With Christmas fast approaching, communities across Kent are coming together to celebrate the festive season. But in an increasingly diverse and multifaith Kent, how can this period be a time for reflection and coming together in the face of growing tensions in our communities?
00:00Hello and welcome to this Kent's Night special. I'm Harry Craig.
00:25Have you put your Christmas tree up yet?
00:27Families across Kent are of course busy preparing for the festive season,
00:31but increasingly the holiday period is looking less traditional and less religious in a more diverse and multi-faith society.
00:38However, the universal Christmas message of hope and peace on earth is perhaps more relevant than ever before,
00:44as political divides continue to widen and instances of hate crime increase across the county.
00:49Bethan Bushell has been in Canterbury to find out more and ask people in the city what Christmas means to them.
00:56I think over the years Christmas has meant different things to me over different years,
00:59but now I suppose as my family are getting older, it's not about being around the family, friends, having a drink.
01:04Decorating the tree, putting all the decorations up.
01:07Getting the family together. We're musicians, so singing and playing music together as well.
01:13I work basically most of Christmas theology, so I don't really have any time off until Christmas Day.
01:16So I normally think about Jesus and then write a sort of poem and then sort of go back in time and think about how it was then.
01:22And especially when, you know, you're opening advent calendars and all that, then you sort of think of that little baby.
01:28You know, I have a daughter, so, you know, think about what it was like for me when she was born and what it was like for Mary.
01:34Canterbury is, of course, the home to the Church of England and will mark the festive season in a traditionally Christian way.
01:42But for many different communities across Kent and the UK, Christmas has come to me as something a bit different.
01:48Now, I ask the Archdeacon of Canterbury how the festive season can be a time to bridge these two communities together.
01:55Ah, well, of course, for the Christian Church, Christmas is one of the most important times of the year.
02:02It's a time when we recall the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.
02:06Jesus who was to go on to die on the cross to rise again and to make things right between God and human beings.
02:14But, of course, we do acknowledge that it is a different time now.
02:20Our society moves on. Society is always changing. Nothing is ever static.
02:25And so we welcome people in Canterbury Cathedral, in churches around the Diocese of Canterbury,
02:31to our services, whatever their beliefs and whatever they bring,
02:37to come and find a place to pray and a place to give thanks for the good things that there are in life.
02:43And there are all sorts of things where communities can come together to celebrate what is good about community,
02:50what's good about togetherness and try and find in that the things that unite us,
02:56that are stronger than anything that can divide us.
02:59A message of love and unity for communities across Kent, irrespective of faith, from the Archdeacon this Christmas.
03:06A very similar message comes from a group with a very different faith.
03:09Gravesend is home to one of the UK's largest Sikh communities, who will reflect and celebrate the end of a challenging year in their own way.
03:16Bethan headed down to their Goodwara to learn more.
03:23Welcome to Shri Guru Nanak Daba, the largest Sikh temple in Europe and a pillar of the community here in Gravesend and beyond.
03:31And like many religious groups across the county, they are preparing for a busy December.
03:36For Sikhs, the whole month of December, we refer to it as Shahidi month,
03:41which is really a month of martyrdom and kind of sadness,
03:45with the martyrdom of the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru.
03:50And yeah, so that's quite a key sort of part of the year for us in reflecting on their sacrifices.
03:58A key part of this will include reflecting on what has been a difficult year for many minority religious groups in Kent and across the UK.
04:05Here in Kent, in Gravesend area, we have fairly good community relations with all communities,
04:11but we know of incidents across the Midlands and other parts of the country where people have been victim to racial hatred.
04:19And we've had some incidents locally as well, but not to the same extent.
04:23But we have to work hard. We sort of work with all the different faith groups.
04:28We had an interfaith group here where we come together and share information with each other, knowledge,
04:36try to break down the barriers.
04:39Essential to fostering these strong community relations is the charity work that is central to the practices and teachings of Sikhism.
04:46We are trying to encourage a lot of charity work.
04:49So we are well known as, you know, this is the biggest Sikh Gurdwara in Europe.
04:55So, you know, all the communities are fully aware of what are we trying to do, what are we trying to achieve,
05:01get other communities involved as well, you know, with the Gurdwara.
05:05So we're trying to do as much as possible.
05:07Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhi, one of his main key points was that everyone should be a good human being first and foremost.
05:18Whatever faith you are, just be a good human being.
05:21So if you're a Christian, be a good Christian. If you're a Muslim, be a good Muslim.
05:26And we would never say to you, become a Sikh. If you want to, you're welcome to, but be a good human being first and foremost.
05:38Thank you, Bethan, and thank you to the Sikh community for welcoming us into their Gurdwara.
05:43Now, two communities who have increasingly been the target of hatred and hostility this year have been the Jewish and Muslims communities here in Kent and across the UK.
05:52In September, two people were killed in a terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
06:00Meanwhile, Home Office figures released last month suggest the number of hate crimes targeted at Muslims rose by 19% in the year to March.
06:08Earlier, I sat down with Dalia Halpern-Matthews, Chair of Trustees at the Chatham Memorial Synagogue, and Safir Khan, Imam at the Nazir Mosque in Gillingham,
06:17to ask them how their communities have come together to celebrate, reflect and fight against hate at the end of this year.
06:23I mean, for us, it's not one thing that, you know, we're sort of, we're only waiting to the end of the year.
06:29It's very much a community, and we're talking to each other on a daily basis on our WhatsApp group.
06:36And we actually have, at the end of the year, we have a festival called Chanukah, which is sometimes known as the Festival of Lights.
06:44And as part of that, normally, on the last Sunday of it, wherever possible, it's an eight-day festival, we have a party together.
06:55So we'll all come together on that evening, and we'll light the candles together.
07:00And that's really uplifting.
07:03But I think it's really important to actually have that communication as you go along, not just to wait to that end point.
07:11Because otherwise, if there are any issues, they will fester and build up.
07:16Whereas this way, you can diffuse things as you go along.
07:19Yeah, so just to follow up on that, I think very much similar to what Dalia has said.
07:24Like, obviously, us as religious communities, we meet up on a regular basis.
07:29We have activities in our centers.
07:32Likewise, in the Muslim community, we meet once a week for Friday prayers.
07:37And yes, obviously, when the community members meet and talk to each other, they obviously pray together as well, and they pray for each other.
07:46Plus, obviously, the wider issues as well in the world.
07:49We know over the years, there has been a lot of suffering, unfortunately, in the world.
07:53A lot of pain, and pain to people from all different backgrounds and faiths.
07:59And we believe that faith is something that brings us closer and together.
08:07So we use that tool of prayer and connection with Almighty God and also the connection we have with each other as communities.
08:17So we try to support each other.
08:19We're very lucky that we have a very good interfaith system here in Medway.
08:23So we utilize it and we enjoy it and we try to support each other.
08:27And what sort of interfaith work do you do to sort of encourage people to bridge the gaps that might exist between communities?
08:34It has to be said that Medway has an amazing interfaith community.
08:41We get on fantastically well.
08:43And it's not something that, you know, was an automatic thing.
08:47It was a lot of work to start with, but we've been doing this for over 30 years.
08:51And certainly the synagogue has been part of that since inception.
08:58And it's a really important thing because it just means that you see things from each other's perspective and you concentrate not just not on your differences, but actually on your common values, your shared values.
09:13Those things where and actually there is so much of most religions that is similar.
09:20You know, when you're looking at the way of being, we all really basically have that that similarity in terms of how we want to live and how we believe we should live and how we should look after each other.
09:34You know, there is there is there is far more in common than that which divides us.
09:40And I think that the rhetoric that you tend to hear on the media and everywhere else is all about the differences.
09:48And and, you know, this this person doesn't get on with this person because of their faith.
09:55But that's not actually reality at all.
09:58And it doesn't need to be reality where it is, where it genuinely is.
10:02It's just a question of dialogue, actually.
10:05And that's that's something that we're really good at, I think.
10:08Yeah, absolutely.
10:09I think, you know, just recently we had an interfaith week as well, and we have it, I think, every year.
10:15And the main purpose of that is that we can actually further be closer and visit each other physically as well.
10:23And we visit each other.
10:26We learn from each other.
10:27We, you know, we offer support to each other.
10:30I remember, you know, once the synagogue was, you know, attacked or there was some, you know, disturbance there.
10:39And we're able to connect because we have a good connection and we talk to each other.
10:44So we were able to connect and offer support.
10:46And likewise, we had issues at the mosque.
10:48And I remember Dalia reaching out to us and, you know, expressing support.
10:52So that means a lot.
10:53And as Dalia said that, you know, these communities, our faiths, religion brings us together.
10:59You know, the most of the conflicts that you look around, which is happening across the world, they're not based on faith.
11:05They're based on political issues.
11:07So that is something that we take comfort in, that we can always work together.
11:13We have, you know, sort of the same goals and we want the same as well for people.
11:18Peace, justice, kindness, you know, compassion.
11:21Thank you so much to Dalia and Sophia for joining us for such an important conversation.
11:26And to all our guests with such valuable messages for us all to live by and reflect on this Christmas.
11:32That's it from us this evening at KMTV.
11:34In the meantime, you can check out our special programmes by visiting our website to see the likes of Kent Climate,
11:40The Kent Politics Show and Made in Kent.
11:42That's all we have time for.
11:43Thank you so much for joining us and I hope you have a lovely evening.
Be the first to comment