Interfaith Scotland celebrates “Exceptional” school engagement work at Scottish Interfaith Week Interfaith video launch
Interfaith Scotland recently held a special launch event for their short film marking 20 years of Scottish Interfaith Week (SIFW).
Among the speakers at the launch were Joe Sikora, Interfaith Officer for the Catholic Church and Claire Butler PT of Religious Education at St. Roch’s Secondary, Glasgow who have been collaborating on engaging young people in interreligious dialogue for the past year.
St. Roch’s were one of a number of schools who took part in a pilot programme leadership programme run jointly by the Xaverians, Pax Christi, Justice and Peace Scotland and the Interfaith Officer. The aim of the course is to encourage pupils taking part in the Caritas Award to engage in activities related to the work of these agencies of the Church in Scotland.
Following on from the two-day residential course, St. Roch’s Caritas pupils took part in the 2025 Human Fraternity Day Conference held in the Bute Hall at the University of Glasgow.
At the video launch, Joe Sikora explained how a number of factors had aligned to create an opportunity for young people to become engaged in interreligious dialogue and to work together from their respective religious backgrounds.
In her introduction, Dr. Maureen Sier, Director of Interfaith Scotland described the work being done as “exceptional”.
Claire Butler went into more detail about how the experience of the leadership course and subsequent school workshops had enabled the pupils to learn and grow in their understanding of each other’s faith traditions. Several of the pupils wrote about their experiences in their final submission for their Caritas Award.
Daniel, an Ethiopian Orthodox student said: “The most valuable experience for me was the inter-religious dialogue that I had with Roman Catholics and also Buddhists as they really boosted my knowledge about the two religions and gave me the chance to speak about my own. I think it surprised a lot of people that in terms of food laws, I have more in common with my Muslim peers than my Christian ones.”
Wesam, a Muslim student said: “I went to an overnight retreat and learned about Interfaith dialogue. From my perspective I never judge any religion, but I know some people do so this type of work is very important. Anyone from any race or religion can act in a way that causes conflict between different faiths, but interfaith dialogue encourages us to see brothers and sisters rather than enemies. As a Palestinian Muslim, I have personal experience of the importance of shared values and looking for common ground.”
This year the theme for Scottish Interfaith Week is “Our Future” with a focus on young people. Young people are the future, but they are also our present.
As we look to what’s next for Scotland’s diverse communities, we must listen to the voices of today’s young people. The younger generations will continue to build bridges between our nation’s many faiths and cultures, and work like that been carried out between the Interreligious Dialogue Committee and the schools will empower them to do so.
Claire Butler