Religion or belief (including lack of belief)

The Equality Act protects everyone with a religion or belief (including lack of religion or belief).

At The University of Manchester we concentrate on the six major faith groups - although we recognise there are many other beliefs and religions. 

We can understand more about the diversity of beliefs on campus from the last census:

 

Religion/Belief	Manchester	UK
Christian	62.4%	71.7%
No Religion/Belief	16%	14.6%
Muslim	9.1%	3.1%
Hindu	0.7%	1.1%
Sikh	0.4%	0.7%
Jewish	0.8%	0.5%
Buddhist	0.5%	0.3%
Other	0.3%	0.3%

News

There are efforts underway to establish a Hindu chaplaincy similar to the current Muslim chaplaincy.  Both projects are in need of people who might be interested in being trustees.

The ideal trustee is someone who understands the needs of their faith community (and that doesn't necessarily mean 'be a fully practising member'; whatever that implies!); who is at ease in a university context; and who desires to see the best possible faith support for students and staff at the universities.

If you are interested, please contact terry.biddington@manchester.ac.uk

In January 2014, the Equality and Diversity Unit published updated religious observance guidelines. For details of this visit:

• Religious observance guidance

The University's Diversity Calendar

The Equality and Diversity Team produce a diversity calendar each year. This helps people when scheduling particular events and meetings as it lists all the major festivals and religious holidays for the main 6 religions and beliefs. The calendar can be viewed here, or you can request a copy from the equality and diversity team.

As part of the activities for the calendar we have produced a number of handy factsheets for different religions and beliefs:

2010: Muslim (updated version for 2013)

2011: Judaism

2012: Christianity

2013: Hinduism

2014: Sikhism

2015: Buddhism (Due to be published May 2015)

Promoting equality in the University

The first Multi Faith Banquet was held at St Peter's House in 2007. It was at this event representatives from the Bahai Community, Hindu Community, the Anglican Chaplain, Mandarin Chaplain, Free Church Chaplain, Orthodox Christian Chaplain, Muslim Faith Advisor and the Buddhist Chaplain all signed up to their joint statement of intent. 

This declaration is still in force.  For details of this statement visit:

• The Multi-Faith Declaration

In addition, there are other resources and information available:

• List of recognised Chaplains
• St Peter's Chaplaincy
• Sacred Spaces Map
• A Student Guide to Churches in Manchester

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