This was one of the questions that came out of our discussions at the second Catalyst day in December. The participants were asked to describe God in juts a few sentences and then to look at what other people had written. If they warmed to that description of God they put a tick. If they didn’t really understand what was written they put a question mark. If they didn’t describe God in that way they put a dot. One phrase that got an almost equal number of ticks and dots (but no question marks) was ‘My Best Friend’. For some this felt comforting, for others it was too informal and reduced God to our level.
Munpreet, who wrote the comment, has written a thoughtful blog post on why she wanted to describe God as her best friend. It’s well worth taking the time to read.
So what do you think? Too informal, an intimate and profound insight? And how might you describe God in just a few sentences?
Since September 2011, Near Neighbours has been encouraging people across the city to come together to make new friends, deepen relationships and transform their communities. We now have 92 projects that have been funded by Near Neighbours – initial feedback suggests 3,000 people have met each other through these events.
To celebrate these friendships between people of different faiths and ethnicities we comissioned 15 portraits taken by a professional photographer, Dee from Outroslide, that give the people and their relationship a context.
We shot the pictures and interviewed all the people involved during June, July, August, September and a bit of October, had bespoke display boards made that could fit in a car and be assembled as quickly as possibly (thanks to John at Morse-Brown Design) , hunted around for funding (thanks Transforming Church and Westhill Endowment) and eventually launched the exhibition on November 17th at St Martin’s Church in the Bull Ring.
The exhibition and its launch were featured on Central News – the piece included interviews with people who had been involved with the projects and some of those whose friendships are depicted in the portraits. You can watch the coverage here.
Since then the Exhibition has been seen at the launch of the Christian Muslim report into women’s work, at the national Together In Service event hosted by the Department for Communities and Local Government. It is booked by local primary schools, churches, universities and other places of worship but is available for anyone to borrow.
Booking forms and more details are all on our website – we really want people to see these pictures and think hard about the personal and political importance of friendships that bridge communities, challenge prejudice and broaden our imagination. Have a look at the pictures and stories featured in the exhibition on the Outroslide website.
(All pictures from the launch were taken by Helen Tomblin – thanks.)
The Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre will be hosting the Faith Encounter Programme as they run their accredited Faith Guiding Course
The Faith Encounter Programme seeks to train people of all faiths in Birmingham as Faith Guides, so that places of worship are better equipped to offer high quality educational visits.
The course is designed to provide participants with the knowledge, understanding and skills required for successful guiding around a particular place of worship. If you follow one of the major religious traditions represented in Birmingham, you are welcome to apply: Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, & Sikh. Minor traditions are not excluded if they have a place of worship.
There will be 20 places available. Applicants must be over the age of 18 and have the ability to communicate well in English. Applications are welcomed from practising members of any faith community. In addition to completing the application form, applicants need to submit a reference from a leader of their local place of worship.
Course details The aims are achieved through the study of three key areas: 1. Knowledge of and ability to communicate the guide’s own faith 2. Awareness of, and competence in, tour guiding skills 3. Understanding of other faith traditions The course will include four visits to places of worship of different faiths.
The course is offered at the discounted rate of £33, which is the registration fee to the Institute of Tourist Guiding. This may be subsidised by the place of worship. Concessions may be available.
You can download a full brochure giving all the details of the course here
In September we ran our second ‘Faithful Conversations’ training evening here at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre. A group of 13 of us to met to think about how we can have conversations about faith in an informal and non-confrontational way with friends and neighbours.
The evening consisted of a number of activities that involved, amongst other things, people reflecting on their own faith journey, sharing how they celebrate festivals or what impact their faith has on their lives day by day. We also spent time thinking about how we speak and, perhaps more importantly, how we listen. Finally we considered how we cope when we find ourselves in disagreement over faith matters.
The different learning styles were appreciated by the participants who went on to make a number of positive comments about the events.
“The emphasis on simply asking ‘what do you believe’ and taking each person as individuals not representatives of their faith was good.” “It took pressure off me to defend my faith.” “It is more about building a relationship with love than winning an argument” “The variety of activities was very good to get us talking with others about our own faith stories”
The Faithful Conversations course is being run again in Walsall on 29th November. Details are on our events page.
We can also run the course in your area. If you would like to find out more please contact us.
Near Neighbours Development worker Jessica Foster writes: The small grants part of the Near Neighbours programme has been running for just over seven months now and we have funded well over 40 projects, distributing nearly £170,000 to projects and activities that will create and strengthen friendships between people of different faiths who live close to one another.
For some projects the planning is over and it has been an absolute privilege to have been invited to the launch of a job club in Handsworth and the evening celebration of Hodge Hill’s Unsung Heroes recently.
While both events were very different, responding to the different needs in different parts of the city what delighted me was that at both occasions I saw that very real friendships were being built and nourished between people of different faiths and ethnicities who discovered huge amounts in common – shared values, shared concerns and shared neighbourhoods.
On my table of heroes in Hodge Hill, people from different faiths and ethnicities chatted away, building and deepening friendships. Throughout the evening we saw people appreciating the contribution their neighbour was making and that appreciation was enthusiastic, heartfelt and warm as people saw in one another the shared willingness to work together for the good of Hodge Hill.
In Handsworth the commitment to give the most disadvantaged people a second-chance had brought a steering group together to support Alvin Henry and the Dorcas Club to set up a job club. Here people wanted to see young people skilled and equipped to achieve in a competitive employment market. There was a particular concern for people who had left prison and were struggling to quit the offending cycle without any hope of a job.
Amongst this steering group of people was Ajit from the local gurdwara. Alvin told us that the Near Neighbours grant meant he needed a steering group made up of people from different faiths and he had approached Ajit from the Nishkam centre expecting a formal half-an-hour meeting. Three hours later Alvin and Ajit had become firm friends and Ajit is now an integral part of the group overseeing the job club.
At a lecture I attended as part of the Muslim-Christian forum residential for women we heard that friendship is not only personal and intimate but also civil and political. Friendships have the power to bring about real and lasting change in communities. We sometimes think they are something that happen to us but in reality we choose and nurture our friends. We hope Near Neighbours helps to build hundreds of new friendships across this city – we do hope you can be part of it
Why is it that inter-faith events seem to attract more women than men, and that women’s events are often better attended than ones for men. These were some of the questions we considered at the consultation on the 21st March.
First of all we recognised that there is lots of good inter-faith work going on, and that there is an issue of needing to get more women involved in leadership. We also weren’t suggesting that events for women should be in anyway curtailed or undermined by this discussion.
We also acknowledges that there are good examples of men’s interfaith events especially some of the sporting competitions that take place.
We spent a good deal of time looking at what we thought might prevent men attending inter-faith events. Some the the suggestions we came up with included:
Enjoying competative activities that are often missing in inter-faith events
Not seeing the need for just building relationships, more interested in networking or making contacts
Wanting to engage through doing not just talking
Not wanting to be made to feel foolish, for example by sharing in small groups
Different communitities having different expectations of how and when an event is run
Not being convinced that it is worthwhile, so needing the aims and motives to be better articulated
We went on to discuss what we could do to overcome sdome of these obstacles. Some of our conclusions included:
Ensuring joint leadership from different communities in the planning of the events
Finding appropriate competative activities to form the basis for the discussions and engagment
Less talk of relationships and more emphasis on activity, contacts and networking
Focus on specific interest or work groups eg local business men, the elderly, sports
This was a consultation not a conclusion so please feel free to add your comments and thoughts, or discuss these questions amongst men that you know.
Following the successful ‘Faithful Conversations’ training day in February we are running it again on 21st April, this time starting at 7:30 so that those who work during the day can attend.
The programme will follow the same pattern as last time with an opportunity to think about our own faith story and how we can share that with others in a constructive and positive way.
The training also includes listening exercises and the opportunity to hear the experiences and beliefs of others.
On the 9th of February we ran the Faithful Conversations training morning at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre. The morning included a chance for people to think through their own faith stories and then to have the opportunity to share those stories with others, to learn how to speak positively about faith and how to listen to others. It was also an opportunity to hear the faith stories, beliefs, practices and experiences of others.
The morning was greatly appreciated by all the participants. Read what they said about it:
There were really interesting discussions held with interesting people
The course was excellent, easy to get to and with parking available
There was a good balance between activities and discussions
It was very useful, I will definitely be having ‘Faith Conversations’
Due to the popularity of this course we are planning to run it again in the evening of Thursday 26th April. You can find all the details on our events pages
We have updated our calendar with all the training events planned in the next few months. But, in case you want to see them as a list, or copy the whole lot and forward it to everyone you know, we have added a list of all the events here in our blogs. We hope there is something to please everyone so do book on through our administrator, Parm, and we look forward to seeing you.
Christian Muslim Engagement
Our next major event is on Tuesday January 31st and is aimed at Christians who want to engage with Muslims but have some questions about the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of interfaith dialogue. The event is being held at St George’s Newtown from 10 am to 4pm and being run in partnership with the Christian Muslim Forum (www.christianmuslimforum.org)
Faithful Conversations
On Thursday February 9th we are running a training event here, at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre, for people who bring people of different faiths together and want to make sure meaningful conversations take place. The training runs from 10 am to 1 pm.
Muslim Christian Engagement
On Thursday March 8th we are working with the Christian-Muslim forum to run an event aimed at Muslims who want to engage with Christians and need some support and encouragement. The event will run from 10 am to 3 pm and is being held at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre.
White Working Class – a response to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report
On Tuesday March 20th we are holding a consultation with the Rt Revd Andrew Watson, Bishop of Aston, to consider our response to the views of those interviewed for the report who felt left out of regeneration and community cohesion programmes.
This is a chance to hear more details about the report, to reflect on whether the findings are relevant in our areas (part of the research was undertaken in Birmingham) and to share some ideas and thoughts of how Near Neighbours might be helpful in addressing this. This event is being held at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre from 10.30 am to 12 noon.
Engaging with Men
Many of our interfaith events seem to bring women together successfully but it is often harder to get men together for meetings or events. What can we do to engage with men and find ways of meeting their needs? This event is being held at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre on 21st March from 10 am to 1 pm.
Pakistani Awareness Training
Led by Karamat Iqbal this course is a chance to learn more about the Pakistani-British community here in Birmingham thinking about the history and development of the community, the issues and needs generally and of particular groups and the particular role of the church.
The course is being held at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre on April 25th from 9.30 to 4 pm. For more details please contact karamat@forwardpartnership.org.uk
For details of the other courses advertised here please contact Parm Sidhu at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre on 0121 675 1156 or e-mail: parms@faithfulneighbourhoods.org.uk
Getting people of different faiths into the same space is the beginning of process that can be hugely enriching, transformative and exciting but it does not happen naturally. How do conversations move from the superficial to the spiritual without feeling artificial and stilted?
To help people think through how they can have conversations about faith that have integrity and honesty we are running a training day at The Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre on Thursday 9th February 2012.
The course will run from 10am to 1pm and will include lunch. The cost of the course is £15 (£10) concession. To register contact Parm Sidhu the Centre Administrator.
