Celebrating the Interfaith Week at Various Centres

The theme of the Bushey Interfaith Forum annual community event for 2017 was entitled ‘Fasting and Feasting – The Why and the How’. It was kindly hosted this year at the Stanmore Mosque at 40 Wood Lane, Stanmore HA7 4LQ on 22nd November 2017.

With participating communities spreading news of the event in the locality, there was a fantastic turnout of around 200 people, all eager to know more about how different faiths viewed aspects of fasting and feasting. Speakers from the Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish and Jain faiths were excellent and gave a good insight into their practices and deeper significance of the role of fasting periods and feast days. Although expressed in different ways, many similarities amongst the faiths became clear, and in particular that a key purpose of fasting was to experience abstinence and bring one closer to one’s true self and God.

Kajal Sheth, Trustee of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur UK, explained that the literal meaning of the word ‘Upavaas’, which has become synonymous with fasting, is ‘to come close to one’s Self’.  Jain faith has classified over 18 types of fasts to suit people of all ages and abilities, based on different lengths of time, restricting the number of meals in a day and limiting the number of items of food eaten in a meal.  Fasting involves a physical and mental discipline that strengthens one’s control over the mind and senses, resulting in greater clarity of thought, greater awareness of one’s self and increased calmness of mind.  A lot of energy that would otherwise be needed to digest food, becomes available to pursue spiritual practices including introspection, reflection and contemplation on the purpose and potential of human life.  A period of silence is encouraged to quiet the mind and allow intuition, creativity and virtues like gratitude, acceptance and compassion to surface.  Regular fasting is helpful in regaining a fresh perspective on one’s values and priorities in life and realigning one’s life to serve a higher purpose.

 Event announcement:  Bushey Interfaith Event – Wed 22 Nov17

Lord Bourne – Minister for Faith,  visited  Jain Centre Leicester on 16/11/2017.  The President of Jain Samaj Europe, Mr Piyush Madhani, Dr. Ramesh Mehta – Chairman, 30 years Celebration Committee and leading members of Jain community welcomed Lord Bourne. He did darshan and visited various sections of Jain Centre showing the keen interest in various aspects of the Centre.

In his address, Lord Bourne said that the aim of celebrating the Interfaith Week annually in the UK is to promote the understanding, cooperation and good relations between organisations and persons of different faiths. He said that this celebration provides opportunities for linking and sharing of good practice, providing ideas and suggestions for developing new interfaith initiatives and strengthening the existing ones. He further added that it raises awareness within wider society of the importance of interfaith issues, it increases understanding between faith communities, including both the distinctive features and areas of the common ground of each faith.

Harrow Interfaith and the local community members paid a visit to Mahavir Foundation Jain temple on Kenton Road Harrow, Middlesex.  They were greeted by the President and office bearers of the Mahavir Foundation.  An explanation was given on Jain tenets and the temple architecture. Refreshments were served at the end of the temple tour.

All participating organisations are active members of OneJAIN, a group of  30 Jain organisations in the UK, focusing on inter-faith and government activities.