MEMBERSHIP

Since the last AGM on the 28th February 2002 the BCoF became steadily stronger thanks to the dedication of its members.

Our committee meetings are regularly well attended and thanks to the Gurdwara we have a permanent, hospitable and friendly home where we even get fed if we wish.

Our computerised membership database and website paid off and we even had a few inquiries asking to have links put on our website as well as being linked to others.

Again this year, as last year, we managed through persistent campaigning, to expand our membership and as a result we are financially better off (figures will be in the treasurer's report).

Members access, unfortunately not yet the majority, to e-mail has increased and this helps us to keep in touch with each other also outside agreed meetings. That way we can inform each other of important issues without wasting paper and having to pay postage.

Although our membership has increased this year again we still must not stop to work hard to interest more and more people in our Council's work and encourage participation.

In our constant quest to grow and become better known within the Bedford area we found it again necessary to update and amend our constitution. We would like to be able to accept institutions such as Prison services, NHS Trust, Police, Fire and Rescue services as non-voting participating members. This would widen our scope and give these institutions a chance to access our resources for training their members in multi-faith and multi-cultural acceptance. You all have been sent a copy of the paragraph to be amended. We shall be discussing and hopefully voting on this in our next agenda point.

PUBLICITY

A new threefold information leaflet has been created thanks to Rev Trevor Maines and successfully distributed at various functions, which promptly earned us new members.

All our correspondence and minutes are written on headed notepaper with website and e-mail address which helps people to get in touch with us.

We also are now entering our 3rd year of annual updating in the Bedserve Database of Local Clubs and Societies which is kept at Bedfordshire Libraries.

EVENTS

Similar to last year's call by the Quakers, in the aftermath of the September 11th World Trade Centre attack in New York, we followed also this year their lead in participating in peaceful Vigils in protest against an eventual war with Iraq. These were held in the town centre near the Trevor Huddleston statue on several Saturdays throughout the last few months.

We successfully held our, now almost traditional, Winter Lectures. Only this year they were called Autumn Talks since they started already at the beginning of October and finished before Christmas. Again this year as in previous years the 5 talks took place in the St. Peters Chapter House. Thanks to Rev. Guy Buckler, we were again able to hire the room at low cost. The main topic was 'Stories of our various traditions' and we heard some fine stories. It was both very informative and entertaining and very well attended.

Our traditional autumn Pilgrimage was postponed to spring last year and took place on the 8th April, 2002. The mayor Cllr Pat Olney attended this pilgrimage and was very impressed with our efforts. We first visited St Joseph's & The Holy Child Catholic Church in Midland Road and were warmly received by Father Bailey and his congregants. He also accompanied us to our next stop the new mosque in Queens Park, Jameh Masjid Gulshan-E-Baghdad, where we attended evening prayers and were given a warm welcome by Cllr. Muhamad Khan. We had a very informative time. From there we proceeded to the Sikh Guru Nanak Gurdwara where, as we have found so many times in the past during our committee meetings, we were greeted and received as friends. We visited the sanctuary and then were treated to food and refreshments. We had speeches from the mayor Cllr Pat Olney and Tirath Singh Bhavra co-chair of BCoF who also spoke on behalf of the Gurdwara. All establishments we visited and the mayor were presented with a living plant.

This year we also managed to arrange a Summer Social day in the form of an Interfaith Picnic. It took place on a Sunday afternoon in June in the grounds and hall of St. Mary's Church Goldington. Unfortunately we spent more time in the hall than grounds because the weather was particularly English that day. Thanks to Rev. Trevor Maines and Olive Maines who together with their congregants hosted this lovely afternoon. We all shared in the food, sweets and drink we brought and the fruity welcome drink that Daniela & Laurie had prepared for everybody. Then some of us enjoyed a good game of Caram which our Sikh friends had the good foresight to bring on this rainy afternoon.

The biggest event yet that we ever organised must have been the 'Interfaith Service for Universal Peace' which was held under our auspices and in conjunction with St. Paul's Church. It was held in St. Paul's Church as part of the 'Week Of Prayer For World Peace' at the start of 'One World Week'. A subcommittee consisting of Monica, Angus, Malcolm and alternate Quakers: Heather Baily, Sheila Holderness and Crookall-Greenings, and Daniela representing the BCoF side and Rev John Pedlar, from St Paul's, managed to put this service together in less than 8 weeks. Two meetings were held in County Hall thanks to Angus and two in the Vestry of St Paul's thanks to John. We were given the chance to hold this service this past year since the traditional United Nation Association's service didn't take place for various internal reasons.

Many town dignitaries attended: such as the then Mayor Cllr Judith Cunnigham, who read the 'Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations'. The Deputy Divisional Commander of the police, Superintendent Iain Metcalfe, our MP Patrick Hall, the Mayor of Kempston, and past Mayors Cllr Pat Olney and Cllr Hazel Mitchell, just to name a few and many more were in attendance. St Paul's then organist and musical director Michael Mizgailo-Cayton and Veronique Mizgailo-Cayton arranged and sang some beautiful music for the occasion together with a little choir, created especially for the occasion. One of our members Monica Whitmore wrote a Mantra song, which we used throughout the service. 'The Bedfordshire Youth Dance Company' performed for us, and many representatives from the faiths contributed to this service.

Since we, the Bedford Council of Faiths, in our capacity as a multi-faith group organised this service we paid particular attention to detail as far as diversity was concerned. Although it took place in a church we were cautious not to let the prevailing tradition to become top heavy. We were careful to choose texts, prayer and songs that were acceptable to all traditions. Should we ever attempt to put on a similar service of this kind we also need to address the matter of the doxology. This service, however, certainly made a deep impression on all who attended. Many participants remarked that it was a wonderful and very dignified service.

The last event on this year's activities list was the Winter Social. Since the Summer Social was such a success and was mainly spent in the hall due to bad weather we thought we might just as well plan one which takes place in a hall anyway. Thanks to Bharti Tailor, who only recently arrived in Bedford from Luton, we paired up with the 'Maitrini Asian Women's group' and held a Display of Major Winter Festivals from our various backgrounds and religions. We had displays of 8 faiths - Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu including a Mahatma Gandhi display, Jain, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh. Again we had the most wonderful food - a fusion cuisine of east meets west - and Displays of Winter Festivals of the different religions. It was a most enjoyable afternoon and very informative.

INTERFAITH NETWORKING AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS

BCoF has now been almost 4 years a paid-up member of the 'Interfaith Network for the UK' and in my capacity as co-chair of BcoF, I also attended this year their 'National Meeting' and AGM in London. The topic was 'Community cohesion' which is very relevant to us since we are trying to get both public funding and recognition in our town. Two local government publications were recommended for members reading: 'Draft Guidance on Community Cohesion' and 'Faith and Community: a good practice guide for local authorities'. Both these publications were distributed at the relevant committee meetings and the websites for downloading, and telephone numbers how to obtain these publications were given in the minutes of 23rd July and 29th August respectively. We felt that generally there was a greater need to involve ourselves in local government, Borough & County initiatives concerning our work.

This prevailing feeling of isolation in our local area led to the free enrolment of membership with the 'east of england faith agency'. This is an organisation based in Ipswich and was established under the auspices 'The Suffolk Interfaith Resource' and chaired by Cynthia & David Capey. This group meets a few times a year all over East Anglia. It has a website, which carries a link to us and also announces our activities. We followed an invitation from them in May to visit the Bhaktivedanta Manor in Watford. This is a Hare Krishna establishment and we had a very informative and enjoyable visit there which we would like to repeat with BCoF members soon.

In the same vein, yet slightly closer to home, we also followed a call from our Luton sister organisation the Luton Council of Faiths (LCoF) for a 'semi regional Interfaith Coalition'. We met in Luton in December and after some discussion, inaugurated under the guidance of the then Inter Community relation Officer Shanthi Hettiarachchi, the Three Counties Interfaith Network (TCIN). One of the immediate benefits of this networking was to have permanent access to THREE COUNTIES RADIO's Nigel Gayler who presents the 'Melting Pot' programme on a Sunday morning from 6a.m - 9 a.m. In it he has a slot called FAITH ALIVE where once a month the various Council of Faiths in the region have a say. Our turn was just this last Sunday the 23rd February 2003. We also established links with the Project Co-ordinator Johanne Hudson-Lett of ROOTS, an arts and culture programme.

A new development this year is our relationship with the police and the Community Safety Partnership initiative in the county. As a result of the anti-Muslim sentiments in the country in the aftermath of the September 11th World Trade Centre attack in New York, the Muslim community asked the Police to arrange a forum to overview the situation in Bedford and to hold a watching brief. It was a small private gathering of only a few faith community leaders. Out of this meeting the Multi- Faith Forum was created brokered by the Police which included a wider range of communities and organisations and this is how the Bedford Council of Faiths was invited at the suggestion of Rev Trevor Maines. So far there were two meetings, one in October 2002 and one in February 2003, both of which were attended by members of the BCoF. It seems that the Bedford Council of Faiths is seen to have a particular role to play in this by the Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Steve Battle, who has extended several courtesies to us in the last few months.

To summarise, we had a very busy and successful year - a year of growth and public exposure. We have to keep on working hard to make ourselves known in the Borough. We need more volunteers to help us with events, both to plan and execute them.

FUTURE EVENTS will include:

v Our annual PILGRIMAGE, this year again in spring on the 7th April 2003. Details have been planned prior to this meeting and will be mailed shortly.

v A STUDY OUTING, to the 'Holocaust Centre Beth Shalom' in Laxton near Newark in Nottinghamshire on the 27th July 2003. Details on the leaflets here for you to take away and will also be mailed to you in the next mailing. This was made possible by a grant of the 'Kessler Foundation', which is the charity arm of the 'Jewish Chronicle'. We were also lucky enough, thanks to Shaminder Singh Billen, to obtain a bus voucher for this trip from the 'Bedford Kempston Regeneration Partnership', which should keep costs significantly down.

v We will have AUTUMN OR WINTER LECTURES OR TALKS again - no details. We ask you to do some brainstorming on the prepared sheets in a minute. Possibly including something musical. v And if we find the time and strength we might arrange another INTERFAITH SERVICE but may be not in a church or sanctuary but a more communal building and possibly not linked into any other initiative as last year.

v And there will be a SOCIAL or two with food, drink and cultural activities if we can arrange it.

If you have any other suggestions, please give them to us in writing and we shall try to implement them especially if you are prepared to help to organise them.

Finally a few thank yous are necessary:

• Thank you to Tirath and Shaminder who organise our continual welcome in the Guru Nanak Gurdwara for our meetings and this AGM.
• Thank you to Norman for the creation, upkeep and funding of our webpage.
• Thank you to Monica for being our switchboard and chief composer
• Thank you to Tom and sometimes Trevor who became our meeting minuters
• Thank you to Trevor for recreating our publicity leaflet into a triptych
• Thank you to Mary Shaw whose shop continues to be a source of endless new faces for us.
• Thank you to the sub committee members for the Interfaith Service, Malcolm Lee, Monica Whitmore, Angus McCormick, John and Grace Crookall-Greening, and Heather Baily, well and I guess myself
• Thank you to Laurie Bender and Tirath Singh Bhavra who broke down the gender barrier and acted as tea makers at some for our Autumn Talks
• Thank you to Sheila Holdernes who was our key-keeper for our Autumn Talks
• Thank you to all those I forgot to mention by name and who still worked and made this year a success - and lastly -
• Thank you to you all for supporting our work this year, financially and by coming to our activities and meetings.

Merci - Thank you - Dankeschön- Grazie and Gracias - Shukran - Dhanyavaad - Toda - etc