Jump to content

Christianity in UK


Dsinghd
 Share

Recommended Posts

On 18/10/2017 at 7:49 PM, Ranjeet01 said:

The UK is largely a post Christian society.

The institution of religion has been broken down over the past few decades for the British whites. 

How would you suggest that Gurdwaras adapt.

Are Sangat attendances down? Gurudware are packed over the weekends (though this could be due to the akhand paths, sukhmani paths and Anand Karajs taking place)and with the numerous Gurpurabs, Band Chor Divas and Vaisakhi.  

If you go to the Gurdwarae during the weekday, you'd be surprised how much Sangat there is at different times of the day.

Our congregation operates very differently to the Judeo Christian one.

Gurdwaras are no where near packed. And if they are. It is mostly seniors not the youth who are the future. 

Gurdwaras need to be learning centres. Places that feel welcoming to everyone of all ages. Many times you go and there is a hostile atmosphere. Lets start having some talks from learned and knowledgable people in english so that we can understand and go away feeling that we learnt something new and feel enlightened. Instead of going sitting down for 2 mintues having langar. And leaving feeling dissalusioned and spiritually hungry. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 20/10/2017 at 2:25 AM, Sukhvirk1976 said:

I'm confused about what point you are making.. Are you suggesting sangat is not spending enough time in darbar? 

Lets face it. Gurdwara is all about lsngar for most people. They enjoy eating. Otherwise would anyone come? Even for non Sikhs. They just have langar and leave without any kind of effort to teach them about Sikhism. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Big_Tera said:

Gurdwaras are no where near packed. And if they are. It is mostly seniors not the youth who are the future. 

Gurdwaras need to be learning centres. Places that feel welcoming to everyone of all ages. Many times you go and there is a hostile atmosphere. Lets start having some talks from learned and knowledgable people in english so that we can understand and go away feeling that we learnt something new and feel enlightened. Instead of going sitting down for 2 mintues having langar. And leaving feeling dissalusioned and spiritually hungry. 

 

I think you’re in the wrong town. It’s seniors in the day time obviously as they don’t work or study. Students and those that work or with children would be going after work or weekends. 

On 19/10/2017 at 8:24 PM, Ranjeet01 said:

Personally, I have early been in the morning 5.30am and during rehras paath time 6.30ish you will get double figures.

People who are on early shifts or finished night shift in the mornings. After work for rehras and even during lunch times.

Sangat will fit it around their schedules. Also, people are going to vary their time in Darbar hall. 

Some are just going matha tek. Then others will sit for 5 minutes and then go. Some will do a full paath.

As Ranjeet paji has mentioned it is pretty much the same for the Gurdwaras in our area. Sangat do attend, but you should be aware of the diversity of sangat also and the timings of attendance will vary. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, simran345 said:

I think you’re in the wrong town. It’s seniors in the day time obviously as they don’t work or study. Students and those that work or with children would be going after work or weekends. 

As Ranjeet paji has mentioned it is pretty much the same for the Gurdwaras in our area. Sangat do attend, but you should be aware of the diversity of sangat also and the timings of attendance will vary. 

 

Point taken about the timmings. But There still needs more to be done about the numbers who attend to make it higher then it is. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, Big_Tera said:

Point taken about the timmings. But There still needs more to be done about the numbers who attend to make it higher then it is. 

Not sure how to make them higher, but more education and awareness to those that don’t attend Gurdwaras in the first place or as much.

The Basics of Sikhi street parchar is a good idea, if that’s done by other Sikh organisations also may help towards it. 

If I may add, I think Gurdwaras should hold counselling sessions, health awareness days and that type of community projects to bring in more sangat, aswell as more talks in English for the youth and for those that don’t understand Gurbani so well. Even having Gurmukhi classes for adults who don’t know how to read and write Gurmukhi would attract more sangat. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 23/10/2017 at 7:02 PM, simran345 said:

Not sure how to make them higher, but more education and awareness to those that don’t attend Gurdwaras in the first place or as much.

The Basics of Sikhi street parchar is a good idea, if that’s done by other Sikh organisations also may help towards it. 

If I may add, I think Gurdwaras should hold counselling sessions, health awareness days and that type of community projects to bring in more sangat, aswell as more talks in English for the youth and for those that don’t understand Gurbani so well. Even having Gurmukhi classes for adults who don’t know how to read and write Gurmukhi would attract more sangat. 

A lot of gurdwarae darbar halls are now fitted with projectors uses for translations in English.

If you observe with BOS at Park Avenue Southall Gurdwara on Sunday evening, they are full. English is a big factor and they are of a much younger sangat.

I remember a talk done by Jagraj Singh who mentioned that Gurdwarae in the west have large darbar halls and in Punjab and India the darbar are not that large.

The design of the darbar is very different in the west. 

The last of your paragraph is very telling of the expectations for a Western Sikh.

I believe gurdwarae already do quite a lot more for the Sangat then we realise but this is not publicised like the negative stuff.

People expect things to be handed all these things on a silver platter but the thing is the hands of the Sangat.

Gurdwarae are self sustaining ecosystems  (this is the genius of our Gurus).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Ranjeet01 said:

The last of your paragraph is very telling of the expectations for a Western Sikh.

Not really, it's something that Gurdwaras in the pinds of India could do as well. It's all about getting the community on the right path and to help them, such as elders. They're not going to go to community centres where there's people from different faiths/religions.  They are more likely to go where somebody speaks their mother tongue, and the Gurdwara is normally where they are more comfortable going.  In the West, we have Health services that do it, but a lot of people from our community don't know about these things.  Just giving them awareness of it is what's needed.  There aren't many Gurdwaras that do this, apart from the towns that have a higher Sikh population.  But even then it's not publicised enough, people normally find out after the event, or they'll advertise it a day before.  

The Gurdwara is Bhagti da ghar, so it's a matter of making that balance and getting sangat involved  also.  Also funding is an issue, these things aren't free, as it getting health professionals to come and do talks etc.  

19 minutes ago, Ranjeet01 said:

People expect things to be handed all these things on a silver platter but the thing is the hands of the Sangat.

I guess you're right about this, then it becomes like a community centre and not a Gurdwara. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Christianity in the UK since ww2 hasn't been 'in your face'. Just like most other religions, there are those who 'identify' themselves as Christians, but a smaller percentage of those who 'practice' Christianity. I've known quite a few younger Christians over the years and their devotion to their path shouldn't be questioned just because they don't 'shout about it'. British Christianity is very different to African or evangelical paths. Likewise its very different to the American Christians. Afterall in the West, the US Christians are the most powerful 'religious' block in the world. In 'elite' uni's and institutions you also get strong Christian groupings. So what I'm saying is that numbers are not that relevant. The Christian population is also changing radically in the UK (I remember a politician in the 1990s saying one of the reasons certain politicians were pushing for expansion of the EU was to 'inject' more younger Christians into the UK from places like Poland). We should also thank the Christians for things like the 'Alpha' course which as been used by folks in our community as an example of how to formalise/structure educating people about their faith. 

Oh and we've got a huge demographic bomb coming in our community in the next 20+ years. If you look at the gurdwareh we have, then you'll see that they are run by the older generation (grand parents / great grand parents) for their day to day running. Plus a fair number of recent 'migrants' from the panjab helping out. But the numbers of these people are becoming fewer, yet we have the same number of gurdwareh which will start to close over the next few decades. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt


  • Topics

  • Posts

    • yeh it's true, we shouldn't be lazy and need to learn jhatka shikaar. It doesn't help some of grew up in surrounding areas like Slough and Southall where everyone thought it was super bad for amrit dharis to eat meat, and they were following Sant babas and jathas, and instead the Singhs should have been normalising jhatka just like the recent world war soldiers did. We are trying to rectifiy this and khalsa should learn jhatka.  But I am just writing about bhog for those that are still learning rehit. As I explained, there are all these negative influences in the panth that talk against rehit, but this shouldn't deter us from taking khanda pahul, no matter what level of rehit we are!
    • How is it going to help? The link is of a Sikh hunter. Fine, but what good does that do the lazy Sikh who ate khulla maas in a restaurant? By the way, for the OP, yes, it's against rehit to eat khulla maas.
    • Yeah, Sikhs should do bhog of food they eat. But the point of bhog is to only do bhog of food which is fit to be presented to Maharaj. It's not maryada to do bhog of khulla maas and pretend it's OK to eat. It's not. Come on, bro, you should know better than to bring this Sakhi into it. Is this Sikh in the restaurant accompanied by Guru Gobind Singh ji? Is he fighting a dharam yudh? Or is he merely filling his belly with the nearest restaurant?  Please don't make a mockery of our puratan Singhs' sacrifices by comparing them to lazy Sikhs who eat khulla maas.
    • Seriously?? The Dhadi is trying to be cute. For those who didn't get it, he said: "Some say Maharaj killed bakras (goats). Some say he cut the heads of the Panj Piyaras. The truth is that they weren't goats. It was she-goats (ਬਕਰੀਆਂ). He jhatka'd she-goats. Not he-goats." Wow. This is possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard in relation to Sikhi.
    • Instead of a 9 inch or larger kirpan, take a smaller kirpan and put it (without gatra) inside your smaller turban and tie the turban tightly. This keeps a kirpan on your person without interfering with the massage or alarming the masseuse. I'm not talking about a trinket but rather an actual small kirpan that fits in a sheath (you'll have to search to find one). As for ahem, "problems", you could get a male masseuse. I don't know where you are, but in most places there are professional masseuses who actually know what they are doing and can really relieve your muscle pains.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use