SHAMUS MAQSOOD

Shamus was appointed as our north west regional worker last June.  He has provided regular reports on his work which are published below.

Progress Report 3rd November 2006 - 19th March 2007

Introduction

This period has been the most important part of the year, as I was hoping to lay the foundations for all the projects. I have had many barriers set up by partner organisations, who I needed to carry out these projects. In principal they have been very keen, but when it has come the time to carry out the real work they have been reluctant or have not given me the groups that they had identifies. I have handed out leaflets in different towns, put articles in newspapers and community newsletters and also talked to different organisations to get groups involved.

Agreed Outputs

1 Spirit of….? The Town

Cheetham Oldham Accrington Bolton

2 Spiritual Elders meet Emerging Visionaries (Faith Evenings)

Cheetham Oldham Burnley Blackburn Bolton Preston

3. Shared Sacred Space

Facilitate a meeting with a group of Faith Leaders in Manchester to explore the development of Shared Sacred Space

4. Database

Compile a database of all religious institutions in the North West of England.

Spirit of the Town

Project Aim - A young adults' photographic project. This project involves identifying in each community/town a group of young adults from the different faith groups who work together for four months. They identify an individual from each faith group in their community who makes an important contribution to the economic or community life of that community and then photograph him or her at work and also at worship. A high class exhibition of these photographs is created and then tours the Faith Centres, School, Colleges and Civic Centres. This exhibition shows the positive contribution made by members of ethnic races and highlights their spiritual practice. It seeks to say that diversity is a blessing not a threat. Eventually these photographic exhibitions, entitled Spirit (of a Town), will be brought together regionally and nationally to show, in photographs, The Spirit of the Nation.

Cheetham

After many set backs in Cheetham, I have had to identify new groups who are now willing to support the photographic exhibition project.

The new organisations are: the Sikh Temple , UJRI (Jewish Project) and Dada Hall youth group (Muslim). We are due to have our first workshop this week.

Oldham

In principle the Oldham Inter-faith forum had supported this project but gradually, over the months, they withdrew their support. With the help of a councillor a new group was approached, the Oldham 6th Form College . We had a meeting on Wednesday and it looks as though we will have a young religious/artistic group in Oldham who will work on the photographic exhibition.

Accrington

We have not made any progress in Hyndburn as the Network Manager has left. I am trying to put pressure on the Network to carry out this project.

Bolton

We have had 4 workshops in Bolton . The young adults have taken photographs and we are ready to choose the photos which will feature in the exhibition. There were problems arranging a residential as the young Muslim girls could not go. Instead we will have 2 separate days away. The launch of the Spirit of Bolton will be on 19th May.

Faith evenings (Spiritual Elders meet Emerging Visionaries)

Project Aim - In each community in each Region we will host an evening for a hundred members of that community drawn from different faith groups prevalent in that community. Apart from being a time of sharing our work and inter-faith projects in the area, each member will be partnered with someone of a different generation and faith in a structured conversation (Appreciative Enquiry). Each of these conversations will lead to new initiatives .

Bolton

We held a faith evening in Bolton on 7 th November 2006 . It was held at the Town Hall and we had around 40 people in attendance, including the Mayor.

Cheetham

We held a faith evening on 14 th December 2006 at the Al Zara Restaurant with 45 people attending.

Burnley

We are due to hold a faith evening at the new Faith Centre on 19 th April.

Oldham

We are due to hold a faith evening at the Pakistani community Centre in Oldham on 1 st May. We can not hold this at the Town Hall as they want £600 to use the venue.

Preston

Linda Guise is arranging a venue and date for the faith evening in Preston . We are looking for the end of May as there are a lot of faith events planned at that time of year.

Blackburn

We are arranging a faith evening in Blackburn at the beginning of July. Sadiq Patel, the interfaith worker in Blackburn , is trying to get hold of the Town Hall for the event.

Shared Sacred Space Project

Project Aim – We will involve Faith Leaders and young adults from Faith Groups in an exploration of the concept of Sacred Space.

We have held two meetings with faith/community members of Cheetham. The group has shown great enthusiasm for this project and would like it to go ahead as soon as possible. Initially suggestions were made to establish a centre in Cheetham which people from different faiths can share for worship, meetings and events . Afzal Khan, the ex Mayor of Manchester, suggested we should build a peace centre in a park on Waterloo Road , which is an ambitious project. We then explored other ideas, and many avenues were discovered. One suggestion was to make use of unused or unoccupied space and to write to the Cheetham Fort and Cheetham Village Team to find out if there were any suitable spaces.

The second meeting proved productive and members suggested we should go ahead with plans to have a yurt at St John's Church . URI need to discuss if this is the right direction to take as there are many faith buildings in the area and I think that it will not be used unless a specific meeting or event takes place there.

Daniel and I suggested taking the group to St Ethelburga's Centre in London so they can get a feel of the project and what URI has in mind.

Database

To date I have received a database from Daniel Burton on voluntary, statutory and faith organisations in Manchester and Ed Milne, the worker for the Spirit of Burnley has provided me with paper copies of religious organisations in Burnley .

I have researched on the internet for various databases on religious institutions. I have mentioned the project to agencies and community organisation and received positive feedback from those who are willing to share information when I am on email.

Conclusion

There have been problems with holding residential week-ends because of the Sabbath and also the fact that some young Muslims are not permitted to attend.

There have been many set backs with fading commitment from partner groups but I am hoping to meet the targets by the end on June 2007.

link to Progress Report 3rd November 2006

link to Progress Report 20th August 2006