The most fascinating part of my job as a BBC local radio faith producer is working with people of all faiths - and sometimes none. I will never forget standing barefoot in an empty mosque in Peterborough, my head unusually covered with a scarf, listening to Zia-ul Hussein talk about prayer.
 | | In rehearsal... |
In that moment what actually struck me was that he knew the same God I have known since childhood. It was a moment out of time and place, and coming from quite a conservative Christian background myself, it was an insight which challenged aspects of my own faith. Since then there have been other moments with other people of other faiths. Listening to a group of young Muslim women laughing and sharing their thoughts on Ramadan - about how difficult it is to fast when one's mother is preparing gorgeous food for later in the day - and seeing the bond between them. Lighting a candle with a Hindu woman in front of the shrine she has in her fireplace at home. She talked about a coconut and how it teaches her not to judge people by their outward appearance. The smile and enthusiasm of a Bahai student as she talked about dialogue over bread and cheese at an interfaith lunch before rushing back to her highly complex pharmacological research work.
 | | Susan puts on the Director's hat! |
There are many more such moments, and it is a privilege to pass them on in radio form. However, there has been a slight niggle in the back of my mind. Are we all being just a bit too accepting? What about the issues that really do separate us? Is there a way of exploring those? Well, I think there may be, and so to Sound Effects... Two playwrights, one Jewish and one Christian, have each written a short one-act radio play. Their brief: to write on an interfaith theme for an interfaith cast. Jane Liddell-King takes the tsunami - an imaginary emergency medical team in Sri Lanka unravel their own thoughts on God and natural disasters as they deal with a woman who has lost her child, and (delightfully) an elephant with a torn trunk. James Lark reveals an uncomfortable seminar on diversity in an imaginary academic institution. In spite of themselves, and thanks to the ineptitude of their tutor, the bored and unmotivated students get caught up in a real dialogue on issues of diversity that are closer to them than they realised.
 | | Getting to grips with the equipment |
We have assembled a cast of one Jew, a Muslim, two Bahai’s, a Christian, an atheist and an agnostic. Recording the first play and watching the cast gradually react to each other was fascinating, as were the interviews afterwards on their own faith background and journey. After the next recording I think they will be ready to bat around some of the issues raised, with each other… Watch this space, as they say, after all if you miss their broadcast on BBC local radio, you can always catch it later on the web! | 
