A thriving community and voluntary sector is a blessing for Luton. Grassroots, the Luton Council of Faiths (LCoF), and the Near Neighbors Programme have worked with the local faith communities over decades to ensure that inter-community relations are not strained. At times when tensions rise, we are able to mitigate the risks and threats through our strategic interventions, which is great given that 76% of Luton residents identify as being religiously affiliated.
The launch of an intergenerational project, where young and old can talk together in our schools and across communities about how to make our town (and world) respectful, is one of the many ways we have been promoting community cohesion in Luton.
With help from Near Neighbours we developed a similar project idea five years ago. Considering its success Near Neighbours has supported our initiative once again.
Seeing a local group of religiously and culturally diverse faith & community leaders, coming together, creates a positive and lasting visual impact on young impressionable minds. They demonstrate how they work together for the common good, despite their religious differences. And because these are respectable faces in our local communities, it makes it interesting to hear them talk about peace and harmony from a local perspective.
Ryad Khodabocus, Project Lead said, “It entails sharing with young people how to navigate peacefully and productively through the numerous differences and disagreements in our society. It presents an alternative and a positive model of inter-faith and inter-community relations, especially when compared to the constant negative portrayal in the media that religions are all about hating and killing one another.”
It is commendable that the religious and community leaders express their ideas in a way that is faithful to their own faith traditions and does not undermine the ‘other’.
Appreciating the project, a school teacher sent a message saying, “Thank you so much for coming to our school assembly. After the assembly we had a long discussion in our class about the meaning of religion, what place they take in our lives and how people can work together. It was really good. One student commented he had never seen a Christian and a Muslim together being friends. It opened his eyes.”
Long may we continue to inspire young minds!
After the Assembly on the theme of how to make our town (and world) respectful, a panel of Luton’s Faith Leaders posed at St Margaret of Scotland School, Luton.
Ryad Khodabocus of Luton Council of Faiths delivering a school assembly with Luton’s faith leaders on how to make our town (and world) respectful.