Woking People of Faith held a Zoom webinar on Thursday 12th November during Interfaith week to discuss the topic of ‘What are Religions Doing About Race Inequality?’ Simon Trick, our Chair welcomed 46 people and handed over to Donovan Blair, who gave an introduction on his parents’ background in Jamaica and then told us how life was for them in England. Donovan recommends a further reading list as follows:
Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala Black & British:
A Forgotten History by David Olusoga Windrush by Mike & Trevor Phillips Homecoming:
Voices of the Windrush Generation by Colin Grant
Our panellists included speakers from the Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Baha’i faith. Unfortunately, our Hindu speaker was unable to join us.
Rabbi Danny Rich said the Jewish faith has Jews of all races. They teach us to love thy neighbour and to not mistreat a stranger as this is a form of blasphemy.
Rev Paul Davis said Christians love God and neighbour and all are one in Christ.
Ahmed-Ikhlas Gray gave the message from Islam that nations and tribes are to know each other and are not to despise each other. There is no superiority over Arab or non-Arabs.
Mandisa Taylor, who practises the Baha’i faith gave a beautiful analogy of how there are different shades in one garden and we are all created from the same dust.
Simon then updated us on WPoF’s upcoming events which can be found on our website and Facebook page. He then handed over to our attendees who asked questions to our panellists for the next 40 minutes. A wide range of questions were submitted. The feedback which we received was extremely positive.
A recording of the speaker’s presentations can be found below. We were unable to capture Rabbi Danny Rich’s talk.
An article on the Get Surrey website can be found here
A full recording of the presentation including the Q&A session can be found here
WPoF is supported by Woking Borough Council
Date: Thursday 12th November 2020
Location: Zoom
Time: 7.00pm - 8.30pm
