by Pauline Kennedy Allan
I was privileged to get an invitation to the launch of this year’s Meet your Neighbour event at St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art on Thursday 29 May. Also being launched was a new exhibition “Faithfully Yours”, photographs of religious beliefs and practices in Glasgow at the beginning of the 21st Century
The evening’s events began with a speech from Glasgow’s provost I believe; unfortunately I arrived a little late and did not hear her being introduced. She was followed by representatives of several of the faiths in Glasgow who each shared a prayer or short reading with us before placing a flower in a bowl of water. Many beautiful words were sung, chanted and spoken in a range of languages and translated to English where necessary and appropriate.
We then had a chance to visit the exhibition and share in a lovely buffet. It was particularly wonderful for me to see two photos from the Pagan community among the collection and my grateful thanks go to those who helped make that possible. The exhibition was a delight. The range of activities and surroundings that were shown was wonderful. The photo of a representative of the Brahma Kumari’s meditating, the one of the Sikh kitchens with two gentlemen washing up after a communal meal, one of a Jewish couple getting married and the one of a young Hindu girl dressed in a beautiful red outfit stick in my mind the best but all of the photos were lovely. They included photos of faith communities engaged in many different tasks from woodworking to teaching and learning, from services of remembrance to weddings. I have no hesitation in recommending this exhibition to everyone no matter what faith you follow.
After the light buffet we were entertained by three very different but equally excellent choirs and encouraged to get up and learn a dance taught by a representative of the Jewish community. The first choir was a group from the Jewish Choral Society, they do have an official name but I can’t remember it properly. The second choir was made up of people from a range of faiths and we were told that this was their first official performance. All I can say is that if that is the case I expect to hear great things from them in the future! They finished with a toe tapping rendition of the “Rhythm of Life”. Following them volunteers were requested to learn a dance. At first only one or two got up but before long I think most of the hall had come forward. If you have ever seen films with Jewish celebrations and dances in them you will have seen something like the dance we were taught. It is very lively and it was marvellous to be taught such a dance. The final choir was again a multi-cultural one. Their first piece had a wonderful Chinese dancer dancing with a pink paper umbrella. Their last piece seemed to be called “Do-be, do-be, do” and they finished by getting all of us to join in with them. All of the music was terrific, the atmosphere was fantastic and the dance enthusiastically learnt by many of those present.
The evening ended with a rendition of Auld Lang Syne which everyone seemed to join in with both the singing and standing together hands joined in traditional Scottish fashion for that well known song.
During the evening we also had a chance to speak briefly to a few of the other representatives there and everyone was very friendly. To me this seemed to a demonstration of what Interfaith is all about, people coming together to share in a spirit of warmth, friendliness and peace.
Pauline Kennedy Allan (Potia)
pauline.kennedyallan [at] ntlworld [dot] com
June 2004
