A CELEBRATION of faith brought together all members of the Bolton community.

People of all faiths and none came together to break down barriers as part of National Interfaith Week.

Bolton played host to a number of events across a week of celebrations deigned to strengthen good interfaith relationships.

More than 440 school pupils from 10 schools and almost 300 adults and 22 volunteers took part in the events across the borough.

Chan Parmar, from Bolton Interfaith Council, said: "For us locally, once again, it was an extremely rewarding, positive and inspiring week which makes some of the recent negative headlines irrelevant for our wider communities.

"Over the years, we have been very fortunate to have built up good trust and understanding from individuals, organisations, community-faith groups, educational institutions and many others whose support is vital for interfaith work.

"Whilst interfaith understanding is beneficial to everyone — it is particularly important for our young people to be engaged — hence the faith trails are so vital in enhancing knowledge of other faiths, traditions and culture away from the classroom.

"Despite the things we hear and read, there is is a lot of good out there in the public which reassures your faith in humanity.

People took part in a range of activities aimed at bringing people together to build trust between communities and create peace, understanding, tolerance and respect.

Among the events was a Passport to Faiths and Food Share at Emmanuel Church which saw six major faiths sharing items of literature, food, and joining in a Christmas carols singalong and poetry reading.

School pupils took part in faith trails to places of worships and, on Wednesday, there was an event celebrating Eid, Diwali and Advent attended by more than 200 people from the diverse community as well as children from Brandwood and Gilnow primary schools.

On Thursday, people attended a Greater Manchester Interfaith Conference in Rochdale and there was a networking forum with Dave Bagley from Urban Outreach as a guest speaker.

Finally a unique Sunday community event at Veda Mandir included multi-faith prayers with interfaith young ambassadors and a discussion about Mahatma Gandhi’s values of peace, non-violence, equality and simplicity.

A video of Gandhi’s visit to Darwen when he stopped off in Edgworth in 1931 was shown.

Mr Parmar added: "What we have seen during the week and throughout the year is that the children of today, guided and nurtured, are an inspiration to us and you feel positive about the future.

"When one sees the interaction and friendship between children of very diverse backgrounds, even the new arrivals, there is an air of freshness and goodness about it."