Community Organising as a Spiritual Practice - an Interfaith Exchange 

Sunday 19 July, 13:30 - 14:30 by Zoom Webinar and streamed to Facebook Passcode: 508412

Joined by a talented interfaith panel, Fr. Justin Dodd will host a discussion on the connection between community organising and the spiritual journey. This promises to be a rich and enlightening conversation between passionate organisers in the Muslim (Sufia Alam), Jewish (Daniel McKintosh) and Christian (Vanessa Conant) traditions. See profiles below.

This virtual indaba will take the format of 30 minutes of conversation followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. Join in the webinar on Zoom by clicking here and add your questions for the panelists!    

Sufia Alam

Sufia Alam is an experienced third sector Director with a long track record in working with women and families in East London. She works at the East London Mosque to manage the Maryam Centre, which is a dedicated Women’s Centre, one of the largest Muslim Women’s centre in the UK. Sufia is a Community leader for the East London Communities Organisation (TELCO). Her recent success has been in developing the Women 100 leadership which has trained nearly a hundred women from different faiths and none to become community leaders and organisers and has ran a couple of successful campaigns. 

Sufia also is a trainee Counsellor using Islamic and western model of psychotherapy in her work. Her passion for her work is only matched by her passion for her 3 daughters, her family and friends.

Vanessa Conant  

Vanessa Conant is Rector of the Parish of Walthamstow, a team ministry of 3 churches in the North East Corner of London. She is also a Trustee of the Centre for Theology and Community. Since 2015, Vanessa has been involved in Community Organising, working with Citizens UK to rebuild Waltham Forest Citizens and with CTC to explore how community organising can help churches not only to connect with social justice, but to grow numerically and in depth. She is particularly committed to working with Citizens on the campaign for a Just Transition as London commits to being carbon neutral by 2030. She is married to Cameron who is a writer originally from Michigan and during lockdown, they have been discovering the deep joy of growing your own food. 

Daniel MacKintosh 

Daniel Mackintosh is a Senior Organiser with Citizens UK. He is a South African who found himself living in South London after falling in love. As a Jewish boy, he has been committed to building justice and the Jewish People in equal measure throughout his life, which he does through organising and building a new Reform Judaism congregation. In his spare time, he enjoys his pot-plants, yoga, reading and trying to write.