Imams and Ministers Conference

More than 70 Imams, Ministers, Chaplains, Councellors and others attended the Christian Muslim Forum’s successful two day conference at High Leigh Conference Centre on 28 & 29th November.  The conference gave fresh insights into spiritual guidance in multi-faith societies enabling delegates to

  * Examine the spiritual guidance methods used by Imams, Ministers and others in modern, multi-faith contexts;
  * Build networks of Imams, Ministers and others keen to engage with each other; and
  * Identify practical projects that they could all work on together at local, regional and national levels

The conference concluded by presenting a draft statement on Spiritual Guidance in Our Multi-Faith Society .Click here to read the statement and add your comments to the Discussion Board or email them to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).  This statement will be circulated to delegates and others across the country in the run up to the sister conference taking place in Leeds on 28th and 29th April 2008.  Booking details for the Leeds conference will be published on this website in January 2008.
The main Christian speaker was His Grace Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church Centre, Stevenage and the main Muslim speaker was Fuad Nahdi, Senior Fellow, Muslim College.
Delegates attended a number of workshops exploring features of good Islamic and Christian spiritual guidance in a number of different British contexts, including: awakening spirituality in young children; promoting social justice; spirituality in the promotion of community cohesion; and the undergraduate
Here’s what some of the people who attended the conference said:
“Excellent - clear, informed talks, with humour and humanity”
“Quality input”
“I really valued both speakers and Fuad left me with lots to think about .... listening to someone of another faith takes longer for me to digest and it is helpful when their input is not too heavy”.
“Gentle and powerful both!”
“Inspiring, thought provoking and faithful presentations which spoke beyond and behind the words of the deep spiritual commitment of the speakers and the importance to ‘live spirituality’ - commonalities to both faiths”
“two days is really good…. evening spent in informal multi-faith conversations”
“excellent case studies”
“I feel really inspired and encouraged to carry on with interfaith work in what is often a hostile environment because I have met together and shared with like minded people from both the Muslim and Christian faith”
“This is a very important conference - thanks to the organisers.  More such conferences are necessary!”
“Thank you so much.  I leave full of hope and with more confidence in the message of peace and love which we can all bring together to a world which so desperately needs to hear it.  I suddenly realise I have so many like-minded friends out there.  Thank you.  I think you should encourage anyone with a heart for inter-faith collaboration to attend events such as these.  It is vital.”