Visit to Touchstone Centre, Bradford

From the 9-10th of September I spent two fascinating days at the Touchstone Centre in Bradford. I hadn't been to Bradford for many years. Walking around Bradford, guided by the Revd Dr Barbara Glasson, its Director, one image remains with me: the scoreboard of the local cricket club in the foreground, and in the distance the dome of a mosque on the left and the spire of a church on the right.

I asked Barbara to share about the work of the Centre; she writes as follows:

If you look 'touchstone' up in the dictionary you will come up with two things, firstly a stone that reveals whether something is real gold or just a base metal - and secondly a fool.

And that's what it feels like to be here. As I sit at my desk looking out across the Bradford back yards and alleys outside my window where a small cohort of chickens scratch about between the wheelie bins. As I watch the Fresher’s nervously arriving at Bradford College and University chatting with the new friends they have come across on their tour round the campus I realise the dilemma of discerning what is 'true gold' in this mix of city contradictions. But then I am new to Bradford and to this office perched in a high Victorian house. Touchstone has the wisdom of 20 years being here in this multi-cultural and multi-faith environment.

So, what is Touchstone? Well, it's a group of people that make a small community base here whilst scurrying about doing other things: Awais working with small groups of women of various faiths, creating understanding and enabling some creative writing workshops, 'Poetry for Peace'. Then there's Deacon Ray, engaged with the student chaplaincy, which is not only ecumenical but also planning the development of an Inter Faith centre in a University complex where students are predominantly Muslim.

In the attic, resides the Beacon project which is an ecumenical initiative working with refugees and asylum seekers, providing front line support, accompaniment at court cases and a band of McKenzie friends who are companions to people struggling to find their way through the legal complexities of being an asylum seeker.

All this is backed up by Ruth and David the Touchstone administrators, and a band of regular volunteers.
Ah yes, and there's me, the new team leader, finding my way through the intricacies of this fascinating city, beginning to work out what it means to be here, how we grow into our status of being 'a connexionally significant project' and discerning how Touchstone can take a step into becoming something new and fresh whilst honouring the wisdom that comes from the past.

There is certainly a foolishness about attempting all this in a place where economic deprivation and inter-faith and inter-cultural friction are never far from the surface. But, having received an unexpected visit from my neighbours this week with the gift of a selection of wonderful curries that they had prepared for their Eid celebrations, I am also coming to see that to be Touchstone also reveals pure gold!