Stirring the pot for children and families

Come and get a free bowl of porridge to help support local children and families in need.

The Festival of Spirituality and Peace Team  will have a stand under at St John's Church, Edinburgh (corner of Princes Street and Lothian Road) on Friday 25th January 2013, handing out porridge to anyone who cares to stop and have a chat. We will be there from 8am to 12pm or whenever the porridge runs out.

Following the success of our last porridge stall we have chosen to support the local charity Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland (CPAG).

One in four of Scotland’s children are officially recognised as living in poverty. In some areas over one in three children grow up in poverty. With Scotland’s undoubted wealth CPAG believes this is a scandal. There is no reason why our child poverty rates should be so much higher than in many other European countries.

Poverty remains one of the most serious problems facing children today. Its effects last a lifetime, negatively impacting on health, education, social and physical development and seriously harming future life chances and opportunities.

CPAG in Scotland was established in 1999 and works to raise awareness of the devastating impact poverty has on children in Scotland, maximise families’ incomes by helping to ensure those eligible for benefits and tax credits receive their full entitlements and campaign for positive policy changes to end that poverty.

You can sign up to let us know you're coming at Eventbrite.

For more information contact Annika Wolf at: info@festivalofspirituality.org.uk

Football, politics and religion: beyond division

YESTERDAY'S final Festival of Spirituality conversation and Civic Cafe, The Power of Youth and Football to heal a Divided City, proved extremely rewarding, with opinions and perspectives contributed from everyone from teenage actors to Scottish schoolteachers to Italian migrants.

As was said several times over the course of the afternoon, football and sectarianism is a topic which often prompts even the most reluctant of people to open up about their opinions and emotions.

Author Theresa Breslin, playwright Martin Travers and Jenny Marra MSP were joined by actors Liam and Kieran in opening up the discussion.

Ms Breslin emphasised that Divided City, the book upon which a successful community theatre production was based, is about friendship as much as it is about division, and this ultimately set the tone for the rest of the conversation.

Though there were a few dissenting voices, suggesting that whenever religion is involved there can never truly be any hope, it was concluded that the younger generation is in fact very open to change and education as younger people can often see more clearly. It was even suggested that children have a natural sense of 'justice' that adults often lack.

One question that came up several times was whether football is part of the problem or part of the solution. It was suggested that football is, in many ways, 'war by another name', and there was some disagreement over whether or not competitive sports are inherently damaging.

One response was that the difference between winning by being the best and winning by undermining your opponent is vital. Football also includes collaborative and community elements.

There was a strong feeling that it is attitudes to football that are the problem, in particular rampant commercialisation, rather than football itself.

Sectarian attitudes can exist independently of both football and religion. It was suggested that oftentimes it is football getting wrapped up in alcohol and violence, rather than vice versa, that is the real challenge.

Many suggested that 'demonising' football is definitely not the answer and that providing better opportunities and facilities for football among the young could and should help to prevent violence.

Above all, it was agreed that education is key. Sometimes that means even the most minimal learning about the history and culture of the opposing team - including, but certainly not restricted to, Celtic and Rangers.

Ultimately, we all have a responsibility to help tackle sectarianism and other forms of bigotry and hatred in Scotland today. Passing the buck will not do.

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(c) Katie MacFadyen is a media intern with the Festival of Spirituality and Peace. She is studying Classics at the University of Edinburgh, and also reviewing on the Fringe.

A fabulous Friday at the Festival

THERE is a focus on political issues viewed in a fresh way this Friday, the final one of the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, starting with Churches Own 8% of the Planet at St John's (Venue 127) at 10am.

This conversation discusses the responsibility of churches as major landowners and issues such as environmentalism, co-operation and collaboration. Featuring Martin Palmer from the Alliance of Religions and Conservation and the Rt Rev Dr John Armes, Diocese of Edinburgh.

Two more conversations come lunchtime: at noon, we ask What is Uprising in Syria?, with Sadarat Kadri, international law barrister, Dr Mounier Atassi, Syrian organiser of a Glasgow protest again the regime, and Dr Thomas Pierret, University of Edinburgh lecturer in Contempotary Islam.

At 2pm, a more unusual conversation, Our Friend Death. Join the writer of sitcom 'Roger and Val', in which death features prominently, Arthur Smith, one of Britain's premier comedians, and John Lanchester, author of 'Capital'. Chaired by Richard Smith, international advocate for a better understanding of death and dying.

The final conversation of the day will be Bosnia Twenty Years On at 6pm, the second of our Feature Conversations. On the twentieth anniversary of the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mustafa Ceric, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Rev Donald Reeves, the Director of the Soul of Europe and Professor Hugh Goddard of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World come together to discuss the legacy of the conflict.

Also at 6pm will be the last chance to see The Scottish Six, which has created a really positive stir in Edinburgh. Lesley Riddoch and Andy Wightman discuss land, power, culture and social change in the Scotland of today and tomorrow.

On the literary side of things, there will be another session of Poetry in the Persian Tent at 11am with an all-woman line-up: Vicki Feaver, Jane McKie and Patricia Ace will be sharing their poetry, joined by Irene Railley and her a capella group Just Voices.

After this will come a whole evening of poetry, starting at 8pm with Wolf at the Door – a Collaboration of Eco-Poetry and Soundings between Mairi Campbell and Em Strang. Weaving together word and sound, they will bring a whole new meaning to mouth music.

At 8pm in the Hall will be Duncan Mackintosh's second and final Evening with Rumi, followed by your second chance to see Milosz in Living Pictures.

There will also be two workshops, Henna Workshop for Beginners at 4pm and The Long and Winding Road at 7pm, an informal free session for people in their late teens and early twenties to share their experiences of journeys and travelling.

As ever, a full and diverse day of events and entertainment and one final chance to see some of our great events before the Festival closes.

Tweetcasting the Scottish Six

THE advent of new media has produced all kinds of different ways to communicate. Yesterday and tonight, a good friend of the Festival of Spirituality and Peace is tweeting tasty snippets from the best-selling 'Scottish Six' sessions.

'Scottish Six', which runs until the end of the week at 6pm in the Hall at St John's Church (venue 127), appropriately enough, features broadcaster and commentator Lesley Riddoch and author and land campaigner Andy Wightman.

They are presenting an alternative look at power, culture, identity and futures issues in Scotland -- a fine mixture of image, fact, story and discussion.

Elsewhere in the Edinburgh festivals, and on the media around them, these issues about Scotland yesterday, today and tomorrow are largely absent. FoSP is delighted to host a different perspective.

Meanwhile, our 'tweetcaster' for two of these nights has been Dr Michael Marten, who teaches postcolonial studies and religion at the University of Stirling. He is also a leading light in the Critical Religion project. You can follow him on Twitter at @MichaelMarten

'Scottish Six' starts at 6pm today!

AFTER much talk about the need to debate Scotland’s future, and the prospect of a Scottish debate-free zone on the Fringe, land reform campaigner Andy Wightman and myself have decided to join forces and stick our heids o’er the parapet. So we’ll have a show on at six o’clock nine weekday nights across August 14-24 as part of the Festival of Spirituality and Peace - writes Lesley Riddoch. 

"It’s called The Scottish Six - debates you don’t get on TV. But the BBC and Scottish media will figure only fleetingly in the first gig. Our much bigger concern is the way that inequality, entitlement and disempowerment disfigure Scotland and limit the ways most Scots can imagine the future. Each night, land campaigner Andy Wightman (Who Owns Scotland and The Poor Had no Lawyers) will kick off The Scottish Six with a characteristically hard-hitting look at how the nexus of money, politics and property has created an unequal society in which too many people are powerless to make a positive contribution."

More here. Runs from 6-7pm, 14-17th and 20-24th August in the Hall at St John's Church (Venue 127). Tickets on the door or via the Hub. £6 (£4 concessions).