A Peace and Unity Meeting was held on 13th November at the Braithwaite Hall, an event in UK Interfaith Week by Faiths Together in Croydon.
This was a successful meeting with over 60 people giving their time to discuss and share their personal feelings and views on Peace and Unity in Croydon.
It started with a period of networking with light refreshments followed by the start of the meeting proper with a selection of religious representatives and community leaders outlining their particular perspectives on the topic and then we moved to table discussions.
Two areas of activity were the focus of the evening’s discussions between a wide variety of community members at seven separate tables.
People were asked to consider:
- The pressures creating obstacles to peace and unity in our diverse community within Croydon.
- How we can develop actions and events to remove barriers to understanding and co- operation. (With the longer term objective being peace and unity locally)
All seven tables provided responses to these questions and the broad headings below show the key issues and suggestions.
PRESSURES AND OBSTACLES
Lack of knowledge; Prejudice; Media; Inequality; Mistrust/suspicion; Status Quo; Fear; Isolation.
ACTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
- Events like this one
- Promoting respect for places of worship
- Talking to neighbours
- Twinning diverse wards
- Cultural events
- Freedom of speech
- Celebrating difference
- Moral values/responsibility
- Holding local and national government to account
- Austerity event to benchmark current position
- Multi-faith sports events
A full report is available here.
This will form the basis for the steering group decisions on future activity
Les Kemp Vice Chair