Southend Faith and Belief Festival

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Consultation has concluded

Southend Museums and Southend's Faith and Belief Network are organising a Festival to celebrate the cultural diversity of the Borough. Co-produced in collaboration with a diverse range of Faith and Belief communities, this festival welcomes those who want to showcase their faith or belief and encourages us all as a community to get to know each other a little bit better.

The last year has been a particularly challenging one for our community. This virtual festival will explore the challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic presented to our faith and belief communities and how they have overcome them. This will be a great opportunity to showcase how practices have been adapted and what has been done to help each other and their local communities.

This first virtual Faith and Belief Festival is being produced by our communities, this will be an ongoing project built initially in three parts;

  • Introductions, stories and experiences

Please tell us about yourself, what faith or belief you are a part of and what matters to you. Share your stories and experiences of how you practiced your faith during lockdown. How did you celebrate any events of significance?

As part of your story telling we would also like to explore the objects that helped our faith communities to express their faiths at home during multiple national lockdowns. We welcome you to share photographs of objects of importance and anything significant to your faith or belief.

  • Virtual Exhibition

Visit the online exhibition that will take place online from May 17th . The exhibition will showcase pre-recorded videos presented by local faith and belief leaders about their role , the faith they represent and their community work during the pandemic.

This community led exhibition will be accompanied by images of faith related objects from the Museum collection. In partnership with Southend's Museums and Galleries we explore new ways of building an archive that doesn’t currently reflect the variety of faiths in the borough. We hope that, noting the lack of some poignant objects (particularly domestic objects), we can ignite a positive discussion about how we can change that.

  • Festival Flyer / Southend Faith and Belief Network Logo Competition

We also want to invite the young people of Southend to help us design our new Faith and Belief Network logo and Festival flyers used to promote the event and to represent the diversity of our local faith and belief communities in Southend.

This is site will be developed over the coming weeks. Look out for updates and links

To read about how the Council handles your data please visit our Privacy notice: Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Privacy Notice(External link)(External link).

Southend Museums and Southend's Faith and Belief Network are organising a Festival to celebrate the cultural diversity of the Borough. Co-produced in collaboration with a diverse range of Faith and Belief communities, this festival welcomes those who want to showcase their faith or belief and encourages us all as a community to get to know each other a little bit better.

The last year has been a particularly challenging one for our community. This virtual festival will explore the challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic presented to our faith and belief communities and how they have overcome them. This will be a great opportunity to showcase how practices have been adapted and what has been done to help each other and their local communities.

This first virtual Faith and Belief Festival is being produced by our communities, this will be an ongoing project built initially in three parts;

  • Introductions, stories and experiences

Please tell us about yourself, what faith or belief you are a part of and what matters to you. Share your stories and experiences of how you practiced your faith during lockdown. How did you celebrate any events of significance?

As part of your story telling we would also like to explore the objects that helped our faith communities to express their faiths at home during multiple national lockdowns. We welcome you to share photographs of objects of importance and anything significant to your faith or belief.

  • Virtual Exhibition

Visit the online exhibition that will take place online from May 17th . The exhibition will showcase pre-recorded videos presented by local faith and belief leaders about their role , the faith they represent and their community work during the pandemic.

This community led exhibition will be accompanied by images of faith related objects from the Museum collection. In partnership with Southend's Museums and Galleries we explore new ways of building an archive that doesn’t currently reflect the variety of faiths in the borough. We hope that, noting the lack of some poignant objects (particularly domestic objects), we can ignite a positive discussion about how we can change that.

  • Festival Flyer / Southend Faith and Belief Network Logo Competition

We also want to invite the young people of Southend to help us design our new Faith and Belief Network logo and Festival flyers used to promote the event and to represent the diversity of our local faith and belief communities in Southend.

This is site will be developed over the coming weeks. Look out for updates and links

To read about how the Council handles your data please visit our Privacy notice: Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Privacy Notice(External link)(External link).

How have you practiced your faith or belief during lockdown?

Please tell us how you (and/or your faith/belief community) have adapted practicing your faith/belief during lockdown, what has meant the most and how have you overcome the obstacles faced by this new way of living.

Please share your stories and thoughts and, if you wish, please attach a picture of an object which aided you through this time. The object can be anything that helped you through the pandemic and/or helped you to connect with your faith/belief (examples are a candle, or a laptop with a Zoom service/meeting, etc.) These pictures will be saved in the Southend Museum Archives.

- If you would like to attach a picture you can see a bar above the text box with two lines; you need to click on the picture icon which is the third picture in the second line.

Thank you for sharing your story with us.
CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.
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