Multicultural Oadby

This morning, Chloe Thomas and I joined Shanthi Hettiarachchi of the St Philip's Centre and Revd Julie Aylward, Minister of North Evington Baptist Church to give a lecture at the Cambridge Federation of Theological Colleges. We were leading two interactive sessions of a three-day intensive course with the title, "Challenges and opportunities of ministry and mission amongst Muslims".

The students were mainly in training for ordained ministry and the sessions were very lively. The multicultural environment in Oadby certainly does present challenges but there are many positives, not least that among most of our parishioners faith plays a significant role in daily life. It is easier to have conversations about faith in a place where faith differences are obvious than in a monocultural environment.