Multi-faith service in Dumbarton to reflect on current conflict in Middle East

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A multi-faith service aiming to provide a quiet place to reflect on the current conflict in the Middle East is being held in Dumbarton this week.St Augustine’s Church will host the event tomorrow Wednesday (November 6), which will bring together Christians, Jews and Muslims to offer their hopes for peace in the region - following more than a year of violent conflict.The event was the brainchild of West Dunbartonshire Provost Karen Murray Conaghan, who has worked with Reverand Heller Gonzalez of St Augustine’s Episcopal Church and Levette Callander, of Dumbarton Churches Together, to bring together faiths for a night of quiet reflection.Explaining the idea behind the project, Levette - who has worked with charity Embrace the Middle East for a number of years - said: “It all started from a private conversation with Karen Murray Conaghan.

She said that she had so many people, just the man in the street, all saying that they didn’t know what they could do.“A lot had donated, we’ve had three really successful fundraisers, but the people were saying that they’d done that.

They were saying that they felt guilty for not wanting the news. But got more and more frustrated by watching it, and were struggling to cope.“Karen came up with the idea of a service where people could sit quietly and reflect.

We decided we could make it an interfaith service. People hear of the baddies and the goodies if they watch the news. But we don’t need more like that.”Provost Murray Conaghan continued: “Like many people I find watching the news heartbreaking.“To see and hear of so many innocent people being killed and maimed, so many children orphaned is horrendous.