Havering), Jackie Goymour (Women’s Interfaith Network), Aliya Azam (Brent) and Steve Miller (FbRN).

The meeting ended with a new film, Polish Muslims, with an introduction by the director, William Barylo.

The next ENORB seminar in Brussels, Belgium, will be on 3-4 December.

[Apologies for very late posting – this somehow slipped the ‘publish’ button. ENORB UK is part of our Europe social lab and the next meeting will take place this autumn with the British Humanist Association.]

Upcoming events

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London 2014 rThere’s plenty on in London to get 2014 off to a great start!

20 January 9.30am – 4.10pm  A Conversation about Conflict exploring the faith influences that can be used to tackle difficult issues in a community setting.  St Ethelburga’s and Christian Muslim Forum are co-facilitating the workshop at 305 Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9LH.  Details here.

  • Could your faith community improve the way it responds to conflict?
  • Are you interested in bringing the principles and practices of your faith into your responses to conflict?
  • Are you interested in sharing your faith practices across faiths and learning from each other?

22 January 10am-12pm Together in Service funding briefing at Bethnal Green Mission Church, 305 Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9LH.  There’s also a chance to talk to the TiS team individually about potential projects.  Details here.

22 January 6.30-8pm  Poverty and the Tolerance of the Intolerable – talk by Prof Amartya Sen at LSE . The talk will be live-streamed on LSE’s website and a podcast made available. Details here.

27 January  Holocaust Memorial Day events have been been organised by many London boroughs in cooperation with local religious communities, including Barnet, Lewisham, Haringey, Southwark, Greenwich, Croydon, Brent, Lambeth, Hounslow and Havering.  Details of all London events here.

27 January 5.30pm European Parliament training event with Faiths Forum for London at Europe House, Smith Square, W1.  The aim is to engage with citizens and faith groups to raise awareness of the issues and debates taking place in European Parliament and how citizens can get involved the decision making. Details here.

South London Inter Faith Group meets on the last Thursday of the month at 12.30-2pm at Streatham Friends Meeting House, Roupell Park Estate, Redland Way, SW2 3LU.  Next meeting 30 January.  Details here.

4 February 6pm The Dialogue Society Book Group Meeting 5: A Distant Shore, by Caryl Phillips The Dialogue Society, 402 Holloway Road, N7 6PZ.  Details here.

Westminster Faith Debates are back with a new series, on global religious trends, at RUSI, 61 Whitehall, SW1A 2ET at 5.30pm, including on 12 February What is driving sectarian violence in the wake of the Arab spring? and on 12 March Are attempts to promote worldwide religious freedom naive or necessary?  Details here.

18 February Women in the 21st Century conference at Queen Mary University, London E1 4NS with a wide range of speakers and workshops (£40). Details here.

Westminster Cathedral Interfaith Group meets next to the Cathedral in Victoria on the third Wednesday of the month at 4pm.  Upcoming speakers include Hugo Clarke (Curzon Institute) on World War 1 (19  February), Raheed Salam, faith and interfaith consultant for NCVYS (19 March).  Details here.

11 March 3-5pm  London Boroughs Faiths Network meeting at the Department for Communities and Local Government, Eland House, Bressenden Place, SW1E 5DU.  We are also planning two focused meetings on health and on young Londoners.

Goldsmiths’ Faiths and Civil Society Unit has a series on Faith in the Public Realm, including How do governments do God?  Warwick Hawkins MBE, Head of Faith Communities Engagement, Department for Communities and Local Government
12 March at 5pm.  Near Neighbours – can Christians do public faith for everyone? Dilwar Hussain, New Horizons in British Islam, 14 May at 5pm.  Details here.

15 March  God and Government Conference with Theos, covering welfare, religious freedom, multiculturalism, and education among others.  Details here.

Research Project on Attitudes to Self-Sacrificial Death for National and/or Religious Motives.  Prof John Wolffe (Professor of Religious History, The Open University) is interested to hear from anyone from a Catholic, Protestant or Muslim background who would like to take part in this study by being interviewed.  “In the run-up to the centenaries of the outbreak of the First World War (August 1914), of the Easter Rising in Dublin (April 1916) and of the Battle of the Somme (July 1916), we are developing a historical and contemporary study of British and Irish views on martyrdom and sacrificial death. We are interested not only in perceptions of events a century ago, but also in the way casualties have been regarded in events within living memory such as the Falklands War of 1982, the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland and IRA attacks in the mainland UK in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. We are also exploring more contemporary examples, notably reactions to the 9/11 and 7/7 bombings, to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to the ‘Arab Spring’.”  Details here.

Unfair treatment as a result of religion or belief

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Some of us attended the Religion & Society Programme‘s Westminster Faith Debates and contributed to its research on unfair treatment on the grounds of religion or belief.

The results have just been published and Paul Weller, Professor of Inter-Religious Relations at the University of Derby is speaking at the

University of London, Room STB9, Senate House, Malet Street, W1E 7HU on

Wednesday 16th October 2.00pm – 5.00pm

ENORB UK 16 October 2013The European Network on Religion & Belief, which LBFN has supported from the beginning, is developing a UK group of those interested in mutual understanding and common action between religious and non-religious groups.  We are interested in forming links with grassroots European multifaith and intercultural groups.

This is an opportunity to hear how discrimination in the UK has changed over the last ten years and to discuss the implications of this with others.  What is the situation in London boroughs?  How does discrimination or unfair treatment affect our community life?  What are the different ways in which we try to reduce discrimination and encourage fairness, particularly in relation to public services?

Dr David Perfect of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission in Manchester will also be describing EHRC’s recent dialogue events in partnership with Goldsmiths, University of London.  Some of us were involved in these conversations, too, so it will be good to hear how the research is developing.

Please download the flyer and pass it on to your networks and local public agencies – your local Council, police, NHS and Fire Service.  Those responsible for engagement and equalities will find the afternoon very informative.

The afternoon will end with a screening of a short film by William Barylo on Polish Muslims.  There are Muslim communities which have lived in Poland for centuries and others which have arrived more recently – this is a fascinating insight into Polish society and the director, William Barylo, will tell us more about it.

European network meeting | shared iftar

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Conway Hall and the South Place Ethical Society, which dates from the seventeenth century and now hosts lectures and events for Humanists, atheists and interested people from many religious and belief traditions.

This Wednesday afternoon (17 July) there is a meeting of an exploratory group interested in linking with the European Network on Religion & Belief (which promotes understanding between religious and humanist/atheist groups, challenges discrimination and links to multifaith/multiconvictional grassroots groups across Europe – LBFN has been involved in this from the start).

After the meeting, we are invited to the London Muslim Centre in E1 to join Muslim friends in breaking the Ramadan fast with a meal (around 9pm).

We are meeting at Conway Hall, which has a long history and is “an educational charity whose aims are the study and dissemination of ethical principles based on Humanism and freethought, the cultivation of a rational and humane way of life, and the advancement of research and education in all relevant fields.”  The CEO, Dr Jim Walsh, is hoping to tell us something about Conway Hall at the start of our meeting.

We will be welcoming contributions from:

1. Yolande Iliano, Chair, Religions for Peace–Europe and founder member of ENORB

i. Inter/multifaith and inter/multiconvictional work in Europe

ii. Young Ambassadors for Europe 2014 – a life-learning, intercultural journey on the Danube, facing water challenges

2. Abdullah Faliq, The Cordoba Foundation: Lessons from Woolwich and implications across Europe.  Steve Miller, Faith-based Regeneration Network: Muswell Hill after the fire at the al-Rahma Centre (Steve has sent this informative link from Channel 4).

3. Navleen Kaur, All Faiths And None: Sikhs in Europe

4. Rosalind Parker: grassroots intercultural arts projects in the UK & in Europe

5. Stephen Shashoua, 3FF: Explorations in Sweden, Munich & Vienna.

6. William Barylo: Polish Muslims – an unexpected meeting (new film)

7. Pavan Dhaliwal, British Humanist Association: Humanist Marriage and the passage of the Same Sex Marriage Bill through Parliament

Let LBFN know asap if you plan to

  1. attend the meeting and/or
  2. join Muslim friends in breaking the fast later in the evening

If you would like to be added to the email list for this group, please let LBFN know.

Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: moving beyond old and new hatreds after 9/11

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Project Mosaic invites us to Faraday House, 48-51 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AE on Thursday 4 October at 7pm to hear lawyer and academic Anthony Julius and Fiyaz Mughal OBE of Faith Matters speak.

Tickets are free but restricted to a maximum two tickets per request. Please note that a name and an email address must be provided for every ticket holder.   Email info@projectmosaic.net to reserve a place.

Tackling youth unemployment – free workshop

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Do something practical about youth unemployment - CUF workshop, 16th May.

A great opportunity on Wednesday 16th May 10.30am – 3.30pm for faith-based groups to upskill & swap ideas on tackling youth unemployment.

The venue is Hinde Street Methodist Church, 19 Thayer Street, London W1U 2QJ.

It’s being run by the Church Urban Fund and Frontier Youth Trust (both Christian-based, but the workshop and CUF grants are open to all faith-based organisations). The blurb says

. . a workshop to inspire and equip churches and faith-based groups to support young people struggling with unemployment.

There will be a chance to listen and ask questions with a group of experienced practitioners who are involved in a wide range of projects tackling youth unemployment, including personal development programmes, job clubs and social enterprises.

The workshop is aimed at people who want to do something practical to respond to youth unemployment in their local area, either starting up a new project or building on existing work.

Workshops will include

  • Mentoring young unemployed people
  • Setting up a Job Club
  • Personal development and life skills
  • Running a vocational course
  • Social enterprises for young people
  • Working with young ex-offenders

Register here or contact Tom Sefton at CUF  or tel 7898 1647 for further info.

What’s On

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There’s plenty on in London over the next few weeks for LBFN folk – please use the comment box to add your own suggestions.

Image: Hajj certificate (detail). 17th–18th century AD. Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art (Khalili Family Trust).

Hajj – journey to the heart of Islam opens at the British Museum, WC1, today (until 15th April) to favourable reviews and previews.  £12 (free to members).

There’s an invitation for pilgrims to add their most vivid memory of Hajj on the British Museum website – some Londoners have already contributed.

The synagogues of Britain: an architectural and social heritage.  Talk by Sharman Kadish at Chadwick Lecture Theatre, UCL, Gower Street, WC1.  Monday 27th February, 6.15pm.  Free.

Faith Debates from the Religion and Society Research Programme at RUSI, 61 Whitehall, SW1A 2ET at 5.30 – 7pm.  Free: register with p.ainsworth@lancaster.ac.uk.

After the Riots – from blame to positive action, a one-day forum to understand different perspectives on the underlying civic, moral, political and social perspectives, organised by Initiatives of Change, The Cordoba Foundation and Civil Society Forum on Wednesday, 1st February 10am – 5pm at Initiatives of Change Centre, 24 Greencoat Place, London SW1P 1RD.  Speakers include Dr Peter Selby. Free: download a registration form here and send to esther.ridsdale@tocollaborate.org or dondes@uk.iofc.org.

Roots and Rise of Islamophobia in Europe  Saturday 4th February 1.15pm, Finsbury Park Mosque, 7–11 St Thomas’s Rd, N4 2QH.  Free: register with info@enoughcoalition.org.uk.

Together Thursday 2nd February at 6pm – talk by Richard Sennett at RSA, 8 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6EZ.  Living with people who differ – racially, ethnically, religiously, or economically – is one of the most difficult challenges facing us today.  It requires more than goodwill: it requires skill. Free: register here.

2012 Inter Faith Walks – a special meeting with South London Inter Faith Group on Thursday 8th February 6.30-8pm (including hot vegetarian meal) at Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, SE1.  Get tips on organising a walk in your own borough during the weekend of 14th – 15th July, bringing together people from many different religious traditions.  Upload your invitation here.

Reclaiming London Together – a meeting to promote collaboration for London’s young people after the 2011 disturbances, organised by Faiths Forum for London with the Fayre Share Foundation on Monday 5th March.  £15 each (under 24s free), with Boris Johnson, Camila Batmanghelidjh and Rt Revd Christopher Chessun.

Religion, Civil Religion and the Common Good  Conference at London Metropolitan University, 20th-21st June.  £60 (£35 for one day).  Papers invited.  Contributors include Dr Patrick Riordan, S.J., Heythrop College, University of London.

Inter Faith Network for the UK – the latest newsletter is packed with information.

Holocaust Memorial Day is being marked across London this week and over the weekend – see the list of borough events.

Board of Deputies reception for Toby Howarth

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Guy Wilkinson and Toby Howarth (far end of table) at the Board of Deputies' reception

With a warm welcome and an exquisite spread of food, the Board of Deputies of British Jews held a reception on 5th May for the new Secretary for Inter Religious Affairs for the Church of England, the Revd Dr Toby Howarth.

Toby’s speech set a high value on relationships – “good relationships can hold our differences” – and he has written that the Archbishop of Canterbury

“has helped Christians and others to think through how, as people of all faiths and none, we can work together for the common good of our society.”

Toby has lived in East and Central Africa, India and Rotterdam.  His recent work includes teaching Islamic Studies at Crowther Hall in Birmingham.

Phil Rosenberg, the Board’s Inter Faith Officer, organised the evening and it was good to see Malcolm Deboo (Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe), Warwick Hawkins (Department for Communities and Local Government) and Harriet Crabtree (Inter Faith Network for the UK) in the crowd.

LBFN welcomes Toby to London and we hope he will come along to one of our events before long.

March meeting: 2012 and the Open University

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Dr Haider Ali has kindly arranged for LBFN to meet at the OU in London next week on 23rd March (details from LBFN’s Convener).  Dr Ali attended our January meeting to tell us about some research he is involved in.  We’ll be able to ask more about it next Wednesday, but here’s an introduction –

The Open University is currently submitting a research proposal looking at the involvement of faith leaders in health initiatives. If any organisations are interested in taking part, we’d be most interested in hearing from you. The research project will not just be about gathering information, but also delivering (free) competence enhancing training to participants. Contact h.a.ali@open.ac.uk

The deadline for adding an event to the Mayor’s 2012 Cultural Olympiad is 31st March.  LBFN is registered, so if anyone would like to use this umbrella to publicise their own local event in 2012, please come along.

A follow-up meeting about forming a network of grassroots intercultural groups across Europe will take place in Brussels this Thursday.  LBFN’s Convener is attending and will be reporting back next week.  There is a possibility of a November gathering in Brussels to bring practitioners together from different European countries to share experience and ideas, much as we do at LBFN.  Just get in touch if you’d like to know more.

As ever, let the Convener know if you’re planning to attend on 23rd March.