COMMUNITIES COME TOGETHER AT SAINT HILL

East Grinstead, 3 July: People of many different religions and backgrounds from around the UK and Europe congregated at Saint Hill to attend a conference entitled, “Creating Respect and Understanding in a Multi-Cultural Society,” in honor of L. Ron Hubbard ’s contributions to solving the problems of society.

The conference was sponsored by the Council for Human Rights and Religious Freedom, Punjabi Women ’s Social and Cultural Society UK, the institute on Religion and Public Policy, Sachkhand Nanak Dham International, World Council of Jain Academies, Association for British Muslims, the L. Ron Hubbard Foundation and the Church of Scientology. There were religious representatives from Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, and Scientology.

East Grinstead ’s Mayor, Cllr Christine Mainstone, opened the conference by welcoming the guests to the town and wishing the day ’s proceedings every success in bringing communities together. The conference, which took place in Saint Hill Manor ’s famous “Monkey Room,” focused on bringing different religions and community groups together to work out practical ways to tackle common social problems. This was the latest in a series of activities that followed a conference at Saint Hill in 2002 called “Filling the Moral Vacuum,” which brought nearly 100 religious representatives from all over Europe to East Grinstead for a 3-day convention. Recently a group was formed called “Religions Working Together ’ which has the purpose of carrying out constructive activities together and setting a good example to others in the community. Its first project was to clear up graffiti in Camden Town in London.

Saturday ’s conference was oriented toward the participation of all the attendees and so the majority of time was spent in discussion within smaller groups. These groups worked out ways in which to deal with four main social problems: anti-social behaviour, declining moral values, human rights abuses (especially discrimination) and education problems / illiteracy. Each group then presented to the broader gathering their findings and progress they had made.

The end result was an overwhelming agreement to build on the positive actions that were already ongoing and to develop these to a higher level. ’Setting a good example ’, both at individual and group level, was emphasised as an important way to go forward. Daoud Rosser-Owen, President of the Association of British Muslims, who attended both the conference and is involved in the “Religions Working Together” initiative said, “I was very pleased with the positive response from the attendees. Working together on very simple matters, such as improving conditions in the community, right through to sharing a common position with other religions and groups on matters of principle and importance is especially relevant today in order to turn around the decline of standards in society. I am happy to work with the Church of Scientology on these matters and appreciate that they have taken the time to put this, and other, initiatives together. It is a real contribution to improving conditions in life.”

During the event, the latest in a series of informational brochures was released. This brochure summarises the work of humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard, who lived at Saint Hill Manor between 1959 and 1967. The brochure is entitled, “Shaping the 21^st Century with solutions for a better world.” One of the delegates, Professor Aldonatale Terrin, a Catholic scholar from Italy, praised the brochure and said it gives a very good summary of Mr Hubbard ’s works.

Dr. Iftikhar Ayaz, OBE, Honorary Consul for Tuvalu and the representative of the Pacific Islands in a United Nations Peace Forum, commented, “the best outcome was that all the religions and non-religious organisations agreed to form a collective organisation in order to pursue the ideas for creating interfaith and intercultural and inter-ethnic harmony in the British society and to try and make an impact on the various conflict areas of the world, so that we can make our own contribution to the ongoing struggle for realising peace and harmony. Unity gives strength, and the more unity we can create the more strength we will have.”

After a busy afternoon of planning, the attendees relaxed to a dinner and were treated to entertainment with wonderful performances from East Grinstead ’s Choir Power, Egyptian dancer Nadia Talbi, classical pianist Ricardo Penalver and his wife and opera singer, Zita.