On Tuesday April 21st, UPF Birmingham held a joint 'Principles of Peace' study evening in collaboration with the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP), an affiliated organisation, attended by over 60 people from a wide variety of religious and cultural backgrounds, including Muslim, Christian and Sikh leaders. There were a number of people attending for the first time, which brought a very nice, fresh feeling to the evening.
Dr. David Earle gave a presentation which discussed the 'Origin of Conflict and Suffering in our World'. People are clearly disturbed by the number and level of conflicts in our world at the moment, and could relate well to the presentation, which included many quotations from all our sacred scriptures, taken from the wonderful publication 'World Scripture', a Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts.
Following the presentation, Mrs. Patricia Earle invited several people to share their perspectives and thoughts on the topic, including some of our faith leaders, and the voice of young people.
Rev. Maureen Foxall then sang 'Make Me a Channel of Your Peace', after which we had a quiet time to think and pray for all those experiencing pain and suffering.
We concluded by sharing lovely food together, new friendships were made, and old friendships renewed, including a meeting of Sheikh Nuru Mohammed, Rev. Malachie Munyaneza and Kuldip Singh Ubhi, all of whom had travelled to Korea for World Summit 2020, just prior to the outbreak of Covid, and Imam Pirzada and his wife who went to Korea last August for the opening of the new temple.
In conclusion, a wonderful evening of learning and shared concern for peace, empowering us all to continue with our personal and collective efforts towards peace, “in myself, my family and the wider world”. David and Patricia expression their appreciation to those who supported this beautiful event.