We were delighted that The Community Channel chose to feature Sunrise in Sparkhill in the programme about the Olympic Torch relay. We’ve already posted about the interview they did with Andrew Smith in the days leading up to the event. That programe has now been made and featured on their progamme UK 360 on 29th July. The section on Sunrise at Sparkhill comes right at the start of the programme.
Over the past five weeks a people have come to the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre to deepen their understanding of Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism. The course was aimed at Christians who wanted to learn more about these faiths and South Asian culture as well as to think through how they might share their faith with people from a different faith background.
The titles of the 5 weeks were:
Towards understanding Islam
Towards understanding Sikhism
Towards understanding honour and shame culture
Towards understanding Hinduism
Towards understanding South Asian children and young people.
Each week was led by contributors with an in depth knowledge of the different faith and culture, and the course included times for questions, reflection, sharing resources and prayer.
The course was run with Pall Singh from East West Trust, Pall has lived and worked in Birmingham for many years and has run this course successfully in a variety of locations across the city.
It is hoped that we can run this with Pall again in 2013. Details will be on our events page when they are confirmed.
The Birmingham Faith Leaders Group were invited to Sunrise in Sparkhill to lead the crowds in the reading of our faith pledge. Written specially for the event this pledge was inspired by the Olympic aims of ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’. We wanted to capture the aspirational element of that simple phrase and adapt it for a faith context. Our hope is that the pledge can be read by people of all faiths, and although it refers to faith we trust that people of no faith can also use it.
At Sunrise in Sparkhill people were given a copy of the pledge and 3 candles of different colours red, white and blue and Bishop David Urquhart, Bishop of Birmingham encouraged everyone to light these at home, perhaps when watching the Olympics and to recomit to the words of the faith pledge.
We were also jojned by faith leaders from different parts of the city who took candles and pledges back to their areas to be shared with members of their communities.
The pledge reads:
Inspired by the teachings of our faiths, and spurred on by the example of the Olympic athletes may we all seek to be the best we can be.
Increasing our compassion,
Growing in our generosity,
Becoming more hospitable,
Practising greater forgiveness,
Striving together for the good of our communities,
Urging one another on in acts of righteousness
So that we may bring hope and joy, friendship and laughter to enrich the lives of every person who lives in Birmingham
Feel free to use the Sunrise in Sparkhill Faith Pledge yourself and change the place name to your location.
At 5am on July 1st Sparkhill Park was unusually busy as a team of volunteers assisted by staff from the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre were busy getting ready for the Sunrise in Sparkhill event. This was due to start at 6am and was a community event to mark the Olympic Torch relay.
The event, partly funded through Near Neighbours, brought together members of the local faith communities including, Christians (Catholic and Protestant), Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims as well as local schools, businesses, the council and police.
The groups provided free breakfast for everyone, games and activities as well as performances on the bandstand that reflected all the faiths represented and which was compered by Nikki Tapper from BBC Radio WM.
In all over 1000 people came to the event of all ages and backgrounds. There was great excitement at seeing the torch and real enthusiasm for all the acts who performed. We also had a visit from Anne Barnes who had carried the torch the day before and she showed the torch and allowed people to be photographed with her and the torch.
The event featured much more that will come in future posts
Today Andrew was interviewed by The Community Channel for a feature on the event we are planning to mark the Olympic Torch Relay as it passes down the Stratford Road close to the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre.
Called ‘Sunrise in Sparkhill’ The event will be on Sunday 1st July and features breakfast, mini-Olympics, face painting and mendhi along with a full program of events on the bandstand. This will be compered by Nikki Tapper and conclude with the reading of a Faith Pledge led by the Bishop of Birmingham and members of the Birmingham Faith Leaders Group.
Look out for pictures form the event and the wording of the Faith Pledge coming soon.
On the 26th April a group of us met at the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre to hear Karamt Iqbal teach us about the history of the Pakistani community in Birmingham along with the current situation. Karamt spoke about his own experience of being a Pakistani who moved from Mirpur to Birmingham in 1960’s and used this to highlight the experiences of many within the Pakistani community.
Hearing first hand of what it was like to make such a significant move was both interesting and insightful as he unpacked the implications for a community that has had to establish itself within the city.
Karamat’s style was to be both informative and anecdotal, he also challenged the majority white community whilst being reflective and self critical of his own Pakistani community.
Karamat has many years experience of working for the local authority and used this experience to highlight the current situation and to encourage participants to consider the implications for the city of a large (and growing) Pakistani community living, working and contributing to life in Birmingham.
The day was well received and we are hoping to run it again in the autumn along with a shorter version aimed specificaly at church leaders. Details of these events will be on the website when confirmed.
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.
The training is taking place at The Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre, 10-12 Court Road, Sparkhill. B11 4LX, and costs £5 per person.
For full details and information on how to book see our events pages or download a Faithful Conversations Flyer
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
Maintained by MI Business Services Ltd. | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy
