Nearly 100 people of all ages and faiths gathered on a wet evening to have their spirits lifted. Altrincham Interfaith Group’s annual Entertainment Evening this year was held at Timperley Methodist Church. The evening was compared by Gwyneth Roper who between the acts caused much merriment by reading out things that children had said about marriage. The evening started with the children’s drama group from Timperley Methodist Church who enacted a modern version of the Good Samaritan, this required audience participation and was warmly contributed too.

Katy Allan sang “Annie’s Song” and the popular Catherine Jenkins song “The Prayer”. Katy is Head Chorister at Christ Church, Timperley and sings with the Halle Youth Choir. Last year she performed at the Royal Albert Hall in The First Night of The Proms concert. She is now recording with the Halle. All this experience ensured her performance was beautifully moving and accomplished.

Vipasha and Krishna

Vipasha and Krishna performed a dance from Northern India, Bringing grace in motion Bollywood style to Altrincham. Their dance told a story in the manor of temple dance, every motion and gesture having significance. Their beautiful costumes reacted to each twirl and turn of their dance.

A break for tea and biscuits may not normally be worthy of comment at a performance event but on this occasion it was significant because it gave neighbours the opportunity to meet each other, congratulate the performers and admire the costumes.

Hafsah Bashir

Hafsah Bashir is a local published poet who writes about love, life, and justice and everything in between, she says her inspiration comes from all that happens around her as she juggles all the her experience with the aid of an over active imagination. This was demonstrated with her first poem “The Cake Gallery” telling stories of her daytime job in Bowdon; this was received with giggles and laughter as the audience recognised some typical reactions to her cakes. Later she silenced the laughter with her thought provoking poem “The Runners” which describes of the life of refugees caught up in the violence in Syria.

ACT II : Drama Matters brought the evening to a close. Muriel Cohen, Joan Sherman and David Mort gave us a look at Jewish culture through tears and laughter. David read his own amusing piece called “Oxford Blues” telling the story of his entry to Oxford University in 1964. Joan and Muriel read extracts from “How to be a Jewish Mother” which ensured everyone went home with a smile on their face.

This years Entertainment Evening was a great success and Ann Angel and her team deserve our thanks and congratulations in organising it so well.

About 200 people gathered at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys on a wintery Saturday evening. Tables had been arranged so that people from different faith groups would sit together during the evening.

We were greeted by the AIG Chair person Dr Poonam Kakkar who introduced the Mayor of Trafford, Councillor Mrs Jane Baugh. The mayor said that she was happy to be at another AIG dinner as she had attended last year and that she considers interfaith dialogue an important part of developing the local community.

 Meanwhile the children were sitting at their own table with a variety of activities for them to do. 

We then had the dinner; the Jewish ladies had prepared kosher food, the Muslim ladies hallal, and the Indian ladies and gentlemen wonderful curries. As usual everyone wanted to try some of everything from this magnificent collection of home cooking.

Vegetarian curry being served

Indian food being served

The Chair person then introduced Tommy Nagra, Executive Producer, BBC Religion and Ethics Department, our guest speaker. He told us of how happy he and his family are to be living in Altrincham. He told us of the wide range of religious programmes produced by the BBC covering the special interests of many communities.

Tommy Nagra

We then had deserts provided by the Christian ladies – again a wide range of homemade sweets of all types.

Dr Kakkar thanked everyone who helped prepare for this excellent event. At the end of the evening there were so many questions being asked about how to make the food, someone suggested that we should collect the recipes together.

This is our largest event each year and will surely continue to be popular for many years to come.