Thursday 8 July 2010

INTER FAITH NETWORK UK: ANNUAL NATIONAL MEETING 2010


This is my third time attending this annual event since I began working for Leicester Council of Faiths. The first was in this same venue, Glaziers Hall (2008), the second at Grace Road, home of Leicestershire County Cricket Club (2009). On those two earlier occasions, I acted as note-taker at one of the workshops. This time I'm free to take part in the day in my own right.

The theme of the National Meeting this year is "Shaping Our Shared Society: The Key Role of Local Inter Faith Organisations". Growing numbers of inter faith organisations are working at local level to develop good inter faith relations and to encourage cooperation on social issues. This meeting offers a chance to hear about how they are developing their work and about the challenges they are facing and the opportunities they see ahead. The topic is relevant to all types of body in membership of the Inter Faith Network: to local bodies themselves; to national faith communities which support and encourage their work; and to national and regional inter faith bodies which are, increasingly, looking to find ways to work in partnership with local projects and to support their work.

We're welcomed by Rt Rev Dr Alastair Redfern and Dr Girdari Bhan, Co-Chairs of the Inter Faith Network

Plenary sessions this morning:
Building good inter faith relations locally: a task for our times
Dr Harriet Crabtree, Director, Inter Faith Network, considers the changing landscape for local inter faith work and some of the key issues helping shape this; and reflects on the vital importance of local inter faith initiatives.

Developing good relations in the multi faith city
Kashmir Singh Rajput, Chair of Bradford District Faiths Forum, gives an insight into how this busy metropolitan faith forum has been working to identify issues of importance to the different faith communities in the city and its neighbourhoods and to build a range of partnerships to enable dialogue and social cooperation, both across communities generally and also bilaterally and trilaterally between particular communities.

A perspective from Government on the importance of local inter faith work as part of developing good community relations
Andrew Stunell OBE, MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Communities and Local Government with responsibilities including community cohesion (including future of Prevent); building regulations; race equality and the Big Society.

Dialogue on the spot
A moment to talk with your neighbours about the themes of the day

Developing local inter faith work in less diverse areas
Dr Maureen Sier, on secondment from the Scottish Inter Faith Council to the Scottish Executive/Government draws on her experience of working with local inter faith groups in Scotland to discuss how inter faith work is being developed in less diverse areas. How – if at all – does this differ from work in a multi faith city?

National faith communities – supporting and encouraging local inter faith work
Moulana M Shahid Raza OBE, Chair of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB) talks about its new initiative to encourage imams to play a role in local inter faith bodies and to encourage their congregations to do likewise.

Inter Faith Week
Stella Opoku-Owusu, Local and Regional Inter Faith Officer and Elin Henrysson, Project Assistant, Inter Faith Network give a short presentation of images of the 2009 Week and ideas for 2010. Fakhara Rehman, Community Faiths Coordinator, Kirklees Faiths Forum: our Inter Faith Week story - a packed Week of events for every age!

Sustaining the vision: resources and structures
Anna Allen, Head of Programmes, Community Development Foundation (CDF), talks about how recent funding programmes have been helping support local inter faith initiatives and reflects on some of the challenges for these of developing sustainable patterns of funding and structures which can help underpin their work well.

Seven workshops are run this afternoon on the following themes:
1. Developing a relevant and lively programme
Hear from two local groups about how they have been developing their programme and exchange ideas with members of groups in other areas.
Facilitator: Patricia Stoat, Chief Executive Officer, Faith Forum for the East Midlands
Presenters: Ryad Khodabocus, Community Relations Development Worker Luton Borough Council/Luton Council of Faiths and Peter Adams, Luton Council of Faiths; Dr David Capey, Suffolk Inter-Faith Resource

2. Outreach and membership
Developing a strong membership base and involving the faith communities in your area. A chance to discuss methods of outreach and patterns of membership, including some of the issues to consider when developing a constitution.
Facilitator: Amy Willshire, "Faith Ambassador", Waltham Forest Faith Communities Forum, London
Presenters: Brian Pearce OBE, Adviser, Faith and Public Life, Inter Faith Network; Resham Singh Sandhu MBE DL, Member, Leicester Council Faiths, Vice-Chair, Leicestershire Faith Forum and Trustee Faiths Forum for the East Midlands

3. Resources and training for religious literacy and inter faith understanding
A number of local inter faith bodies now run training for public authorities and others and produce materials to help people learn about the faiths in their areas or to understand what inter faith work is about. A chance to hear from two groups and to share your own experiences of this kind of work.
Facilitator: Rev Andrew Brown, Public Education Programmes Manager for the Woolf Institute, Cambridge
Presenters: Jatinder Singh Birdi, Warwick District Faiths Forum; Jonathan Marshall and Vallabhdas Meswania, Plymouth Centre for Faiths and Cultural Diversity

4. Involving young people in local inter faith programmes
Last year’s Inter Faith Network National Meeting had a special focus on young people and inter faith relations and an Inter Faith Network/National Association of SACREs looked at this in the course of a seminar on joint working by local inter faith bodies and SACREs. This workshop is a chance to talk about how local inter faith bodies are working to involve young people in their activities.
Facilitator: Ramona Kauth, Birmingham Council of Faiths
Presenters: Pastor Charles Kwaku-Odoi, Faith Network 4 Manchester; Dr Phil Henry, Director, Multi Faith Centre at Derby University which is developing a Derby Youth Inter Faith Forum (in consultation with the Faith Forum for Derby)

5. Multi media approaches to making the work known
Websites, radio interviews, DVDs, leaflets, newspaper articles. What are some of the ways that local inter faith bodies are using to gain more profile for themselves?
Facilitator: Jyoti Mehta, Institute of Jainology, Young Jains and Inter Faith Network Executive Committee member
Presenters: Paresh Solanki, Assistant Director (Communications and Development), Inter Faith Network; Selina Brown, Executive Communications Officer, West Midlands Faiths Forum

6. National faith communities and support for local inter faith work
Looking at how national faith communities are helping local members building good inter faith relations locally – and also learning from local inter faith groups.
Facilitator: Mgr Andrew Faley, Assistant General Secretary, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and Inter Faith Network Executive Committee member
Presenter: Philip Rosenberg, Interfaith Officer, Board of Deputies of British Jews
With brief responding reflections from Dr Joy Barrow, Inter Faith Relations Officer, Methodist Church in Britain and Ramesh Pattni, Co-Chair, Hindu-Christian Forum and Chair of the Interfaith Committee, Hindu Forum of Britain

7. Inter Faith Week: Looking back to 2009 and forward to this year’s Week
Discussion about the 2009 Week and plans for the 2010 Week. Come and share your news and ideas.
Facilitator/ Presenter: David Vane, Buddhist member and Secretary, Southampton Council of Faiths
Presenter: Rev Alan Bayes, Chair, Inter Faith Council for Wales

The final session of the National Meeting is:
Perspectives on the development of local inter faith work for the future
Short reflection pieces from: Deanna Van der Velde, Newcastle Council of Faiths, Chair, North East branch of Council of Christians and Jews and Chair, Newcastle SACRE, and member, Task Group, North East Regional Faith Network Ganesh Lall, member of South London Inter Faith Group and Caribbean Hindu Society; Mehru Fitter, member of Coventry Multi Faith Forum, Executive member, West Midlands Faiths Forum and member of Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe.

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