Muslim – Christian Understanding

Saturday 13 May 1400h – 1700h

Sheikh Mohammad Ali Shomali and Dom James Leachman will lead
Muslim  – Christian Understanding
on Saturday 13 May 2017. 
We hope to host about 25 people with a balance of religions, ethnicities and genders.

Muslim – Christian Dialogue: We’re making London safer for everyone

Our purpose is to bring together people of from the Muslim  and Christian faiths in an atmosphere peace and trust. We want to look at the varying levels of our human, cultural, religious, spiritual & mystical experience in these  two cultures of the London we love. Together we have lots of contacts with Muslim and Christian believers and activists. We want more people to remember just how easy it was for Europeans to slide in barbarism, only 70 years ago and to prevent something similar and dreadful from happening again.

Dr Shomali is imam of the Islamic Centre of England in Maida Vale. He kindly hosted Dom James Leachman of Ealing Abbey to visit on 17 February 2017. They also invited Fr Maximilian Musindai OSB and others to participate in the event. Short Youtube

London Spring: We’re making London safer for everyone

London Spring supports this new event that will take place at 74 Castlebar Road. The name London Spring calls to mind the spring of water that bubbles beneath the property. It also evokes memories of the Prague Spring in 1968, the Arab Spring in 2011 and the world wide hope for a deeper democracy. We have a dream for such events can take place in this underused and partially restored property.

London Spring

lounge room at no 74

lounge room at no 74

James Leachman wants to create a “dense spot”, perhaps for just a short time at 74 Castlebar Road, W5. Here people from many different backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities can meet in a Worldwork sort of way.
We intend to invite about 25 people from different backgrounds to an initial event. We can sort themes for future discussion and facilitation. We will offer a vegetarian lunch.

The consensus is that a Saturday between 1400h and 1700h would be the best day and time. We have already asked a number of people if they present at the event, hopefully on Saturday 13 May 2017.

74 Castlebar Road, W5

Overton House on Castlebar Road is an elegant red-brick, neo-Gothic house. This typically Victorian suburban house contains 19th century stained glass, floor tiles, and carved wood features. A short walk through the monastery gardens behind Ealing Abbey monastery and Church leads to this charming spot.

labyrinth in the garden at no74

labyrinth in the garden at no 74

This charming building houses a number of activites that translate Catholic and Benedictine values into language and expressions more accessible to post Christian generations. One of the interpretive tools we have used for some time is toolkit of ‘human strengths’ of the Eriksonian system of psychology; trust, hope, overcoming obstacles, competence, fidelity and love.

Ealing Abbey  JL revised 31 March 2017