Karamsar Gurdwara visit

Yesterday I took a group of ordinands from the North Thames Ministerial Training Course at St Mellitus College on a visit to the Karamsar Gurdwara in Ilford.

The Gurdwara building was originally a Labour Hall which, in the early 1990’s, was acquired and converted into a Gurdwara by the local Sikh community under the guidance of Sant Partap Singh. Initially a single storey building with a prayer hall (Darbar) in the front and the community kitchen (Langar) towards the rear, the Gurdwara enjoyed tremendous success by catering to the spiritual and emotional needs of the community and soon outgrew the existing facilities. 

In 1998 a project was started to build a newly designed Gurdwara. The culmination of this effort is the magnificent Gurdwara now standing in place of the old Labour Hall. It was officially opened in April 2005 to coincide with Vaisakhi celebrations – commemorating the birth of the Khalsa Panth.

The building gracefully combines traditional sikh and mughlai designs with modern western architecture. Its façade and distinctive domes are perhaps its most striking features. Carved entirely from pink sandstone in Rajasthan-India, it was shipped to the UK and reassembled in-situ. The foyer is a grand and simple space with a skylight bringing in natural light all the way from the third floor. It has prayer halls on the first and second floors with the Langar hall on the ground floor. The interior is all white and uncomplicated.  

Our guide to the Gurdwara was Lakhvir Singh Bhui, who shared stories about the Gurus with us as well as information about Sikh beliefs and practices. It was a very interesting visit for us all and everyone was impressed with the hospitality and welcome. 

For anyone wanting to find out more about interfaith engagement the national and Greater London Presence & Engagement sites are the best first ports of call - http://www.londonpen.org/ and http://www.presenceandengagement.org.uk/.

The training materials I have prepared for parishes on Living with other faiths can be downloaded from the Greater London PEN site - http://www.londonpen.org/?page_id=702.

Information about interfaith initiatives in our parish can be found at: Sophia Hub (multi-faith social enterprise project) - http://stjohns7kings.org.uk/sophia-hub; and Scriptural Reasoning Group - http://joninbetween.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/scriptural%20reasoning.

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Noel Paul Stookey - One And Many.

Taste of Religion at Pinsent Masons

What follows is the talk on Christianity that I gave today at the Taste of Religion event for Pinsent Masons which marked the launch of their multi-faith group. I was asked, in 5 - 10 minutes, to give a summary of the Christian faith and speak both about how Christianity influences Christians in the workplace and how Christianity fits within the workplace. The other speakers at this event organised by the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion included representatives of the Hindu, Islamic, Jewish and Sikh faiths.

I said: 

Christianity began, Christians believe, when God became a human being through the birth of Jesus Christ as a baby in Bethlehem. What Christians celebrate at Christmas is God becoming flesh and blood and moving into our neighbourhood.

What we call the Incarnation means that, in Jesus, God has become part of the ordinary, everyday business of human life.  Through Jesus’ life, including his work as a carpenter in Nazareth, God experiences, shares and understands human life from the inside. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God provides a way out from our being enmeshed in the selfishness and greed which characterises so much of human life and the societies we create.

As we enter into relationship with him, Christians believe that his Spirit begins to refashion us so that the loving, self-sacrificing characteristics of Jesus start to show up in our lives. As human beings we often continue to resist that change, so the evidence of it in our lives is always partial and this is why the confession of sins and the receiving of forgiveness is so central to Christian worship. Through our services we re-enact the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection and our services – particularly Holy Communion, also known as the Eucharist of Lord’s Supper – are significant times and spaces in which this reshaping and re-orienting of our lives for service takes place.

All this means that everyday life, including work, has real significance for Christians as God has been revealed in everyday living and continues to be found there. Many strands of Christian spirituality foster the expectation that God will be encountered in and through daily life, including our working lives, and encourage prayer and reflection which is prompted by, responds to and meditates on daily tasks and experiences.

One of the things that many Christians in the workplace will wish to do is to pray. There is no required pattern of prayer within Christianity, so for many their praying will be private and personal but, for others, the provision of prayer or quiet rooms will be welcomed; while others will take the opportunity provided by such spaces to meet with other Christians in order to pray together. Workplaces benefit in many ways by accommodating the religious practices of people of faith and to have a group of Christians praying regularly for the company and its employees, whatever you think of prayer itself, sounds to me to be something to be encouraged.

We are currently in a time of significant change for the Christian church in the UK as secularism and the multi-faith composition of the UK gradually change the place that the Christian church has held in this country. A process of moving towards equality across the faiths is underway and, while a necessary and positive development, for the Christian church this involves letting go of the privileged place we have enjoyed within the UK for many years. For some Christians, this process of change is perceived as an attack on Christianity itself and this perception fuels some of the cases and issues which have arisen in recent years under the Religion & Belief regulations.

In many of these cases, more could have been done at an earlier stage to accommodate the specific request being made by the Christian member of staff, whether that was, for example, the wearing of a cross or the displaying of a palm cross in a company vehicle. The key response to any faith-related request by an employee is to fully explore the extent to which that request can be accommodated within your workplace. That involves taking on board the specific expression of faith being requested by that individual. It doesn’t really matter whether Christianity has a requirement that followers wear a cross or not – and, in practice, there are very few hard and fast requirements that hold true across all the Christian denominations – what matters is that your employee wishes to wear a cross and you, then, have to explore whether or not that can be accommodated or whether, for example, uniform or health & safety policies might impact on that request.

Overall, because some Christian festivals are officially sanctioned by governments as days when people are not required to work, Christians do not face the same issues as those of other faiths in negotiating time off work to celebrate their religious festivals. However, this has also changed to some extent in more recent years as a result of flexible working patterns and Sunday opening, meaning that, as with those of other faiths, employers should sympathetically consider holiday requests from Christian employees in order to celebrate festivals or attend ceremonies where it is reasonable and practical for the employee to be away from work, and they have sufficient holiday entitlement in hand.

Every year the media features stories of Christian festivals, often Christmas, being 'banned' or constrained in some fashion, and often on the basis that their celebration offends those of other faiths. This is simply not the case. The Christian Muslim Forum, for example, has tried to address by issuing a statement in 2006 which helpfully states:

“As Muslims and Christians together we are wholeheartedly committed to the recognition of Christian festivals. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus and we wish this significant part of the Christian heritage of this country to remain an acknowledged part of national life. We believe that the only beneficiaries of a declining Christian presence in public life are those committed to a totally non-religious standpoint. We value the presence of clear institutional markers within society of the reality and mystery of God in public life, rather than its absence.”

So, please, do not be taken in by arguments that other faiths are offended by the celebration of Christian festivals or the display of Christian symbols, as that is simply not the case. 

Finally, because Christians are praying that the loving, self-sacrificing characteristics of Jesus are manifest in their lives, it is also likely that issues of corporate social responsibility, diversity and equality, ethics, relationality and values will be important issues for Christians in the workplace. Research has shown that people of faith often experience tensions between "the spiritual side of their values and their work" so the more scope there is within the organisation for discussion of its values and the way in which these impact on its business practices, the more likely it is that synergies can be found between the spiritual values of employees and the values of the organisation. Once again, research indicates that where such synergies can be found employees will be more motivated in their work and their personal investment in the organisation.

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Mumford and Sons - Sign No More.

Taste of Religion

Next month I will be speaking at Taste of Religion, a special event organised by the Employers Forum of Belief and KPMG which will cover religious festivals.

Many of the world’s religions have different foods associated with them – for religious, cultural and traditional reasons. For example, Jews eat unleavened bread at Passover, Christians eat fish on Fridays. Delegates will be able to network over lunch with the different tastes from five religions - Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism.

There will be presentations from Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer, Khola Hasan, Shaunaka Rishi Das, Dr Satinder Singh, Simon Webley and myself.

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Matisyahu - One Day.

Faith-based leadership models (3)

Equality

Sikh philosophy (Sikhi) is a “comprehensive philiosophy ranging from religious, social, cultural, economic, scientific to political thoughts” articulated by Guru Nanak in the late 1440s. Guru Nanak “taught the unity of all existence, the equality of all human beings, the diversity of life and opinions, the acceptance of pluralism and the sanctity of human life.” He considered that “human life is fulfilled by searching for the ultimate ‘truth’ through the rubble of false mirrors and to be a Sikh is, therefore, to be a learner, student or seeker of truth. In this search for truth the Guru dismissed the worship of idols, dogma and ritual as delusions masking the real search and dismissed caste and divine rulers as oppressive human inventions.

In 1699 the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh provided an initiation service or baptism for those choosing to accept and live by Sikhi. He then submitted himself to the first five who, through this baptism, became Amritdhari Sikhs or Khalsa. The Khalsa “became an organised people in South Asia who destroyed the system of hierarchical orders making every human being equal in power and dignity.” The Khalsa also “removed the notion of divine intermediaries giving humans confidence in their own collective divinity.”

Similarly, Bahá’ís seek to work towards:

• equality of opportunity for men and women;
• elimination of prejudice of all kinds;
• universal compulsory education;
• a universal auxiliary language;
• abolition of extremities of poverty and wealth through international legislation; and
• the establishment of universal peace by a world government which will have international courts and military.

Ethics

The idea of leadership by moral force is widespread in many religions, but is particularly central to the Confucian ideal of government. Leaders should be honest, moral, and virtuous people, who will not take bribes or act corruptly. Because people look up to leaders as role models, they should set a good example for others.

An example of a faith-based organisation applying this approach in their mission statement is the MATS School of Business and IT (a Post Graduate School of Excellence of the Jain Group of Institutions) which strives to “foster an intellectual and ethical environment in which both spirit and skill will thrive so as to impart high quality education, training and consultancy services, with a global outlook and human values.”

The Jewish Association for Business Ethics (JABE) exists to encourage high standards of integrity in business and professional conduct by promoting and teaching the Jewish ethical approach to business and to contribute to the debate in wider society. JABE also aims to promote awareness and understanding in the Jewish Community of Jewish teachings and traditions in business.

The European Baha'i Business Forum (EBBF) plays a similar role for the Bahá'í community by being an association of women and men involved in business and management who are exploring ways and means of applying Bahá'í ethical and social teachings to issues arising out of their business activities. EBBF aims promote the following core Bahá'í values and principles:

• ethical business practices;
• the social responsibility of business;
• stewardship of the earth's resources;
• partnership of women and men in all fields of endeavour;
• the need for a new paradigm of work;
• non-adversarial decision making based on consultation; and
• application of spiritual principles to economic problems.

Buddhists are encouraged to work hard and to be industrious but to earn money through righteous means (right livelihood). This means that no ethical or religious principles should be violated through the work done and the work should benefit both the individual and society. Right Livelihood is the fifth aspect of the Eightfold Path and has two main elements. The first is a negative aspect, deriving from the principles of non-violence, of not engaging in work involving weapons, meat, intoxicants (e.g. alcohol), poisons (e.g. drugs) or trade in living beings (animals or human beings). The second is a positive aspect, deriving from principles of simplicity, of using technologies that are in harmony with the natural environment and its resources to produce no more than an adequate range of material goods.

Islamic moral character requires that leaders emphasize the following five key parameters of Islamic behavior: justice; trust; righteousness; the struggle towards self-improvement; and promise keeping. A Muslim leader is expected to be just, behave righteously, strive towards self improvement, and never break his word. He is to consult with others, especially in areas where he is not competent. Islam stresses consultation in all affairs. A leader is expected to bear adversity patiently, and remain forever humble.

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Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome.