Tony Blair Faith Foundation

This week is UK National Inter Faith Week in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It is the third year of UK Inter Faith Week and around 400 events are expected to take place to mark it. The Week aims to help strengthen inter faith relations; highlight the contributions which faith communities make to society; and develop dialogue between those of religious and those of non-religious beliefs.

Our London Faiths Act Fellows, Charlotte and Usman and proud to be celebrating UK Inter Faith week with along with organizations around the UK.

They are working to eliminate the suffering and deaths caused by malaria through their interfaith work as a Tony Blair Faiths Act Fellow at Malaria No More UK. Enjoy their blog about their interfaith week campaign called ‘Believe. Resolve. Act’

Believe.

I think it’s fair to say that everyone believes in something. Whether it’s a belief that Chelsea will win the Premier League or that your mum’s home cooked meals are the best in the world. I believe that my mum’s cooking is the best. But then my partner Faiths Act Fellow Usman makes the same claim. Certainly, we all maintain diverse and individual beliefs. But the notion ‘to believe’ also holds a much deeper meaning for us. Usman and I, along with the four billion people of faith in the world believe that there is something more to life, something bigger or beyond us and something more than the secular, consumerist world in which we live. No matter what you call it, be that God or Allah, the Light, the divine or simply the balance of the universe; we believe.

Resolve.

On November 26, assuming the new moon is sighted, this will mark the start of a new year in the Islamic calendar. Being from contemplative traditions (practicing as a Sufi and a Quaker respectively) Usman and I are certainly no strangers to self-reflection. The start of a new year however, is often seen as the ideal opportunity to take a long hard look at oneself and one’s actions, attitudes and lifestyle choices and to resolve to do better. With the knowledge that a child dies from malaria every 45 seconds – a treatable and preventable disease - we are reminded of the fact that this world is far from fair and far from balanced. We are also reminded of the fact that as people living in the economic North, we hold the power to change this unbalance. And so this new year we resolve to do better. We resolve to use our privileged position to address the issues of extreme poverty and the suffering and deaths caused by malaria.

Act.

As Tony Blair Faith Foundation Faiths Act Fellows, we feel that it’s important for us to spend time reading and learning about religious traditions other than our own and we recently found a Biblical text which states: ‘Faith without action is dead.’ If you believe, whether you believe in God or whether you simply believe that we must work to fight extreme poverty, then we implore you to act. Faith, or belief, without action is dead. So please take action. Believe. Resolve. Act. Visit facebook.com/fightingmalaria and join the multifaith action to save lives or go to www.faithsact.org

Charlotte and Usman

Malaria no more