'More in Common' Inter-faith Walk in London

Walkers at the New West End Synagogue

In response to this summer's rising tide of hate crime, the Westminster and Bayswater Group of Amnesty International made an inter-faith walk in London last Saturday, carrying the human rights message of justice and reconciliation.

The group visited St James's Church, Piccadilly, the New West End Synagogue in Bayswater, and then the London Central Mosque in Regent's Park. A meditation on the plight of refugees started the day, when the Revd Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James's, described the church's response to the refugee crisis when they installed a boat in the nave last Christmas. The inflatable dingy had been found at a beach on Lesbos, near the coast of Turkey, which was used to transport 62 refugees across the choppy Aegean Sea, despite being designed to carry a maximum of 15 people. Migrants, tourists, Christians and Muslims came to see the boat and were moved enough to share their stories about the issue.

Before bidding the walkers farewell, the Rector prayed with the group - who included parishoners from Holy Apostles RC Church in Pimlico and St Peter's at Eaton Square - for their work to uphold human rights throughout the world.

Across Hyde Park, group members were welcomed at the New West End Synagogue, where they joined prayers, which were said, chanted and sung by the superlative choir, and heard a sermon calling for the wealth of God's gifts to be used not only for ourselves, but to enrich our communities. The walkers then enjoyed the hospitality of Kiddush refreshments served at the synagogue following prayer services, which included cake, crackers, gefilte fish and wine. After being given a tour of the Synagogue, and a question time around the rituals and customs of the faith, the group walked to Regent's Park, to the London Central Mosque.

There, members were given a tour of the building and invited to join in the Mosque activities, including a lecture on Islam, and were shown an exhibition on the history of Islam and the place of women in Muslim society. At the call to prayer, they were invited into the prayer hall, before meeting members of the Mosque who expressed their desire for more inter-faith events.

Inter-faith reaching out was welcomed by the Chair of the Westminster and Bayswater Amnesty International Group, Artemis Kassi. He said the walk was to signify that we have "more in common than that which divides us," and that the group wanted to give witness to the group's deep abhorrence of hate crimes and inter-cultural hatred, which had increased since the June referendum.

The Westminster and Bayswater Amnesty International Group meets at 7pm on the third Tuesday of each month at St Peter's Eaton Square, London, SW1 9AL, and welcomes newcomers. The Group was founded in 1976 by Fr Reginald Fuller, a priest at Westminster Cathedral who had lived in Africa and witnessed human rights abuses, including people being dragged away in the night, which had continued to haunt him. He had a reputation among his fellow priests at the Cathedral for being loquacious at their communal dinners. One evening, he ended a long monologue on the regrettable state of human rights in the world by saying: "It's a pity we don't have a group of Amnesty International here." Cardinal Basil Hume immediately chipped in: "Why don't you start one?" Within a week, Fr Fuller had called a public meeting attended by more than 40 people, and so the Westminster Cathedral Group of Amnesty International was born.

Contact for the Westminster Group: dom_stewart@hotmail.co.uk