IAPD UK: Interfaith Service at the Al Mahdi Institute, Birmingham, UK

On Sunday, July 2nd WFWP and UPF Birmingham convened an inspirational Interfaith Service at the Al- Mahdi Institute. There was a wide range of faiths and civic leaders from Birmingham and the West Midlands participating in this programme, invited by Dr David and Patricia Earle, who head UPF-UK’s Inter-Religious Association for Peace and Development (IAPD). Imam Shahed Tameez, Rev Marcia Levine, Mrs Swaran Talwar (Hindu), Dr David Earle, Pastor E. Y., and Rev. Dr David Hanna were among those speaking.

Attending this interfaith service were twelve Christian Ministers, comprising 6 male and 6 female Pastors, from Baptist, Methodist, Anglican and Pentecostal churches. There were four Imams from major mosques in Birmingham. The UK General Secretary of the Namdhari Sikhs was attending. The leader of the Brahma Kumaris in Birmingham also was there. The audience included two Birmingham City

Councillors and three women leaders from diaspora ethnic organisations from Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. There were four members of the police, including the West Midlands Police Crime Commissioner.

There were five Ambassadors for Peace: Cllr Shabina Bano; Imam Mohammed Asad MBE; Mauricio Silva UK Interreligious Coordinator for the Columbans; Mahmooda Qureshi Programme Coordinator for the Faith and Belief Forum; and Father Abba (Ethiopia) Community Minister at Birmingham’s prestigious city centre church - St Martins in the Bullring. In total around 150 people attended, and £400 was raised for a Shia mosque’s project in Syria, which supports displaced women and children.