Family

Ms Humera Khan - one of the founders of the An-Nisa Society, an organisation supporting families run by Muslim women. She has worked in equalities and on Government working groups including the Forced Marriage working party and the Community Cohesion Review Team. She is currently involved in Muslim-Jewish dialogue and work on Muslim fatherhood.

Heather al-Yousuf - works with inter faith couples and families, particularly Muslim-Christian through the Muslim-Christian Marriage Support Group. Heather is an Anglican married to a Shi'a Muslim from Bahrain. She is a mother of three and is currently training in family therapy.

Forum's Statement on Family Issues

Values

The members of the Family Specialist Group have established a mutual commitment to enabling, supporting and empowering families; celebrating what is good and facing up to the very real challenges that families face.

We are committed to

recognising the wide range of contexts and beliefs within and between our faith communities.
grass-roots based methods of working in which we take people's experiences seriously.
offering creative insights, resources and opportunities that help people to feel positive about thir humanity and relationships. We will resist adding to burdens of guilt or fear that families might face.
helping people reconnect their hopes, aspirations and ethical decisions with the spiritual core that is so often obscured by the demands and attractions of modern life.
helping people feel confident about family life, parenting and relationships, countering any sense of the family as beleaguered or unhealthy.

Family Life

Part of our common humanity is our growing up within the context of family life. For some this is joyful, simple and positive; for others painful, complicated and difficult. Both of our faith communities carry ideals of family life and offer scriptural and spiritual support for the family unit and the place of family in the wider social context. Whilst we aspire to these ideals and wish to be helpful to each other as Gods children, we know that families face challenges within themselves and within our complex society.

From before birth to beyond death, both faiths offer models and views of family life. Parenting of children brings challenges, not least as they grow into adolescents. People exist in complex webs of relationship and sometimes people need support, advice and training. Health issues, physical and mental, impact on our families and the changing patterns of society raise issues about the role of fathers, interfaith marriage and sexual health. The challenges of depression and bereavement need careful attention and counselling with a faith based perspective is an area that we might explore.

The Family Specialist Group recognise these challenges and want to be a means of

raising and researching key issues of concern to Muslim and Christian families,
developing networks of suitable practitioners
creating opportunities for people to discuss family issues
creating links with grassroots activities and organisations

Our targets for 2006 - 2008 are:

awareness raising for statutory organisations
capacity building of support, activities, for both communities
carrying out and publishing Government policy reviews
holding training workshops
running seminars for discussion of issues
holding a conference in 2007

Humera Khan and Michaela Youngson, Summer 2006

Former Specialists

Karlene Rickard - Director of Parenting Media Education Consultancy. You can read more about her here.

Revd Michaela Youngson (Methodist Central Office) - Methodist Minister and author, former Connexional Secretary for Pastoral Care and Spirituality including the promotion of good practice in pastoral care and the advocacy of theologically informed perspectives on personal relationships. Previously served churches in East Lancashire.

Living Faithful Family Lives

You can read about our first Family conference here.

Please get in touch if you are interested in our family work or if you would like to make a donation.

Updated 29 March 2010