From One Green Dome to Another

From One Green Dome to Another

 

Take a group of keen ordinands from Ripon College Cuddesdon, http://www.rcc.ac.uk and place in St Mary’s and St George’s Church in High Wycombe.  Add a sprinkling of local interested-in-interfaith Muslims at the same venue. Moisten with tea and coffee and line with biscuits (coated in chocolate preferably). Next, under the instruction of the sage Chair, Anne Bowker of WSoF (Wycombe Sharing of Faiths) http://www.wsof.org.uk,  blend participants together.  Divide into small circles. 

Allow flavours to absorb and infuse for a couple of hours. 

 

Reassemble and rearrange.

Alright, enough of that.  The meeting held on the January 10th  2012,  as part of the ordinands interfaith module to engage in dialogue with Muslims,  was a splendid opportunity to simply talk. Thanks to the sensitive chairing, the discussions around the Muslim experience of family, marriage, careers and rites of passage unearthed much of the common ground shared by people of faith. 

Small groups of 5-6 people made frank discussion possible, where students from Ripon College asked questions, some of which were prompted by the information they received the previous day from seminars at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies http://www.oxcis.ac.uk. Our group focused mainly on family dynamics.  ‘How involved is the extended family?’ , ‘what’s the difference between raising children in a Muslim family, compared to wider society?’ , ‘ Are mothers expected to be at home?’, were a few of the many questions that generated warm exchanges of what we found, were our shared experiences.

 

The subject of belonging, and what parents want for their children, were qualified by much discussion about generic topics such as economics, child care, careers,  even school catchment areas and the evolving role of parents in British society as a whole.  Whether someone is Christian, or Muslim, or from any other faith, we had all experienced, the changes that come from one generation to the next, to some extent.  As most of our group were parents,  we had a great deal to exchange about the challenges of raising children in a society where secularism is fast becoming the norm and the issues this presents for our children and for us, walking on tight-rope parents.

 

 Next we discussed the vast subjects of marriage and divorce, making the all important distinction between culture and faith.  This became one of the most significant features of our group’s discussion: how much people’s actions and choices come down to their cultural ties and local traditions, and how much is truly from their faith.  Where there were differences in our communities’ views, such as inter-faith marriages, it was helpful to have the opportunity to discuss why Muslims view faith as the priority in compatibility.  We shared our rather non-sensational real life examples of the different ways marriages come about.

 

Following the small group discussions, we reassembled and heard that other groups had branched out into topics such as  community relations, the media and some even tackled the heavy subject of ‘terrorism’ and the like (oh yes, there were men there). The whole group discussion was then steered in the direction a Muslim’s identity and how it is perceived  in wider society.  The Muslim participants were asked to talk to each other, while the ordinands listened to our discussion.  This made for intriguing viewing, to say the least. It was a bit like being in a playground game of skipping, where you either jump in at the right point or stand and watch the rope spinning, or watch everyone watching…

 

As with all meetings, the one-to-one discussions in the break-time were just as important as those orchestrated, with many a meaningful exchange. At the end of the morning, participants walked together from the green dome of the church to the green dome of Jubilee Road Jamia Masjid, a brush stroke away if one were to paint the skyline of West Wycombe. A symbolic walk together ended the first half of the day, with the doors to the next green dome open and waiting.

 

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