All churches need to get more people in. Look within the doctrine of any religion and you’ll find it somewhere - spread the word, tell the people, grow. But, in addition to the hand that beckons, all churches need to reach out with a hand of friendship too - offered particularly in the direction of those who may be in danger of forming very unfriendly views.
This double need often results in the kind of event I’m delighted to have stumbled on tonight. It’s an evening of poets, some from the mosque, some from the visiting ScriptStuff open mic brigade, reading their work on the theme of peace and it’s being hosted by Leamington’s Ahmadiyyah community in their centre and mosque.
The religious element is not lost entirely as you’d expect given where we are. The event is top-and-tailed by prayers and words from the spiritual leaders and the performance doesn’t begin until we’ve seen a promo video detailing the history of the Ahmadiyyah community and reiterating its peaceful mission of love for all and hate for none.
It’s a message - indeed a video - I have encountered before. The last time I came here was for a multi faith response in the wake of the first London Bridge terror attacks. The function of reaching out to the wider community is clearly taken seriously and effectively performed here. A few of the churches I’ve visited could benefit from taking note from this. Perhaps it’s just a result of the traditions of the community - no religious group does opening the doors, welcoming strangers and providing them with food in the way this community does. I’m befriended by a chap who is as enthusiastic in telling me about the mosque as he is in loudly encouraging readers mid-poem and greeting each completed performance with open-handed slamming of the table top. My quiet attention and polite applause seems awfully timid in contrast.
There’s also a comparison to be seen in the poetry we listen to. The concept of peace as a broad term has many connotations. Peace between nations and religions obviously, but peace too in our inner selves, peace in our relentless misuse of mother nature, peace as a refuge from the maelstrom of modern life. And then there’s the peace we achieve when, we’re told, we discover God and establish a lifelong relationship with him.
It’s noticeable that in general terms the ScriptStuff readers cover the bulk of the secular interpretations while the readers from the Ahmadiyyah community restrict themselves almost exclusively to the last. For the former it’s as if religion and politics are equally responsible for divisions and we have to register our abhorrence of that and call on everyone to make the change for themselves. The latter seem to concentrate, though not absolutely exclusively, on God’s word already being poetry to which we merely must listen.
Within the space of a couple of hours we encounter poetry as protest and poetry as prayer. And bringing those two together is perhaps what this entire evening is about.
For me though, the event has two outstanding contributions. And they come from its two youngest participants. A young Muslim lad whose fabulously moving poem of first-hand persecution stops everyone in their tracks and then the area’s young poet laureate adding her quiet voice to the call for better understanding.
Having, if nothing else, been tacitly complicit in allowing some of society’s divisions to widen by not doing anything, we’re reminded that the fate of both poetry and peace rest with the young. Their contributions are good news for all. Only the drinks are in danger as my table-thumping neighbour can’t contain his admiration.
