Neighbours with Faith

We held a rather special event on Friday 28 March 2008 in Epsom, at St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church. With financial support via the Diocese of Guildford and the government's Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund, we were able to hold an event called Neighbours with Faith.

You can find a collection of photos of the event here.

The evening was planned and delivered jointly by the Epsom Anglican Group Ministry and the Epsom and Ewell Islamic Society.

We gathered together about 140 local Christians and Muslims (and a Rabbi!) and held a meal (Western and Eastern food) together. People naturally mingled, across gender and faith commitment. Our MP, Chris Grayling was present and spoke supportively, as did our Mayor, Cllr Jean Steer. Our keynote speaker was Rabbi Danny Rich, Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism, chair of the Kingston upon Thames Interfaith Forum, chair of the Dittons Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews, and a local magistrate. Local police Community Support Officers attended.

The aim was simply to encourage local Christians and Muslims to sit down, chat, eat together and enjoy each other's company. It was a great success, and it was vastly appreciated by all.

We don't know whether anything like this has been tried before, but it was certainly a first for Epsom!

We plan to hold another local event like this, perhaps in the summer - probably a barbecue across the Muslim and Christian faith communities.