Gathering for Interfaith Week at Central Manchester Universities

To mark Interfaith Week, a joint interfaith event was hosted by the Central Manchester universities in partnership with Manchester City Council, the Council and Christian and Jews, The Faith and Belief Forum and Manchester University Catholic Chaplaincy. This marks the first time the universities have collaborated on a project of this kind.

The event aimed to bring together key representatives from each organisation, including students from the university’s various faith societies, to share their personal stories and experiences of living as people of faith on campus. It provided a space to explore the opportunities and challenges this can present, and to collaboratively generate ideas for strengthening interfaith engagement within universities.

One of the core visions of ‘The Faith and Belief Forum’ is to “move towards a world where people of different faiths, beliefs and cultures have strong, meaningful and lasting relationships.” While this event did not resolve every challenge, it marked an important first step and laid a solid foundation for future collaboration. Participants left feeling encouraged and committed to building on this progress.

Jamie Mackenzie, Lead Anglican Chaplain to the Central Manchester Universities reflected on the event saying:

“It was a very powerful and moving evening with all involved being very open and honest about their desire and commitment to create more safe spaces on campus where interfaith dialogue can take place. I felt honoured to be there and came away brimming with hope.”

Please continue to pray for Jamie and the wider University Chaplaincy Teams as they seek to create and steward these safe spaces wisely.