About SMFF

Southwark Multi-Faith Forum (SMFF) organises local annual events in Southwark -South East London

The development of the Southwark Multi-Faith Forum (SMFF) is an exciting initiative that is led by and for faith based organisations such as churches, mosques, temples and other community organisations who define themselves in some way by their religion/faith.

Members of the developing Forum believe that by working together on practical community activities and on lobbying government bodies for policies that will help those most in need, we can achieve more for the people of Southwark than we can acting alone.

From a small idea, we grew

During 2003 to 2009, the Forum was managed by a Management Group of 10 individuals from Southwark’s different faith communities. Since then it has been managed, without administrative support, by a small team of active residents from different faiths who were previously members of the Management Committee. The original Management Group was formed with the help of the local Council.

The main objectives of the Forum are:

  • to promote good relations between different religious and ethnic groups
  • to support religious organisations in the Borough to get further involved in projects to improve the quality of life for Southwark residents, particularly the socially excluded

  • to support religious organisations in the Borough to access further funds to help them develop projects to improve the quality of life of Southwark residents

  • to lobby the Local Authority and other government and voluntary agencies to ensure that the views and needs of faith communities are recognised in their policies and their actions.

  • To elect the faith representative(s) to Southwark Alliance [Southwark’s Local Strategic Partnership], to advise these representatives on relevant issues and to receive feedback from the representatives.

Our committee, bringing different faiths together

There are 4 Christian representatives, nominated by the Christian Borough Deans to represent all denominations of the Christian faith and 3 Muslim representatives nominated by Southwark Muslim Forum. There are also representatives from the Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Bahai and Sikh communities present. There are places reserved for representatives from the Jain, Zoroastrian and Rastafarian communities though to date we are still seeking to access representatives from these communities.

On the evening of September 3 2003 at the Damilola Taylor Centre (DTC) in Peckham there will is the inaugural meeting of the full Multi-Faith Forum to which every faith based organisation in the Borough of Southwark is being invited.

At this meeting, all faith based organisations in Southwark will be invited to endorse the Multi-Faith Forum and all those voting to endorse the Forum will then become individual members of the new Forum. At that time the existing management group will become the executive committee of the overall Forum.

The Southwark Multi-Faith Forum makes every effort to ensure the information on this website is accurate and up-to-date. However, we cannot accept responsibility for any loss or inconvenience caused by reliance on inaccurate material contained in this site. The information contained in this website may include opinions or views which, unless expressly stated otherwise, are not those of the Southwark Multi-Faith Forum. Links to other sites are provided for your convenience and do not imply our endorsement of them. We cannot be responsible for any information contained on other websites.

SMFF Quote
We are a charity organisation, offering counselling services, After School Service, Youth and OAP support and a place of worship among other projects. SMFF offers our organisation support, advice on training and services available in Southwark. I have attended various training and meetings i.e. Planning Workshop, Health & Safety, Child Protection, Applying for funding and meeting councillors and stakeholders in Southwark. All the above has helped us to identify areas
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Phelicia Agugu, Project Manager Community Outreach Ministries
We appreciate this kind of training and expect this will be continued as we can now fill in the application by ourselves (Participant, How to write a funding application) My confidence in applying and conceiving projects has increased and I can go ahead and send an application (Participant, How to write a funding application) It was a really good evening , I enjoyed the singing and the Turkish dancers (Participant
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Participant , Teenage Pregnancy Meeting
I became a member of SMFF in 2006. l enjoy their events particularly the training and open forum meetings. SMFF has done alot of work in trying to bridge the gap between faith groups and the Council. With the information gained from the forum l now have confidence in the working of the Council and have a greater understanding of how to voice my concerns and influence decisions. I now
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Margaret Cullen, Church of the Lord Aladura
My organisation is of the Christian faith-a Church. We work with all ages of people, with a focus on families. As a result, we have 2-3 generations of families in our congregation, from grandparents to grand-children. I have had the opportunity of participating in trainings, e.g. How to write successful funding applications, Project Management, How to complain successfully, and events like Peace breakfasts, AGMs etc. My organisation has benefited from
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Pastor Yei, Tower Christian Fellowship