The East of England Faiths Council (EEFC) is the nominating body for the faiths seat on the East of England Regional Assembly. It brings together representatives of the nine major faiths in membership of the Interfaith Network UK: Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hindu, Islam, Jain, Judaism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrian. EEFC was established in April 2002, when the East of England Church Leaders — Bishops and their equivalents — as representatives of the largest faith group in the region, invited people of comparable standing in other major faith traditions to meet with them and form a multi-faith organisation. The remit of EEFC is to provide a clear point of contact with bodies of regional governance, and to engage with them such that faiths can speak with a common voice when appropriate. Its objective is to ensure that faith communities are an effective stakeholder in the region, by making input to regional development at strategic level, and facilitating dialogue with senior decision makers. The East of England Faiths Council holds regular quarterly meetings. These are always chaired by two people drawn from the four co-chairs: Ellis Weinberger (of the Jewish community in Cambridge), Paul Hills (Area Minister in the Eastern Baptist Association, Christian), Zafar Khan (Luton Council of Faiths, Muslim) and Richard Inwood (Bishop of Bedford, Christian). Former co-chairs include John Flack (Bishop of Huntingdon, Christian), Zia-ul Hassan (Peterborough Interfaith Council, Muslim), Paul Goodliff (Area Minister in the Central Baptist Association, Christian). Currently, the faiths representative on EERA is James Langstaff (Bishop of Lynn). Quarterly meetings attract a wide range of external speakers such as Chairs of PCTs, Directors of regional bodies (Offender Management, EHCR, etc.), voluntary sector umbrella bodies (COVER, MENTER) and senior officers from central and regional governance. This ensures good two-way communication between faiths and policy makers. The EEFC scope of activity has extended considerably over the years, and now includes commissioning research, holding conferences, supporting faith-based community activity and regular maintenance of a public database of faith groups in the region. Key achievements of the East of England Faiths Council include: Two major research projects: Faith in Action looking at the impact of places of worship in different faiths on the social capital in their surrounding community and Faith in the East of England (in conjunction with the University of Cambridge) for EEDA, looking at the Economic impact of faith communities in five localities and drawing conclusions for the whole region. Preparation of an annual Faiths Calendar launched in Peterborough Town Hall, with the kind support of Peterborough City Council. Revised annually, the 2009 calendar is available on this website. Participating in all major regional consultations on behalf of the faith communities of the region, including all iterations of the Regional Economic Strategy and the 2007 Regional Spatial Plan, which will guide development over the next 20 years. Securing the creation of a faiths seat on the Regional Assembly and representation on a number of its panels (Housing, Social Inclusion) and forums (Rural, Resilience) Establishing, jointly with the Faiths and Civil Society Unit, the FaithNetEast support programme of events, research and information for faith-based community activity, whose web site is www.faithneteast.org.uk Researching and making publically available a database of some 2,000 faith organisations in the region, accessible in the Faithsbase section of www.faithneteast.org.uk. Publishing literature on working and consulting with faith communities (pdf available on this website) Holding conferences for faith and public sector jointly with EEDA, GO-East, EERA and Inspire East. Steering key research on provision of faith facilities in new settlements.