LISTENING TO HIDDEN VOICES

Congratulations to West Midlands Faiths Forum, Birmingham LGBT and Aston University Chaplaincy for organising today's conference on Listening to Hidden Voices - the Experience of Lesbian. Gay and Bisexual People of Faith. This is not a topic that is often on interfaith agendas - another one of the important hot potatoes that is often avoided within the polite restraint of the more usual interfaith gathering. Today's conference was exceptionally well thought through and planned. It WAS a listening exercise - actors powerfully told the stories of 5 Lesbian and Gay people of faith from different faith communities and we listened and then had the chance to explore in small groups how we felt and how as people of faith we might want to pastorally respond. The stories were deeply moving and often very painful and by the end of the day many of us were emotionally exhausted, but that was also part of the conference's power, we were not able to retreat into easy theological and dogmatic assertion as we were confronted with the humanity and witness of the stories we were told. It doesn't feel right to share details of the stories here, I hope other opportunities will happen for these stories to be shared and their challenge to be heard. I came away from the conference with Jesus' strong words of condemnation on the religious leaders of his time in Matthew 23 ringing in my ears and heard them as a judgement upon all of us in positions of spiritual 'authority' who, either directly, or by silent collusion, tear the liberating heart out of the Revelations God has given us and turn them into burdensome stones to be hung upon the necks of our LGBT brothers and sisters of faith. May the truth of their continuing liberating power be attested to in the lives of LGBT people of faith, who despite condemnation from our communities often witness in their personal stories to the power of God's love, mercy and compassion.

Yesterday saw the launch of an interesting new campaign Inspired by Muhammad check it out it presents a contemporary easily accesible understanding of Islam for the contemporary world

The organisers say:

The Inspired by Muhammad campaign is designed to improve the public understanding of Islam and Muslims. It showcases Britons demonstrating how Muhammad inspires them to contribute to society, with a focus on women’s rights, social justice and the environment. The campaign coincides with a national poll conducted by YouGov which shows that the 69% of people believe that Islam encourages the oppression of women, that just 6% of people associate Islam with justice and that just 6% believe that Islam promotes active measures to protect the environment. Overall, nearly half of all people in the UK believe that Islam does not have a positive impact on British society.

Muslims have been forced by the rising tide of Islamophobia and media misrepresentation to consider creative and interesting ways of presenting their faith in the public sphere. This isn't so much a campaign attempting to recruit people to Islam as an attemopt to present to the wider community a positive and contemporary understanding of Islam in line with the Sunnah (way) of the Prophet.

It provokes me to consider - how do we as Christians present ourselves to the wider community? What would an 'inspired by Christ' campaign look like that wasn't overtly seeking to evangelise but simply to share our stories and our love for the way of the messiah/servant of God whom we call Christ and the imapct that he has on our lives - not assuming any knowledge -not bemoaning the end of so called 'Christian heritage', but freshly and vibrantly articulating the way of Jesus to issues of contemporary relevance.

This campaign also makes me consider what would a poll reveal of what the vast majority of people believe Christians are about?!

PEACE VIGIL FOR ISRAEL & PALESTINE

Over 100 people turned up for the Vigil to mark the World Council of Churches World Week of prayer and action for peace in Palestine/Israel during lunchtime at Birmingham Anglican Cathedral today. Our reflections and litany were led by local councillor Salma Yaqoob, Jewish peace activist Barbara Payman and Shari Brown of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme. Ann Farr from Pax Christi and myself opened the vigil and led the closing prayers. Below is a slide show of photos taken by my wife Annie that really capture the spirit of the occasion. we had good coverage in the local media before the event with Shari appearing on Midlands Today and BBC WM Radio.

Update 6/6
Barbara and Shari were also on the Sunday Morning programme on BBC WM. The following link will take you to the programme. Shari and Barbara's piece starts at 1.03 approx

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p0083v2

World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel Vigil in Birmingham

On Thursday 3 June at 1pm, a local network of Christians will hold a vigil in the grounds of St Phillips Cathedral, as part of a ‘World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel’.

The event is being coordinated by the West Midlands Christian Network for a Just Peace for Palestine, a group involved in advocacy and campaigning, and affiliated with the new national campaign, ‘A Just Peace for Palestine’.

The ‘World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel’ is an initiative of the World Council of Churches, who have invited all those “who share the hope of justice” in Palestine/Israel to “take peaceful actions, together, to create a common international public witness”.

Revd. Ray Gaston, Interfaith Enabler in Birmingham for the Methodist Church, says that the vigil will stress the need to “build bridges not walls”. “We will be saying that ‘it is time for Palestine’ – time for Palestinians and Israelis to share a just peace, and time for equal rights.”

The vigil will be a mixture of prayer, silence and reflection, responding to the call of Palestinian Christians in the ‘Kairos Palestine’ document, published last year, for Christians worldwide to “help us get our freedom back” and “help the two peoples attain justice, peace, security and love”.

While the vigil is organised by Christians, the reflections will be led by women of the three faiths of the Holy Land:

· Salma Yaqoob – a Muslim and a local councillor, anti-war and community activist. Salma was one of the leaders of the Birmingham campaign against the Israeli bombing of Gaza in 2009.

· Barbara Payman – a Jewish woman and member of a local Reform Congregation. Barbara is a trustee of the interfaith charity Spirit of Peace that works closely with The Jerusalem Peacemakers, an interfaith network working for reconciliation in the Holy Land.

· Shari Brown – a Christian and the Coordinator of Restore (a project of Birmingham Churches supporting refugees). Shari recently spent three months as an Accompanier with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).


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Event contact: Revd. Ray Gaston, Interfaith Enabler, Birmingham Methodist Church, Tel. 0775 11 55 124 or email wmcnjpp2010@yahoo.com

Website for the World Council of Churches’ ‘World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel’
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/wwppi.html

Website for the ‘A Just Peace for Palestine’ campaign
http://www.justpeaceforpalestine.org/

DISCIPLESHIP IN A MULTI FAITH WORLD

This Spring I have been developing my work in the Birmingham District and ecumenically. I have been running courses for The Worcester & Malvern Circuits, Hall Green Council of Churches and working with a Cell Group at Saltley Methodist Church, a taster workshop for the Asbury Circuit and continue working with an ecumenical group of Church Leaders in Shirley. What is nice is that each group has a very different dynamic and different needs. So under the broad banner of Faith Hope & Love - Exploring Christian Discipleship in a Multi Faith World, I work out a specific programme with each of the groups. With Saltley we are getting into some serious bible study in our second session we took a look at the story of Abraham and what it might have to say for Christian engagement with other Faiths today. With Worcester and Malvern I am running three Saturday workshops - The first in April was on Exploring Bible & Theology in a Multi Faith World , and the Third at the end of June will be looking at Exploring Christian Spirituality in A Multi Faith World. The second workshop was last Saturday on the theme of Exploring Other Faiths and the group came and spent the day in Birmingham visiting a Mosque , a Hindu Temple and meeting with the workers and young people at the FEAST - a Christian initiative to bring Christian and Muslim young people together. The picture above shows that the encounter with the young Muslim people from the Feast was not only inter faith but inter generational too - bringing Muslim young people together with Christian elders it was a great day.
I also had the privilage of presenting a session at the District Spring Synod and will be running a workshop at the Building Vision Day this coming weekend in Handsworth. I am exploring with the Asbury circuit about a course in the autumn and a workshop on preaching in a multi faith world with preachers in Evesham.

If you would like me to come and work in your circuit or with a group in your church get in touch!

UPDATE ON 'A HEART BROKEN OPEN'

I have been informed by the publishers that well over 300 copies of my book have now been sold since the official release at the beginning of March. I also see that Peace News have a nice review of it in their May edition, although the subeditors choice of title disappointingly asserts old misunderstandings about the arabic word for God.

I have also been invited onto the Rattansi & Ridley Show that is broadcast through Sky on Press TV to talk about the book.

There is also going to be a Leeds/Bradford launch of the book on 26th May organised by The Leeds Church Institute and Bradford Churches for Dialogue and Diversity.

A QUICK VISIT TO LEEDS

Last Saturday (May Day) I had a quick trip up to my old stomping ground in Hyde Park Leeds as I had been invited to speak at The Makkah Masjid's 'Connecting Communities' event that opens their annual Islamic Exhibition. Makkah Masjid is a lovely space built by the local Muslim community from money they raised themselves. It was nice to see old friends and new, especially Imam Qari Asim, son of my late friend and teacher Professor Hafiz Fateh Muhammad Sahib and to discover that my successor at All Hallows, Revd Steve Smith, who has continued developing the links with the mosque, was present at the event and had recently himself been invited to speak at the celebrations for the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.

Asim was kind enough to ask me to bring copies of my book to sell and then bought 10 copies for the Mosque!