CAIRS Home > Articles >

August 2006 E-Bulletin

August 9 , 2006

If you would like to be included in the mailing list for this service, please send your e-mail address to the Education Officer, Andrew Sarle.

“What’s faith got to do with it? The contribution of faith communities to regeneration.”

A major event exploring the contribution of Scotland’s faith communities to tackling poverty and promoting regeneration.Tuesday 5 September, Royal Scottish Academy for Music and Drama, Glasgow

There are still places available to attend this FREE conference which will explore the common ground between community regeneration and Scotland’s different faith communities. A diverse range of projects will be highlighted, to show how regeneration is approached by groups working from a faith perspective. There will also be workshops on different approaches and common aims and outcomes.  There will be keynote speeches from Malcolm Chisholm MSP (Minister for Communities) and Steven Purcell (Leader: Glasgow City Council) and the event will be chaired by Sally Magnusson from BBC Reporting Scotland.  The programme will include presentations about Richmond’s Hope (Edinburgh), Orbiston Neighbourhood Centre (Lanarkshire) and the Muslim Women’s Resource Centre (Glasgow). And there will be the opportunity to discover something of what inspires Ephraim Borowski (Scottish Council of Jewish Communities), Wendy Bullard (Communities Scotland) and John Miller (Church of Scotland).
 
To bring people together from diverse backgrounds, the community engagement team in regeneration has been working with Faith in Community (Scotland), a recently established inter faith group, which describes itself as “an anti-poverty organization which works from a faith perspective. 

For further information see www.faithincommunityscotland.org or to register for the conference, contact Lynn Burnett, 0141 353 0440,  lynn@faithincommunityscotland.org.

Prayer as Meeting

The Christian Mediation Trust UK is holding a weekend gathering of Muslims and Christians at the University of York, on 16th and 17th September 2006. 

The gathering will focus on celebrating and exploring the experience and understanding of prayer, and be addressed by a number of speakers from both communities, including Dr Musharaf Hussain, Chairman of the Kirimia Institute and Director of the Nottingham Islamia School; Father Laurence Freeman OSB, a Benedictine monk and Spiritual Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation; Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi, author of ‘Paths of Transcendence: Shankara, Ibn Arabi and Meister Eckhart on Transcendent Spiritual realization’ and ‘Doctrines of Shi’a Islam’; Rev Deborah Holmyard, an Anglican priest and member of The World Community for Christian Meditation and Fuad Nahdi, publisher and editor-in-chief of the renowned Muslim publication 'Q News'.  The Meeting will also include workshops and a panel of young Muslims and Christians discussing contemplative prayer and the way forward together.

The aim of the meeting is to bring together the contemplative traditions of Islam and Christianity in a spirit of enquiry and mutual respect.  Further information can be obtained from the organisers, CMT(UK), at St Mark’s, Myddleton Square, London EC1R 1XX, 020 7833 9615, uk@wccm.org, or from their website.

Peace rebuilt between Indonesian Christians and Muslims

In the midst of other regional tensions, thousands of Muslims and Christians in Maluku, Indonesia, have come together as part of a historic peace building event which will help the continuing transformation of community relations.  The cornerstone was laid for a new Catholic Church building to replace one destroyed in inter-religious fighting.  The full story of this significant event can be read at Ekklesia.

Multi-faith service gives hope to those losing their religion

Multi-faith religious services for people who do not go to church are to be held in Edinburgh for the first time. Four interfaith ministers are to run a fortnightly "universal service of worship" in a Newington community centre. They expect the congregation to consist mainly of people who believe in God but have become disillusioned with existing religions. This is from an article that appeared in the Edinburgh Evening News.

Any takers for this?

The makers of BBC2 reality TV shows 'The monastery' and 'The convent' are planning a similar documentary focusing on Islam.  Participants will spend a month at a location near Granada in the South of Spain, living in community while learning about and practicing Islam. The retreat will include the first week of Ramadan - so you will need to be physically healthy enough to fast from dawn to dusk. Volunteers can be either Muslim or non-Muslim, but need to have a sincere wish to deepen their understanding of Islam and to explore their spirituality.  

The TV company concerned has asked if we know of anyone who might be interested so, if you or anyone else is, contact Suzanne Evans of Aquarius PR on 0208 687 0173 or 07973 149104, or email her at suzanne@aquariuspr.co.uk.

Edinburgh Churches Together

An open meeting at the Gillis Centre at 7 for 7.30pm on Thursday 12th October will take the form of an open discussion on developing Inter Faith relations, especially at the local level, in Edinburgh.  Participants will include people who represent denominations in Inter Faith matters, the CAIRS Education Officer, and colleagues from the Edinburgh Inter Faith Association. Please put this date in your diaries if you are based in Edinburgh . 

Qur’an

Just after I sent out the last E-journal, an article in the July/August 2006 edition of Idea, the Evangelical Alliance’s magazine, came to my attention.  Amy Orr Ewing poses the question, Is the Qur’an the Word of God?

You may also be interested in another article by Amy that I read recently.  Written a couple of years ago, this poses the question, Don’t All Religions Lead to God?  and concludes that it is more arrogant to deny Jesus’ statement, “I am the way the truth and the light, no one comes the Father except by me”, than to assert that all religions are ways to approach the “divine reality”.  How do you answer similar critiques of inter faith issues?  Personally, I would suggest the Jesus offers a special parental bond with God, while other faiths focus on a different relationship.  I would welcome receiving your comments and feel an electronic discussion starting!!!

A number of interesting news items were awaiting my return from holiday in Germany, and I summarise them below in case you missed them:

Archbishop of Canterbury and Israeli Chief Rabbis to launch dialogue

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is set to welcome the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to Lambeth Palace in September 2006. Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yonah Metzger will travel to London for a special meeting with Dr Williams, during which a joint declaration will be signed, establishing a new shared dialogue process.  This dialogue is considered to be similar to the Anglican conversations with Islam established in 2002 with Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.  You can read more about this important and interesting development at Ekklesia.

Scottish Methodists and Muslims in joint Kyrgyzstan mission trip
Scottish Methodists and Muslims defied racist taunts from some people to be among those travelling to the Republic of Kyrgyzstan last month (July 2006) as part of the first-ever British interfaith Habitat for Humanity project. 

This exiting example of constructive dialogue in action shows how there is far more to inter faith encounter than words.  Young, and not so young, Christians and Muslims have worked together to plan and arrange the visit to Central Asia over the past year, and  have featured in a previous issue of CAIRS E-journal.  More details of this way of serving God and God’s people together can be found at Ekklesia.

World Summit of Religious Leaders condemns religiously sanctioned abuses

The World Summit of Religious Leaders, the largest interfaith gathering to convene in Russia since the time of the Cold War, met in advance of the G8 meeting last month and  passed a resolution condemning terrorism, economic inequality, environmental abuses and the denigration of moral values in the modern world. 

"We condemn terrorism and extremism in any form, as well as attempts to justify them by religion," reads the statement. "We deplore the activities of pseudo- religious groups and movements destroying freedom and health of people as well as the ethical climate in societies."

More than 200 religious leaders from several dozen countries gathered in Moscow for the Summit.  Further details can be read at Ekklesia.