Thought for the Week: WPoF Greetings for the Mayor at the Civic Service, Shah Jahan Mosque, Sunday 26th June 2022

To the new Mayor of Woking Cllr Saj Husein and (and his middle daughter) Mayoress Faaira Sahi (and Deputy Mayor Cllr & Mrs Illyas Raja) Greetings from WPoF. WPoF is made up of 3 main groupings: Christians, Muslims and ‘Others' - Jews, Hindus, Buddhist, Baha’i etc So this is (I trust) also greetings from a much wider community of people of faith in Woking.

DIVERSE BELIEFS: As people of faith, we seek to love God (as we understand God) and to love people as fellow human beings and also care for creation. We want to bring people of diverse backgrounds together in….

UNITED ACTION: to seek the common good and to work for community cohesion and inclusion within our wonderfully multicultural town of Woking.

The Council's motto is Fide et Dilegentia (By faith and diligence). So as WPoF, we stand with you in our Diverse Beliefs (our faith) and our United Action (our diligence) and trust that we will enjoy a close working relationship with you as our new Mayor.

Saj sahib, you have had many roles: the 1st Asian Cadet in Red Cross); Postmaster; School Governor; British Legion involvement; And also Community based work and Political action (Conservative Party) in Knaphill and Goldsworth Park. Your Chosen Charity is LinkAble, helping children and adults with learning difficulties (and your family has personal experience of this). I understand you have 4 children (the same as my wife and I) and 9 grandchildren (well ahead of us!) and you have described yourself as very ‘blessed’ And so I finish with this prayer, which is a blessing for you, a prayer of Berkat/ Berakah.

It was sung as a song in 2020 as a blessing over our nations, during the pandemic. And it spread like wildfire, uniting many globally as they sung variations in 154 nations & 247 languages.

It is the priestly prayer given to Musa/ Moses and prayed by his brother/priest Haroon/ Aaron (See Numbers 6:22-26 in the Torah).

This prayer is for you (Saj) - And for everyone here:

The Lord bless you

And keep you

Make his face shine upon you

And be gracious to you

The Lord turn His Face towards you and give you peace

May His favour be upon you

And a thousand generations

And your family and your children

And their children, and their children

Amen

Rev Phil Simpson, member of the Christian faith

 

Date: Monday 25th July 2022