CAMBRIDGE will host its first multi-faith service in the city on Friday.
 Memorial Church (unitarian) Emmanuel Road, Cambridge |
Anyone wishing to demonstrate the city’s strength in diversity is welcome.
There will be readings from scriptures and hymns - expected to last about 45 minutes.
Mayor Ian Nimmo Smith, who will attend the service, said: “I appreciate this opportunity to join people of different faiths and philosophies where we can be witness to the mutual respect and understanding we value in Cambridge.”
Since Cambridge’s tumultuous involvement in the Civil War when Oliver Cromwell’s puritanism had a stronghold here, the city has developed a wide-ranging community.
Now, the relatively small population of just over 100,000 boasts a diverse range of religions.
Hosted by the Cambridge Muslim Council (CMC) and Cambridge First, the service is a symbol of the city’s ongoing unity.
A spokesman for the CMC said: “All faiths unity is what every diverse city needs and we are here to celebrate it in Cambridge.”
Richard Howitt MEP, who will recite a poem for peace on Friday, said: “I hope it will show that the pen is always mightier than the sword.
“Our presence together will provide witness to values of peace, tolerance and respect which represent the very best of Cambridge and of Cambridge people.”
Rajni Padia, chairman of the city’s Indian Cultural and Community Association, said: “Cambridge is a very peaceful city and the multi-faith is what makes it so special.”
Lakhwinder S Sagoo, of the Cambridge Sikh Society, said: “The Cambridge Sikh community is glad to celebrate with other faiths the diverse community in Cambridge.”
Rev Dr Lynda Taylor is assistant curate of St George’s Chesterton and vice-chairman of the North Cambridge Council of Churches.
She said: “Whatever faith community we belong to, it is important for all of us to acknowledge and value the rich diversity of spiritual traditions represented across Cambridge.
“There is much we can share and learn from one another to help us in our own faith journeys.”
Health Secretary and South Cambridgeshire MP Andrew Lansley said: “I am proud to be a part of a community as wonderfully diverse as the one we have here in Cambridgeshire. The many different religious and cultural groups which make up the rich Cambridge identity have lived here in peaceful unity for a great number of years.
“It is only right that we should celebrate this unity through diversity.”
Revd Andrew Brown, Minister at the Memorial Church (Unitarian), said: “In our church garden is a stone plaque on which are engraved some words by the 16th-century Unitarian Bishop Ferenc Dávid (1510–1579) who said ‘We need not think alike to love alike’. It is in this spirit that we offer our church to the city of Cambridge to celebrate the diversity that makes Cambridge the vibrant and exciting city it is.”