Faith organisations

Leaflet advertising an interdenominational meeting in Bristol Cathedral on the immorality of apartheid. The speaker was the AAM’s President Archbishop Trevor Huddleston and the meeting was sponsored by the Anglican, Catholic, Baptist and Methodist churches.

Members of the AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee held daily silent lunch hour vigils outside the South African Embassy in the week before Easter. The committee was formed in 1985 to bring together people of different faiths in opposition to apartheid.

Poster publicising a parliamentary lobby on 17 June 1986 calling on the British government to impose sanctions against South Africa. More than 3,500 people lobbied their MPs askin them to press for a change of policy. The lobby was initiated by the AAM, with support from the TUC, British Council of Churches and the United Nations Association. The summer of 1986 was the high point of the international campaign for sanctions against South Africa. 

Supporters of End Loans to Southern Africa (ELTSA) held a vigil outside outside Church House, Westminster on 29 July 1986. They called on the Church Commissioners, who administered the Church of England’s large investment portfolio, to sell its shares in companies with investments in South Africa.

The AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee held a carol service in Trafalgar Square on 21 December 1986. The singing was led by the ANC and SWAPO choirs and the London Community Gospel Choir, and other groups gave readings on the situation in Namibia and South Africa. The event was sponsored by the four leading black London newspapers.

Jews Against Apartheid was formed in August 1986 and played an important part in the AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee.This leaflet advertised a public meeting in London in January 1987. The meeting was part of an international speaking tour by Johannesburg rabbi Ben Isaacson, founding member of Jews for Justice, and Rev Zachariah Mokgoebo from the Black Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa and a member of the Civic Association of Soweto.

Jews Against Apartheid was formed in August 1986 and played an important part in the AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee. Over 150 Jews met outside South Africa House on 16 April 1987 to conduct a Seder for Freedom in Southern Africa. In the picture are Rabbis Alexandra Wright, Colin Eimer and Daniel Smith and writer Bernard Kops.

The memorial meeting for Steve Biko held on Sunday 13 September 1987 marked the tenth anniversary of his death in detention. A packed congregation at Notting Hill Methodist Church in west London heard readings by Muslims, Jews and Christians and an address by Barney Pityana. The event was organised by the AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee and SATIS (Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society).