Bonus Episode: Lucy Calcott (East Sussex WIN)

In our bonus episodes, we speak to women from our Women's Interfaith Network (WIN) community to share their stories and give their own unique perspectives on keeping faith. 

In our third bonus episode, Lucy Calcott from WIN’s East Sussex Group shares what interfaith means to her, how she keeps faith in dark times and her advice for someone thinking of getting involved with interfaith work.  

You can find out more about Lucy's artwork and writing here, or listen to her poetry reading shared as part of WIN's 2020 Interfaith Week commemorations, 'Unexpected Connections'. You can also find out more about Compass Community Arts here.

Read our blog about East Sussex WIN’s 10th Anniversary Celebrations.
Find out more about our grassroots women's groups and our wide-ranging projects.

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide is part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network.

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry

Transcript

Maeve Carlin: Welcome to Keeping Faith, a how to guide, a new podcast from Women’s Interfaith Network exploring how women keep faith in ourselves, in each other, in a cause, or in religious faith so you can learn how to keep faith too.

I'm your host Maeve Carlin. And today, in our third bonus episode, we're speaking to Lucy Calcott, from our East Sussex WIN Group, which recently celebrated it’s 10th anniversary. Lucy reflects on her journey with interfaith work, how dialogue with women of different faiths has deepened her own, and the radical power of friendship. 

In each bonus episode, we'll be speaking to women from our Women's Interfaith Network community, sharing their stories and giving their own unique perspectives on keeping faith. We hope these bonus episodes will help unpack what this word interfaith, that you'll hear so much throughout the series really means to us, what it looks like on the ground, and learn more about the women who make women's interfaith network what it is. But for now, let's jump into our conversation with Lucy Calcott.

Maeve Carlin: Well, thanks so much for coming on the podcast, Lucy. 

Lucy Calcott: Thanks for having me. 

Maeve Carlin: Can you tell us about your journey with WIN so far and what led you to get involved with Interfaith? 

Lucy Calcott: I was brought up in the Catholic family. And turned away from the church when I was 16, and then I went to work on a kibbutz in the north of Israel, and the founders were child survivors from Auschwitz.

So that had a huge impression on me, and a few years later I was back working in Jerusalem with one of the girls that I met there who converted to Judaism. And we kept the Sabbath and it was beautiful. And it was so sort of familiar to me, the breaking of the bread, especially that, that was really instrumental in bringing me back to my own faith, but with this awareness of the importance of other faiths, so I found out about the sisters of Zion, who they've got two houses in Jerusalem, they've also got a house in Worthing, who work for reconciliation between Christians and Jews. And Muslims as well now, and I became an associate. So then me and my boyfriend, now husband, went to India and I had a similar experience about the richness of other cultures and other religions. I was especially moved by the Tibetan Buddhists. They had a joy. So this was building up inside me. I, we had the children, had three kids.

I did my nursing training. So when my children left home and I was thinking, so, what's going to happen next? This opening of Interfaith that had come through my traveling and actually also through my work, because I work with people from all around the world, led me to call WIN. I wanted a women's organization as well and asked them about groups locally and said, “Hey, let's do this. You know, I'd like to get involved.” But at that point, there wasn't anything. 

But then eight months later, I heard from Margaret Callaghan. And she'd been asked to do a flower festival in her village church. And she said, I'll only do it if it's a celebration of all the faiths. And she'd contacted WIN. And they said to her, you must start a group because there's another woman in your area. Actually, we used to be in the same village. 

So that's where it started. And the Flower Festival was a triumph. And we met Shameem, who's Muslim, and Catherine, who's Baha'i. And the four of us started. Since then, it's just grown. And now we have about 30 members. And it, it's, it's a joy. It's lovely.

Maeve Carlin: Wow. What a beautiful story. I, I actually don't think I'd heard that before: how organic it was, it all coming together. And it's also really beautiful to hear you talk about how interfaith encounter brought you closer to your own faith. 

Lucy Calcott: Yeah. 

Maeve Carlin: Well, for listeners who aren't WIN members, which is probably the majority of the people that listen to the podcast, can you give us a snapshot of what a WIN group is like? Who's involved? What kind of things do you do together? 

Lucy Calcott: We meet in each other's homes once a month. There's often quite a lot of food, really good food. We've got Um, we've got more Muslims, we've got Christians, we've got Independents, we've got Hindus, um, there's a Buddhist, there's a Jewish lady, um, and the ages range between 30 and nearly 90. It's a friendship group, really. 

Last year we had two big community celebrations, but usually we have a bring and share for interfaith week in November and invite the community. Last time we had Indian dancing and African drumming, lots and lots of delicious food, speakers. So they're the sort of highlight of the year. And we're quite closely affiliated with Hastings Interfaith Forum, and they put on lectures in the mosque and invite the local church people, the Rabbi, and they sort of have discussions about their perspectives. So we try and go to some of those.We have summer picnics. So it's very informal. And it's just getting together, really. 

Maeve Carlin: I think so much about interfaith work is coming together, breaking bread, as you said in the beginning. Uh, cups of tea, critical to interfaith work. We always, always tell the story of the time we forgot to bring sugar to an event. And I don't think our members stopped talking about it for about two hours after the sugar had already been, we'd gone and got it. Any, anybody who arrived, they were saying, "can you believe we got here and there was no sugar for our cup of tea?" 

And you're also very embedded in your local community, aren't you? You've sort of organically got involved in other community initiatives. 

Lucy Calcott: Through WIN, actually. Yes, I met Fenya and  I'm now involved with Compass Community Arts. I work for them and one of our members, Sue, she's involved with the Refugee Settlement Program down here. We go to the mosque sometimes. And join in with the coffee mornings there. 

Maeve Carlin: That's brilliant. 

Lucy Calcott: Yeah. 

Maeve Carlin: Can you tell us a bit more about Compass Community Arts and what you do with them? 

Lucy Calcott: They're involved really with people on the margins. And it's, it's using creativity, sort of to help with mental health problems. So we have exhibitions. and publications. The standard of work is really good. I tend to be on the creative writing side, but I've actually just been in the psychiatric hospital this morning doing some drawing. So it's trying to engage people in doing things as a sort of way of healing. And it's, it's a community, so people have that sense of belonging and building self-esteem and it works. We're getting so many referrals because it works.. 

Maeve Carlin: That's brilliant. And it's also something actually we've been exploring through the Keeping Faith program, we had an art workshop, uh, with this amazing organization, Creating Ground, that supports women from migrant communities in South London.

And really, when you use creativity to start conversations, it's amazing the conversations you can have. Can you share some of the highlights that jump out to you over your years with WIN and what you've learned from your fellow members?

Lucy Calcott: We always have amazing Christmases in Margaret's wintry cottage with a big fire in Wilmington. Everybody loves going there. She's actually just moving, but that's always a highlight. Um, and two of the things that I remember clearly was Catherine, the Bahá'í lady, said to me once that "Jesus is undoubtedly more than just a very good man", and that really was strengthening for me.

Um, and Shameem, Shameem was talking about Islam, and she said that they believe that at night your soul goes to heaven, and then comes back. And that makes a lot of sense to me, because I always have more clarity in the morning. I tend to trust myself. Well, that's when I pray in the morning.

At the end of the day, when it's, it's all full of stuff, but in the morning it's clearer, but I think the main thing is the power of friendship because there's a lot of love in our group. So it's building that sort of understanding. We still go and see Shamsun, who's moved to London, because she misses it so much, and we miss her, so we have little trips up to see her.

So, the connections are very deep, and it's overcome, the whole point of it, isn't it, is to overcome those barriers and the fear through the power of friendship. 

Maeve Carlin: Exactly, what a radical thing friendship can be, it's really amazing. 

Lucy Calcott: Yeah. 

Maeve Carlin: And again, some of those stories you were telling, it's about how other people's perspectives on their own faith have strengthened yours, which is so interesting.

I think people think that dialogue with people of different faiths somehow takes away from their own, but that's the exact opposite of the experience you're describing. 

Lucy Calcott: It doesn't dilute it.

Maeve Carlin: Well, the last few months have been a really turbulent time for interfaith with rising hate crime political upheaval and the closure of the Inter Faith Network for the UK Can you share with us how you've kept faith through this time?

Lucy Calcott: Well, I completely depend on these quiet times in the morning. So, one of the Sisters of Zion that I got very close to became my spiritual guide. And she taught me to pray in a sort of, it's like a meditation, in a contemplative way, so that you drop out of your thoughts and into the quiet. And, um, that's where I get my faith from.

And I need to do that every day. Um, because, you know, the world's very frightening. So, but always in that quiet place, there's this, there's a guidance to keep believing and believing in this power of love that WIN embodies, you know, this power of friendship and just to keep going with it. So, I think that, that's what keeps me going.

It's the prayer and, and friends, you know, within WIN and outside WIN and my family. It's, it's the power of love. 

Maeve Carlin: I think that will resonate with a lot of us. Both the power of quiet and the power of connection. 

Lucy Calcott: Yeah, yeah. 

Maeve Carlin: So what would you say to someone listening who doesn't know whether interfaith is for them? 

Lucy Calcott: I'd say give it a go, you know. Well, our groups are just very informal. I'm sure the others are too.

And, um, you know, people come for different reasons. Like, I know somebody started coming just because she enjoyed the company. She'd lost her husband and she enjoyed the company and the cake. And, um, so it was just a sort of social thing for her, but then it grew and it's become much more meaningful.

So you can just dip in and see. And this concern about it diluting your faith: I think the richness of the different traditions and everything, I really don't think it does that. And the challenge to fanaticism is good, it's what we all need. There's lots of people in our group who are independent, they're not attached to any particular faith at all. So, and that's also fine. You know, they bring a lot to it as well. So, so I just say, give it a go. 

Maeve Carlin: Brilliant. 

Well, give it a go. What a great note to end on. Thank you, Lucy.

Lucy Calcott: Thank you for having me. 

Maeve Carlin: 

We hope you enjoyed our third bonus episode, learning more about the women behind the network. Watch this space for more bonus episodes with women from the WIN community, and our next full-length episode, which will be released as usual at the start of the month. In episode nine, we're speaking to Sahdaish Pall, CEO of Sikh Women's Aid, about her work shining a light on domestic abuse - an issue which touches every community but is often treated as taboo - and how we can keep faith in justice for women and girls. 

Thank you for listening to this episode of Keeping Faith: A How To Guide. Subscribe now on your podcast app to be the first to hear about our upcoming episodes, and please leave a review or share with a friend to help more people find us. To find out more about the podcast, the 2024 Keeping Faith Programme or to get involved with the Women’s Interfaith Network, you can follow the links in our episode notes or go to wominet.org.uk. Until next time, Keep Faith!

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide was created by Women’s Interfaith Network. The podcast is co-produced by me, Maeve Carlin, and Adam Brichto. Our executive producer is Lady Gilda Levy. Theme music was composed by Jamie Payne and our logo was designed by Jasey Finesilver. Additional Support from Tara Corry.