Awareness Foundation

The Awareness Foundation is a Christian charity that was established in 2003. Their Founding Patron was Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury; they now have a College of Patrons, including Williams, Charles Cadogan, 8th Earl Cadogan, Anba Angaelos, Leslie Griffiths, Paul Kwong and Kevin McDonald. The Awareness Foundation is based in London, UK, with supporters in North America, the Middle East and Hong Kong.

Purpose and composition

The Foundation says that "Our mission is to equip Christians everywhere to form an effective counter force to the intolerance and mistrust that now prevail in so many communities. We want to enable Christians to live a generous and hospitable faith; emphasise the role their faith has in healing broken societies; facilitate positive interactions with neighbours and colleagues from other faiths; build up understanding between the East and the West; strengthen and sustain Christians in the Middle East.^[2]

Middle East:

Awareness Foundation Middle East is headed by Huda Nassar. It has two main missions: it "builds up understanding between the East and the West" and "strengthens and sustains Christians in the Middle East". Core projects include:

• Ambassadors for Peace^[3]: the Awareness Foundation trains young people in Syria and Iraq to become 'Ambassadors for Peace' in their community. So far, hundreds of young men and women have taken part in this programme.
• Little Heroes^[4]: The Awareness Foundation states on its website, "In 2015, we decided to invite 200 (displaced children) to a special three-day Summer School to plant the seeds of love, trust, hope and joy in their hearts so that they could overcome all they have faced and play an active role in their new homes, schools and communities. The results were astonishing! Our Summer School inspired the children through group activities, celebrations, Bible Study and prayer. Those six days proved to be a real blessing. Over the course of the Summer School, the children talked, perhaps for the first time, about their sense of loss - of home, of family members, their school friends, even toys and other possessions. They started to trust again, to smile and laugh, and to make new friends." In 2016, the Awareness Foundation ran Little Heroes programmes in Western, North and South Syria for more than 1,000 children.^[5]

Rest of the World:

• Facing Faith, another new programme. This programme is described by the Foundation as "A community-based initiative to promote peace and understanding across barriers of faith & culture"; it works by "bringing together community and faith leaders from different religions and cultures to discuss ideas and share their thoughts on how to promote better understanding and respect among the diverse communities that live alongside each other in cities and towns around Great Britain. Each event helps faith and community leaders to enable local communities to decide upon effective joint activities and programmes for the future." ^[6]
• PAX, a new programme in development, will be "a free-to-view, web-based channel commenting on life from a faith perspective."^[7]
• The Awareness Forum, which consists of special events such as dinners, conferences, roundtable exchanges and lectures, focusing on religious and cultural issues of the day. For example, in 2009, a delegation of business and religious leaders travelled to Syria to meet with their counterparts from the region.^[8]

The Awareness Foundation is ecumenical, with board members from the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England, the Episcopal Church in the US and the Middle East, the Greek Orthodox Church, Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist Churches, plus several charismatic evangelical churches.

Personnel

Nadim Nassar is Director.^[9] He is co-founder of the Awareness Foundation along with Michael Marshall (President Emeritus of the Awareness Foundation), and author of the Awareness Course. Nassar has been a guest blogger on the UK Daily Telegraph website, ^[10] and both Marshall and Nassar have spoken around the world.^[11][12] Charles Longbottom was the Founding Chair of Trustees.

History

The Foundation was launched in September 2003 by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury at a service at Holy Trinity Sloane Square church, where Marshall was Rector from 1997 to 2007.

Awareness Course

The Foundation describes the Awareness Course as 'helping Christians to make sense of their faith in the 21st century'. Current 'DVD Modules' of the Awareness Course are 'The Diversity Code', 'Living in a Global Village' and 'Speak Out' was published in 2011. The DVD Modules are described as "very user-friendly and easy to teach." ^[13] The Awareness Course includes a Lent course ^[14] and a day/half-day workshop.^[15] All are free in the United Kingdom.

The course is said to be suitable for all, and while aimed primarily at Christians, the Foundation reports that people of other faiths or none regularly attend the sessions.

References