Author Archive

A Sheffield Interfaith Walk takes place on Sunday 13th April at 2.30 p.m. until 5 p.m.

This is intended as a celebration of faith & unity and is organised by the Islamic Society of Britain and Yorkshire and Humber Faiths Forum. The route will run through the Burngreave area of the City.

ALL ARE WELCOME.

Start: St Catherines of Alexandria, Melrose Rd, S3 9DN

End: Firth Park Methodist Church, 8 Stubbin Lane, S5 6QL

Please do come along and say hello!

We had a day of Pureland Practice at 118 today. We were joined by Marie, Mark and Paul and the day included a shared lunch and a discussion around nembutsu practice. It was a relaxed time and we are hoping that we will be able to to offer further weekend events in the coming months. Do let us know if you would be interested in attending!

Meanwhile, our regular monday evening services continue. See the diary page.

 Ray writes -

Through January we have been meeting regularly on monday evenings for a meal and practice together.  Tonight though, instead of a service, we chose to attend the candlelit memorial ceremony held at the Winter Garden as part of Holocaust Memorial Day.

I was conscious of just how busy we all are. Sundari with a deadline for the completion of her book manuscript;  Bhaktika not present because he was working late; Stuart about to begin a night shift at the hospital; Sally just starting a new job; Sue also in the early days of her new career as a housing officer; and me, with a head full of planning for people’s alcohol detoxifications! The line of our liturgy that reads “Wishing to practise a religious life in truly simple faith” has become almost a koan for us as we explore what it means to live a buddhist life very much amidst life in the world.

The memorial was moving. There were some readings given by students from the King Edward VII Secondary School, including Benjamin Zephaniah’s powerful poem - We Refugees

Khun Saing spoke of his experiences fleeing from Burma and the home he has found in the UK.

But it was the words of Dr Otto Jakubovic that will stay with me. He started by saying he had been asked to speak for five or six minutes about his experiences as a child in the concentration camps during WWII. An impossible task and he spoke for much longer. He spoke with great dignity and the image that remains is that of a 14 year old boy, arriving at a death camp after an unimaginable train journey in a cramped carriage, walking in a line that seemed to be being segregated into two streams. Puffing out his chest, saying he was 18 and a gardener rather than a just a school boy, he was thus  spared the wavering of a thumb that meant he avoided being immediately sent to  to the gas chambers and instead was led to the camp.  ”You had to have luck to survive” he said.

The event ended with the lighting of candles and affirmations about what people could do right now to address discrimination in our own city and how we can all be a part of being a welcoming, inclusive community.

The “Meeting Amida” evening took place on thursday evening and went well. There were 33 people in attendance at the Quaker meeting house on a cold and blustery night. Prasada began the evening with a talk in which she spoke about how the Amida Trust had developed and the ethos behind its social action, using the India project as an example. Modgala was also present to share her experiences. Prasada went on to discuss how she came to write her book Buddhist Psychology and then gave a reading from her latest work The Other Buddhism which intertwines pureland buddhism with psychology and environmentalism.

Dharmavidya took up the theme of Engaged Spirituality which appeared to inspire a post on his blog the next day -

Engaged spirituality is really something quite different from secular activism. The latter is an effort to get a result and motivation therefore tends to be tightly tied up with success or failure whereas the spiritual perspective is in the scale of time unlimited. The spiritual person, in principle, does the right thing whether there is any visible result or not. Spirituality or religion is about living one’s life according to eternity rather than according to temporal conditions. When one approaches things in that way, it is not a matter of “How can I bring about change?” so much as how can I contribute to change that is already happening on a much vaster scale. Each faith community will frame this according to its own mythic structure. As Pureland Buddhists we will say that we are playing our part in Amida Buddha’s great work of transformation whereby a Pure Land is coming into being for the benefit of all. The Pureland Sutra is the only Buddhist sutra with a comprehensive ideal social manifesto. We see Amida Buddha’s work as a massive change that is underway that will tranform this world completely, but will probably take much longer than our short lifetimes. Along the way of such change there are bound to be many ups and downs, but individual triumphs and afflictions are really such small fare in the grander scheme of things that they can be regared to all intents and purposes as illusory. We are part of a bigger story. To identify with the bigger story means to have faith and not to think that it all hinges on my own little bit of power or influence. Faith in Buddhism is shraddha which literally means “putting our heart into something”. In this sense everybody has faith, but do they have faith in the most noble thing? If they do then many of the personal frustrations melt away because one is then not working on one’s own account but on that of the sages of all times. The wonderful thing about the spiritual life is the fact that even beings such as we - prone as we are to all sorts of excesses and failings - just as we are - can still be accepted into and become part of the great movement that all the Buddhas are working to bring about for the benefit of all sentient beings in this and all possible worlds.

The coffee break was a chance to mingle and chat and then there was a Q&A session. All in all, a successful evening in a lovely venue.

Pictures taken by Sally at the protest meeting near the Peace Gardens organised by the Karen Community in Sheffield to raise awareness about the current situation in Burma.

A small number of Sheffield Buddhists gathered nearby to the main protest and sat in meditation and silence. A buddhist who attends the  FWBO centre and was just cycling past, stopped… turned around… and joined us! There were representatives from at least four local buddhist groups.

It certainly made for a striking image with many people stopping to watch and take photographs and only a handful of disparaging remarks. Afterwards, eight of us returned to 118 for a meal and a service.

Ray writes -

The world has been watching as Buddhist monks took to the streets in Burma, and we have held those caught up in the military clampdown in our thoughts, meditations & prayers. We wait, we hope.

What to do? You want to do something but what will help the situation? Make it worse? Have no effect whatsoever?

Sujatin has been blogging informative news articles, whilst the Narborough community organised a vigil in Leicester.

Monday evening, we sat around the table at 118 for our shared meal prior to our pureland service. Sally noted that there had been a small demonstration that evening in front of the Town Hall. With the aid of Sally’s laptop we discovered that the Karen community within Sheffield had organised the vigil. Bhaktika went on to make a few phonecalls and some links have now been made and we will be attending next week’s vigil. We are hoping other local buddhists and faith groups will be in attendance too.

Will such a demonstration make any real difference? I don’t know, but it feels right that next monday we will stand alongside a small community of people within Sheffield who may have  friends and family caught up in this tense situation so many miles away. It feels good to be making new links and friendships. It is the least one can do if one is moved by the plight of the Burmese people.

Namo Quan Shi Yin Bosat

Links

The Burma protests: What are they all about?
The Burma Campaign UK
Sheffield protest
Amnesty International

Sundari & Bhaktika write -

It seems a while since we wrote from here - not since the floods in fact. The effects here for us in Broomspring Lane are now in the past, though not so for other people in the region as there are still people out of their homes and dealing with loss.

It is nearly three months since Sally moved here, and we are enjoying both the challenges and the ‘joys and freedoms’ of living as a community of three at 118.

Sue has taken over prime responsibility for the Monday evening meal, which is a really good development all round - and much appreciated by the inhabitants of 118.

We have changed the form of the Monday evening to have the meal first, then the service followed by cup of tea and chat for those that want to stay. This followed some conversations about our accessibility and the form of the evening. We have been joined by a couple of new people, and there is a gentle sense of development and growth.

We had a Saturday study morning open to all which we spent exploring our vision of sangha. What does it mean to live a religious life of truly simple faith as a householder? and together? Why is this a collective practice? What does it mean to take refuge in the sangha?

Our Sheffield vow 22 group has also met twice and had lively conversations.

The sudden death at Findhorn of Andrew Murray, known to a number of people in Sheffield, was a shock to Sundari and Bhaktika. Andrew was the sort of person who made a deep impression on everyone he met. He stayed with us when he came to Sheffield, and we counted him our friend, though we were not as close as many other people. We held a memorial service here for people who knew him, and we were very glad to be able to offer the container of Buddhist practice for a collective expression of grief. It was a very moving occasion. A friend who was very close to Andrew has just been staying with us for a couple of days, and that has been very good too.

A return of the sunshine has meant that we have been able to to much of our morning practice outdoors with our garden Buddha, which has been wonderful. Just sitting with the creatures and all the growing things has been a very sustaining way to start the day. Sally has just cleared round the garden Buddha who was beginning to disappear under foliage.

Sue made a crumble with the first blackberries of the year - and now we have started pcking the ones at the cottage……mmmmmore to come.

 Prasada’s new book, The Other Buddhism,  is now available in the shops -

The Pureland schools are the largest Buddhist denominations in Japan, and yet this approach to Buddhism is hardly known in the West. Pureland centres on our relationship with Amida Buddha, the embodiment of measureless love, light and life. It offers a fresh view of spirituality, recognising us in our mundane lives, whilst lifting us into relationship with the eternal. As ordinary people, we cannot fathom our own depths nor can we know the immensity of the universe. We can but stand in awe and reach out to what we intuitively know to be beyond the small orbit of our lives. Pureland is a path of simplicity and beauty, poetry and nature. It is the path of faith.

EVER WANTED TO TRAVEL THE WORLD, BUT NOT QUITE GOT ROUND TO LEAVING SHEFFIELD? REFUGEE WEEK IS THE FESTIVAL FOR YOU! IT IS A NATIONAL FESTIVAL THAT CELEBRATES THE CONTRIBUTION OF ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES TO OUR COMMUNITY. IT OFFERS OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPERIENCE MUSIC, DANCE, THEATRE AND MORE FROM AROUND THE WORLD. REFUGEE WEEK IS YOUR PASPORT TO DISCOVERING HOW ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES ENRICH THE LIFE OF OUR CITY.

Find out more about refugees and asylum seekers at:

Refugee Week
City of Sanctuary
ASSIST
Northern Refugee Centre
Refugee Council

An eventful week in a relaxed kind of way:

Sundari came back from nine days assisting Dharmavidya and Prasada on the Buddhist Psychotherapy training. Sally came back with her and spent two days in Sheffield with Sue, learning about the book trade to support the promotion of Dharmavidya and Prasada’s new books, due out in the summer.The house at 118 was a hive of activity - including the assembling and initiation of a new hoover which absorbed all five people present! Sudir has been doing most of the cooking, which has been lovely, including for all seven of us present on our Amida Sheffield practice evening. Sundari has been investigating the possibility of a new asylum claim for a friend of Sudir’s. New possibilities are opened up just by having access to information about countries of origin, which underlines all the more the need for the Sanctuary Information Project, which will train volunteers to do this kind of work. It is a bit frustrating that the project is so delayed in getting off the ground. Our first grant application has been turned down, though in the meantime much is being learned from other comparable projects in Leeds and Wales, so we shall be well placed to make it run well once we get going.
 
The Sheffield process work peer group met at 118 on Wednesday, a reflective practice group for organisational consultants on Thursday, and with a number of other comings and goings the house has felt quite busy. It was a delight having Sally and Sue working here together.

Bhaktika has had quite a full week of organisational work, and a meeting of the Faiths Forum, at which the idea of an interfaith conference on themes of Sanctuary, Hospitality and Refuge was taken up by the group.

Sally joined us for our weekly sangha evening last night. Sally has been spending a couple of days in Sheffield and has met with Sue to discuss issues around promoting Dharmavidya and Prasada’s new books, due out later this summer. We held a a pureland service followed by a shared meal and much laughter. It is always lovely to be joined by friends from Narborough, an opportunity to get to know each other better and to build sangha.

Sue’s shoulder operation has gone well and she is making a good recovery. Only a week after the operation we managed to have a study group, listening to Dharmavidya’s talk on Ananda, a Pureland ancestor. We recently decided not to try to fit study into our regular Monday evening practice but to hold study groups on Saturday mornings at intervals, giving us time to digest and reflect. It was a good start, and a more relaxed and useful way to study. Our thinking also is that keeps the Monday evening welcoming and relaxed, rather than trying to cram too much in. It also keeps it more accessible. We have recently enjoyed the company of a Taiwanese couple who have been able to come along to some of our weekly meetings. The new format has also given us the chance to have some time specifically for School members, to talk over any issues or plans.

At City of Sanctuary we have now appointed a development worker, which is very satisfying, and will put City of Sanctuary on a firm footing to continue its work of developing a climate of welcome in Sheffield for asylum seekers and refugees. Bhaktika as Buddhist rep on the Faiths Forum joined in a statement from the city’s faith leaders encouraging a high turnout in the local election today to give a real voice and to show that fascism and racism are not supported in the city (a party many of whose candidates are known for racist statements is fielding an unprecedented eight candidates). It may well be the first time in Sheffield that Buddhists have appeared on the political scene at this level. Ray and Sundari have been accepted as members of the Centre for Radical Christianity, and the priest in charge of its church base is interested in meeting us.

The household at 118 has been augmented for the last few weeks by our friend Sudir who returned from India and is living with Bhatika and Sundari for a couple of months. We are much appreciating good mealtime conversation and good cooking!

Since we last wrote for Amida this Week we have had a meeting with the person who is drawing together the new Faiths Forum in Sheffield, and Bhaktika has taken some steps to organise the Buddhist representation on it. It will be based around shared action and using the faith networks to tackle social issues in the city. A different side of the inter-faith world was the extremely well attended Christian–Muslim dialogue which extended over six weeks in our local community centre. On the last week we shared the platform with a representative of Judaism and each presented something about the basics of our faith. The debate was very lively. We have made a link with the Sheffield University Students Union Buddhists Society where Sundari spent an evening introducing the group to Pureland practice, which they thoroughly enjoyed. The seminar on conflict facilitation which Sundari and Bhaktika organised in November was very well attended - about 50 people - many drawn by the emphasis on refuge and asylum-seeking. We shall have a follow-up meeting later this month.

Last night, the Sheffield group met up and for part of the evening we had planned to look at the “Summary of Faith and Practice” in more detail. We began by reading the Ichimai Kishomon - Honen’s original “One Page Document” that had inspired Dharmavidya’s text. We talked about the times that Honen was living in, what it must have been like living under such a feudal system with an average life expectancy of 30. We looked at how Honen was inspired to take Buddhism to the ordinary people, and not keep it as the special domain of a monastic elite. We touched on the issue of nembutsu not being a form of meditation and what that meant to us. Stuart, a zen buddhist who has been joining us, spoke of his “just sitting” practice and the role of faith.

City of Sanctuary is a new initiative to build a culture of hospitality and welcome for asylum-seekers and refugees in Sheffield.

Many people are now familiar with the idea of a ‘Fairtrade City’, in which a wide range of community groups and organisations make a commitment to using and selling fairtrade goods. In a similar way a ‘City of Sanctuary’ would be a place where significant numbers of schools, employers, community groups, faith communities, media and cultural organisations, as well as local government, are publicly committed to offering hospitality to refugees and asylum-seekers in the city. They might put this commitment into practice in many different ways - through offering friendship or advocacy, encouraging refugees’ involvement in their activities, or displaying public support, perhaps in the form of a sign outside their premises declaring “We welcome asylum-seekers and refugees.”

City of Sanctuary recognise that asylum policy and decision-making must be decided at a national level, and that the power of local communities to defend individuals will often be limited. But within this legal framework there is the opportunity for local communities both to make the existing asylum system more humane for the asylum-seekers who live amongst us, and to counter some of the hostile public attitudes that drive government policy.

Sheffield already has an excellent record of support for asylum-seekers and refugees, and a diverse and thriving multicultural population. This makes it ideally placed to be the first city to adopt the goal of becoming a ‘City of Sanctuary’ for people in need of safety from persecution. Other cities in the region and beyond may even follow our lead, helping to influence public attitudes and policy at a national level.

City of Sanctuary call for support from Sheffield’s political leaders, community organisations, educational institutions, faith communities and all people committed to offering hospitality and support to asylum seekers and refugees in our city.

Amida Sheffield are actively involved in supporting this venture.

Always the most important event in the Amida annual calendar, the Bodhi Retreat has grown in significance as the Amida-shu and the Amida Order have developed. It is traditional to hold a retreat at this time of year in memory of the enlightenment of Shakyamuni Buddha celebrated on the 8th December. Last year was the most memorable Bodhi Retreat so far and included the introduction of 24 hours of continuous chanting on the first Saturday-Sunday: an event which had a wonderful effect upon participants and which we plan to repeat this year. The retreat includes teachings, seminars, silent periods, nembutsu practice, Amidist ceremonial, and opportunities for personal sharing.

This is also the retreat at which ordinations, commitment ceremonies and renewals of refuge, membership and precepts take place. There will also be school, order and ministry meetings. If you are a present or intending member of Amida-shu, do make every effort to attend. If you are contemplating an advance in your commitment, please arrange to discuss this ahead of the retreat with one of the teachers at The Buddhist House

Bhaktika attended a meeting to regenerate Sheffield’s inter-faith forum, and looks likely to become the representative for Buddhism as he was the only Buddhist there. We’ll be meeting the inter-faith organiser again in a couple of weeks time.

Sundari attended a meeting to find new ways to combat poverty and destitution for asylum seekers whose claim has failed. There is a lot of good will and activity in Sheffield. It feels like a place where good things are happening. And yet the number of destitute asylum seekers has soared because the of the high rate of refusal of claims. We agreed that an important aspect is creating a culture of help, support and welcome to combat the steady trickle of negative portrayal in the press. Much punitive policy flows from this. In this realm, climate change is positively needed.

Sundari also attended a meeting of refugee community organisations and found a huge welcome for the conflict facilitation two day seminar that we are organising later this month, run by a process work trainer. Our dream that this would be the beginning of really creating some strong and positive work with conflict in the city seems to be looking more and more real. The catchment area for the training is regional, so this may be something extending more widely into Yorkshire.
The conversation club at which S & B volunteer is going from strength to strength - numbers have trebled since we began two months ago. Attenders come from Libya, Pakistan, Egypt, Mexico, Turkey, Malaysia, Iran, Taiwan, Eritrea and Somalia. All are quite new to the UK and keen to meet people and practise their English. For this term and next the club is led by  Myra, qualified in ESOL, so it has semi-formal class aspects. After that we shall take on responsibility for it so need more volunteers…Any readers in the Sheffield area interested, do contact us.

On sunday 15th October we ran our first introduction to Pureland Buddhism in a public venue. Although only one person came from outside, we had a really delightful day. He was a regular of the White Plum sangha, a Zen practitioner interested in Pureland, so the exchange felt fruitful. Strangely, it felt as though there were far more than five people there. We moved our shrine room into the community centre, Buddha rupa, candles, bell, zafus and all, and this was such a pleasure that if it weren’t for the cost we would like to do it much more often. It was a real step out for the group for us to share our practice in a public place. All four of us contributed to the programme, and we ended with a service. We had some exchange with the life drawing class in the next room, and our cat Bracken attended the whole thing, contributing his own particular form of nembutsu.
 
This week Sue went into hospital for major surgery. It was wonderful that the night before the operation, after she had been admitted to hospital, they allowed her to come out for an hour and a half so we could have a meal and service together. She has come through it amazingly well, and we have really felt the benefit of two of us living so close to the hospital so we can come and go with soup and newspapers etc. While Sue was having the operation, we began the day with four of us chanting Namo Quan Shi Yin Bosat, and holding her in our hearts. Though it is early days yet, it is really wonderful to see her come through it so well.

We have been enjoying our gradually increasing involvement with the international and refugee community of Sheffield. Sundari and Bhaktika are now weekly volunteers at an English conversation club, and this week we joined in the celebration of one year of City of Sanctuary, the movement to make Sheffield a city that welcomes asylum seekers. It was an inspiring occasion, and great to see that the new Lord Mayor is fully behind the movement.

The AGM of Mediation Sheffield was also this week, and was another inspiring event, many connections being made between people committed to finding peaceful resolution to social disputes in the city.

Bhaktika and I were quite excited today by our lunch with Mary Dight, who is to join our team who lead the weekly meditation on Monday lunctimes in Sheffield Cathedral.

We have been running these weekly meditations for four years, and they seem to fulfil a need as they continue to be well attended week after week. Earlier this year our colleague from the cathedral, Nick Howe, left to take up a new and exciting post in Stockholm. We were happy for him, but felt bereft ourselves. Since then there have been gentle discussions about who could fill the role of being a Christian member of the team, and a gradual building up of links with other members of the cathedral staff. The cathedral daily Eucharist has changed to 12.30 from early in the morning. This entailed a change of time for us and various other practical consequences. It has been an interesting few months, both coming more into relationship with the cathedral, and at times feeling a little insecure. However, after discussions, we now have Mary Dight joining us. Mary has many years of experience of contemplative prayer, and has set up practice groups herself. We had lunch together, found much common ground and mutual respect, and feel very happy to be working with her.

Welcome to the team, Mary - and thanks!

Sundari

Bhaktika and I returned from France more or less straight into a whirl of emails, projects and visits, but now are surfacing and beginning to be able to reflect on our time in France.

It’s lovely to see Ray’s entries on this blog, as it was to speak briefly to Sue on the phone from France and hear that they were holding services here and enjoying the cool of the shrine room at 118!

The time in France certainly advanced our learning as trainee Buddhist ministers. We have learned a lot in terms of conducting liturgy, and enjoyed experimenting with new forms. Dharmavidya’s teaching on the Larger Pureland Sutra was inspiring. This in itself was a revelation to me, as I have never been one for grand and opulent imagery, which of course is prolific in Buddhism. Associating imagery of jewels and pavilions etc with affluence and the sterility of inorganic material, I have found this kind of thing rather more depressing than uplifting. My experience in these three weeks was not like this.

First of all, there was the necessity to separate out different kinds of grand language. Some of it expresses aspirations, particularly in the Larger Pureland Sutra the aspirations of Dharmakara. The fact is that many of us do have great aspirations, and he is inspired by visions that make his aspirations seem - whether achievable or not - worth launching into with all his being. His impossible vows spring from a great movement of the heart. Seeing this grand language as an outpouring of this kind makes it recognisable and something humans like us do rather than something very remote.

In particular Dharmavidya’s teaching, and some experience of the retreat in the services and in community life, has left me with a glimpse of how faith transforms vision at every level.

There was something moving about hearing different people in training giving their dharma talks. In doing this, we heard something about each person’s path of learning and understanding. Each taught us in their own way - and so we had a glimpse of the 84,000 voices…My only regret is that Leo’s was not recorded.

How do we bring these learnings into our life in Sheffield? Since returning we have begun to consider our particular situation here in a city where there are about eight other Buddhist groups. Our particular contribution is our emphasis on faith and social engagement. These will be key themes in our introductory day on Pureland Buddhism on 15th October.

Other personal reflections on France - I loved the work we did together - felling dead trees for firewood for the winter and staking them in logpiles after Dharmavidya had sawed them up with an electric table saw. Order member Madrakara, Buddhist House community member Sally and I spent a happy time learning to work together as we sawed down the trees and dragged them back to the house. Stacking them in the cool of the barn was a work of both art and design, learning by the experience of a log fall what would make the piles more stable.

Swimming in the Allier was another highlight - the rushing weir, fast slip streams and lazy places to drift in the shallows. And to think what people pay for a jacuzzi!

Sundari

While Ray and Sue were attending the demonstration in Sheffield, Bhaktika and I were away and attended a facilitated open meeting on migration in London. It was given the name Home and Refuge, and was an opportunity for people to talk to each more openly than is often the case. There were about 40 of us there in an East London library. When we said ‘hello’ in each other’s first languages at the beginning there were nine or ten languages present, which was a great start. The dialogue quickly came to the question of dealing with fear. People arriving in the UK may have fear,and may have fled through fear, and people who encounter new arrivals in their area also experience fear. How do we deal with this? People present experimented with feeling their way into different positions or roles - seeing things from one perspective, and then when that was fully heard or expressed, sometimes finding themselves switching to another persepective.

 A lot of wisdom was expressed, and there was a lot of understanding, warmth and fun! This took us by surprise. We have been part of the organising group for this meeting for a number of months, and for some reason we hadn’t anticipated fun! A number of people said they felt at home. The facililtators and the whole team had put a lot of energy into really welcoming whoever came and whatever happened, and this perhaps had something to do with that feeling, but for whatever reason there was a very generous and inclusive spirit in the meeting. The experience of being part of that ethnically diverse group of people, some of whom had lived in the Uk all their lives and some of whom were quite new arrivals, and of our being able to create that sense of home and really welcoming diversity was something inspiring, and we plan that there will be more meetings of this kind.

 We hope too we’ve learnt something that we can bring back to Sheffield and our lives here.

It’s good to know that Sheffield Amida School members last weekend we were all participating in public in making a climate of welcome for asylum seekers and doing it in different ways.

Thursday 22nd June, 7.30pm

Refugees talk about their experience of seeking asylum in Sheffield At The Quaker Meeting House, 10 St James St , S1 For anyone who missed the very popular talk in April, or who would like to know more, another chance to hear asylum-seekers and refugees talking about their experiences of life in Sheffield. Organised in partnership with the Northern Refugee Centre as part of Refugee Week.

Saturday 24th June, 11am to 1pm

Public demonstration of support for destitute asylum-seekers, with music and drama. At the top end of Fargate, Sheffield City Centre. Organised by Church Action on Poverty as part of the ‘Living Ghosts’ campaign to highlight the situation of people refused asylum who are made homeless and destitute.

Ray and Sue

Sundari and Willemien

Full story

Dharmavidya, Bhaktika & Sundari