Soozy Nesom, LSE Undergraduate Student, reviews her experience being filmed by Songs of Praise on an interfaith baking workshop.
“Over the past 50 years, Sunday late afternoon British TV has aired Songs of Praise. This show broadcasts contemporary religious events while a congregation sings hymns or more contemporary worship songs. On Sunday 22nd November, a team of four Christian students from the LSE, along with the Revd. Dr. James Walters participated in interfaith week on the show. We engaged in inter-faith dialogue whilst cooking food for a local homeless shelter.
On Thursday of reading week, we headed to the new JW3 center on Finchley road to participate in the Jewish community’s Mitzvah day. This day happens every year, when a range of volunteers undertake projects for those in need in their local community. As part of this event they invited us, as Christians, to talk about our faiths whilst cooking faiths from both religions. This is because in all faiths, food represents an important symbol of hospitality. We cooked apple strudel (Jewish dish) mince pies (Christian dish), and a vegetable soup for a local homeless center at Kings Cross Methodist church.
We were split into three different interfaith groups and each group cooked a dish with the ingredients we were presented with. I cooked mince pies with another student from the LSE, a Jewish student Rabbi and another Jew. Whilst we baked these, the presenter, Connie Fischer, from ‘How to Solve a Problem like Maria’ came round and asked us questions about how we cope with any differences in our religions. In my group, we all agreed that interfaith dialogue challenges our own beliefs whilst allowing us to understand another religion better. It is this in the end that leads to understanding and respect of other religions and actually we were all surprised to find many similarities between the Jewish and Christian faith.
Interfaith events like these are essential in a modern world, where we are faced with different religions encountering one another.”