**Do we exist in an inter faith bubble? **

An important new report on inter faith work in Britain recommends that local inter faith groups “commit to being courageous, seeking to expand (or burst) the ‘interfaith bubble’, addressing difficult or controversial topics, and trialling new ways of working.”

The report Bursting the Bubble - Recommendations for enhancing Inter Faith Week in England was researched and written by the Faith and Belief Forum, with support from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Former Bath IFG chair David Musgrave and current chair William Heath took part in the consultation in Bristol in January. The work comes after the government-funded Inter Faith Network for the UK closed in April last year, and was dissolved as a charitable company January this year.

The authors find that inter faith work is a “critical part of social cohesion”, with generally positive impact and a huge variety of approaches and motivations. Challenges include a negative public perception of religion, faith and belief, partially caused by negative and sensational media coverage and the rise of faith based hate.

There is limited funding and resources for staffing, running events and promotion, limited institutional support from national and local government, national faith and belief organisations, schools and the media. They also found disagreement in the interfaith movement about terminology.

The authors make a series of recommendations for national and local inter faith groups, for faith organisations, for national and local government. You can download it here.

“Collaboration, creativity and courage are the principles underlying the recommendations” the authors conclude. “We hope that these principles will be shared by all who engage in interfaith work and activity.”

Amen to that, as they say in the Abrahamic traditions.