INTER FAITH WEEK 2009: DAY 2

Today is the first full day of our exhibition at Highcross for Inter Faith Week. Lord Mayor of Leicester, Cllr Roger Blackmore, and Lady Mayoress, Mrs Hilary Blackmore, officially open the exhibition at 12 noon. It's a low-key affair, but entirely appropriate given the setting. Chair of the Council of Faiths, Deputy Lord Mayor Councillor Manjula Sood, is present, as are our immediate past Chair, Minou Cortazzi and Vice-Chair, Tony Nelson. No ribbon to cut, no big scissors to wield, but the Lord Mayor makes a short supportive speech to the dozen or so gathered around him. Manjula says a few words too. We look round the display together, talk about the messages on the banners, enjoy some positive chat and have a few photographs taken. John Coster, from Citizens’ Eye Community News Agency takes several which he posts to Flickr within a couple of hours.

We're joined by Sarah Harrison, City Centre Director, who spoke recently to a full meeting of the Council of Faiths about her work. The Council of Faiths would seem to be a natural ally in what she’s trying to do in the ongoing regeneration of Leicester city centre.

A few words about the exhibition itself would be appropriate here: Julie-Ann Heath, “Workplace Chaplain” at the Cathedral, made the initial contact that led to us having this exhibition. She's a member of Leicester Council of Faiths and brought us into contact with the management at Highcross some six months ago or more, when they expressed an interest in having a display about the city’s faith communities. Without going through all the ins-and-outs of it, we were given this space for National Inter Faith Week to put ourselves on show to the public. We agreed informally with Highcross management on a number of terms, none of which were especially onerous:

• that we should be even-handed, promoting all the faiths involved equally, not appearing to favour one faith over another;
• that we should avoid dispute and contention among volunteers fronting the display or between those on the display and members of the public who might stop and look;
• that the message of the display should be positive;
• that the exhibition material should be harmonious in style and of professional design and production;
• that it should be accessible to members of the public using Highcross;
• that the content should say something relevant to the lives of the people who see it on show.

We were told that we could expect up to 400,000 footfalls over the week! Whatever else it might be, it’ll be the biggest single exposure to the people of Leicester of the Council of Faiths, its member communities and the relationship between them. There’s more to say about the exhibition, but I’ll stretch that out over the posts for this week.

The Leicester Mercury runs the second column in its First Person series for National Inter Faith Week, but I couldn’t get my hands on a copy today (too busy even to step into a newsagents – can anyone really be that busy?) so I don’t know who is featured or what they said. I’ll catch up with that later in the week. I’m disappointed to note that the First Person column isn’t available electronically on the Leicester Mercury’s website. I’d like to be able to link to that occasionally.

From today's entries in the reflective journal, written by one of the volunteers on the stall:

“The banners are great! So far most pass by with a passing glance, but some do slow down and read and some even ask questions – a step in the right direction!”