Community and Public Affairs

Former CPA Specialist Revd. Dilly Baker is former Director of Development at Scargill House Retreat and Conference Centre in North Yorkshire; Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, is Chair of the Muslim Council of Britain's Interfaith Relations Committee. We are the Christian Muslim Forum's Community and Public Affairs specialists.

As Warden of Scargill House in North Yorkshire, Dilly has been  pioneering an interfaith/intercultural project, 'Mythbusters'. Prior to this appointment she worked in parish ministry as an Anglican priest in both Milton Keynes and South London and  taught Pastoral Studies at a Theological College. She also has a particular interest in the contribution that women are making in community affairs and public policy.

Ibrahim, as well as working with the MCB, works closely with clergy in Leicester in clergy training and is a founder member of Christian-Muslim, Muslim-Hindu Leicester Family of Abraham dialogue group (Jews, Christians and Muslims). He is also a member of the European Council of Religious Leaders.

We are committed to furthering positive interactions between Christian and Muslim communities. In particular, we aim to foster the formation of Christian and Muslim dialogue groups.

We instituted a dialogue group of young Christians and Muslims in Yorkshire in December 2006 which is ongoing and which meets on a monthly basis. We hope this will provide a model for others who are interested in dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

Women's Retreat

As part of the Christian Muslim Forum's Community work Dilly Baker and Wahida Shaffi (Youth member), organised a retreat for Muslim and Christian women to reflect on how spirituality underpins their lives as women and how women of another faith approach the same questions that life throws up.

The retreat was held at Scargill House. For more details see this flyer WomenattheWell.pdf.  Description of the retreat to be added here in due course. See some photos from the retreat here. We hope to hold similar gatherings on a regular basis.

Women at the Well at Greenbelt, August 2007.