Inter-Faith Council for Wales

The Inter-faith Council for Wales came into being in 2003 and aims to be an independent meeting place for faith community representatives to share issues of mutual interest. It has access to members of the Faith Communities Forum and can receive reports from them. It also reports issues to the Forum as a way of speaking to the Welsh Assembly Government. In recent years it has actively sought to be more inclusive whilst respecting the sensitivities around traditional interfaith work.

At a Council meeting on 17th March 2008 a new Constitution and Policies were approved which included revised aims:

  • To advance public knowledge and mutual understanding of the teaching, traditions and practices of the different faith communities in Wales
  • To promote good relations between persons of different faiths and to be of service to the people of Wales
  • To promote awareness of the distinctive features of these faith communities and of their common ground

The Council will now have a maximum of 35 seats with 22 seats for Faith Communities, 7 for Regional members and 6 for Individual Co-opted Members. The regional representation is an innovative step, where members of regional inter-faith bodies represent their regions rather than their faith communities – this recognises the need for more grass roots involvement and direct communication with the different regions of Wales.

A new seat for “unrepresented faiths” has also been created. It is reserved for faith and spiritual communities outside of the nine world religions currently recognised by the SHAP Working Party on World Religions – this acknowledges the need to be fully inclusive and give all people who feel they live with faith a way to be involved with inter-faith work in Wales.

The main contacts for the Council are currently:

Executive Committee
Chair:  Revd Alan Bayes, revalanbayes@aol.com
Vice Chair:  Mr Alan Schwartz, aschwartz@clara.co.uk
Secretary:  Revd Aled Edwards, OBE, aled@cytun.org.uk
Treasurer:  Mr Saleem Kidwai, OBE, saleem@muslimcouncilwales.org

Interfaith Development Worker: Mr Nigel Anthony, nigel.anthony@interfaithwales.org
Administrative Support:  Mrs Sasha Perriam, Cytûn (Churches Together in Wales), post@cytun.org.uk
Contact:  029 2046 4204
Address:  Inter-faith Council for Wales, c/o Cytûn, 58 Richmond Road, Cardiff, CF24 3UR 

For the full Council Management Committee Members click here.