Sunny Banana
I am a school chaplain and the content is intended to encourage curiosity about Faith and it's impact on day to day life
The Sunny Banana, is a play upon the Zulu greeting, Sanibonani, meaning I see you.
As tech wrenches us from real life, we are not seeing each other. The Greek word 'idea' means to see. It is as if we have lost the idea of what it means to be human; social, communal, relational. The same word, to see, in Old English is 'seon' which has connotations of understanding.
Let's start seeing each other again, listening, respecting, and understanding each other and ourselves. After all, we are people through other people.
Sunny Banana
Student Faith Stories
What role does faith play in our lives, communities, and values? Evie from the Church of England, Noor, a Muslim Pakistani, Mila a Jew from Mexico, and Josh, a Christian from Hong Kong. Hear how Christianity, Islam, and Judaism each serve as a source of strength, community, and love, while also recognising the potential pitfalls when faith is misunderstood or misused. Through their stories, we reveal how love emerges as a universal thread, knitting together beliefs and practices across cultures and continents.
Explore the significance of influential figures and personal connections that mould our spiritual values. From the divine figures central to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, to parental guidance, discover how these elements shape our understanding of faith. Delve into a moving reflection from a commemoration event for the liberation of Auschwitz, where themes of human goodness and resilience against evil come to the forefront.
What a wonderful audition it is to give you our periods of villages perspective here. We used to have students speaking in Chang'e about Buddhism, islam and so on and so forth, but those students weren't particularly from those faiths. So, quite rightly, I went with the students to say, well, why don't you get people who are actually from those backgrounds to talk about their faith and their spirituality? And so that's what we're doing. This is what this conversation is about, and Noel and Neelan have fantastically spoken. The Rigged Chapel out there. They're upbringing and they're background. I think, as a way of introduction, maybe we just go around and say what is our background, which faith are we connected to, and briefly give us an idea of what that means to you, and then we'll just gang and go with this conversation. How do you do? All right, ely from Charleston. Hi Ed, hi Ed. My name is Ely.
Speaker 1:I'm a member of the Christian Society, the Central Greek Church in England. I was informed in a church last year, at this chapel which I lived through school. My faith to me is village. It's sort of a Christianity, more of community, and our role in the community is to both help each other and help those outside our community, those in New Yorkshire and we saw those that were not filling themselves and start to teach you, providing them with any support, and do whatever we can to improve the lives of those around us. Thank you, yeah, so it's quite a clear direction, that's quite a clear purpose, and it will be revealed how religion and faith and spirituality does provide a purpose, does provide something of a scale for your life and an understanding, as Elia was saying to the God ofunderland, not only your own, but those who don't share the same beliefs as you. So, norman, norman, hi. I'm 5'7", I'm 5'8", I'm 7. I'm 7. I'm extremely willing to make two miles of the world drive through the South of the Willardville, the power of Westwood, which I love, like two miles from the Bob Drats, the Stardust, the Big Dave. I am Muslim, but for me, blasphemy is about making the good values from it, recognizing the bad. So see me well, I'm just making an own version of myself. I'm not a Christian, I'm not a Christian. I'm not creating good by and I'm not protecting what you do, simply by just saying what's good about me. Thank you, lauren.
Speaker 1:In this conversation of religion and faith, it's really important to understand where religion can be twisted, as with any spokesperson in general about the darkness and the shadow side of religion when it's abused and misused, speaking from your experience growing up in Pakistan and having those bold threats and those darker sides. But you do speak about the better sides of the light of religion, of the compassion of the men, and thank you, mio is going to tell us something about the light of religion of the compassion of the men and women. Thank you, migo is going to tell us something about the secret. Hi, so I'm Jewish and I grew up in Mexico, where there is a very small Jewish community, so mostly what we learned was to support each other and be there for others, especially considering the past. For Judaism, what it means to me is I was always able to look up to something in my religion and I learned that in order to be the best version of myself, I had to be resilient and ambitious, and that's what they teach a lot in Judaism and it's helped me grow a lot as a person. Thank you, you didn't mention that you're talking general, but it makes it seem like a minority religion and when you mentioned when you are a minority, you sort of stick together, so your rituals and your traditions become very important Not that they're not important in any case, but your rituals are very important and current together. And then you also, like you said, you've got something to look to in those times to be the best person. There's guidance there again, that that scaffolding that religion and faith can provide you. And we have now Josh Seager that scaffolding that religion and faith can provide you. And we have now Josh Teague just perfect timing, actually, and he's asked us to listen.
Speaker 1:My name is Josh. I grew up in a Christian family. I grew up in Hong Kong. I've always been growing up in a church and you know, I'm basically a Christian for life and for me, christianity is all about love. And if I wasn't, you know, in that I wouldn't know how to love, I wouldn't know how to treat people the way I was. And, yeah, I'm also currently a trauma in my local church. So I do a Sunday service for them twice a month and that's in Kent. So our local Chinese church and that's sort of one of them. So that's sort of what I do, thank you, thank you, josh. So that's sort of what I think is very inspiring, thank you, thank you, josh. So Josh was a late addition to me.
Speaker 1:We had Eliza Richardson speak to us about her Christianity chapel. She's an old man, she's not. So Josh and Evie put their hands up. I've seen the message around, so it's fantastic. Josh, you wouldn't know how to love. Now, this is very important. You wouldn't know how to love if you didn't go to a religion.
Speaker 1:I think we can go a little bit deeper into what we've said each of us, that our religion actually teaches about love. Now, yeah, I think maybe going to that and then maybe, as you guys in the congregation have any questions as we go around, I'd love to talk about love for these times. Would you like to ask questions? So just think about your questions, because that's important for this conversation, or should we just go? Do we have any questions? Do we have any questions now that we would like to ask you guys? Ernie, would you like to come up here, just come and speak into this. It's my way. Do you have a question for me? Well, sort of very much.
Speaker 1:Who do you say is the most important figure in your religion? Actually, this is a good question. Who is the most important figure? Are you saying in the religion or in their lives? Both, yeah, maybe we can answer that? Answer, answer. Why are you Muslim? Why are you Christian? Why are you Christian? Yeah, maybe we can answer that. Why are you Muslim? Why are you Christian? Why are you Christian? And within that religion, who is the biggest figure? Probably the most important people in my life were my parents, but I would say the most important figure in my religion would be God, but in a more nuanced way, would be the Trinity. So that would be Jesus, god and the Holy Spirit. Fantastic, I know. In Islam that differs quite strongly. The idea of the Rana. It's not a Trinity, thank you. And so, lord, would you like to comment on the most important figure and why he walks with the Rana was not made true, thank you. And so, laurel, would you like to comment? That was the one figure I had why you?
Speaker 1:Also, growing up in the stock seemed like the good as well. So both of the E's. The big thing, it's donating a lot to people. So I would stay up with my mom until like two, three o'clock in the morning making care packages for people full of wheat, flour, sugar, spices, whatever they need, and then obviously we've got Big Eats. So it's more than Big Eats. Small Eats is after you've done fasting and Big Eats is when you sacrifice an animal and then, whenever there is meat, we donate that to people. So I would go upstairs, go out to the garage and see like blood everywhere. I was already sick, but all the men in my family would carry on doing that. So, growing up, seeing all the people just treat me like a bad, I've learned to appreciate the dead.
Speaker 1:So I think that's why I chose to stick with Islam, and the person that's important within Islam, I think, is Fethullah Tlaibija. She is the wife of the Holy Prophet, or the best wife. She was a widow. She was in her 14th year. She got married to the Prophet when he was in his 20s. She was a businesswoman. She just didn't deal with anybody that didn't respect her, and I think, as a Muslim woman, you tend to be subject to that a lot. So seeing that was quite important to me, especially when I lived in Pakistan as well.
Speaker 1:I can't believe so much of what you've just said. You know, what we forget about maybe in these religions is that there's so many female prophets and people that are so powerful and so influential. That's fantastic. Thank you so much. I think there's a lot of important figures in Judaism. However, in my opinion I've seen one of the most important ones is Moses, and that's because he's the one who helped the Jews escape from slavery and he helped them to create their own equity and action. I think Judaism is a religion that's far-sighted, it's degrading. I think Judaism is a religion that's far-sighted, it's degrading. I'd say, for me, the most important figure in my life is probably my grandparents, because they're the ones who tell us and deny everything we know. And we show up and look up to them because they're generous and they're kind and they're supportive, and that's what we'd like to do in the future, I think. Yes, that's great, I love it.
Speaker 1:The book of Judaism most of the time the top one isn't it. It's titled everything. It's called the Big Last Library. And in your book, what did you say? Your grandmother, grandparents, grandparents I see a theme floating through each one here. You guys can pick it up.
Speaker 1:So I think the most important thing I think is the pre-Jesus faith is to be Jesus. So I think, for me, he taught me his way of loving, which is very different from my human way of loving. Human way of loving is conditional and it's always with some sort of reason. Jesus just loves us unconditionally and that's what's very special to me. There was definitely a period of time that I'm not sure that I love myself and I'm not sure about many things in my life, but this way of showing me love has definitely lightened me again, this way of showing me that there's a life in me again. And in terms of people in my life, I'd say the most important for me is definitely my mum. So obviously we grew up in a church and, just to slightly mention, my dad actually passed away the month before I was born. So my mum, just basically, you know, raised me on her own and she brought me to church when she was pregnant and I grew up in the church and she taught me everything about Christianity and she allowed me to have a few seats to obviously have my faith Sin is always very little to obviously have my faith, since I was very little and there was definitely times that I struggled with my faith, but it's always gone on and that gives me sort of the power and the confidence to keep on going and certainly to know what it's about and to be appreciative. Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone. Can you swipe the golden thread running through all of it there is now for someone that's influential and I can speak of my own faith, or so it's my belief.
Speaker 1:But now there's the counter-arguments of oh, you were born. You were born in Pakistan, therefore you're Islam, islamic, syrian Muslim. You were born in Mexico, but not really, if not for two days of your life. So that's the point I'm trying to raise. You might say that England is more atheist than at the moment and they don't believe in a God alone. They're connected to a religion. But then you could equally say in 20 years' time, because you were born in America, you're atheist, because if it becomes an atheist country, then you're more likely to be atheist than an atheist.
Speaker 1:I wonder if you could comment on COVID-19. If you weren't born into that family, if you weren't born into that family, where would you be? That's a big question. I get chained in by it. You were saying well, just because you were raised in Christensen, that's why you're Christensen and I've got answers for myself. Final question, and not something else Are you willing to nail your flag on the mosque, whatever it is, or do you want to skip that question? You want to still ask it? So get your.
Speaker 1:So very obviously, one of my main reasons, you know, so as to be a christian, it's because of my family and I can't tell it's. That's just what happened. But I think during the time of me growing up, there's times that I have encountered god, I think on my own, which wasn't so, obviously, when I was like three or four didn't know what's happening, and that's very fair enough. But as I'm growing up, when I start to question more, when I start to feel more about what I'm actually believing in and to what God is, and when I read the Bible to know what it's all about it really is, I just feel like God's, you know, spoken to me and I did an encounter with God many times in my childhood. When I'm having difficulty part-time and obviously you could also say yeah, because I grew up in a church but I feel like I connection with God when God actually comes and talks to you and when you come to God. That's sort of nothing to do with my background as a Christian family.
Speaker 1:Anyone like to comment? Carry on. Well, there's the argument of religious experience and I think I really respect you guys talking about your religious family and think about that. Actually, we're not just in that religion because it's coming from where it was easy for us, just raised with religion, because we really think that it has some power, some truth in it and we get involved. So is there anything from the gallery that you've been thinking about and would like to ask these wonderful people? Leona, I think one, maybe she's not here Just saying within the mind Hi, I don't know, I think one, one piece, she's not really cool. I'm just saying within the mind Okay, hi, how much did you navigate your faith with your friends that perhaps not really understood the way to manage your faith and sort of how you handle it? It's a brilliant question. It's not like the age of being I have. I don't think it's a religion. It's not the Asian theme.
Speaker 1:I have found that when you see people that either don't share the same religion as you or they try and challenge you in religion, usually from just their understanding. It's not always this. It's a good way just to just be understanding and be respectful and explain your reasoning, but also be understanding that they don't believe you or you believe, and then that should also be respected, because everyone's equal and everyone is equally in their life to be who they believe. So it's not our place to judge. Rather, if it's our place to inform, then we should be able to do that, but if it's something that could be better left, it should just be that. That's well said and I'd like to comment on that. I knew you navigated the channel, getting so your phrase.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure why, be it Jew or Muslim or Christian, believe what you're doing? I think this is why I was brought in to have friends around me to be religious. Personally, it's made me think a lot about why I think is it actually important for people to be actually religious? So maybe they're more of my religion and about myself. I just think it's important that this conversation is made for an uncomfortable hour. I don't know how it would be a problem if we're around in the house and it's uncomfortable. Besides, I don't know if anyone is interested in that. Yeah, I think we're touching on authenticity. So why would you be whatever you believe in, whatever your world is? Why are you authentic? And being challenged by other world views? And then, I suppose, like a refinement, you get refined or you understand, so that you actually you believe what you believe because of the evidence, rather than lack of or lack of inquiry and discovery and exploration. You're not just just be because everyone else is, or your family was.
Speaker 1:Again, really more questions? Mr Jones, I don't know if we can answer this individually, but you can answer it. I don't know if we can answer this individually, but have any of you been in a position where you've dented your organ chain and how did you go about it? Any questions, josh, the irony, yes, I really have, and I can put it away.
Speaker 1:I grew up surrounded by Christians. When I was in Hong Kong I was in a Christian school where every morning well, not every morning, but a few times a week we'd have a morning assembly and we'd sing things and we'd have religious talk and everything. So it was important up till I came to be here. When I was there, the thing was about that time and I sort of, before I came here, I sort of thought you know, in England it's sort of more Christian than what it would be in Hong Kong, because that's just sort of my guess, but certainly it wasn't. And when I came here I sort of seen a lot more art of the future than there was in the world. That is sometimes, again, christianity, and it did really make me important sometimes and, as you know, you know, I've died that thick. It's a lot. Sometimes I think it's quite a lot as well, and I've seen lots of views in the world about maybe Jesus didn't exist or maybe some of the stuff in the Bible is outdated, and that really made me doubt myself.
Speaker 1:But I'll say, while my sort of open game is the hardest series at the moment, a few years ago I was really, really down, I was just overawed and I'm just very lost and not in any sort of good time in my bed, mentally, physically, and at that time I wasn't going to church regularly and I really remember there was a moment that I just heard God talking to me and I just heard him say just come back to me, talk to me, and that's sort of what I did. I stopped quite a bit again. I started in the last year when my auntie's family moved. I started going back to church regularly and then now I started to, you know, do more serving the church as well, and that's sort of how I felt again. Maybe Jesus is calling me again and I also think Jesus allowed me to have this free will. He's not controlling what I'm thinking, because I've definitely seen things that are against him, but at the end I did realise I lost voice and that's how I went back. Thank you, josh, now. I. Thank you, josh Now.
Speaker 1:I, as a religious person, and I've studied predictions as a theologian, a lot of the moving books I've read is Victor Frankl, who survived a man's search for meaning, and in that book he says he noticed that those people who remembered their God or remembered their religion, practiced their initial rituals, traditions kept alive. It literally kept them alive, and those who sort of abandoned it, just they gave up. It gave up. I was the infant. That was a powerful destiny. Now, nila, you agreed about this.
Speaker 1:You were somewhere over the weekend. Do you want to do talking about goodness, overcoming evil, and although there's lots of evil in the world, good will come with it. Would you like to talk about? Tell us about that? Yeah, so last weekend I attended a commemoration for the Anonymous City of Elimoration of Auschwitz and if I'm sure most people don't know what it is, it's the Dome of Auschwitz. It was the worst concentration camp for the Michel-Giselle Holocaust. We won 1 million Jews in Auschwitz, bergen specifically, and this event was, like I said, in memory of the Jews that had been with them and we had around 50 survivors attend and there was also a lot of politicians and a lot of royalty, including the DTB fellows. This is pretty cool, and we had a few of the survivors speak and they told us about their experiences and what they went through. And I also had the need to walk around in my shoes and, of course, we all know how horrible this was. You don't realize how intense it is until you're there and I think when I wear it, my mind completely changed. It was wow, it's like changing, and hearing these survivors speak, it was just-liked and hearing these survivors speak it was just very inspirational and it teaches you a lot. And it teaches you how far we've come and, of course, there's still a lot of struggles that we're going through in the world. For us, however, it was just. It was very meaningful and it was very inspirational and just the things you hear and the things they experience don't really sit out. That often Very powerful lens, that image of goodness, will come from people. People does not want to get anything. It's one of the big themes I found in the religions that I've studied and in my own.
Speaker 1:We probably have time before we get ready for activities for one last question and then we'll wrap up and Mr Moss is looking like he wants to ask a question. This is really a broad board. I agree with him. Do you agree with him? First of all, how easy do you think it would be to have this kind of conversation in public, or would you have some kind of comeback if you tried to? Yeah, so one of the things he asked me earlier. He said if you had to talk some pop-com in Mexico, would it be difficult to have this type of conversation in public in your backgrounds? At this very moment I don't think there will be any problem. I don't want to delve too much into politics, that wouldn't go well. But because I was very involved in that, obviously we won the London British World and it's meant to be a free speech. So at this very moment it's completely over to talk about In Mexico. Like I said, there's a very small population in.