30 Years Of Dialogue & Community Cohesion

Last night as Mayor of the City of Wolverhampton I addressed the Wolverhampton Inter Faith Group as they celebrated the launch of a new booklet ' Reflections On The Past, Visions For The Future' which is a review of the history of Interfaith and their aspirations for the next 30 years.

The Mayoress and I were also asked to present awards to leading members of the Group for their personal activity. The Mayoress presented 12 Awards and I warmly shook the hands of the recipients.

The Wolverhampton Inter-Faith Group organises a wide variety of inter-faith activities and celebrated 30 years of inter-faith engagement in Wolverhampton in 2004 .

I opened the proceedings with my welcome and an address. I said that I was proud to be able to offer the Mayor's Parlour for this event. It was a measure of the hard work and the successes of so many individuals and the Inter Faith Group here in Wolverhampton, that we had such relatively harmonious City.

It was not out of luck that this has happened, it was because of hardwork and dedication, and the benefit that we gain from living in a diverse and vibrant city. With more than 45 different languages and cultures Wolverhampton had a very rich ethnic mix. I spoke of my admiration for the way that the Wolverhampton Inter Faith Group and the civic leadership led the city in the response to the tragic bombings in London last July.

I spoke of the way that the city came to a halt whilst the words of advice and prayer was given to the citizens of our city. Wolverhampton can take pride and comfort that this city is full of decency tolerance and understanding.

Lord Turner of Bilston also spoke and he reminded us that in the run up to elections that we all had a duty to fight extremism and to ensure that community cohesiveness was not attacked by those that want to create divisions.


The Wolverhampton Inter Faith Group's activities include arranging school visits to the various religious establishments in the city, arranging seminars for educational purposes and various social events. The group has produced an educational resource entitled 'Faith Lives' with sections written by members of different religious groups within the city; a large exhibition to compliment the pack is available for hire.