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Rebecca Hardie

December 11th, 2015

How I Pray: Primary School Interfaith Assemblies

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Rebecca Hardie

December 11th, 2015

How I Pray: Primary School Interfaith Assemblies

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

As part of Interfaith Week, The Faith Centre brought LSE students of different faiths together to give Primary School Assemblies. They each showed an item that helps them to pray and reflected upon how their beliefs encourage them to respond to challenges and conflicts in the world today. George Fattal, an undergraduate Government student at LSE, shares his experience of presenting in assemblies.

Interfaith Blog

“As a first year, I had experience of using the Faith Centre at LSE to help me practice my faith. However, until this week I had never used it to help give back to the local community.

On Tuesday, three of us from different faiths went to a primary school in King’s Cross. As well as myself (a member of the Jewish Society) there was a member of the Muslim society and the Protestant Society. Unlike many interfaith activities that I had participated in before the aim was not to enrich our own understanding but to help spread the importance of interfaith activities to others.

We each began by giving a short presentation as to how we pray.  Although we pray in what seem to be very different ways there are certain elements that we have in common. After this, the head teacher stressed the importance of the fact that some people may not have any faith or may be agnostic. The students agreed that they also have a clear idea of what is right.

Siddur  Rosary Beads  Prayer Mat  Candle_flame_(1)

After this, we spoke about what compassion means in our religion, as this is a theme that the children have been exploring. Unsurprisingly, charity seemed to be a recurring idea through all three religions.

In the last bit of the session the assembly moved on to talk about the event in Paris that shocked the entire world. The pupils were presented with pictures of famous monuments from around the world with the French flag shone upon them. The students agreed that this has a deep message. The whole world, despite its differences, was united in support to France.  Furthermore, one teacher who is also a member of a nearby mosque highlighted the fact that the terrorists who conducted the attacks do not represent Islam. It was important to make this point as some members of society, unfortunately, have this view.

The whole assembly had a key message, which was that it is important to talk about faith. This is the only way that we can dispel misconceptions and create a cohesive society. The respect and maturity that the primary school students showed was impressive and shows that there is a future for a cohesive multicultural Britain.”

Read what students of St Clement Danes Primary School felt about their visit to the Faith Centre to meet LSE students here.

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Rebecca Hardie

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