At New Walk Museum and Art Gallery this evening for the launch of the University of Leicester’s Faith Trail. Today’s event marks an important stage in the development of Mapping Faith and Place, a project based in the university's School of Archaeology and Ancient History. Today is the day the project goes public.
Leicester Council of Faiths has lent occasional assistance to this project over the last year or so. Most recently, I’ve had the chance to make some slight amendments to the text of the printed booklet that goes with the Faith Trail and to ensure the use of a decent version of our logo.
Here’s an extract from the address given by Deirdre O’Sullivan, who is project leaders (along with Ruth Young, from Archaeology).
“Mapping Faith and Place has grown out of our shared interests in the archaeology of the great World Religions and the ways in which places of worship are understood, and used, by both members of faith communities and people outside those communities. Be they fellow citizens, tourists and visitors, or archaeologists seeking to understand placed in the past.
“The study of religious monuments occupies a substantial section of any archaeology curriculum, From the temple complexes and shrines of the ancient civilisations of both the old and new worlds, through the abbeys, churches and cathedrals of Western Christendom, to the beautiful mosques of the Islamic world, archaeologists have recorded an enormous range of buildings that have served faith communities in both the past and the present. Understanding such places, however, requires more than familiarity with architectural terminology, or carefully scaled admiration for the skills and resources of their architects, builders and decorators. The meanings of such places need to be accessed in some way.
“The range of contemporary faith communities in Leicester offers a remarkable opportunity to do just this. Over 400 different places have been used for worship in the city. Many of these buildings have disappeared; others have changed hands and moved between different faith communities, or in some cases, been adapted for secular use. All of the major contemporary world religions are represented.
“It is an educational axiom that in order to explain something you must first understand it yourself. Although the world seems unfortunately rather full of people trying to explain things that they don’t understand. Our educational ambition is simply the development of understanding of places of faith in the present, and in the past. Not just the whats and wheres, but they whys and hows of what things mean in Leicester, which is so remarkable as a successful multi-ethnic community in 21st century Britain. If we are to explain this success, we must first understand how it works.
“The event today focuses on our first concrete outputs from the project, the creation of a Faith Trail by a group of undergraduates in Archaeology and Ancient History and an interactive map of all the places of faith in Leicester alive and dead prepared by Dr Chris Green, which will enable anyone to construct their own maps and trails. Resources from the University’s Knowledge Exchange programme were provided which allowed us to employ an independent heritage consultant, Heather Lomas, to co-ordinate and steer the word over summer and, indeed, organise this launch today,
“These are not just for the purpose of academic enquiry; they are also openly accessible on the web and we hope that we can create useful tools and resources for developing ongoing dialogues within Leicester for a whole range of purposes, not least among faith communities themselves.”
Two of the students take the podium to speak about their work on the project. During this short talk they give a big credit to the Council of Faiths (a bit bigger than I think we deserve, but I’m not going to complain). We do have quite a visible presence at this occasion, with one of our pop-up banners on display at the front and the full range of our leaflets out among the material published by the university.
There’s a very convivial atmosphere among the 50 or so attendees and everyone seems pleased and satisfied with the work so far – as well as being keen and optimistic about future developments.
There’s going to be a series of workshops furthering the Mapping Faith and Place project and the Council of Faiths has been asked to be involved. I’ll be away in Glasgow when the first of these takes place (Tuesday 18 October) but Rosemarie Fitton will be taking part.
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