Minutes of NW Forum of Faiths
Meeting on 20 March 2007
At Liverpool Hope University

1. The Chair thanked Professor Gerald Pillay, Vice Chancellor and Rector of Liverpool Hope, for his warm welcome and generous hospitality.

2. Professor Pillay welcomed Forum members to Liverpool Hope University. He gave a short history of the institution going back to an Anglican foundation in Warrington in 18?? and Roman Catholic roots in Liverpool in 18?? At the time of their foundation there were only six universities in the country and higher education was effectively the preserve of the middle and upper classes. He stressed that there was still work to be done since, that although numbers of students from less than privileged backgrounds had grown numerically, percentages are effectively the same over a century later. Liverpool Hope was unique in being the only ecumenical faith-based university in Europe. It owed much to the leadership of David Sheppard and Derek Worlock, respectively former Bishop and Archbishop of Liverpool. Professor Pillay suggested that given its faith roots and its strong theology tradition, it was a particularly appropriate venue for a meeting of the NW Forum of Faiths and he hoped that the association would continue.

1. Forum Business
   
   Apologies
   Joginder Bhamra, Rt Rev Dr Peter Forster, Maneck Mehta, Suresh Mehta, Abdul Hamid Qureshi, Annette Pinner, Louis Rapaport, A K Sinha, Ishwer Tailor.
   
   New Members
   Bishop David Gillet (Christian), Dr Shiv Pande (Hindu).
   
   Minutes of Meeting of 15 November
   
   

Matters Arising
David Arnold (Jewish, Manchester) reported on a visit by Keith Barnes, Director GoNW to the Manchester Jewish Community, arranged in the aftermath of the November meeting.

4. Membership Issues

John Devine reported the impending retirement of Martyn Newman and Peter Brain. Replacements would be required in accordance with the terms of reference, Martyn's replacement as a Christian member for Merseyside would be managed by the Merseyside Council of Faiths. They had already nominated Archbishop Patrick Kelly as his replacement. The Manchester Faith and Community Leaders Group would be invited to manage nomination of a Christian replacement for Peter Brain. In addition, nominations would be sought for Peter Brain's replacement as Chair in time for the next meeting on 20 June.

5. (a) NWDA Agenda

Helen Boothroyd (Christian, Cumbria), reported on behalf of the group monitoring the Regional Economic Strategy (RES). A twenty year strategy consultation on the 2009 version would soon begin. It was important that the Forum was ready to engage in that process and she sought the involvement of two more members to join her in that task. This would be largely a virtual process, requiring little or no face-to-face meeting. John Devine gave a health warning that faith community input in the process was not merely to ensure that faith issues got special mention in the RES (although this was the case in the 2006 revision) but to ensure that the faith perspective on the wider economic issues would be taken into account. Mention of faith communities in the RES implied a willingness to help deliver the strategy rather than merely criticise. The Forum should consider the capacity of the faith communities they represent to deliver this.

David Arnold reported on the unexpected award of the first national casino to Manchester. He spoke of a lose/lose scenario. Manchester had "gained" a casino with its undesirable consequences without the mitigating advantages of a successful Blackpool bid. Manchester did not need the casino in the same way that Blackpool did. It had other strings to its bow. Blackpool has no "plan b". Parliamentary debate suggested that the case is not entirely closed. Furthermore, the bidding process would effectively begin all over again in order to identify which body would provide the facilities and where in the Manchester sub-region. Bishop John Goddard (Christian, Lancashire) said that the decision had reopened the question of faith community opposition to the principle of the casino as a legitimate tool for regeneration. Opposition in Blackpool had not been to gambling per se, but to its consequences. The already disadvantaged would bear the brunt of these. Faith communities had recognised the need to mitigate these side effects. Sir Howard Bernstein had interpreted faith communities' willingness to pick up the pieces as indirect support for Manchester's bid in setting up a "responsible gaming unit". The Council would ensure that the future license holder provided the funding stream to support these efforts. The Manchester Faith Network had already agreed to make representation to Central Government. A strategy to gather empirical evidence for the negative impact of the decision was required. These would apply not merely to the Super Casino, but to other future casino developments. It was agreed that the Forum of Faiths would express their support for the Manchester Faith Network initiative and robustly register their concern on (a) the dubious value of having the economic regeneration of the region dependant on gambling in the North West; and (b) the inevitable effect of this on the most vulnerable. At the same time these concerns should be reported to the NWDA.

(b) NWRA
Regional Spatial Strategy and Climate Change

David Emison reported on the North West climate change consultation document and the final strategy report. Faith communities in Cumbria had responded to the consultation. The challenge from faith communities was to "get real". As part of the wider community in the North West, they have a responsibility to reduce their own carbon footprint. There was an opportunity to challenge the current culture of conspicuous consumption rather than merely to seize the economic opportunities that climate change might bring to the region in terms of the nuclear dividend and other alternative energy opportunities. The document lacked any element of self-sacrifice - and all faith communities have a view on this. It was a myth to suggest that you could reduce consumption and have everything at the same time. Hard decisions would have to be made. For example, Carlisle Airport with its opportunity for more accessible cheap air travel was a case in point. Nor did the report have any global or even national dimension. Furthermore, it seemed to assume an urban focus. For example, car sharing is a meaningless exercise in thinly populated areas of Cumbria. In conclusion, this is a challenge to our communities. Further volunteers from the Forum were required to monitor this with a view to producing the Forum's own response for the NWRA and the NWDA.

(c) GONW
Hate Crime Initiative

Check date The Preventing Extremism Together consultation was attended by both Khalid Anis and Zia Chaudhry. The Minister, Phil Woollis, had been more impressive talking off the record and good ideas had been exchanged during the informal group discussion. It remained to be seen whether this would be carried over in the follow-up. There was a feeling that although the title was preventing extremism, the true agenda was probably preventing terrorism. Bishop David Gillett spoke of a meeting with Muslim academics organised by DCLG that he had attended as Chair of the Christian Muslim Forum. David Arnold voiced the fear that faith communities might feel they were being exploited for political ends. Khalid Anis expressed his disappointment that a media initiative being pursued by the Muslim community with GONW had been postponed. Bill Chambers stated that Liverpool Hope University might be interested in supporting such an initiative with the Muslim community.

Regional Offender Management Services

Further to Marie McLaughlin's presentation at the November meeting, John Devine had attended a meeting of chaplains at HMP Risley. Ironically, those faith communities with full-time dedicated chaplains, had less capacity for networking in the wider community than their part time colleagues from minority faiths. The Home Office wished to explore faith community support for a recently released offenders in an attempt to reduce re-offending. There were, however, some examples of good practice already in the North West.

Church Urban Fund

The NWDA was exploring the possibility of match funding for some of the £750,000 CUF projects in the North West. An initial pilot of £100,000 for 2007/08 would explore growing faith projects from grant dependency into social enterprises.

Operation EDEN

A three year project had used faith communities on Merseyside to deliver the environmental agenda in deprived areas. Phase 2, Faiths4Change, would extend this work throughout the region for Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria for a further three years.

Faith Communities Consultative Council

David Rayner spoke of his role at DCLG and his former position at the inner-cities religious council. He would continue working on this agenda from GONW whilst answering directly to DCLG. The FCCC represented all faiths and is the instrument set up by the Cohesion and Faiths Unit at DCLG to engage the faith communities in all issues of public policy.

Emergency Planning

John Devine described how, as the RC member on the FCCC, he had been asked to chair a working group to prepare guidelines for both government and faith communities themselves, on the potential contribution to be made in the event of a flu pandemic. The group would report to the FCCC at the end of April.

Department of Work and Pensions

Details were given of a seminar in Manchester DATE called by DWP Minister, Jim Murphy MP, to explore engagement of faith communities in welfare provision. This was both an opportunity and a challenge to faith communities in building up their capacity.

Migrant Works North West

A joint initiative of the Transport and General Workers Union and the NWDA, Migrant Workers North West was inaugurated at the Reebok Stadium Bolton on 9 February 2007. The event was fully subscribed with hundreds attending. It focused on Eastern European migration and the positive contribution that was being made to the North West economy. A Polish priest, Father Edward Soska, reported on incidents of exploitation.

Bill Chambers gave notice of a youth event being organised by Hope to coincide with the Liverpool Capital of Culture celebrations.

Members were reminded of the need for further volunteers to monitor progress on these initiatives. The next meeting on 20 June would be an afternoon session beginning with lunch at 1pm. The venue is still to be advised. It is hoped to include a presentation on Integration and Cohesion. The following meeting will take place on Wednesday 31 October at 5.30pm.