13 April 2008 : Prayers for Tibet at the Imperial War Museum

Together with Jamyang Buddhist Centre, we organised an inter-faith prayer event on Sunday afternoon to remember the suffering in Tibet. There were conrtributions from several Buddhist groups, a Hindu kirtan group from Brighton, Sufi singers and rousing gospel songs from jazz diva Gill Manly. A powerful moment was the appearance of three nuns from Tibet, who sung a song which they had composed together in prison. Around a hundred poeple participated, despite the rain, at one point all joining in the St Ethelburga's "Prayer for an end to Violence".

10 April 2008: Archbishop visits St Ethelburga's

The Archbishop of Canterbury made a private visit to meet hte staff team, Trustees and a small number of guests. Discussion centred around how to reconcile St Ethelburga's Christian identity with involving people of other faiths and none as equal partners in the Centre's wprk. The visit ended with a service of Holy Eucharist at which the Archbishop gave an astonishing impromptu homily about how encounters with strangers alert us to "the strangeness of God", and how the task or reconciliation involves coming to terms with the ways these encounters change us.- "We must", he said "learn to love our future selves".

24 August 2007 Reza Baraheni and the poetry of exile

Leading Iranian write Reza Baraheni led a powerful evening of poerty, storytelling and music celebrating the work of artists exiled in Europe. Baraheni, Reza Baraheni, the author of more than sixty books of poetry, fiction, literary theory and criticism, currently teaches at the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto. English versions of his work were presented by poets Richard McKane and Stephen Watts, alongside poems of their own. Persian writer Mahasti Sharokhi came over from Paris for the evening to read extracts from her moving story The Hourglass. The event was organised jointly with Exiled Writers Ink and confirms St Ethelburga's as a superb venue for spoken word events.

June 21 2007: First interfaith delegation from Bulgaria vist the UK and St Ethelburga's

As one of the newest members of the European Union and one of the continent's oldest nation states, Bulgaria offers a shining example and a long history of largely trouble-free coexistence between its churches and faiths. An 11 strong delegation of leaders from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths in Bulgaria, including the Grand Mufti of Bulgaria, assembled at St Ethelburgas' for a conference on "Religious Tolerance and Understanding: The Example of Bulgaria and the Story of Faithful Coexistence." Together they told the story of Bulgaria's inter-religious success and heard about relations between faiths in Britain from speakers including John Battle MP, Baroness Uddin and Richard Chartres Bishop of London.

December 5: "The Imam and the Pastor": Film premiere in the Tent

In the 1990s, Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammad Ashafa led opposing, armed militias, dedicated to defending their respective communities as violence broke out in Kaduna. Now the two men are co-directors of the Muslim-Christian Interfaith Mediation Centre in their city, leading task-forces to resolve conflicts across Nigeria.  The "Imam and the Pastor" tells how they made this remarkable transition. It is both a moving story of forgiveness and a case-study of a successful grass-roots initiative to rebuild communities torn apart by conflict.  UK/Nigeria (2006) Dir: Alan Channer 40 mins 

November 24 : Peacemakers from Jerusalem meet with young people at St Ethelburga's

Young people from East Ham, Bow, Suffolk and Newham came together at St Ethelburga's to meet with Eliyahu Mclean and Sheikh Bukhari - a Jew and a Muslim who work together for peace in Jerusalem. Eliyahu and Sheikh Bukhari work under the umbrella of Jerusalem Peacemakers, bringing together Israelis' and Palestinians in Jerusalem to build relationships across the divides. The group explored what it means to be different from eachother using techniques such as 'listening circles' that are used by peacemakers in the Holy Land.

September 11 : 100 years since Gandhi's Declaration of Nonviolence commemorated at St Ethelburga's

On the eve of September 11th 100 people from diverse backgrounds, along with the wax figure of Mahatma Gandhi from Madame Tussauds, gathered at the Tent at St Ethelburga's. September 11th 2006 marked the 100th anniversary of the launch of the modern-day nonviolence movement with the birth of Gandhi's concept of Satyagraha. The anniversary was commemorated with a reading of the account of what happened 100 years ago, shorts talks from David Maxwell (trustee of the Gandhi Foundation) and Navadevip Chandra Das (a priest from the Krishna tample in Hertfordshire), a shared reading of the St Ethelburga's Prayer for an end to violence and a striking photo with Gandhi.

July 18: James Carty reaches Jerusalem

James Carty has completed his 3,650 mile pilgrimage from London to Jerusalem. His aim was to promote peace and understanding between faiths. Throuhg sponsorship he has also raised over £15,000 for four different charities involved in promoting reconciliation and understanding between different communities - St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, The Encompass Trust, The Mar Elias Educational Institutions and Neve Shalom ~ Wahat al-Salam. You can still make a donation here.

July 7 : Tribute Book to victims of 7 July 2005 bombings installed at St Ethelburga's

At a profoundly moving ceremony on the first anniversary of the bombings members of many of the bereaved families joined in a private ceremony at St Ethelburga's to place a Book of Tributes to those who were murdered. The Bishop of London spoke of the Book as the "creation of a new reality". Imam Musa Admani, Rabbi H Bennaroch and Sri Gauri Das read passages of scripture reflecting the faiths of some of the victims. The Book will be housed permanenetly at St Ethelburga's.

4 May 2006 : HRH Prince of Wales opens The Tent ;

Months of work by 60 people in four countries culminated yesterday in the opening of The Tent, our new space dedicated to the meeting of faiths, by HRH The Prince of Wales. Leaders of 9 world faiths joined him in the unique 16-sided structure, covered in woven goats hair in the Bedouin style, each rpesenrting a volume of their scripture. The Prince spoke powerfully about the need for religious tolerance

4 May: "Sharing the Space" document launched

A new St Ethelburga's report on "Promoting Conversations betweeen Christians and Muslims" was published today, suggesting ways in which difficuilt questions such as violence against religious moiniotites, apostasy and proselytising can be addressed between Christians and Muslims. More here

Friday 21 April: Republican Mayor visits on anniversary of IRA bomb

Councillor Pat McGinn, the Sinn Fein Mayor of Newry and Mourne, became the first senior Irish republican to visit the Centre. It was an IRA bomb that destroyed the chrch in 1993. Cllr McGinn said, ‘Those who I have met from St Ethelburga's have certainly helped myself and anyone who has engaged with them to look at the issues and challenges as we work together too achieve peace and reconciliation. ’ Presenting Simon Keyes, the Centre Director, with a piece of Belfast Crystal on behalf of Newry and Mourne council he added ‘what matters is what we now fill this with.’

Simon Keyes, Director of the Centre, said ‘Cllr McGinn's decision to visit the Centre is a powerful gesture of reconciliation that will give people confidence in the important peace building work that is going on in South Armagh. We had a very fruitful discussion about practical ways in which we might work together to help to heal some of the wounds of the Northern Ireland conflict, and how its lessons can be shared with people in other situations of conflict.’

This visit follows a number of visits by people from the Centre to South Armagh to build relationships with people there,