Question Time at the Burnley and Pendle Faith centre with Christian, Muslim, Agnostic and Atheist

Spirit of Burnley review March 2007

The past three months have seen a number of new and exciting initiatives which have included the Spirit of Burnley as a key player.

As the Spirit of Burnley, we have been asked to be involved with a number of activities within the schools of Burnley and Pendle.

As a worker within the school system, I have been allowed to discuss and learn far more about the best ways to motivate and deliver youth focused diversity awareness within the town and has allowed me in gaining more resources to work with.

As you can see here, I use the word WE , as much of the work completed is due to the great help and support that has been shown to me by key partners and volunteers from the Spirit of Burnley group. I must pay special thanks to Shahida Akram, Bea Foster, (Spirit of Burnley and Lancashire county council) and also Terry Murnane (Burnley schools Faith centre co-ordinator).

The above people have been giving not just of there own free time, but also of resources to help me deliver this project.

Most recently, during the month of February, we have delivered services to 6 Methodist churches within the town as part of their, “Face to Faith: Praying and acting for good relations between people of different faiths.” Being given the opportunity to lead in a service of worship has certainly been a special moment for all concerned, but for myself and Shahida to be working on a service together, and to be welcomed with such passion, and by so many people has been magical.

We now feel that the Spirit of Burnley has reached a point where more and more people are interested in what we do. An example of this has been being asked to come back to speak with a group from one of the local churches that we brought the Spirit of Burnley to (in June), and also to speak at a year 12 assembly for a second time in April!!

As the saying goes, “from little acorns, great oak trees grow.” Although this ties in nicely with the symbol of the tree, we are not getting carried away with this. We realise that there are so many people of no faith at all that we need to reach out to, and we hope that this is, and has been possible through our presence at events such as the, “Faith in Action” exhibition within Burnley , and also the Faith conference to be held at the Burnley and Pendle Faith Centre. These things are of course in the future, but alongside the trip to remember the abolition of slavery in Liverpool , we are heading in the right direction.

Peace and fulfilment to you all

Ed Milne

Spirit of Burnley co-ordinator

 

Launch of the Spirit of Burnley August 2006

September Review 2006

The first official month of my work within the Spirit of Burnley has been fruitful with regards to the amount of interaction I have been able to make with the general public, people within community associations and also young people within the newly created Burnley sixth form centre.

 

During the first week of September, I brought the Spirit of Burnley exhibition into the town centre of Burnley , and was able to highlight the purpose of it through a week long exhibition at the local reference library. The exhibition coincided nicely with Lancashire libraries month of exploration into the cultural diversity of Lancashire . Although the write up was poorly written up, and nobody was asked for a comment, it does highlight the Spirit of Burnley in good light. **Please note, I did write a response to the article, as the journalist was of poor skills in not only manners, but also journalism. (see attached article)

 

Over that week, I was introduced to the new faith centre and importantly to its co-ordinator Mr Terry Murnane. I have been able to create a good working relationship with this gentleman, and we are now creating an incorporative events calendar for Spirit of Burnley, LCC Youth and Community and also Building Bridges Burnley.

 

Having all the above groups working in partnership has allowed myself, Farah Shaheen (Youth and community and SofB) Shaheeda Akram ( Building Bridges and SofB) and Anita Nayyar ( Building Bridges and SofB) to create work packages that shall be of significance for all working groups.

 

We as Spirit of Burnley shall be holding our first group meeting for 6 th formers to come and experience what SofB is properly about this coming Tuesday. (3 rd October 06). I have already been able to have some interesting conversation with a number of 6 th formers already, and with the new head of humanities. The time ahead looks promising, and definitely very exciting for those to be involved in this project.

 

Outside of Burnley

 

I was kindly invited by East Lancs Together to help facilitate and explore the role that Spirit of Burnley has on the community as a whole, and how we came to being in existence. This was not only a great learning opportunity for myself, but allowed me to gain some good contacts within the community sector and also allowed me to possibly gain capital funding for future events in line with Spirit of Burnley's remit.

 

I also attended the Racial Justice Sunday at Blackburn cathedral where the exhibition was well received by all who attended ( a number adding comments in either of the three booklets).

Future Events

 

Monday 2 nd October- SofB exhibition to be hosted by Padiham library (this includes a small presentation about the Spirit of Burnley) Time frame- one week.

 

Tuesdays - From the first Tuesday and thereafter, workshops shall be held within the new Faith centre for any 6 th former wanting to learn more about what Spirit of Burnley is about, or have some guidance from colleagues working with me. Workshops shall include critical debates on areas such as the war on terror and how it is portrayed in the media, NCBI workshops on conflict resolution (religious intolerance) etc.

 

One World week 22 nd -29 th October As schools will be currently on their half term break, I have organised that in the week previous to go into a number of schools and hand out a selection of canvases for the teachers to give out to any student who is wishing to participate in creating a painting etc on the theme for this year which is “mind the gap”. This shall culminate in an exhibition within the Faith centre starting on the 27 th October with a number of Tradecraft and Fairtrade items on sale. This event shall be open to the wider community

 

We are currently trying to organise an Ifthar faith evening , but this shall also be a time for people of all faith, spirituality etc to come together and access a safe space for dialogue. This we feel shall be a good testing ground for creating a larger faith evening in November or December (assisting Shamus).

 

Some other events are forthcoming, but are not yet finalised. I/ we hope to have Spirit of Burnley within the new schools as soon as possible. I hope you understand that with the new schools coming into being, there have been a number of teething problems. Thus, schools have been quite a strained environment to enter into within the month of September.

 

On a happy note, although we are losing a few of our key members through working abroad, university etc we now have some new “recruits” who have a lot of positive energy and enthusiasm to give this project. All this change can hopefully be channelled in a positive means.