300 gather for first Interfaith Summit in London

Over 300 people of different faiths came together during National Interfaith Week for the inaugural London Interfaith Summit.

Run by alumni of 3FF’s ParliaMentors programme, the Interfaith Summit on 17 November brought together young leaders to engage with and celebrate positive change.

Sessions were on topics such as communities and culture, in addition to gender, power, politics and migration.

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Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Sikh music acts featured, whilst events such as as ‘Speed-Faithing’ allowed people to learn about each other’s backgrounds in just 60 seconds.

Muslim-Jewish theatre group MUJU also held a number of workshops.

Baroness Williams of Trafford spoke to guests, extolling the potential of leaders from different faiths and cultures in challenging injustice and driving positive change.

A panel of young leaders took questions on interfaith work, whilst Three Faiths Forum alumni Gulwali Passarlay introduced and signed his book The Lightless Sky, which describes his perilous journey to the UK as a refugee.

Hashim Bhatti, a the summit organisers, said: “Our cities and towns are becoming increasingly culturally diverse, which means that we need to understand each other much better in order for society to flourish. In our opinion, the kind of face to face dialogue we have seen at the summit beats anything else because it helps break down barriers and build better relations between people.”

Summit co-organiser Anna Connell-Smith said: “We didn’t want the event to be a conference where people are told what they should believe in or what they should be doing. Instead, we wanted the summit to be interactive and inclusive. We hope people have had their preconceptions challenged, gained new insights and left feeling inspired to create positive change.”

The Interfaith Summit was kindly supported by Pears Foundation.