The West Midlands Faith Forum
A regional conference to celebrate and launch the West Midlands Faith Forum was held at the Campanile Hotel in Birmingham on the 17th June 2003.
The event was chaired by Reverend John Hall, the chair of the West Midlands Faith Forum, who welcomed the attendees and gave a brief overview of the day and of the WMFF, before handing over to David Rayner.
Once a local vicar in Birmingham, David is now the head of the Urban Communities branch of the Urban Policy Development section of the Office of The Deputy Prime Minister. He gave a potted history of faith in the community, admitting that the emphasis has been on urbanity but not excluding rural community either. He challenged the myth of the differences between urban and rural issues and talked about the Urban White Paper 2000 that was launched simultaneously with the Rural White Paper 2000, showing a tandem concern for these areas by the present government. He further mentioned the National Strategy For Urban Renewal that was published in early 2001, which regarded the UK’s disenfranchised communities, and trying to widen the net of community activists, a sentiment this writer approves of immensely. He pointed out that renewal and regeneration was often led by the traditional Christian churches or organisations, which is a proven and quantifiable fact.
Two speakers addressed the subject of realising the actual and potential contribution of the faith communities to the regeneration of the West Midlands. Councillor Sue Davis from Advantage West Midlands is also chair of the regional development agency that are looking heavily at faith community involvement and encouraging any increase in it. She called for all parties to be cohesive in the drafting of an economic regeneration and renewal strategy for the area.
The West Midlands Regional Assembly was represented by Dagmar Waller who highlighted social exclusion and the need for strategic review. Many pagans can suffer by enforced and self imposed exclusion and this is of direct concern to the pagan community. The WMRA represents all parts of the community, all regions, all fields and she delved into what she hoped the faith communities could add to a regional agenda. She discussed also how the WMFF could be influential in the Regional Assembly and hence influences policies that matter on the ground amongst
the people.
Reverend Hall returned to look at the future for the Forum and how the existing interfaith networks and structures at regional and local levels could be rebuilt and integrated by the regional forum.
The formal and symbolic launch of the West Midlands Faith Forum then took place with a cutting of multiple ribbons by members of the audience who had worked tirelessly as volunteers to bring the Forum to fruition. All the traditional faiths were represented showing a drive to unity amongst them.
There were short notices from Sharon Palmer of RAWM and Jay Chuahan of Human City prior to endorsements, via PowerPoint, from leading members of the faith communities missing on the day. These included the Bishop of Aston, Dr Naseem, Mr Lovelock, O.P. Sharma, Gurvinder Singh Mandala and Rabbi Tann.
Questions from the floor were fielded by the speakers, thanks given, and points made.
There was a broad span attendance which included minority faiths such as the Ba’hai community and the Shi’ite Muslims, The Chinese community and Jewish community were represented, as were organisations as diverse as Barnardos, New Deal, Jubilee Debt Campaign, Rathbone, and of course numerous representatives across the faiths of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism.
Paganism was obvious by its comparative lack of attendance. This writer and his wife Krys represented Druidry on behalf of the Druid Network. Before howls of protest ring out, perhaps echoing around the themes of ‘we were never asked’ and ‘we didn’t know about it’, it has to be said that the main reasons for this lack of contact, interaction and knowledge is due to an inability in networking by the pagan community and its individuals within local community. This writer has become active in community matters not only because of his own belief in druidic service to the community and society but for the very fact that pagans are perceived as wanting to be outside society and not part of it, (except when it pleases them), and this perception has unfortunate roots in reality. The faith communities do not only mingle amongst themselves, say in interfaith arenas. The whole plethora of charitable works and voluntary roles that play an undeniably huge part in the stability of communities and add enormously to renewal and regeneration are often populated by members of faith communities and it is in these spheres where networks are formed, contacts made and (more importantly) barriers broken down.
For further information contact communitydruids [at] btopenworld [dot] com. For a starting point in interfaith or volunteering, a booklet ‘Urban Druidry’ is available for £2 plus 50p P&P from G.T. Boswell, 88 Grosvenor Road, Dudley, DY3 2PR.
Geoff Boswell
June 2003
