EVER SINCE the riots in Burnley in 2001, there have been strong efforts at reconciliation between the Muslim and Christian communities. Building Bridges in Burnley (in Blackburn diocese) was formed almost immediately, bringing together clerics and lay people with imams and members of local councils and community projects.

The present director of BBB is Abdul Hamid Qureshi, who also chairs the Lancashire Council of Mosques. He recently led a party of five Muslims and nine Christians on a trip to Rome. A similar group had spent several days in London last year, Canon Thomas Bill, one of the party, told me. They visited Government, Muslim, and Christian institutions, but the main purpose was to get to know each other.

There was a similar motivation behind the visit to Rome, when the party included a Muslim woman, Shahida Iqbal, a partnership manager of the Lancashire Forum of Faiths, and her husband. As well as Canon Bill and his wife, Kathleen, there was another Canon of Blackburn Cathedral, Canon Peter Hapgood-Strickland, and a Roman Catholic priest, Fr Michael Waters..

In Rome they all attended a general audience with the Pope, who mentioned their group by name. They met with the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and visited the biggest mosque in Europe and also the Great Synagogue of Rome, that dates back to 200 BC. All of them learned a great deal about each other’s faiths.

Mrs Bill, who is a trustee of BBB, says its work will go on, and, with the help of the Mothers’ Union, she hopes to bring together groups of Muslim and Christian women.