An exemplary celebration

Three thousand people of all ages from many parts of Britain gathered at City Hall today to make a procession of witness from there through the streets to the Sri Swaminarayan Mandir in Merches Gardens Grangetown, in celebration of the Temple's silver jubilee.


Go to BBC News webpage report here.

If there were any politicians or civic dignatories present, they were keeping quite a low profile. Nevertheless, the procession was led by a Police Silver Band, and several uniformed police officers from senior to junior ranks, who just happen to be Hindu, on duty or off, marched with the crowd. The procession was orderly, joyful and exuberant. It included people in prams and some in in wheelchairs or using sticks. Thousands of bottles of water were consumed (and collected), but that was all.

It was an example of community cohesion and festivity entirely devoid of alcohol consumption.

If only our great sporting organisations could take this lesson from their fellow citizens!

Community rooted ecumenism - a profile

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Canton Uniting Church is a Baptist/URC Ecumenical Project of about 100 members, on Cowbridge Road East. It was formed in 1995 on the site of New Trinity (URC) and rebuilt with monies from the sale of Llandaff road chapel (Baptist), sold to the Chinese Christian Church. The new church and suite was designed to express the new church’s mission statement to be open to the community by both being accessible and contributing actively to the life of the community around. This has been pursued in numerous ways, affecting some hundreds of people per week:

1. The buildings, both the church and the extensive halls at the rear, are regularly let out to community groups on a regular and one off basis. This includes Weight Watchers, choirs, keep-fit and a counselling service, from any faith and none.

2. Alcoholics Anonymous occupy exclusively a designated suite, including their emergency call line.

3. A Play Group, registered and fully equipped, has met for many years for four mornings a week.

4. A Day Centre for the elderly meets every Wednesday for lunch and recreation.

5. A shopper’s Coffee Morning most Saturdays for the passers-by.

6. Uniformed organisations, long established, Guides, Brownies, Rainbows and Boys Brigade are based here.

7. ‘United by Lights’ is an annual interfaith/cultural evening in November, in co-operation with the Gurdwara in Riverside.

8. One World Week events are put on with the Canton and Riverside Churches Together in October.

9. The Treganna Family Centre is a major initiative, made possible by a generous legacy, in partnership with Spurgeons (a UK wide children and family organisation), started in 2006. With a full-time manager, a fully qualified social worker and nursery nurse, a rapidly growing programme of courses and groups for young, often single, parents and their babies, and others, together with an advice service, which is increasingly being used by incomers to Cardiff from all over the world, is building up. This is done in collaboration with statutory and voluntary groups from Canton and also the adjoining Community One areas of Riverside, Ely and Caerau.

10. Congregational life provides care and support not only for members, but also their families and friends and many strangers at key points in life such as birth, marriage and bereavement as well as at time of crisis. There are also meetings that provide a wider range of people opportunities for social contact. The community embraces those with various disabilities.

11. Charitable donations are raised regularly, in different ways, for international and local causes which can amount to several hundreds of pounds per annum.