Community House Church invests a great deal of time and energy in improving interfaith relations in the multicultural Maindee area of Newport. Every year, the church holds a peace event to promote harmony between people of different religions.

Marilyn Priday, the church's interfaith development worker, writes here about the 2009 peace event.

"This year the peace event, 'A Celebration of Diversity', was also the 40th anniversary of the opening of Community House.

It was so well attended that we ran out of food!

About 300 people of many different cultures and faiths attended and took part in our peace-making. Babes-in-arms to members of the TLC (Tuesday Lunch Club for seniors) came together to share singing, memories, photographs, food and excellent company. Muslim children sang, A Hare Krishna family chanted. Newport Mind Story Group read some poems.

Pam Evans from Peace Mala showed children how to make Peace Mala bracelets where each colour bead represents a major world faith and told them how everyone deserves respect. Peace messages were written on leaves and then tied onto a tree of life.

We lit candles for our respective faiths and prayed for peace.

There are many reasons to be optimistic about our multicultural area, where twenty different languages spoken by pupils in Maindee Primary School. In Community House we have good relationships with Muslim women, who see it as a safe place to be. We are thrilled that we have lately been joined by Dr Abdallah Yassin Muhammed OBE, who has become one of our trustees and also that Imam Saeed Ali Jawad attended our event to support the youngsters from his new Community Centre, who came to sing. Ali spoke eloquently about our need to work together.

We hope that the involvement of prominent Muslim men such as these will encourage the leaders of the Mosques in the community to have dialogue with us.

It was really good that Rev Dafydd Andrew Jones and also Rev Aled Edwards OBE from Churches Together in Wales could be with us. We were also very pleased to see Glynis Owen, clerk of South-East Prebytery, who has been very supportive of our work this year.

Preparation for the event was hard work, but much easier this year because we have new members of our worshipping church all eager to do their share. We have many reasons to rejoice!"

For more information and photos, visit www.etonrdch.org.