Inter-Faith & Us

Some Humanists and Secularists are strongly opposed to having anything to do with religious people, so they won't get involved with inter-faith organisations. Suffolk Humanists don't take that view; one of our number is a co-opted member of Suffolk County Council's Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE), and is also a tutor with the Suffolk Inter-Faith Resource (SIFRE). She was a member of SIFRE's board, until time pressures forced her to quit. The Suffolk Humanist group is affiliated to SIFRE.

This is our member Margaret Nelson's experience of SIFRE:

Suffolk Inter-faith Resource was founded in 1993 by a small group led by Cynthia Capey (a Humanities lecturer at Suffolk College). There’ve been Humanists involved since the beginning. We’ve been accommodated by the college since 1994 (Suffolk College was split into Suffolk New College and University Campus Suffolk in 2007). We have charitable status and offer an educational resource to the wider community. I’m a SIFRE tutor, contributing to courses for schools and adult organisations such as the WEA, and I’ve been a member of SIFRE’s board.

SIFRE has a good relationship with Suffolk local authorities. We’ve contributed to civic events, for example: on 11th September 2002 I led an Inter-Faith commemoration of 9/11 in Ipswich Corn Exchange, where the contributors included a group of Kurdish refugees and a Chinese children’s dance class. We've had a successful one-day conference for local authorities, the police, social services and others, and our group had a stall.

We’ve contributed to several SIFRE publications: a directory of local faiths (and Humanism), with descriptions of their activities; a collection of writings by women; a Community Handbook, updated several times; a similar publication for the North Essex Mental Health Trust. Our most successful venture so far has been ‘Diversity’, a board game which teaches players about the beliefs of people who live in the county. It’s been popular in schools and for training with the police, local authorities and those in the caring professions, who can hire a team of tutors to play with them.

A survey commissioned by Suffolk County Council demonstrated what I already knew: that racism is rife in the rural areas. Although playing Diversity may not have much impact, it’s one way of dispelling some myths about minority communities. I've played with 6th formers at a school conference, who’d never talked to a Sikh before, and found my SIFRE companion to be a friendly, warm human being, despite his turban, and my Muslim companion to be a non-militant representative of her faith, despite the negative media representation of Islam. There’s a ‘Forum of Faiths’, with Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Humanist, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Sikh, Taoist and Zoroastrian representatives.

Proselytising and preaching are not permitted. I’ve never encountered hostility from my colleagues, though I have encountered hostility from some so-called ‘Humanists’ who seem to think we ought not to have anything to do with religious people. This is silly and short-sighted, since there is much to gain from involving ourselves with such organisations.

One of my clergy friends in Ipswich, a retired hospital chaplain, once caused an eyebrow to be raised when he kissed me in front of a crematorium chapel attendant after a funeral. ‘You kissed an atheist!’ the attendant said, in mock horror. ‘That’s all right,’ said my friend, ‘it’s not catching.’ I have a similar attitude to working with religious people. I know that many more people in Suffolk have heard about Humanism as a result of our involvement, and I’ve learned about local religious groups.

SIFRE Forum of Faiths

Suffolk Inter-Faith Resource's Forum of Faiths meets occasionally to consider their teachings and views on a variety of topics. They've talked about various subjects, including justice and the environment. For copies of the booklets containing all the contributions to each forum, contact the Suffolk Inter-Faith Resource.

More on Interfaith events

You can read the text of Humanist contributions to Interfaith events in our region on our Public Speaking page. 

Postscript: From January 2008 I've been employed as a SIFRE tutor to supervise a ten-week "World Religions Roundabout" course for the WEA (Workers Educational Association) in a Suffolk village. The course began with an introduction to Humanism and will cover other religions practised in Suffolk. I expect to learn more about these religions too, and why people believe what they believe. MN