INTER FAITH WEEK 2009: LAUNCH EVENT AT COUNTY HALL

This evening is the official launch of National Inter Faith Week for the city and county at County Hall, Glenfield (seat of Leicestershire County Council). Since I stayed at Highcross for the change of shifts at 1800, I arrive at County Hall after most of the food and drink has gone. Thanks to Sugra Ahmed, for guiding me to some vegetarian items that were left. Thankfully there aren't many vegetarian Muslims here this evening.

This is a well supported meeting, in the Council Chamber, in the presence of the Leader of the County Council, Councillor Roger Wilson, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Leicester (for the second time today) and the Bishop of Leicester. It’s chaired by the Venerable Paul Hackwood, Archdeacon of Loughborough and Chair of the Interfaith Forum for Leicestershire. There’s an interesting mix of speakers and topics: Islam Awareness Week; Faiths Forum for the East Midlands; an “inter-faith recipe book”; an extract from a panto staged by Loughborough Council of Faiths; the signing of an “Inter-Faith Charter” by faith community leaders and representatives. Resham Singh Sandhu (Vice-Chair of Leicestershire Inter-Faith Forum and former Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths) delivers a typically rousing closing address. The evening concludes with a solo musical performance by Naim Cortazzi. I find out later that this was the first time a guitar had ever been wielded in the Council Chamber at County Hall!

Noel Singh gets a well-deserved ovation for his work in co-ordinating the week’s events and for being directly involved in organising this evening. In his own presentation, introducing the County Council’s small grants for community cohesion work, he's clearly conscious of the schedule running over by almost half an hour; I’ve never heard him speak so fast!

The keynote speaker is Dr Maureen Sier, Interfaith Development Officer for the Scottish Government. Scotland has had its own annual National Inter Faith Week for several years (theirs starts next week) and Maureen was speaking about the Scottish experience, how it has developed over the years and what we might learn from it as we hold the first such week nationally in England. I’ve known Maureen for over 30 years and I’m glad she was able to come down from Glasgow to speak at this event. She’s given me a lot of encouragement and support in the two-and-a-half years I’ve been at Leicester Council of Faiths and has been something of a touchstone to me in this important work that I'm fortunate enough to be doing.