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ENGLAND: Thousands of church school pupils get ready to mark inaugural interfaith week
The week is being facilitated by the Inter Faith Network for the U.K. and the Department for Communities and Local Government, and is designed to be community-led, with local groups holding their own events to highlight work going on to promote understanding between people of different faiths and beliefs. The stated aims of the week include strengthening good relations between people of religious and non-religious belief at all levels, and celebrating and building on the contribution which members of different faith groups make to their neighborhoods and to wider society.
Church of England schools are leading the grass-roots celebration of the week in lots of creative ways:
Birmingham Cathedral is holding a week-long event in association with Operation Noah -- a Christian campaign focusing on the issue of climate change -- using the story and symbolism of Noah's ark, which is shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, to explore environmental issues in the run-up to the Copenhagen Conference. A major art installation produced by students from Bartley Green High School, including a slide show projected onto the ceiling of the cathedral, will be on show for visitors to the cathedral. Workshops for classes from a range of local primary schools will give them the opportunity to write their thoughts and fears about the impact of climate change onto animal shapes, which will then join a giant ark.
On Tuesday (Nov. 17), Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will visit the London Inter Faith Centre at St. Anne's, Brondesbury, to meet students from a dozen north London independent secondary schools with a religious character, representing different traditions within Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism. During the day, students will present their reflections to each other -- and a range of guests including the archbishop and other faith leaders -- on the distinctive elements of their own religion which make a valuable contribution to society's common good.
In Leicester, staff and pupils from Madani High School and Community Centre -- the first purpose-built Islamic maintained secondary school in the country -- are hosting staff, governors, clergy and pupils from four of the city's Church of England primary schools. This Inter Faith Week activity is hoped to be the start of a longer-term relationship between the schools, with the inaugural visit including a tour of the school and mosque and time for the students to work together.
Holy Trinity Church of England primary school, in Upper Tulse Hill, South West London, has an ongoing link originally formed seven years ago with Gatton Voluntary Aided primary, a Muslim school in nearby Tooting. Pupils and staff visit each others' schools once a term during their time in Year 5, and this month has already seen a visit by Holy Trinity pupils to Gatton School, which included a visit to the mosque next to the school. During Inter Faith Week, pupils from Gatton School will make a return visit to Holy Trinity to take part in a special assembly where they will explore insights from their respective faiths. This will be followed by time discussing a section of the "Talking Together" book, an interfaith resource featuring five imaginary conversations for role-play between young people of different religions. Also during the week, a school assembly will be led by a leader from the local Hindu temple, and Holy Trinity's headteacher will be participating in an assembly at nearby Orchard primary school, a Muslim Voluntary Aided school close to Holy Trinity. The two schools are starting up a regular exchange of Year 2 pupils.
Year 6 pupils at Holy Trinity Church of England primary school in Kingston, Surrey, are also looking forward to using the "Talking Together" material. The students have already spent some of their recent lessons thinking about why it's important to gain an understanding about a range of different faiths, setting their own questions about the beliefs of different faiths and researching those questions using books, multimedia resources and the internet. During Inter Faith week, their project will culminate with the children sharing their findings with each other along with invited guests from different faith communities.
The Rev. Canon Guy Wilkinson, the Church of England's adviser on inter religious affairs, says that this activity is a sign of the people's enthusiasm for learning more about their neighbors.
"Young people understand that faith has a significant impact on society at a local, national and international level, and they have clear insights into how their own family's beliefs and values shape the way they are being brought up," said Wilkinson. "Getting involved in activities that help them get a better understanding of the beliefs and practices of others in their neighborhood through face-to-face engagement is a much better way of supporting strong community relations than reading from text books.
"It's really encouraging to see cathedrals, churches and schools leading the way in providing platforms for these types of initiatives, that will serve to increase understanding and friendships across groups of people of different faiths and none."
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