District Interfaith Conference at Touchstone Centre, Bradford.
14-15th July 2010
I arrived at Touchstone Centre in Bradford on Wednesday at 10.45a.m. wondering what it was that I had let myself in for. I had high expectations for the Conference. As a person who had been involved in interfaith activities in the Burnley Circuit for a number of years, and in the last year having been elected to sit on the Building Bridges Committee in Burnley as a representative of the Methodist Church in Burnley, I wanted to try to find out how all of this fit within the structures of the Methodist Church. I did not know at this point what a tangled web I would get involved in. 
I was greeted by a whole host of people, whose names I forgot in all of the very warm welcome. I later learned them again when we talked one to one. A lesson to be learnt within our journey on the Interfaith journey, the importance of relationship building. We very soon went into our first session of introductions and opening devotions, as always with these new situations I found myself very nervous. I felt even more nervous, when I realised that I was the only one who was not steeped in the Methodist tradition, and apart from one other person who was off to Fiji as a missionary partner.
One of the topics we touched on over the two days was ` Who is the stranger amongst us`? There were times when that is how I felt. This was no fault of anyone who was there; it was just that our experiences were different – not any better, not any worse, just different. Another lesson for me to learn on the journey, how what I was experiencing was mirrored in the complex nature of interfaith relationships. The acknowledgement of, and how, we value the diverse experiences we have within any group of people.
Bea Foster
Photograph: Joy Barrow
Photograph: Joy Barrow
