An Interfaith intensive

On the 12th of October I attended two meetings in Cardiff Bay: one at Ty Hywel with the Welsh Assembly Government Faith Communities Forum and then following that in the conference room at the Lightship with the Interfaith Council of Wales.

I am starting to get used to these meetings.  It felt a bit overwhelming when I first accepted the post of Chair of the Buddhist Council of Wales as I have never had a job that involved a lot of meetings, but everyone is friendly and the meetings are professional and efficient.  I am starting to think of many of the Interfaith Council members as friends.

The Ty Hywel meeting was the first I had attended chaired by the First Minister, Carwyn Jones.  The most interesting item on the agenda for me was the proposals for organ donation becoming an opt-out rather than an opt-in scheme in Wales.  Chris Jones, Medical Director for NHS Wales, gave a presentation.  I was pleased to hear that the proposal is for a 'soft' opt-out which means that the next of kin will still be consulted.

There was also a presentation on hate crime research.  They are looking into 'hate crimes' and 'hate incidents' with regard to prejudice on the grounds of disability, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and religion.  If any readers living in Wales have suffered in this way, do complete the survey.  It is totally confidential.