Norwich Interfaith Link 2021-22
• New friendships formed,
• Existing bonds strengthened
• Achievements over the year.
• Looking forward to hopes for interfaith connections in 2023.
Following Covid, NIFL organised monthly Zoom meetings in 2021.
Jan 2021
World Religion Day. The Bahai.
Feb 2021
Funeral and Bereavement. Rosedale Funeral Homes Ambassador.
March 2021
The Seven Principles of Spiritualism. Spiritualist Healer.
April 2022
Race and Faith. Bishop’s adviser for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Affairs.
May 2021
A Pagan living and practising in Norwich. Former Chair.
June 2021
A Muslim woman working at the Norfolk Sexual Assault Centre.
July 2021
Quaker weddings and funerals.
Aug 2021
Norwich City of Sanctuary: welcoming the Stranger.
Sept 2021
Liberal Judaism in Norwich, set up in 1989, by their Chair and
founder.
Oct 2021
Sikhism by a member of the Norwich Sikh Society.
Nov 2021
Zakat, the duty of Muslims to donate 2.5% of their income to
alleviate poverty and restore equality. By Shan Barclay, organiser of the annual Peacecamp in the Forum.
Castle Museum works with Also: NIFL and 12 young people research and produce a Past and Present Interfaith Map of Norwich
Dec 2021 Peace for the Earth, religions like Christianity have a “unique capacity for providing myths, stories and visions to face our future together,” combining with the Gaia One World Principle, from a member of the Norwich Green Party.
2022
Zoom sessions continued with opportunities for face to face meetings*.
Jan 2022 The daughter of Naomi Blake, the sculptor, spoke of her mother’s
Holocaust experience, how her work was a reflection on
protection for refugees, promoting love between different Faiths.
*Muslim Funeral and burial of Sean Barclay attended by NIFL.
Feb 2022 The retiring Dean of Norwich reviewed her time as a woman priest, eventually responsible for using a Helterskelter and Dippy the
Dinosaur to make the Cathedral a welcoming place for all.
Mar 2022 Bahai members showed film clips to highlight and discuss issues of Virtue and Good Behaviour: choice, motive, belief, consequences.
Apr 2022 *Members were invited to meet up while attending a publiccelebration of the Rights of the River at Wensum Park on a Saturday of sunshine. The NIFL were happy to support a venture (a protest for some) as river rights and protecting nature matter to people of faith. Speeches, stalls, drama, costume and ceremony.
May 2022 *Invitation for an Open Day visit to a House Mosque purchased
by doctors from Pakistan working in Great Yarmouth.
*Also members of NIFL attended the Planting of an Olive Tree in
Chapelfield Gardens as a Memorial to Sean Barclay, organised by the Peacecamp and attended by Norwich’s new Peace Mayor (70 mayors since Hiroshima). Speeches by family, Mayor, Chair of NIFL.
June 2022. *Invitation for NIFL Chair to process and attend Norwich City Civic Service in Cathedral to recognise contributors to the
community.
Platinum Jubilee of the Queen, Zoom highlighting her own Christian faith through quotes from her Christmas speeches, and examples of her involvement in Interfaith visits and activities, including an
Interfaith section in the Procession past Buckingham Palace.
July 2022 Chair of NIFL attends AGM of the national Interfaith Network on Zoom with representatives from all over the UK.
Chair of NIFL attends very well attended day conference,
workshops and speakers at the UEA organised for Norfolk’s
RE teachers by the County’s Standing Committee responsible for what and how World Religions are taught in all schools. Success in distributing leaflets and adding teachers to the NIFL mailing list. NIFL Hindu member leads one of the workshops.
*Also, Sunday visit by NIFL members and teachers to Chapelfield Mosque, Spiritualist Church, Orthodox Synagogue, Buddhist Centre, Anglican Cathedral.
Sept 2022 *Walk and Talk around Norwich, “Saints and Symbols” hosted by Pagan member of NIFL.
Oct 2022 *Annual Peacecamp in Forum.
*Also, invitation to celebrate Diwali on Saturday evening at Hindu Temple on the Acle Straight. Dancing, food and fireworks.
Nov 2022 Annual Interfaith Week.
*Also Bishop of Norwich convenes a first meeting of the Norfolk and Waveney Faith Coalition for Environmental Issues to work on climate change and related issues. Invited were Buddhist, Pagan,
Anglicans, W. Norfolk and Norwich Muslims, Hindu, Sikh, Quaker, Unitarian, Roman Catholic, Jewish.
Also NIFL Zoom meeting with Harfiyah Haleem, a trustee from the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences.
Also Service of Remembrance for those with relatives who died in the Pandemic at St Peter Mancroft, inclusive of all faiths.
Also Framingham Earl High School invites different faiths to talk about War and Peace to Y10 and Y11 students.
Dec 2022 Zoom Meeting on Human Rights, highlighted by Qatar World Cup and recent Government speeches. Human Rights are the reaction to atrocities of WW2, agreed in 1948, based on agreement,
universality and accepting the victim’s protection as the measure of effectiveness, but difficult to persuade those in power, and to sanction.
Jan 2023 *Bahai all day exhibition stand at the Forum in Norwich emphasising the underlying unity of all the major religions.
Also NIFL Zoom Meeting with the Salvation Army Ecumenical Officer and Prison Chaplain, based in Mile Cross.
Also Annual Holocaust Memorial Day Service in St Peter Mancroft.
Norwich InterFaith Link 