Cambridge Interfaith Programme

16/06/2026

What does religious freedom really mean today?

Join us at the 2026 Student Symposium: “Religious freedom?” on 24 June at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge.

This one-day, student-led interdisciplinary symposium brings together emerging scholars to explore religious freedom across philosophy, politics, lived experience, and global contexts. Through a series of thought-provoking papers and discussions, we’ll examine:

🔹 Freedom through philosophical and theological perspectives
🔹 Moral conflict, violence, and unexpected pathways to reconciliation
🔹 The role of space, discourse, and identity in shaping freedom

💬 The programme also includes a dedicated discussion session on navigating religious freedom as a student or academic—offering space for shared reflection and exchange.

📍 Location: Faculty of Divinity, Sidgwick Site, Cambridge
☕ Coffee and pastries provided at registration

Whether you’re interested in religion, ethics, politics, or lived experiences of belief, this symposium offers a rich, interdisciplinary conversation and an opportunity to connect with others working across these issues.

👉 All are welcome—come along, listen, and be part of the discussion.

Sign up to attend:
https://www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/events/student-symposium-religious-freedom

10/06/2026

Does immersion in the pedagogies of a given religious tradition offer an alternative route to inclusive R.E.?

We are pleased to be partnering with Dr Daniel Moulin (Jesus College, Cambridge & Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge) for this joint symposium, exploring dimensions of Religious Education.

The day will include interactive workshops from Shoshana Boyd Gelfand, Farah Ahmed and Dunya Habash, PhD, and Paul Nicholson SJ.

Register by midday Monday (15 June) if you would like to join us in Cambridge. Attendance is free—bring or buy your own lunch.

Full details and to register: https://www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/events/education-symposium-pedagogies-cumulative-traditions

If this event fits your interests, see also the Centre of Islamic Studies University of Cambridge-hosted CPD session on Monday 22 June for teachers of GCSE Religious Studies:
https://www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/events/gcse-religious-education-cpd-key-beliefs-islam-and-christianity

03/06/2026

How did early Sikh communities engage with Islamic and Sufi traditions?

Join author Satnam Singh and Cambridge University Sikh Society for an insightful event exploring the intellectual and spiritual connections between Sikhism and classical Sufi thinkers.

This is a great opportunity to deepen your understanding of interfaith encounters and shared traditions.

📅 Capacity limited so please book - registration deadline 10 June
🔗 https://www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/events/early-sikh-engagements-islam-and-classical-sufi-thinkers

Trinity Hall Cambridge, Monday 15 June, 5pm

Please share with anyone who may be interested!

31/05/2026

Can art reveal something sacred—or even create it?

In this clip, Riya Kartha reflects on how creativity speaks to a deep human need to express meaning and connection. Art, she suggests, can both respond to the sacred and bring it into being.

She also raises an important question: what happens when art divides rather than connects?

📅 Join us on 4 June to continue the conversation: https://www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/events/exploring-sacred-human-relations

30/05/2026

How do stories shape what we believe—and who we become?

In this clip, Dr Giles Waller explores the idea of a “shared sacred” through storytelling. From scripture to literature, these are narratives that are told and retold, argued over, and lived out in communities over time.
They don’t just belong to individuals—they shape whole ways of life.

📅 Join us on 4 June to continue the conversation:
https://www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/events/exploring-sacred-human-relations

29/05/2026

Can a novelist shape the way we understand faith?

Rabbi Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz shares how Ursula Le Guin’s writing has become a “touchstone of humanity” in her thinking—opening up new perspectives on language, imagination, and Jewish tradition.

From the idea that “words are powerful” to the belief that the world itself is spoken into being, this is a beautiful reflection on the meeting point between storytelling and spirituality.

📅 Join us on 4 June to continue the conversation: https://www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/events/exploring-sacred-human-relations

28/05/2026

Dr Ankur Barua reflects on practices of storytelling, ahead of a panel discussion on the Sacred in human relations

21/05/2026

🌿 Exploring the Sacred in Human Relations 🌿

A scholar–practitioner panel on sacred stories, arts and better futures

Thursday 4 June 2026, 5:30pm at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

👉 Can sacred connections guide us toward a more hopeful, shared future?

👉 In a world facing complex and persistent challenges, what might tending to the sacred make possible?

Across five years, the Fetzer Institute commissioned teams of scholars who are also practitioners of their faith tradition to retell sacred stories. The challenge was to do this in a way faithful to their tradition, but also accessible to outsiders. The hope was to generate and strengthen a shared sense of the sacred, sufficient to bring people together in pursuit of a better future for all—people and planet.

The resulting book, Retelling Sacred Stories (Orbis Books 2025), has ten chapters, each using the art of storytelling to convey the values of a given tradition. Its opening story is offered as a shared narrative, one that may resonate with people of any faith or none. Space is also given to indigenous and interspiritual perspectives alongside major world religions.

At this event, we invite a local panel of scholar–practitioners to reflect on this approach and the potential of storytelling and the arts to connect us with a shared sense of the sacred.

Farah Jassat (Head of Media, University of Cambridge) chairs.

With Dr Ankur Barua, Dr Giles Waller, Rabbi Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz, Riya Kartha, & Dr William F Vendley.

More information & to register to attend (free):

Exploring the sacred in human relations A scholar–practitioner panel on sacred stories, arts and better futures Thursday 4 June 2026 5:30pm to 7:00pm Faculty of Divinity CIP partners with the Fetzer Institute to ask: Can storytelling and art generate a shared sense of the sacred without becoming u...

01/05/2026

Local followers may be interested in this event tonight in Cambridge—a film screening organised by Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements, at Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

🎬 Becoming Benjamin Lay
A powerful documentary exploring the life of one of history’s most radical abolitionists.

Directed by Tony Buba and produced by Marcus Rediker, this film brings to life Benjamin Lay — an 18th‑century activist who boldly fought slavery and championed equality, animal rights, and justice through dramatic non‑violent action.

🗓 Fri 1 May, 17:30–18:45 BST
📍 Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge
🎟 Free | No booking required

Once dismissed by a prominent historian of abolitionism as a “mentally deranged little hunchback”, Lay has in recent years been rediscovered as a figure whose moral vision and tactics were, in many ways, ahead of his time.

Film lasts approx 1 hour.

For advance notice of such events, join our monthly mailing list...
https://cikh.civi360.com/opt-in

21/04/2026

It’s Political Theologies week in Cambridge.

Registration for the main conference has closed (and participation is limited to speakers and invited guests) but there are plenty of other opportunities to engage:

PRE-CONFERENCE
Tomorrow (22.4), Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge MPhil students Amen Gashaw and Lukas Kaarby host a pre-conference featuring postgraduate and recent postdoc papers "On the rule of law, constitutions and the common good".

PUBLIC LECTURE
On Thursday (23.4), Prof Wim Voermans (Leiden University) asks: What holds a society together? Exploring the stories behind constitutions—the founding documents that define who “we” are as a people—and what they reveal about identity, belonging, and political community.

PUBLIC LECTURE
And on Monday (27.4), political theorist, distinguished scholar and public intellectual Laura K Field presents her award-winning account of the American New Right—Furious Minds traces how moral outrage, religious symbolism, and critiques of liberalism coalesced into a durable ideological movement.

+ MASTERCLASS
For current Cambridge students, there is also an exclusive afternoon masterclass with Field.

Full details of these events:
www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/events