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Bedford UK's local community Interfaith group |
| Bedford Council of Faiths |
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2002-03 Winter Talks
Another successful season of Autumn Talks has seen good attendances followed by stimulating and thought provoking discussion. This years theme was on Stories and it was interesting to compare and contrast, some of the similarities a differences between different viewpoints.
BCoF Charitable Status
Bedford Council of Faiths is currently investigating charitable status. A sub-committee has been investigating and working towards this objective. Obtaining charitable status will bring us into line with other organisations, permitting us to apply for assistance to boost the running of the council, which at present relies upon the efforts of a few part-time volunteers for all its work.
BCoF continues to progress. We are pleased to recently welcome two new members to the council, one from the Hindu community and one from the Christian community, who both take a welcome active part in our work.
World Peace Service in Support of World Peace Week 20th Oct 02
Our contributory multifaith service, held at St. Pauls Bedford was well attended. We were pleased to welcome the attending support of several foremost community leaders, including the present Mayors of Bedford and Kempston, the MP for the constituency and the Deputy Police Commissioner for Bedfordshire, amongst others.
Many attending remarked upon how much they had appreciated the service, that included a dance, a refrain on the name 'PEACE' and thoughts upon some of the troubled areas in the world given in turn, by a different religion's representative. Later they each gave a short example of what their religion had to say about PEACE. The Mayor read the preamble to the charter of the United Nations. Candles were lit towards the end, which were floated upon water.
We greatly appreciated the soloists, the MD and guitarist, who's role lifted and united the whole event into something special, as in common quest we reached out for PEACE to come to others.
The North Bedfordshire Community Safety Partnership
BCoF was represented at a special meeting for this initiative held at the Police Head Quarters in Kempston recently. Both Bedford Borough & Bedfordshire County Councils are co-ordinating with Bedfordshire Police for this community safety partnership. You are invited to contact G. Anderson on Tel. (01234) 221881 or email her at.. ganderson@bedford.gov.uk to report community safety, security & concerns of similar nature. [We intend to provide further information under a new 'community support' section soon]
Buddhism by Guest Speaker at Luton Inter Faith Group Talk 3rd July 02
Members of the BCoF attended a talk entitled 'Buddhism and Conflict' by Prof. P.D. Premasiri
HOD, Department of Buddhist Studies, University of Peradeniya, Sri lanka, which took place at the Friends Meeting House in Luton. The professor outlined the social consequencies of Buddhist practice and its relationship with respect to the current conflict in Sri lanka.
BCoF members went on to the Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Luton and 'previewed' a pictorial exhibition on Sikhism opened by the Mayor of Luton on the 5th.
Summer Picnic 30th June 02
The BCoF Summer Picnic on Sunday 30th June went well, plenty of food and soft drink was available, with home cooked delights. A board game became a popular attraction. Convivialities lasted for about three hours. Pleasure was expressed at the numbers of members & guests attending.
Buddhist's announce a formal presence
The forming of the Bhavana Trust to establish a formal Buddhist presence in Bedford has been announced.
BCoF Patron
The group is considering appointing a patron and steps are currently under way to see if this can be achieved over the coming months.
Pilgrimage April 8th 2002
We were pleased that the Mayor of Bedford was able to join us for our spring pilgrimage on the evening of Monday 8th April. This year it started at St. Joseph's Church and progressed to the new Mosque and ended at the Guru Nanak Gurdwara. We were delighted to see so many turn out. We thank all three hosts for extending their welcome to us and for their interesting and informative contributions. A plant was presented to each host, as a small token of our appreciation.
Our AGM 28th February 2002
Guest speaker Elaine Birch of El Shaddai (childrens' homes charity in Goa India) showed us many slides of scenes in Goa, which led wonderfully well into scenes of their work, these brought us an immediate and captivating account of El Shaddai. We are very grateful to Elaine for her time and effort for giving us an interesting talk that seemed to engage and stimulate everyone, spanning many aspects concerning religions, ethnic, financial, cultural and east-west aspects. It was an inspiration to see the project's success after starting from nothing a few years ago. It is now thriving, with plans for a fourth home underway.
BCoF members asked about various practices and issues, lack of time prevented what would have been an interesting follow up discussion. Further local information might be obtained
via Elaine's church (website).
The business side of the meeting (click to view details) :-
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The group consists of representatives from
various religious traditions within the community email: bcof@bcof.org.uk address: c/o 69 Victoria Road, Bedford, MK42 9JR |