Pope's Senior Advisor on interreligious dialogue to visit London

All people of good will are cordially inviteed to join representatives of different religions, who are coming together on the occasion of teh visit to England of Cardinal Tauran, the Pope's senior advisor on interreligious dialogue, to offer prayres  for peace in tehir differnt traditions, and to bear witness to their longing for a more just and peaceful world.

Thursday 13th June 16.30 for 17.00
Westminster Cathedral Hall SW1P 1QH

May Update

NEWS

The International Imam Hussain Council has seen fit to honour the PEN Coordinator with an award for her contribution to Inter Faith relations. It was a real honour to attend the Syeda Fatima Interfaith Conference at the House of Lords and receive the award from Lord Ahmed. Friends and colleagues Zahra Imame (Christian Muslim Forum), Debbie Damon (Three Faiths Forum), Siriol Davies (Diocese of Southwark) and Zahra Haid, were also all honoured. The conference looked at the role of women in the Abrahamic traditions, hearing about Fatima herself, Mary (who appears in the Muslim and Christian traditions) and Miriam (from the Jewish tradition).

Theos has revamped its website. The bottom right hand corner has a useful tab to their Media Monitoring section – a really handy way to keep up with the most important religion stories in the media. Their latest report ‘Is there a Religious Right Emerging in Britain?’ is by The Contextual Theology Centre’s own Andy Walton. Watch that space for another CTC colleague, David Barclay’s research due out shortly.

Also watch for the new Contextual Theology Centre website.

Better off without them? Report of a pilot study into the proportion of voluntary sector welfare projects organised by churches and other faiths has recently been published. Written by Elizabeth Simon for the London Churches Group on Social Action it is available from their website or downloadable here


Last but by no means least; Congratulations to The Greenwich Peninsula Chaplaincy on its tenth birthday! Celebrations take place on 5th June. Read their latest news letter

EVENTS

Wednesday 15th May Sister P&E centre, Bradford Churches for Dialogue & Diversity, annual lecture. See separate blog for details


Wednesday 15th May 6.05pm St Mary-le-Bow EC2V 6AU the latest JustShare . Will Crouch, President of 80,000 hours, ‘Professional Philanthropy: How to save thousands of lives without leaving the City’.

Thursday 16th May 6.30 pm. Christian Values: Fact or Fiction? ; Are ‘Christian Values’ undermining Christianity? The Revd Nadim Nassar welcomes guests to the new home of the Awareness Foundation Lodge House 69 Beaufort Street London SW3 5AH

Thursday 16th May 7pm St Ethleburga’s The multifaith movement - global risks and cosmopolitan solutions Anna Halaf off on the role of multifaith work in countering terrorism. See their events page.

Sunday 19th May 6.00pm Text to Live by at the London Inter Faith Centre 125 Salusbury Road London NW6 6RG. Second in the latest series, the topic for this one is Conversion.

Tuesday 21st May 6.30pm St James’s Piccadilly Embrace the Middle East lecture Christians and Politics in Egypt – The transformation of a nation: an Egyptian perspective by Bishop Thomas of El-Quissia and Mair. The lecture is free but you must book
 
Wednesday 22nd May 6.00pm Peace begins with me St Ethelburga's new community gathering - a time for quiet reflection, sharing, nourishing relationships, eating see their events page.

Sunday 2nd June 1pm St Paul’s Cathedral last in the Sunday Forum series At the Heart of Faith: the Trinity as the Hope of Humanity, Revd Ian Mobsby, Priest Missioner at the Moot Community and author of God Unknown: the Trinity in contemporary Spirituality and Mission (2012)

Wednesday 5th June 6.05pm St Mary-le-Bow EC2V 6AU the next JustShare lecture. The Art of Shared Spaces: Where is the Social Value? Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity and the Arts at Kings College London

Monday 10th June 7.30pm Faithful Friends event at Woodgrange Baptist Church, Romford Road, Forest Gate London E7 8AA. Franciscans from Hillfield lead an evening of refection on health and the environment from a Christian perspective.

Wednesday 12th June 3.00pm Faith-based conflict resilience. A new style of event exploring the experience of conflict within different faith communities, and looking at how we can develop faith-based tools and approaches to improve our conflict resilience. Aimed at faith leaders, but also open to all. Another St Ethelburga’s event – see their events page

Monday 17th June 10.15am Council of Christian and Jews study day see separate blog

Thursday 27th June 6.30pm Jesus Message through the Eyes of the Vedic Tradition The Meditatio Centre St Marks, Myddelton Square, London EC1R 1XX First in a series on Christian Mysticism and other faiths. For other titels and dates see their website


ADVANCE NOTICE

1st – 7th July The Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations Aga Khan University (AKU-ISMC) and The Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures Simon Fraser University (SFU-CCSMSC) present: International Summer Programme 2013 Music, Art and Architecture in Muslim Contexts AKU-ISMC, London Campus 210 Euston Road London NW1 2DA Application Deadline: May 24 Tuition Fees: £450/£375 (concession fee available) Details and booking here

11th October to 14th December To mark the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe (ZTFE) in 2011, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), www.soas.ac.uk University of London is in 2013 organising “The Everlasting Flame Exhibition: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination”. This is probably the first time there has been an exhibition on Zoroastrianism in the United Kingdom. Further information from

Jewish Christian Study Day

BCDD Annual lecture - Richard McCallum on Evangelicals responding to Muslims

April Update

NEWS

If you missed the ‘Making Sense of the Census’ seminar check the previous PEN blog for key points and links.
The Christian Interfaith Practice in Action CIPA has cancelled its annual conference which was to be next month.

EVENTS
Wednesday 15th May 6.05pm JustShare welcomes Will Crouch, co-founder and President of 80,000 Hours to discuss “Professional Philanthropy: How to save thousands of Lies without leaving the City at St Mary le Bow, Cheapside, EC2V 6AU Registeror email justshare@stmarylebow.org.uk  

Tuesday 21st May 6.30-8pm Embrace the Middle East annual lecture Christians and Politics in Egypt The Transformation of a nation: an Egyptian perspective, by His Grace Bishop Thomas – El Qussia & Mair Coptic Diocese, Upper Egypt at St James’s Church, Piccadilly all welcome but please pre register via www.embrace.org/lecture  or phone 01494 897950

RESOURCES
Catriona Robertson has 15 years of experience working with local faith and community groups and recently presented at the Faith Based Regeneration AGM on “knowing your patch”. Her blog sitegives examples of her work. Also, a social audit checklist, the hand out from the AGM, is available via PEN or direct from Catriona. She is available to train those wanting to undertake their own audit and is happy to discuss paid or pro bono work at no obligation. Email or Telephone 07903 682 142

The Contextual Theology Centre has created 'Money Talks', a resource to help churches listen and respond to the impact of the current economic situation on their local community. Money Talks are a simple facilitated conversation which gather testimony, find potential leaders and identify the issues that people have a passion to work on. David Barclay is available to (or help others to) hold a Money Talk in individual churches contact him at davidb@theology-centre.org  or Telephone 020 7780 1600 Also see the Money Talk download on the CTC website

The Church Urban Fund has announced some new pieces of research; a Guide to Welfare Reforms 2010-2017 and It all adds up: the cumulative impact of welfare reform both can be downloaded from the research pageof their website.

The Christian Muslim Forum added an interesting discussion starter to its website recently, Inter faith for the cautious and their Director, Julian Bond, contributed to the Tablet blog with Can Christians and Muslims Pray Together
 
ADVANCE NOTICE
The Council for Christians and Jews is running its annual 10 day seminar at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem from 28th October to 7th November 2013 contact Fiona Hulbertfor details.

Making Sense of the Census

Earlier in 2013 PEN hosted an afternoon around the 2011 census data; what it does and doesn't tell us and what to do with the information. We are very grateful to Louise McFerran from the Church of England's Research and Statistics Department who gave of her time and experise. For those who weren't able to attend here are the key points:-

• Understanding the community we serve is key to ministry and mission; it requires a mixture of observation and background research.


• Headline statistics can be found on the Church of England website (this link opens on the page with a download of provisional parish figures).

• The dip in those identifying as Christian is not as large as it was feared it might be. There is a significant increase in ‘no religion’.

• When looking at  the stats remember that Parish and Deanery boundaries are rarely coterminous with eg Borough Wards so ‘mind the boundaries’

• The Church of England is producing parish profiles for every Parish giving census information feedback and they will be creating some Deanery profiles too. Diocesan headlines are available on request.
• Longer term the national Presence and Engagement website will have a postcode tool to look at faiths breakdown integrated with the CUF poverty indicators tool.

• Other handy sources -  Tear Fund Inside out course  and the Contextual Theology Centre has produced a resource for parishes called ‘Mercy, Justice and Evangelism’ which enables congregations to engage with some of the issues raised by the census material. Please note this is a draft document and we would like feed back from parishes that use the resource so as to improve it. Email pen@theology-centre.org or telephone 0020 7780 1600 xtn 3 and speak to Susanne Mitchell



 

The Good Death

The Open Forum initiative launched by St Barnabas church in Dulwich last autumn aims to bring together people in the area from different churches, other faith communities and people with no religious affiliation to discuss topics of common interest, taking a different overall theme each year.The theme of the first series of meetings is Wellbeing, Health and Wholeness.

The next meeting will be at 8.00 pm on Thursday 18 April. The topic will be The Good Death. Baroness Julia Neuberger DBE, is the Senior Rabbi of the West London Synagogue and a former Chief Executive of the King’s Fund, a health ‘think tank’. She is also a well-known broadcaster and author. She will be speaking about some of the themes in her most recent book, Is That All There Is ?, including ‘what will be our legacy – our mark on the world?’ She will help us explore the significance that a good death can mean for living well - and that a full life can contribute to a good death. In addition, Canon Vernon White, Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey, will offer some reflections on the concept of an after-life, drawing on his series of lectures on this subject at the Abbey in the spring of 2012.

Everyone will be most welcome at the meeting. St Barnabas church is in Calton Avenue, SE21 7DG.

   

PEN would be pleased to hear of (and publicise) similar events in other areas of Greater London.