Interfaith Soc: activities

The meetings of the multifaith/ interfaith society include:

a. Regular scripture study sessions, where scriptures from various
faiths on a given topic, such as peace, are read and discussed

b. Visits to different places of worship. Last year we have visited a gurudwara (sikh temple), a hindu temple, bahai centre, and a jewish synagogue. The visits usually include a guided tour of the place and a brief introduction to the faith and its rituals, along with a meal, but this depends on the convenience of the organisers of the place of worship that we are visiting.

c. Friendly discussions on a given theme such as food. Since there is a danger of the discussions becoming a source of discord, we tend to keep the themes mostly to topics relating to faith (such as God and rules to be followed) and less to overt politics.
d. Socials, including icebreaker games and movie nights, with a movie shown that promotes interfaith or intercultural harmony, such as "the adventures of Rabbi Jacob" and "my big fat greek wedding".

e. An exhibition of some aspects of different faiths. We have had a workshop (as part of the Multifaith week in the student union) where we shared hindu meditation, bahai tranqulity zone, and a buddhist martial art.

f. We also contribute to giving different interfaith perspectives at the discussion at the interfaith meetings over food called Abraham's Table with the MFRG, the last one being on the theme of Faith and the environment.

g. The interfaith society has a student representative from most of the major world faiths, whose job is to coordinate between the society and the faith communities for the purpose of coordinating visits to their places of worship and for publicising any of their events such as festivals which they might like to share with us. This has resulted in our getting invited to some of the places of worship on special occasions such as the Bahai centre on the world religion day, the Reform Synagogue on the celebration of a festival, and the Buddhist temple on the occasion of Chinese new year. We hope to persuade prominent prominent speakers from different faiths to give us talks in the near future.