Feedback from Interfaith Week 2020

We would normally have run care workshops in the hospital for members of staff. These workshops focus on caring for people of different faiths. Unfortunately, this couldn’t happen this year.

This year, The Inter-Faith Network for the UK had a very good idea. They suggested an ‘Inter-Faith Week Buddies scheme’. It involved two people of different faiths or of a particular faith and of a non-religious belief, talking together. This could be done by email, telephone, zoom or by letter.

Several questions were proposed by the Inter-Faith Network and we decided to choose two questions to focus on:

How does your faith or non-religious belief shape your daily life?

How does your faith or non-religious belief support you during difficult times?

It offered an opportunity for sharing and learning, on a one-to-one basis about what is important to us. The conversation could go anywhere.

We had a sharing about the scheme on the 3^rd of December.

The people taking part were members of the Muslim and Jewish Communities and Christian and Pagan Communities and someone with an interest in all Faiths.

Everyone said that they learned a lot and really appreciated the rare opportunity to ask personal questions in a safe environment.

We also talked about what the most surprising thing was, we had learned. I learned from my Buddy that whenever times were difficult, she would pray more and ask for more help. I found that really helpful to hear because although it makes sense to pray more, it is often more difficult during times of stress and strain.

We all decided that the Inter-Faith Buddies Scheme was a good experience and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time. We would like to do it again next year with more people. Please let Rita [email protected] know if you are interested in taking part.