There's inter-faith work going on

I spent this morning at There's something going on, a conference about social responsibility in the Diocese of Chelmsford. One of the positive things about these occasions is the opportunity to find out about the range of work going on across the Diocese.

One of the papers made available (from the Diocese's Inter-Faith Issues Group) described the inter faith work going on. The events of 9/11 and all that has followed from that have stimulated people from all faith communities to find ways of working together. As a result there are now well-established initiatives across the Diocese, many involving Diocesan clergy, for example: East London Three Faiths Forum; Mid Essex Inter Faith Forum; Colchester Informal Three Faith Friends; Redbridge Faith Forum; Barking and Dagenham Faith Forum; Waltham Forest Faith Forum; Southend Faiths' Forum; Faith Sector of the Newham Voluntary Sector Consortium; Faithful Friends (Newham); Newham Senior Faith Leaders Group; Coggeshall – Forest Gate Twinning.

Outside the direct area of inter faith work, but using faith as a vehicle, innovative work has been developed by Revd Steven Saxby in his former role as Deanery Development worker with faith communities in Waltham Forest. Projects have been developed with a positive impact on community cohesion e.g. Health Preachers, a scheme where Community Health Workers use faith as the vehicle for information about health.

Important work is going on in the field of education. The Contextual Theology Centre (CTC) has an ongoing programme enabling reflection on the role of faith in a pluralist society. A resource pack for congregations entitled Engaging with faith communities has been made available by CTC as a free download from its website and materials from the pack are shortly to be used in the Eastertide courses on Living with other faiths that feature in the Diocese's 2008 programme. CTC has also been commissioned co-ordinate the Presence & Engagement process throughout Greater London. The Diocese is a participant in the Greater London Presence & Engagement Network led by CTC based at St Katharine's Foundation at Limehouse, East London. This network is for all who train and equip Christians for ministry in multi Faith contexts. Its aim is to publicise existing work, and ensure new developments are both well-coordinated and responsive to actual need.

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Moby - Hymn (This Is My Dream).