The Feast Luton – Spring 2025 Newsletter

The aim of this newsletter is to give you a snapshot of what is happening with The Feast in Luton.
Please feel free to share this with your friends or family or people you think might be interested

“Living in the Diverse World” is the theme of a national art competition run by NATRE. We ran 3 encounters based, where we explored art and created art around this theme. We will be submitting some of the pieces to the NATRE competition.

We even had the High Sherriff of Bedfordshire visit us! He was very impressed with the way we bring teenagers from different faiths and cultures together to connect with each other, to grow friendships and to learn to talk about various issues with each other in a respectful way.

We have struggled for funding to run encounters this year. But rather than not do any, we decided to run encounters that cost very little – like walks in the countryside.

On one of these encounters, we walked along the Grand Union Canal in Hemel Hempstead. We accompanied Feast supporter Matt Vaughan, who walked the length of the canal from Birmingham to London in 7 days (!!) and raised funds for The Feast is so doing.

For another encounter we walked 8 kilometres along the River Lea: we started in Marsh Farm at the source of the river, and walked along it, through Luton until we got to Manor Park, where it starts to leave the town. Along the way we talked about heritage.

Our Catalisers (a small group of guys, with whom we focus a lot on social justice and leadership) had the privilege of visiting the Houses of Parliament for a tour. They got to see where government happens. They asked a lot of good questions of our tour guide. We concluded the event by talking about civic duty – how we foster that in ourselves and in others.

We were delighted to be invited to run a workshop for Year 8s on how we handle discussions when we have conflicting points of view. The students enjoyed the session and actively engaged with the material. The overwhelming majority said that they learnt a new skill which will help them going forward.

We will also be running 3 sessions at Barnfield College this term.

We have also run a couple of training courses recently.
One was for youth leaders, teachers and various practitioners, focussing on how we help our young people become confident in their beliefs and identity, but foster that openness and appreciation towards those who are not like them.

The other focussed on how we can create a culture in our organisations that is truly open to everyone, no matter what their background or faith is; and to foster an atmosphere where we can discuss difficult issues with one another without marginalising any particular group.

If you are interested in our training, please do get in touch!

We are working with Groundswell to put on a Community Dinner at some point this year – watch this space! The aim of the dinner is to bring together the adults of the young people who come to our events, as well as local community leaders. We will eat together and also talk with one another much like the young people do during their encounters.

We hope you will be able to come – and bring a friend!
To be sure to receive an invitation, please ensure we have your correct contact details.