Thursday 19 May 2011

MULTI-FAITH PRAYER ROOM PROPOSED IN HIGHCROSS


Leicester Council of Faiths has been invited to advise Highcross (the city's biggest shopping venue) on establishing a Multi-Faith Prayer Room for customers. Following an exchange of emails in the last week, I have a positive conversation on the phone this morning with Jack Payne, Buildings Manager at Highcross and we arrange to meet on site and discuss the development on Tuesday 31 May.

I understand that this sort of facility exists for staff, but this will be the first time that Hammersons, the company which owns and runs Highcross, will have done this for customers at any of their shopping centres. So, once again, Leicester leads the way!

I remember there was a bit of a push to ensure that Highcross would have a prayer room before the venue opened. Although that campaign didn't appear to come to anything at the time, That sort of gentle pressure appears to have paid off in the medium term.

Of course, the Council of Faiths has a good relationship with Highcross, as regular readers of this blog will know. We've put on a display there for National Inter Faith week (at the invitation of Highcross) two years running - and we hope we'll be able to go back for that event this year, when it rolls around in November. Highcross also made a substantial contribution to the exhibition that's been used in those two special weeks - and on many other occasions in several sites around the city in between.

Leicester Council of Faiths is grateful for the opportunity to lend its weight to this project, which we're sure will prove of benefit to Highcross and to its customers, as it seeks ever more fully to reflect the makeup and meet the needs of the diverse community it serves in this city. We're also glad to be able to strengthen our relationship with Highcross, which is such an important part of Leicester life.

There's a full meeting of the Council of Faiths this evening, so this will be a piece of good news to relate there. Undoubtedly we'll be promoting the idea that this kind of facility has to work as something that will be appealing and useful to people of all faiths. Still, it's going to be of more interest to members of some faith communities than of others. It will be helpful to get input from members who have used this kind of facility in other public places; there may be some who've been involved in setting up this kind of prayer room elsewhere. All comments and feedback welcome - from anyone who wishes to express an interest!

3 comments:

  1. An interfaith prayer room in Highcross would be great! John.

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  2. Though I am not personally of any faith group, with such a diverse community as leicester is this is a great thing to happen, and what is greater is that members of those differing communities can come together for a common cause. Uniting for the benefit of the community!

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  3. well out of order!!!!!!! do not want it!!!!!!

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