As the world looks at London over the next few weeks, HOPE not Hate is inviting us to celebrate modern Britain – a kaleidoscope of colours and cultures.  Get together with your neighbours, schools, places of worship, community organisations and plan a delicious meal.  Britain Tastes Great is looking for dishes that define modern Britain – add your own to the ultimate collection of recipes that proves Britain Tastes Great!

For the really adventurous, people can host their own event. This can be a house party, a picnic in the park or in the local community centre. We’ll be encouraging churches, mosques, temples and local sports centres to open their doors to the local community and share food.

There’s a pull-out supplement in the Daily Mirror today, with news from the Ramadan Festival, Dine@Mine and the Imperial War Museum.

And a new website is now up – lots of recipes, a map of events and much more – Britain Tastes Great.

The sun shone on one of the many inter faith walks co-ordinated by the South London Inter Faith Group this weekend.  This one started at Southwark Cathedral and took in Bevis Marks Synagogue, East London Mosque and Kagyu Samye Dzong.  Here are some photos.

Rose petals were strewn on to the River Thames from London Bridge.

Entering Bevis Marks Synagogue, which has the longest unbroken history of worship of any synagogue in Europe.  One of the congregation welcomed us in and told us the history of Judaism in the UK, the Sephardic tradition and about the congregation today.

Entering the London Muslim Centre, which stands alongside East London Mosque.

Inside East London Mosque, where we were given a warm welcome.

Truce campaigners David Wardrop of UNA Westminster and Gurbakhsh Garcha of UNA Lewisham holding the latest London Peace Network flyer under the Olympic Truce flag today.

The UN Forum in London today held a panel debate on the Olympic Truce, “Can we turn a fine ideal into a living reality?”  The panelists were Wilfried Lemke, adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Dame Margaret Anstee DCMG, former UN Under-Secretary-General, Sir Nicholas Young, Chief Executive, British Red Cross and Honey Thaljieh, Founder, first Palestinian women’s national football team.

Dowload the flyer here.

Paradise Street opens today at the Waterloo Festival

Staged in an air-raid shelter beneath the church, the Waterloo Festival kicks off this evening with a theatre production set in WWII and an opening concert in the church.

Drop-in art workshops, a community fête, a Festival Eucharist celebrating different faith traditions, a world première of Orlando Gough’s Love is Strong as Death, a symposium and much more on the theme of War & Peace continues over six days.

Full details here.

London’s Mayor is backing a series of inter faith walks being held across South London this weekend to showcase the multi-faith character of the capital.

The Mayor says,

“I am delighted to lend my support to the South London Inter Faith Walks in this summer like no other for London.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games offer the most wonderful demonstration of togetherness, and it will be a joy to see athletes and visitors from all over the world, of all faiths and none, coming together in our capital where we are almost unique in being able to offer them all a home from home.

That is something to celebrate and for which we can all give thanks, and I can think of no better way to do so than by joining one of these Inter Faith walks in that same spirit of togetherness and sporting endeavour.”

Coordinated by South London Inter Faith Group and organised by local groups, each event is free and open to anyone of any faith or none. Participants will spend about an hour in up to eight different places of worship and can drop in and out at any part of the day. Participating boroughs are: Hounslow, Richmond, Kingston, Merton, Wandsworth, Lambeth, Southwark, Croydon, Lewisham, Bromley and Greenwich. 

Sarah Thorley, organiser of 15 previous south London walks says,

“Come and join in! Meet and walk and talk with your neighbours. Now is your chance to enter all those mysterious buildings you’ve never quite dared to go into.

Visit temples, churches, mosques and synagogues all in one weekend.

See for yourselves the genuine inter faith cooperation that exists.”

Details of the walks in your area are listed here.

Send in photos of your walk to be added to London Peace Network’s Gallery.

Truce Arts will help you create your own animated film.

A Truce can mean many things – shaking hands, calling a halt to hostilities, putting down arms – but at heart it is about pausing and reflecting on what is really important.

Think of a moment of reconciliation in your favourite film, song, story – and make your own version of it in animated form.

Create original digital artwork and share it with your friends, family and the rest of the world!

Truce Arts invites you to join them in thinking about the various ways that Truce can be understood and identified in all of our lives.

Get your work displayed on public screens

Entries submitted by Friday 20th July will be considered for inclusion in our video package to be displayed on public screens around the UK in the run up to the Olympics.

Have a look at the artwork created by our three Truce artists; Janette Paris, Grennan and Sperandio, and Soda, and the young people they have worked with in London.

Be inspired

Take inspiration from events in your own life, your favourite movies, comics, books or video games and create your own artwork which will be displayed on the Truce Art Project online gallery.

Every piece of work you submit is eligible to be shown in the Truce Arts online Gallery. The best artwork each fortnight will become our ‘lead image’ and be displayed prominently on our homepage.

Download the toolkit to get going.

Get busy ;)

One of the very best ways to meet  local people from different religious traditions – and none – is walking and talking together and discovering the unexpected.

South London Inter Faith Group has encouraged and supported a coordinated set of inter faith walks this year immediately before the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

There will be walks right across the southern part London during the weekend 14th and 15th July 2012. Local groups have chosen the Saturday or the Sunday, or both, depending on local factors.  Download a map showing (almost) all the walks. Find the individual maps below.

The aim is to use this time when the global spotlight is on London to celebrate the multi faith character of London and to demonstrate the inter faith collaboration that is taking place.

If there’s one in your borough, download your map below and join in!  Spread the word to friends and local communities.

Here are the flyers and maps for all the participating boroughs:

Bromley

City of London and Southwark

Croydon

Greenwich

Hounslow

Kingston

Lambeth – Saturday

Lambeth – Sunday

Lewisham

Merton

Waltham Forest

Wandsworth

Richmond – will be posted soon.

Community Champions | news.

HOPE not hate is launching a competition to find the champions of our communities – the unsung heroes who bring communities together and make life better for ordinary people.

These might be people who through their work – like a youth worker, teacher or doctor – help to break down barriers between communities. It might be people who give up their spare time through voluntary and community work to contribute to making their communities a better place. It might be someone who uses their position in a place of worship to reach out to people of other faiths and of none. It might be someone working with refugees or a teacher who helps children from different cultures to get along together; or it could be a parent who gives up their spare time to help young people from different backgrounds to play sport.

Every community has them and, now, HOPE not hate would like to acknowledge them too.

HOPE not hate is asking supporters to nominate the people in their community who they believe warrant the term of “community champion”.

The most inspiring will be invited to a HOPE not hate award night at a top London restaurant in early autumn.

Let’s say thank you to those who make life better for those around us.  Nominate your Community Champion.