Tony Blair Faith Foundation

Some 3% of the world’s population today have migrated from their country of origin: a small percentage, but an awful lot of people, 214 million.  In 1968 I used to be one of them, living in a small apartment under the Triborough Bridge on Long Island, and under a large extended family from the Dominican Republic who slept in shifts.  We both only arrived two years earlier.  And we both were figuring out how to be American by watching TV.

Justin Cohen, News Editor at Jewish News writes on the upcoming Jewish Living Expo. Lord Coe has hailed London’s diversity as key to its triumphant Olympic bid. As a cultural and business hotspot, with a proud record of welcoming those fleeing persecution, it’s little wonder the city has become a melting pot, reverberating to the sound of more than 200 languages.

Being a Muslim woman educated in a convent school in a country (India) that was predominantly Hindu made the experience of identifying a Female Faith Hero really challenging.

To mark International Women’s Day, the Face to Faith programme ran a series of special multi-point videoconferences, bringing together young people from 14 different schools and 6 different countries with special guest speakers to inspire them. On the 0300 Videoconference, students from Australia and India were joined by Eric Farr who works for the Faiths Act for Mothers Campaign.  It is odd for some to hear it put this way, but he mentioned the fact that for some women becoming pregnant is almost a "death sentence," because of the lack of maternal care.  He then men

Yaa Devi Sarvabhuteshu Matrirupena Sansthitah Yaa Devi Sarvabhuteshu Shaktirupena Sansthitah Yaa Devi Sarvabhuteshu Shantirupena Sansthitah Namastasyaih Namastasyaih Namastasyaih Namo Namah Hail to thee, Cosmic Feminine; who I see as the Eternal Mother, as Absolute Energy, as Omnipresent Peace. I bow to thee I was asked to write about ‘a contemporary woman of faith’ whom I admire, but I really do not know how to choose. Every woman I meet is a manifestation of the Divine Cosmic Feminine.

MedShare’s Faiths Act Fellows, Clint Fluker and Sana Rahim, recently spoke with Rev. Rob Hughes in the series premiere of YouthUniverse, an educational television program that explores creative local and global community development initiatives through the expressed viewpoints and demonstrated actions of interfaith youth and young adults. Take a moment to watch this wonderful and engaging interview, won’t you? This interview originally appeared on the Medshare blog, find it here.

My female faith heroes go back a long way, from Boudicca fighting her corner against the odds, to Mary Wollstonecraft, to Elizabeth Gaskell, Elizabeth Fry, Josephine Butler, and, more recently Dame Cicely Saunders, OM, founder of the modern hospice movement, and her less well-known predecessor, Mary Aikenhead, the convert from the Church of Ireland to Roman Catholicism who founded the Religious Sisters of Charity (Irish Sisters of Charity) in 1815, and thus the first modern hospice.

In November, 2011, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation held several panels at the American Academy of Religion’s annual meeting in San Francisco, California. Participants from the Faith & Globalisation and beyond presented their research on various issues. In the fourth installment of our blog series from the America Academy of Religion, we look at the presentation offered by Dr. Stewart M.

Ms. Fatima Gerbil knows from personal experience the challenges children in her community face. As a child Fatuma became an orphan, and as she grew older, she began to understand more and more the personal burden carried by parentless children. In 2003, she started the Community-Based Child Support Program, directed at both Christians and Muslims, in Bahirdar, Ethopia, which began with 87 children. Fatuma’s program focuses on educational and psychological support, as well as developing life- skills.

Faiths Act Fellows Harsha Sharma and Catherine Mansoor work as interfaith pairs at Health Poverty Action in London. They recently interviewed one another about the holidays of Holi and Purim. As a practicing Hindu, Harsha answers questions about Holi, and Catherine, a practicing Jew answers questions about Purim. Harsha: What is Purim? Catherine: Purim is a joyful spring holiday that is celebrated with festive meal, gift-giving, fancy dress and noisemakers in the synagogue.