Category Archives: Corporation of London

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!

Peace Conference | 15 September | St Ethelburga’s

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A5_Peace-Conference-FinalPeace-building in the 21st Century – join people from across the capital on Monday 15 September at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace. Download the flyer and register online.

From the crises in the Middle East, to reducing conflict in our homes and streets, this timely conference engages scholars, experts, faith and community leaders to discuss the limits and challenges of grassroots peace endeavours, learn peace-building skills, and explore conceptual frameworks governing peace and dialogue.

Here is an opportunity to listen to participants from different religious and cultural traditions, contribute our own insights and experience, refresh our conflict transformation skills, understand the hopes and fears of communities here and overseas, and take an active part in workshops and panel discussions.

Workshops include: Conflict Resilience, Dialogue Skills, Advancing Peace through the Arts, Hostage Negotiations.

Panels include: Peace versus War, Grassroots Peace-building, Conflicts in the Middle East, Peace or Appeasement?

The Muslim-Jewish arts group MUJU will be showing us their latest work on the theme of peace and Sikh students will be singing at lunchtime.  The Christian Muslim Forum, the Faith-based Regeneration Network and many others will be participating.

Lord Michael Bates, on his Walk4Peace to Berlin, acknowledging the anniversary of WWI and raising funds for child victims of war and conflict, has sent an encouraging message.  “It is all too easy to look around the world and get depressed about the cause of peace, but it is said it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness: that is exactly what London Peace Network are seeking to do and I applaud them for it and would encourage all those who care about peace to join in.”

Register online now – your contribution of £15 (£5 students/pensioners/concessions) will help cover costs and includes lunch. St Ethelburga’s is a beautiful and poignant venue but space is limited, so book ahead if you plan to attend. The full programme will be available next week.

If you would like any further information, please visit the London Peace Network or get in touch.

Walks | pilgrimages | fundays

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Three local walks and pilgrimages and a funday are coming up during September.

BATCA flyerSaturday 13 September Balham & Tooting Community Association’s annual Funday will take place at Gatton Muslim Primary School and St Augustine’s Church of England in Tooting, Wandsworth.  Attractions will include food from around the world, a clown, fairground rides, traditional sideshows, penalty shoot outs, creative arts, free NHS health checks for over 40s, craft stalls, farm animals, a fire engine and much more.

The theme this year is “Celebrating Life Together.”   Download details here.

WF walkSunday 14 September

The Women’s Interfaith Network in Waltham Forest is leading a Friendship Pilgrimage “Sounds of Spirituality” around the borough.

They will visit nine places of worship, starting at the Sri Karpaga Vinayagar Temple and ending with supper together.

People are welcome to join the pilgrimage at any stop.

Download the flyer and programme.

ftilSaturday 20 September Faiths Together in Lambeth will be leading an Inter Faith Walk, starting at Church of the Holy Spirit, stopping at four more places of worship and practice in the north of the borough and finishing at Lambeth Masjid and Progressive Community Centre.

Walkers are invited to join at any time.  Download the flyer and map.

st e walkSunday 21 September The Ethelburga Walk from Barking to Bishopsgate will raise funds for St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.

It will make its way through “surprising green spaces in East London.”  There’ll be storytelling, music and refreshments en route for a great day out and for a good cause. Children and dogs welcome.

Download the flyer here and register at www.stethelburgas.org/walk.

Are you planning a walk or community event?  Let LBFN know and we can add it to the blog.

Staying safe in troubled times | action for peace

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hate-crimeWith reports that hate crime on the grounds of religion or belief is on the rise in London, here are some useful contacts & sources of information and support which we can pass on to our networks.

Any hate crime, whether against a person or a place of worship, should immediately be reported to the police, calling 999 in an emergency.  Police contacts in each borough are listed here.  Third party reporting services (for those who prefer to report via a specialist organisation) are listed here.  Hate Crime Forums are active in many boroughs.

Two specialist organisations monitor anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish incidents.  They also offer support, advice and information for protecting individuals and religious buildings.  They are the Community Security Trust (for synagogues and Jewish communities) and Tell Mama (for Islamic centres and Muslim communities).  Both organisations offer security updates.

peace_bird_webThe violent conflicts in the Middle East are rightly causing a great deal of concern and distress across all communities in London.  Whilst speaking out privately and publicly, there is also a strong desire – especially where there are disagreements – to sustain the excellent local relationships which exist between Londoners from different religious traditions.

The widespread goodwill and friendship between local churches, synagogues, Islamic centres, temples and gurdwaras was demonstrated recently by open iftars during Ramadan in many boroughs, as well as interfaith walks, peace pilgrimages and visits across the capital.  Where there are differences of opinion, we aim to redouble our efforts to listen, to learn, to “disagree well” and to support those seeking peaceful solutions.  In a global city such as ours, we have opportunities not only to speak out but to come together in finding common ground to pursue just and non-violent ways forward.

Several statements on the Middle East conflicts have been issued, including two by the Archbishop of Canterbury here and here, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Muslim Council of Britain & the Women’s Interfaith Network.

Opportunities for people from different religious and belief traditions to come together in London for justice and peace include

  • Prayers for Peace in the Middle East Tuesday 5 August 4 – 5.30pm led by the Christian Muslim Forum and St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.  “We watch the news in great distress as we see our Jewish, Christian and Muslim sisters and brothers being killed and on the receiving end of atrocities in Syria, Israel, Palestine, Iraq and Egypt. We aim, through various inter faith and peace initiatives, to model the way of peaceful dialogue while petitioning our leaders and politicians to use their influence and intervene constructively. However, clicking on internet petitions and speaking out can seem like small actions or that our voices are not being heard. What can we do?”  Register here.

Lord Michael Bates, patron of the London Peace Network, sets off on his Walk for Peace to Berlin on Tuesday 5 August from City Hall at 11am, following the Westminster Abbey commemoration of the start of WWI the previous evening.  Last year he walked for the children of Syria, this year he is walking for the child victims of conflict and war.  Join us on Tuesday to give him a good send-off.

Please add to the above – helpful information, links, events – through the comments box below.

Multifaith spaces | 6 Nov 3.30pm

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Multifaith Spaces 6 NovDo you ever use a prayer room or a quiet space?  Are you responsible for running one?

Join us for our next gathering on Wednesday 6 November at 3.30pm!

A big thank you to St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace for welcoming us to The Tent at 78 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4AG.

Please pass this invitation and flyer to your networks and friends, especially chaplains and others who work in hospitals, FE colleges, universities, prisons, airports, offices and shopping centres.

We are delighted to welcome Revd Dr Terry Biddington from the University of Manchester who will be presenting his newly published paper, and we’ll be hearing brief responses from AbdoolKarim Vakil (King’s College, London) and from three regulars at LBFN gatherings: Siriol Davies (Diocese of Southwark), Rosalind Parker (researcher & practitioner in interfaith & the arts) and Steve Miller (Director of the Faith-based Regeneration Network).

How do these spaces open up new ways of thinking?  How do they affect the lives of local people – whether they are patients, students, staff, offenders, travellers, worshippers, shoppers or office workers?   Do multifaith spaces simply ‘house difference’ or do they bring people together (or alienate them)?  How do local churches, mosques, temples, gurdwaras and synagogues work in partnership with those responsible for multifaith spaces?  What do they say about how people from different traditions share London’s places and spaces?  How do they relate to the role of religion & belief in the public square?  What is the intention – and what actually happens in practice?  Does their presence have knock-on effects within our communities?

The Tent is a good place to have a wide-ranging conversation and it is mentioned in Terry’s paper.  If you have never visited St Ethelburga’s, this is a good opportunity.  Space is very comfortable but limited, so please let us know by November 5 if you’re planning to attend.

Simon Keyes, the Director of St Ethelburga’s, is hoping to join us for the discussion if his journey back to London on the 6th goes according to plan.

 

A theological reading of Multi Faith Spaces 6 November 4.30

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MFS arriving

It’s a year since LBFN hosted Manchester University’s Multi Faith Spaces exhibition.

We promised a follow up event for practitioners, academics and policy makers to pursue the intricate, practical and theological challenges that were aired during our seminar discussions.

  • Do these spaces simply ‘house difference’ or do they bring people together (or alienate them)?
  • What do they say about how people from different traditions share London’s places and spaces?
  • How do they relate to the role of religion in the public square?
  • What is the intention – and what actually happens in practice?
  • Does their presence have knock-on effects within our communities?

I am delighted that Dr Terry Biddington (part of the Manchester team) has kindly agreed to talk to us about his new paper, Towards a Theological Reading of Multifaith Spaces, which asks

“how multifaith spaces relate to the heterotopias, non-spaces and Thirdspaces of some social theorists; what the theological issues around multifaith spaces are for those religious believers who use them; what theological approaches and language might begin to name and explore the potential of multifaith spaces for new shared understandings of human identity; and how multifaith spaces relate to notions of God.”

I’ve had a sneak preview (the paper will be published later this year) and it’s exciting stuff.

It also relates to the developing ideas around the Friday-Saturday-Sunday architectural proposal, intentional sharing and ‘visiting’ of religious places and how religious and non-religious people share place and negotiate identity.  The paper focuses mainly on Abrahamic traditions, but our discussion will be broader.

We’ve agreed Wednesday 6 November at 4.30pm for this event and I am looking for a suitable multifaith space in central London as a venue.  Please contact me if you know of something suitable.

There will be a couple of respondents to Terry’s paper, followed by discussion and something to eat.  We should be finished by about 6.30pm.

People involved in hospital chaplaincy, FE colleges, prisons, workplace MFS, universities, airports (& other shopping centres) are very welcome – please pass this invitation on to those whom you know.

Save the date and register your interest with LBFN if you’d like to join us in November.

Samovar, mint tea or chai? Inter Faith Week | 26 November 3-5pm

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After Breakfast (2010) and then Lunch (2011) in Multifaith Europe during Inter Faith Week, LBFN welcomes you to afternoon tea with a difference!

Download the flyer here and distribute to your networks.

Come to the Boardroom, 1st Floor, Voluntary Sector Centres, The Merchant Centre, 1 New Street Square, London EC4A 3BF on 26th November 3-5pm.

There will be updates from the European Network on Religion and Belief (launched this year) and discussion on how local religious, multifaith and interconvictional groups across Europe can work together for the common good.  Local communities in Europe face a number of challenges.  What are the issues?  How do we tackle them together?

Bring tea leaves (or bags) of your choice, and any additional ingredients, and we will enjoy a wide range of tea which is currently drunk in very different ways across the continent.

We are delighted that the Faith-based Regeneration Network is hosting this special occasion – thank you!

Book now to reserve your place: there are limited seats around the boardroom table.