During the Sacred Spaces training event in Church House, we decamp nest door to the Cathedral, with the intention of experiencing a little bit of what's offered to school parties when they come on a planned visit there. Just after we've gone in, I see Ben Jackson, from BBC Radio Leicester, walk in behind us. I peel away from the main group and see Ben walk up to the pledge, which is on prominent display. He has a digital roving mic and is recording something as he looks over the pledge. I sidle over to him, wait till he's finished and tell him that if he wants to interview anyone about the pledge, I'm one of those who signed it. So he does, and I get the chance to speak about what it is, why it's there and why I signed it. I also make the point that no matter what's going on this coming weekend, the group at work in the cathedral is the real face of our communities working together and the kind of thing ghat goes on all the time.
After we're done, Ben thanks me and head back to the BBC. I start to make my way back to rejoin the Sacred Spaces group, when a man walks up to me , takes me by the arm and asks if he can have a word. He's a perfectly respectable looking fellow, in his early 70s, clean cut and calm. We walk just outside the cathedral where he proceeds to tell me that he disagrees with the idea of the pledge and that the church shouldn't be doing such a thing. He says that the church should keep out of politics and that it shouldn't be trying to tell people what to think. We talk for a quarter of an hour or so and end up agreeing to disagree. I'm glad that I look approachable.
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