Sheerwater Walking Pilgrimage

On Saturday 16 November Woking People of Faith participated in our latest walking pilgrimage, this time around Sheerwater. Sheerwater was built in the 1950s as a spill over from London and developed its own local community on the edge of Woking. It became one of the most deprived areas in Surrey and Woking decided to redevelop the area in an ambitious plan. It had only got half way through this before the financial crisis hit the Borough stopping all the future plans although the buildings in the process of being built have been completed. Today as we saw there are rows of buildings that have been bought for development and stand empty and getting increasingly dilapidated while new blocks and houses look resplendent and are occupied. Much of the population has been moved out to make way for this new development but the prices of the new properties are out of the reach of many of the community who previously lived here. In spite of this the area retains a thriving spiritual community and we were privileged to meet and listen to many of the people involved in this. It was a very special time. We met at the community centre at Parkview and from there walked along the canal to meet the Shia Muslim group near the Scout hut where they normally meet. Dr Naqvi gave us a powerful address and we were treated to a recital of the Koran by a 12 year old who has learnt the Koran by heart and wishes to go to Cambridge university to study comparative religion. We were very warmly welcomed with refreshments and all our questions were answered until we had to move on. We proceeded to MASCOT. This is a community organisation working to help people integrate into society, learn English, access benefits and health services. With a small and very dedicated staff they are a vital part of the community and are providing an important base when the community has been changing so much. On to the Sunni Muslim Sheerwater Islamic and Cultural Centre where we were treated to a fascinating talk by the manager of the centre, Bobby and a call to worship by the imam. Along with Dr Naqvi he explained how the centre had grown and was thriving and serving as a mission centre and answered all our questions about Islam and the differences and common ground of Shia and Sunni. They have much more in common than divides them and the fact that representatives of each community could hold a session together respecting each other shows how strong the ties are here in Woking. We went back to the Parkview centre for lunch. While having lunch we divided into groups and had a Living Library session with representatives from four faiths, Orthodox Christian, Baha’i, Hindu and Buddhist who we were not visiting today. The Living Library gives us an opportunity to listen, talk and ask questions of a person about their life and is a powerful way of learning about the person and the idea that they are representing in an intimate setting. We plan to hold a Living Library for people to explore this further in the future. I joined the Hindu “book” and was fascinated by exploring their faith and culture which are so entwined. As a Quaker I found many similarities between our different faiths. I hope that the people leading this got enough to eat as we never stopped asking questions. On to St Michael’s church. An Indian Syrian Orthodox community meets there on Saturday mornings and a few of them had stayed behind to welcome us with more refreshments and talk to us. A fascinating introduction to a community few of us had never known about. Made up of a nucleus of about 20 families the church is flourishing with their own priest. Their services are conducted partly in Syriac, a language derived from the Aramaic that Jesus would have spoken, partly in Malayalam the official language of Kerala and partly in English. Finally Jay spoke to us about St Michael’s Church. A shared Anglican and Methodist church it is fully involved in the community and the work of MASCOT. It is inclusive welcoming all people. The Church was weakened by the redevelopment when many of their community had their houses purchased to make way for the new developments and were forced to move out of the area. They are slowly recovering in numbers. They are an impressive light in the community and plans are developing to provide a base for MASCOT in the future. And we were welcomed with more refreshments! Then our lunch turned up to take home. Fortunately pizzas had been provided at lunch time so we never went hungry It was a wonderful day. An opportunity to learn about different cultures and faiths and talk with each other as we walked along.

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