Interfaith Centre Report

Shirley House Interfaith Centre Annual Report to ECC March 20225

Caroline Cripps

• The committee met in April, July, October, November 2021 and March 2022. All these meetings were ‘hybrid meetings’ with some people meeting in person and others attending via Zoom.
• We set up an email address during lockdown, which is still current, shirleyhouseinterfaith@gmail.com
• After a complete shutdown in interfaith activities during 2020, we had resumed various meetings via Zoom, including some with speakers from outside Sheffield. This has continued with a mixture of live meetings, Zoom meetings and hybrid ones.
• We have not hosted any Sheffield Interfaith bring and share dinners since the first Covid lockdown, but there have been a variety of interfaith events in the last year, hosted by Shirley House and other Sheffield interfaith organisations. In some ways the overlapping groups have grown closer and sharing and understanding have deepened, yet we frequently gain new attendees, probably thanks to the internet, so we have not become a ‘Holy huddle’.
• We were contacted by Sarah Major of BBC Radio Sheffield about the possibility of an interview about one of our forthcoming events for the Sunday morning faith programme.
• We were also contacted by Sheffield United Football Club about how they can make their teams and match days more open to different faith and cultural groups. Gareth and Caroline met with Liz McGrael and Vicki Wilson, the Equality Diversity and Inclusion team from Sheffield United FC, and suggested further contacts for them.

Events since April 2021 are listed below, those in italics were not Shirley House Interfaith events.

April 20th: Dialogue Society Iftar presentation, talk by Chris Hewer

April 22^nd: CCJ Tim Mulroy, whose father had come to Rotherham via Kindertransport from Czechoslovakia just before the Second World War, gave a talk on Nicholas Winton, ‘the British Schindler’

May 25^th: Faith symbols Show and Share

June 30^th: Eco Islam presentation by Dahlia

July 18^th: Interfaith picnic (not barbecue) in SAPLC grounds. Own food/chairs.

July 25^th Sheffield Interfaith picnic and ramble in Concord Park.

August 22^nd Interfaith barbecue in SAPLC grounds.

September 4^th- Dialogue Society Interfaith picnic in Graves Park

September 13^th Nether Edge Festival, Sounds of the Spirit- Live in St Andrews Psalter Lane Church, featuring Hindu chanting and dancing (Debjani Chatterjee and associates), Qur’anic recitation and Sacred Harp singing (Simon Dumpleton and associates)

October 26^th - Quaker Concepts of God, Fiona Lewin.

October 28^th – CCJ AGM at the Synagogue. Talk by Rabbi Golomb on Deborah the prophetess

October 29^th – Little Amal’s Walk - the 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a young refugee girl, on a walk across Turkey and Europe, arrived in Sheffield.

November 14^th- What’s on your mind? Sheffield Interfaith Zoom discussion in Interfaith Week

November 23^rd - Show & Share “The use of art in faith traditions”

November 25^th – CCJ Judy Simon, City of Hope: Sheffield’s Jewish Refugees 1935-39

December 9^th- Winter Party and Multicultural Quiz

2022

January 18^th- My Dual Sikh/Christian Faith Journey, Harbir Chadha

February 22^nd- Film show, ‘The Sultan and the Saint’