Light and human experience of time

Dr Iona Hine of the Cambridge Interfaith Programme hosts a two-part webinar offering information and class-friendly activities for education and teaching professionals.

Author Cathy Haynes and New Crescent Society moonsighter Baber Siddiqi take turns to offer reflections in a session inspired by the UK Inter Faith Week 2026 theme: “Lighting the way for our shared future.”

The session draws on the recent Moonsighters Academy collaboration with Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy and Leeds’ School of Physics and Astronomy, which trained nearly 40 British Muslims to lead moonsighting activities. Haynes shares material from her book The Fullness of Time (Bloomsbury & Riverhead 2026, ISBN 9781526665102) – including historical ways people in Europe told time without clocks, using shadows, scratch dials on church walls, portable sundials, flowers, twilight cues, and stars.

She also shares two anecdotes from Cambridge moonsighting researcher Imad Ahmed about timing prayers by the cockerel’s crowing and a distinctive flower. In part two, Baber Siddiqi from the New Crescent Society explains the meaning and practice of sighting the new crescent to begin lunar months, offers practical UK guidance for 11 November 2026 (sunset about 4:13pm in Cambridge), and points viewers to New Crescent Society groups, livestreams, and tools like Stellarium. Overall, this two-part webinar offers many actionable ways to engage with the world around us and reflect on our shared human experience of light, time, and nature. Find more information and support, along with follow-up activities, at www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/news or on the dedicated website www.ifw4schools.co.uk.

Go to https://youtu.be/lFFbplzqgUw?si=q3FKEYWRQTDWxwvL

Read on for more information about resources, practices, and activities mentioned in the Inter Faith Week webinar.

Published 30 October 2026