How do we move on from 9/11? How do we move on from 7/7? How do we move on from those searing atrocities that leave a deep wound within the life of not just individuals but of nations? Is there any way of creating some kind of meaningful peace or are we just destined to live with anxiety, mistrust and fear? Not the kind of rational fear that would stop us getting into cars let alone onto push bikes or motor bikes; that would actually stop us eating junk food and drinking too much alcohol and caffeine. Not those rational fears but the irrational fears that make us think that every Muslim is a terrorist and that every Muslim on a tube with a bag is a suicide bomber.

With one or two folks from St Nicolas and a few pupils from Maiden Erlegh School, a handful of pupils from other local schools and over 60 other adults, I spent yesterday at an interfaith conference at Bulmershe School looking at some of these issues. At one level this conference could have been any meeting where older folk were seeking to engage with young people. There was one message that was repeated time and time again. We must listen to our young people and that is absolutely right.

When the young people were given their voice, they said to us “Well hang on a minute, we started all together as one group and then the first thing you actually do for us is send us off somewhere else. So why did you send us away?” they asked. We might reflect ourselves on that for a moment. Where are our young people when we come together to worship? Where are our young people now and who leaves whom for this part of the service?

At a different level, there was an honest attempt to seek to create a space for dialogue. There were on the panel a number of Muslim leaders, national Muslim leaders, Sikh leaders and Hindu leaders and one lone Christian voice – me. Amongst this pantheon of national figures, there was the Vicar of St Nicolas, Earley. One of my own reflections was that I felt that I had some kind of minor insight as to what it is like to be a minority voice. To be put up there to speak for the Christians when we know that we Christians cannot speak with one voice and yet we expect the Muslim on the news to do it for the Muslim population, we expect the Sikh to be able to speak for the Sikh population, and there I was yesterday a lone voice speaking on behalf of the whole Christian community.

We heard some good and worthy speeches in the morning. We heard about the danger of radicalizing young Muslims. We heard about the need not just to consult young people but to seriously engage with those who feel disenfranchised because they are the people who are least likely to engage in the political realities of the day and we heard more about the fear of fear. But there was a sense that we were going around the same old same old. There was a sense that there was a huge amount of analysis of the current situation – of the problem – and not very much detail of what you and I can do in our daily lives in Earley.

After lunch, the students who had been called on various occasions “children” though they were 15, 16 and 17, which was unfortunate, came back having had a couple of hours consulting on their own with some youth workers. They came back and they gave us the benefit of their thoughts.

First of all they told us off for sending them away like naughty children. Then they spoke honestly about young people; about this great mass of young people in their groups who are really concerned. When they engage their friends in conversation about “well, do you want to make poverty history?” their friends reply “Absolutely, we really want to make poverty history but, um, not today”. They are passionate but rather lazy was what was said yesterday by the young people. That they are not able to engage with the politics of the day not because they haven’t got any passion; not because they haven’t got any concern; but because they just, well, sort of get side tracked, move on to the next thing; It’s passion for the moment, but tomorrow there is something else.

But the young people did come back with a message for us adults. A very clear message and it wasn’t a message of analysis. It was a message of solution, and it was a message of hope and action, pro-action rather than reaction. “Smile”. That was it. “Smile”.

As you walk down the road, smile at people, it’s just too easy isn’t it?

Remember Naaman, that great Commander of the army of the King of Aram, who suffered from leprosy, who was told by a Jewish Prophet (not being a Jew though himself), to go and wash in one of the Jewish rivers seven times and the leprosy would be cured?

“But Naaman became angry and went away saying “I thought that for me this great Prophet would come out and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spots and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a huff. (That’s not quite what the bible says but that’s clearly the message.) His servants ran after him and said “Father, if the Prophet had commanded you do something difficult, would you not have done it, how much more then when all he said to you was wash and be clean?””

Why do we find it so hard? I’m not underestimating this, this is something that is really hard. Why do we find it so hard to take on that most simple, most straightforward challenge to love our neighbour? Smiling at the checkout assistant when they pass you back your credit card? Saying thank you to those who assist you with the door? To acknowledge with a friendly wave those who wait in their cars to let you pass? Why is it so hard to do?

Maybe that is a bit naïve and if that feels naïve to you, then people of faith do share one other deep and significant ruse, prayer.

In Darfur 400,000 people have died. 3,000,000 people, that’s half the population, have been driven from their homes. It has been called genocide and in 2001 Tony Blair said that he wouldn’t allow another Rwanda to happen. And yet we are hardly hearing about this for the noise of the clamour from Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and the Blair-Brown double act.

As the Bishop of Sherborne said on the radio yesterday, “In Downing Street today, people of all faiths are being called to pray. Some believe it’s a waste of time but to others it is central to their life. Prayer has many aspects” he says. “It is staking a claim that the world can be different; it is making a stand against many of the world’s priorities. Prayer is protest. Prayer is risk, because we cannot know the consequences, but those who pray are certain that something will happen. Maybe the one who prays will be the one who is challenged and changed. Maybe it will be that others are challenged and changed but prayer results in action for it drives us into action and engages us with an engagement with other for the pray-er is opened to new possibilities.”

The protest of prayer works at many levels and in many different ways and prayer is one way that people of different faiths can truly stand together to take action against cruel vicious and unjust things that are going on in the world.

Going back to Naaman, how hard is it? So I invite you to kneel or stand or if you can do neither, sit as you are for a moments silent prayer for the people of Darfur which will then end as I read the prayer written especially for today by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

We pray for the people of Darfur who have been terrorised and forced from their homes; for those who have fled to refugee camps, and who still live in fear;

We pray for those who have died, and for their families;

We pray for the women in Darfur who face danger every day as they leave their camps for firewood - may You watch over Your daughters;

We pray for the children of Darfur, especially those who face a frightening world without one or both of their parents - may they be protected and comforted;

We pray for the safety of the humanitarian aid workers as they feed and care for the people of Darfur;

We pray for the safety of the African Union's Mission in Darfur as they work in difficult circumstances;

We pray for the safety of the United Nations' Peacekeepers when they begin their duties in Darfur;

We pray that the world's leaders will be guided by You in their quest for justice and safety for Darfur's people - may they be inspired by Your humanity;

Remind us that we are all your children, and teach us to listen;

We pray that those who are causing death and misery in Darfur will turn away from racism and violence – may they be forgiven when they turn to You for guidance instead;

Teach us to rejoice in all the things we have in common and respect each others’ differences;

We pray that people everywhere will strive to live in peace, tolerance, and respect, no matter what their faith or race - may we gain the wisdom, grace, and generosity of spirit to overcome our differences and live as one.

Amen