Exhibition:

“Questions of Faith”

This exhibition has arisen from an ongoing dialogue of over 40 years of multi-faith work in Charnwood Borough. This area has a long tradition of taking a lead in what is rapidly becoming a more urgent series of debates around the country. What do we mean by faith? What does it mean to us personally when all the trappings of our cultural differences are stripped away? How can we get to the essential meanings which may unite us as human beings? How do we move beyond the perpetual focus on what divides us, in an almost juvenile addiction, to be collectively distinctive from other groups? How do our individual beliefs shape us and our own relationships with those around us, families, friends, institutions and communities? These are all questions we hope this exhibition will raise.

This exhibition has also formed out of many dialogues undertaken locally in the month of October 2006. To some degree it is framed by the theme for One World Week 2006 – ‘Mind the Gap’. To be mindful of the complications and blind alleys to community cohesion and understanding between faiths (and those of no religious faith) when we neglect the essential human values and characteristics that underpin the vast majority of our lives. Why is there such an imbalance of favour in terms of emphasising marks of difference? Not that difference isn’t important and shouldn’t be celebrated – just that it is so often given higher priority than it deserves in promoting understanding between people.

This exhibition wouldn’t have happened without the support of many people, the Mayor of Charnwood’s Charity Appeal which made a grant to Charnwood Arts to help towards making the exhibition. There is no end to the thanks to the willing participants and their relatives and friends without whom this wouldn’t have been possible or as thought provoking as it has. We must also extend our thanks to Runa Choudhury for her ideas and interest and to Natalie Chabaud for all the design work and her hard work in printing, framing and hanging exhibition. Thanks also to Hiron Miah and Kevin Ryan for their dialogue and making of the images.