 Week of Prayer forNewsletter January 2004
The annual gathering for prayer for peace was held at the Hounslow Mosque on Sunday 19th October 2003 at 3 p.m. Those taking part were welcomed by the Imam, Sheikh Nisar Ahmed Hussain-Sulaimani, who opened the gathering with an address of welcome. Our Chairman, Mr. O.P. Sharma, MBE, gave the reply. After the procession of the Faiths and the readings from the Scriptures of the Faiths, a prayer of thanks for the Faiths was read by Maggi Brizzi of the World Peace Flame Project. This year's Gordon Wilson Peace Award was presented by our President, Rabbi Albert Friedlander, to Mr. R. Vadera, the President of the Chinmaya Mission for the work of their agricultural training and development centre at Sidhabari, in India. The gathering was brought to a close by the call to prayer for the Maghrib prayers, which all guests were invited to witness. After the prayers, refreshments were served in the dining area. Our warmest thanks are extended to the Imam and to the Mosque Committee for their gracious hospitality on this occasion. We are especially pleased that after the gathering, the Imam asked to be more closely associated with our work. He has been co-opted on to the Executive Committee for the remainder of this working year. Our Administrator, Trudie Charles, reported to the November committee meeting that 174 orders for the prayer leaflet were received during 2003. The number of orders was an increase on former years, but the orders were for smaller amounts. Trudie also reported that a lady writing a children's book about different faiths had asked for explanations of the faith symbols used in our leaflet. Members of the committee were asked to reply, each explaining their own faith symbol. Preparations for the Week of Prayer for World Peace 2004 are well in hand. The dates of the Week in 2004 will be from 17th to 24th October. There will be two gatherings for prayer for peace in 2004. The first of these will be Evening Prayer in Westminster Abbey on Sunday 17th October to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the inauguration of the Week of Prayer for World Peace by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Michael Ramsey, on 19th October 1974. It will begin at 3 p.m. and the preacher will be one of our Sponsors, the Revd. Marcus Braybrooke, President of the World Congress of Faiths. On the following Sunday, 24th October (United Nations Day), a gathering will be held at 3 p.m. at a Sikh Gurdwara. This gathering will bring the Week to a close, and will also commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first opening of the Guru Granth Sahib. We are grateful to our committee member Param Sandhu for his work in making the arrangements for this gathering at the Gurdwara. A draft text of the main prayer leaflet will be placed before the Executive Committee for approval on 14th January. A draft text of the leaflet for use in schools has also been produced, and will be presented at the same meeting. It is proposed to have both leaflets printed in time for the Annual General Meeting on 10th March. Preliminary notice is given to all Sponsors that the Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 10 ' March 2004 at 11 a.m. at the London Inter Faith Centre, 125 Salusbury Road, London NW6. The nearest Underground station is Queen's Park on the Bakerloo Line. Turn left out of the station, and the centre is about ten minutes walk away, on the other side of the road. All Sponsors are reminded of the clause in our Constitution which reads "Resolutions for consideration at the AGM must be submitted six weeks before the meeting, and included with the notice of the meeting, which will be sent four weeks before the meeting" I would like to thank our Vice-Chair, the Revd. Megumi Hirota, for sending me a number of copies of' Dharma World" a journal of the Japanese peace organisation, Rissho Kosei-kai. I observe that three of our Sponsors have contributed articles to this journal Marcus Braybrooke - "How can interfaith organisations address global problems?" (July/August 2003,) Jehangir Sarosh - "In search of our common truth" (September/October 2003) and Richard Boeke - "Many Paths, one Mountain" (November/December 2003). By the time you receive this newsletter, work will have begun on the prayer leaflet for 2005. Contributions are invited from all faith sources, and should be sent to the Revd. Professor Dr. Roger Grainger, 7 Park Grove, Horbury, Wakefield WF4 SEE Telephone 01924 272742. Any correspondence regarding this newsletter should be sent to me. Secretary of WPWP, the Revd. Sidney Hinkes, 1 The Bungalow, Bremilham Road, Malmesbury SN160DQ, Telephone 01666 825249. E-mail sidney@fish.co.uk |