Here are some tried and tested event ideas for you to organise.
It is sometimes even more effective to persuade or help other groups who meet regularly to organise events for their members using the OWW / GEW theme.
Food or 'Meals with a message'
Everybody enjoys a meal and you can cover lots of issues related to OWW's concerns and find ways to link them to the theme.
Hold a shared meal: evening supper, lunch, coffee morning or even a breakfast before work. Invite friends, neighbours and colleagues new and old. Highlight fair trade, local and organic food and drinks and their role in shaping a more equitable and enduring future for people and the natural environment.
Have a multicultural meal with recipes from the different cultural groups in your locality and reflect on what you can do together today in sharing and caring for your communities that will contribute to a peaceful and equitable community for your children.
Invite an after dinner speaker to raise issues about the theme.
Print off some quotations (search for 'quotations' in Resources) from our themed collection and scatter them about the tables to start people talking about them
Use our Grace Across Faiths resource to add an inter faith dimension.
Walks or cycle tours
Gather people together to WALK through the town, giving out One World Week leaflets. Show solidarity with thousands of others who are concerned about the challenges of the OWW theme.
Plan prominent places for the procession group to stop & reflect and take action, making a statement surrounding the theme. Invite local media to cover the event.
Talks/discussions
- Invite key speakers from a range of faith groups to speak on how their faith responds to the ideas in the annual theme
- Hold a "Question time" type event and invite people to speak on aspects of the theme. Ensure you have a range of views and you'll have a great discussion - get people to make pledges at the end about what they will do differently. They could write their own or choose one from OWW's range of pledges (search 'pledges' in Resources )
- Show a film on the theme topic and have a discussion and pledge session afterwards.(search in resources for film suggestions)
Inter-cultural celebrations
Cultural music, dance and poetry are great ways to involve members of your community in gathering together and celebrating diversity. Invite local schools, scout groups and faith groups to participate in an evening of entertainment. Invite everyone to write or choose a OWW pledge about what they will do in relation to the theme and join in with an existing campaign, or alternatively, to create one that is relevant to your community. Check out our pledges resources by entering "pledges" in the search engine). Use OWW's Islamic and Christian Perspective Presentations (find in Faith Based Resources) as starting points to introduce these two faith perspectives.
Sports
Friendly matches or fierce competitions between parents and children, or employees and employers, can be a fun way to bring people together. Ask a prominent member of the community to open the event. Using the theme, ask everyone to reflect on what they can do to create a fairer more enduring way of living. Raise money to cover your costs or for another charity relevant to the annual theme.
Worship
Encourage your faith community to look at ways to interpret the annual theme, at home, in the community and in the world. Use the OWW worship resources (use the search engine to find them or browse the "Faith Based" Resource archive)
Worship with the world: A great way to widen out the walls of your building is to link up with others by having a live Zoom event or phone interview (on Skype projected on to big screen would be great!), as OWW supporters did in Ulverston Methodist Church. They used a mobile phone and amplifier and asked people in churches in Australia, Estonia and the USA to lead intercessory prayers with the congregation and then talk on topics related to the theme.
"It was a most moving experience to be led by someone thousands of miles away ... it really did make us feel part of one world" (Rev. T. Wells)
Find examples of events reported by their organisers on the Case Study page - here.
Don't forget to publicise your event/s on Facebook