Tameside Interfaith Network

Launch Conference

Held on 7 September 2004

Report

Introduction

The idea for an InterFaith Network for Tameside has been evolving in different arenas across Tameside over the past year or so. As part of T3SC’s role in supporting and developing the local Community Empowerment Network (CEN) – Tameside Voice – our agency became involved with a small group of individuals from different faiths in Tameside who were committed to taking this work forward. From an initial meeting held in March 2004, a Steering Group was formed with the aim of working towards a launch event in September 2004. The funding for the event is from the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit’s Community Participation Programme, and it is the intention that the InterFaith Network will be part of Tameside Voice. The network has many challenges and many opportunities to take up over the next years. Some of these are strategic, and entail working at policy level; others are more related to issues of common humanity, and will require a great deal of working at grassroots level.

Tameside’s Community Cohesion Partnership is supportive of this initiative, and recognises its potential benefits. However, Tameside now appears to be the only District in Greater Manchester which does not have faith representation at the Local Strategic Partnership, and this will clearly be an immediate challenge for the network.

The success of the event speaks for itself in the Report which follows. We are fortunate to have many talented, experienced and committed individuals living and working amongst us. They will undoubtedly ensure that this is just the start of the process of faith communities coming together to learn and share, and -through joining forces – to be able to have a real impact on issues relating to the quality of life for all residents in Tameside.

Moira Cunningham

Chair of the Steering Group, and Director – Tameside Third Sector Coalition

Foreword

The contribution of faith communities to civic life has always been important, but it has now become an issue of some political significance. In the light of international events there is a much sharper public consciousness of religion as a potential cause of division, and in Britain some racist groups now openly use inflammatory language against religious minorities as a proxy for inciting racial hatred. There is increasing concern about community cohesion, and experience in areas such as Oldham has shown how even well-intentioned regeneration programmes can contribute to community tensions.

Within this context there is a real need for faith communities to work together, to counter the propaganda of those who would want to see religion divide communities, and to make a positive contribution to regeneration programmes. It was therefore timely that Tameside Third Sector Coalition was able to use Community Participation Programme funding to bring together a wide range of faith groups and their partners to set up an Interfaith Network.

It is encouraging that over 150 people participated in this inaugural conference, and there was a positive and clear desire to work more closely together. Tameside is rich in religious and ethnic communities, and the conference agreed that it was important for faith groups to develop a much better understanding of each other, to build trust, and to identify common areas of concern and activity. In addition to the excellent speakers there were strong contributions in and from the working groups, which will provide an agenda for the coming months.

There are real challenges to faith in our fragmented and often painful world. Working together faith communities can make a real difference to regeneration programmes, community cohesion, and public life. If the Interfaith Network is to have real value then it needs to be much more than a meeting point and a talking shop – useful as that will be in the early days. What matters, more than anything, will be faith in action.

Gabrielle Cox

Conference Chair

Faith Groups in Tameside

Martin Miller – Church of England Manchester Diocese

Martin Miller presented the facts and figures which tell the story of Tameside and its communities.

Why are Faith Groups involved in Partnership? (Greg Smith, University of East London)

• They are genuinely concerned for local communities
• They may have valued which challenge social exclusion
• They need funding support to survive
• They want to be good stewards of their resources such as buildings
• They want to promote their reputation by doing good
• Their own members are struggling
• They want to recruit new members

What do Faith Groups bring to Partnership working?

• A value base provides extra motivation
• A long term presence in all areas
• A channel to hard to reach groups
• A source of volunteers
• A source of community facilities

Introducing Super Output Areas

The maps are based on the latest statistical geography: the Super Output Area (SOA).

The SOA used in the maps is the Lower Level SOA. It is constructed from the smallest census “building block” or Output Area. Between 4 to 6 Output Areas combine to form an area with a population of approximately 1500.

Middle and Upper Level SOAs are under development. Since each layer of SOA will nestle within the one above, together they form a complete system for collecting and presenting social and demographic data.

	Tameside	England
No. Output Areas	725	175,434
No. Lower Level SOAs	141	32,482

What are the advantages of this new statistical geography?

- First, national coverage enables “like with like” comparison across the whole of England.

- Second, since SOAs are unaffected by regular boundary reviews of electoral wards, it is possible to analyse change over time.

- Third, as you will see from the maps, SOAs have immense potential for promoting and supporting detailed analysis at neighbourhood level.

Greater Manchester Religious Affiliation (Comparison by borough)

The figures are based on the 2001 Census.

It is important to note that these figures give a perspective to the Faith Affiliation maps. For example, the colour gradient for the distribution of the Buddhist community in Tameside relates to a total Buddhist population of 270.

Local Authority	All people (number)	% stating religion as:
		Christian	Buddhist	Hindu	Jewish	Muslim	Sikh	Other Religions	No Religion	Religion not stated
Bolton	261037	74.56	0.1	2	0.06	7.07	0.03	0.15	8.75	7.28
Bury	180608	73.68	0.14	0.37	4.94	3.74	0.11	0.17	10.16	6.7
Manchester	392819	62.42	0.55	0.73	0.78	9.12	0.43	0.28	15.97	9.72
Oldham	217273	72.62	0.11	0.61	0.04	11.06	0.03	0.12	8.92	6.47
Rochdale	205357	72.1	0.12	0.24	0.09	9.37	0.04	0.14	10.79	7.11
Salford	216103	76.46	0.22	0.32	2.4	1.2	0.11	0.15	11.01	8.12
Stockport	284528	75.43	0.21	0.47	0.58	1.75	0.07	0.23	14.18	7.09
Tameside	213043	75.54	0.13	1.36	0.04	2.52	0.03	0.17	12.1	8.11
Trafford	210145	75.8	0.17	0.59	1.1	3.32	0.49	0.16	11.98	6.39
Wigan	301415	86.85	0.09	0.17	0.03	0.33	0.02	0.09	6.88	5.55
Greater Manchester	2482328	74.15	0.21	0.7	0.88	5.04	0.15	0.17	11.33	7.37
North West	6729764	78.01	0.18	0.4	0.42	3.04	0.1	0.16	10.48	7.23
England & Wales	52041916	71.75	0.28	1.06	0.5	2.97	0.63	0.29	14.81	7.71

Data from 2001 Census

Diocese of Manchester Board for Ministry & Society

Workshops

The feedback from all workshop sessions has been collated in the following themed sections. Workshops in the morning focussed on examples of faith communities already working together, and participants were encouraged to draw lessons from this for Tameside. In the afternoon, workshops concentrated on identifying a way forward for Tameside. Our aim was to engage commitment from participants to taking this work forward in a practical way.

Barriers to joint working

v Closed minds – people not listening to each other, and being suspicious

v Differing priorities

v High expectations of ourselves which cannot be achieved

v Inhibitions about taking part due to fear and/or shyness

v Language ( not least between those who share a language)

v Perceptions of differing social status - suspicion

v Position of small minorities who can often be ignored, and have less resources

v Preconceived ideas

v Pressure of time

v Tensions between secular organisations and faith groups

v The costs of taking part

v The different perspectives from grassroots and ‘authority’

Ideas to make the network develop

Mapping

v Find out who is out there

v Profile the local community and ensure equitable representation

Engagement

v Address internal Faith barriers (i.e. disagreements within Faiths between different sects) in order to build consensus representation

v Attract religions not currently here to set up in Tameside

v Manage the gap between people at grassroots (giving their time voluntarily) and workers (who can join in as part of their job)

v Learn how to build (release) capacity in communities

Youth Involvement

v Engaging youth especially disengaged young people

v Work with upper juniors and university students – use examples of practice

v Engaging children through schools - both helpful and disconcerting

v Address issues of women’s involvement across the board

Planning

v Develop Aims and objectives

v Secure funding

v Identify what funding and resources can be offered by partners

Infrastructure

v Maximise existing structures

v Complete Tameside structures – identify any gaps

v Ensure network is informed about nature of support available

Share Festivals

v Partying – festivals and more food!!

v Plan and run a Festival – one month long – and include history

v Make faith festivals mainstream celebrations for everyone

Learning

v Learn from other people’s experience – other regions

v Published booklet to include all our ideas and used in schools

v Video re. debt in Christianity and Islam

Networking

v Liaison (other networks)

v Joint working across areas

v Enabling people to get to know each other through small and local initiatives -> building up of effective network

Values into action

v Action on ideas

v Commitment – patient slogging

v Dialogue

v Leadership

v Task orientated possibly focus on localised areas

Ideas on how a Network might develop

v Establish a steering group to produce an action plan

v Draw up a list of individuals/groups prepared to sign up to be practically involved

v Identify and secure funding and resources

v Maximise T3SC/Voice structures to ensure the network has a strong voice at strategic policy level.

v Recruit a full-time paid Interfaith co-ordinator

v Draw in and upon existing experience and projects already in progress

v Come under the umbrella of National Interfaith Council

What can you and/or your organisation offer to help build a Tameside Interfaith Forum?

Provide speakers to raise awareness

v Zoroastrian and Buddhists

v Speakers on Islam

v Jewish Museum Manchester with extensive teaching facilities

v Ashton ( Katherine Street) Mosque – visit schools and talk on Islam and links with SACRE

Provide links

v Young people input (CEMVO): link with Global Messengers (Oldham)

v Act as a forum for communication across community e.g. women’s group

v Provide representatives

v Housing – tenants participation groups

v Involve people who have possible been excluded as have a lot. (PFT)

v Parish nursing schemes – all faiths (dealing with peoples needs)

v Working with young people

In kind support

v Space for meetings at a reasonable cost or free

v Ashton regeneration – meeting rooms, staff time

v TMBC input at officer level: Education

v GMP – police officers to support any initiative of community benefit

v Organising skills for large events

v Possible funding for staff via partners

Communication and promotion

v New Charter Newsletters

v Newsletters (diversity working lives group)

v Attend next event - publicise

v Willingness to enter discussion

v Building of understanding and respect

v Seminars

Networking

v via PCT

v Localise

v Networking locally

v Staff support groups- human resources

v sub-regional areas for promotion

Strategic/ Structure support

v Development of network

v Build capacity of local people to maintain network

Undertake individual actions

v Tackling racism etc via education and celebration – Interfaith Harvest Festival

v Proactive v retro

Demonstrate:

v Patience

v Commitment

What can we get out of this initiative

v Dialogue and understanding

v Get closer to each other

v Further dialogue between community leaders including politicians and TMBC administration

v Contacts

v Contact point to make friends across the faiths

v Meet with other faith groups – grass roots level

v Education – meet more people of other faiths (within our own groups)

v Permanent displays in, say, libraries to inform. /website

v Recognition that we (Zoroastrians) exist

v Community cohesion – All living together

v Reduce racial hatred -> more people friends of different religions

v Break down barriers between faiths and focus on that which we hold in common

v Need to know more about each other -> better communication

v Redevelop community through finding commonalities

v Neighbourhoods working together and welcoming

v Community benefit through coming together

v Real work on the ground as part of ongoing working day dialogue and practice

v Tackling practical community issues together (drug abuse/litter)

v GMP Structure – philosophy – information from communities to police and from police to communities to give pointers as to what/where things are going wrong

v TMBC is already involved in local good projects – youth and culture

v Quality public leadership

v Working with young people via groups (i.e. Guides) looking to work with other areas (beware of issues)

v Culture change

v Change people’s attitudes (especially the young)

v Engender the ‘feel’ within our communities

v Friendship – removing ignorance

v Permanent multifaith centre

Priorities

v Fellowship

v Dialogue/networking

v More joint parties/events

v Youth engagement – priority + young people working together

v Communication across faiths including celebrations and media strategy

v Communication/education, strategic – personal

v Involvement of women across the board

v Purpose

v Develop long term strategy

v Project activity to be identified and implemented

v Identify budgets for the longer term

v Funding/ resources/time

v Commitment

v Integrity

v Integration

Keynote Speakers

In the afternoon, the Conference benefited from the wisdom and experience of two inspiring speakers - Anjum Anwar – Education Officer, Lancashire Council of Mosques;

and Rev Dr Kenneth Leech – Priest, Writer and Lecturer.

These sessions focussed on the speakers’ own personal experiences, and conference participants drew hope and encouragement from their messages, which led us into an action planning session for Tameside.

Summary

The Conference has been an important milestone for the InterFaith Steering Group; it has enabled us to take account of a wide variety of perspectives, to learn about the vast range of resources that are available for us – jointly – to draw on; and also enabled us to get a picture of the level of commitment within Tameside to the idea of interfaith work. We have been surprised and delighted at the number and variety of participants, which gives us confidence that this initiative is timely, fills a gap, and has every possibility of succeeding in breaking down some of the barriers to mutual understanding and joint working for the benefit of Tameside communities.

A common vision is evolving, which might be articulated as:

“A network committed to develop fellowship by increasing mutual understanding through dialogue, networking, and engaging in joint action”

The Steering Group aims to formalise the structure which will enable this work to develop, ensuring an inclusive process, and identifying resources to facilitate this development.