INTER FAITH WEEK 2011, DAY 1: BBC RADIO LEICESTER

I'm appearing on John Florance's show this morning on BBC Radio Leicester. He’s interviewing me on the subject of Inter Faith Week, which begins today. I've been asked to come on just after the 8 o'clock news. I walk to the studio from home in Stoneygate. It's much too early for the first bus and I seem to have spent a small fortune on taxis recently.

It's a pleasant misty autumn morning and I arrive at the studio a few minutes before the hour. I enjoy the walk (even if the city centre doesn't look its best this time of a Sunday morning, before the debris from the night before has been cleaned away). Tomorrow, however, I'll be getting a cab here. I don't cover this route as quickly as I think I do and I have to be here a full 90 minutes earlier to read my Thought for the Day at 0630 on Ben Jackson’s Breakfast Show.

I'm brought into the building, then into the anteroom to the studio by John's producer, Becca Bryers. Three years ago, I was in the same spot with Shaikh Ibrahim Moghrah and Noel Singh, speaking with John on air about the first Inter Faith Week to be held in England and Wales. Back then, in November 2009, we didn't really know what to expect - or whether Inter Faith Week was going to be more than a one-shot deal.

John interviews me for a quarter of an hour or so, in which I get to explain the purpose of Inter Faith Week, promote some of our activities for it and announce the launch of Leicester Council of Faiths' 25th anniversary, which we're tagging on to this week. We were hoping to have someone from Phoenix Square here today, to talk about the Faiths Film Festival that’s running there this week, but I couldn't persuade any member of staff to come out at this time of the morning. But I hold my own on this too.

John raises that hoary old chestnut about whether we're doing no more than preaching to the converted during this week. I'll credit him with playing Devil's Advocate on this one. I make what I’d like to think is a spirited response and point out that all the activities sponsored by Leicester Council of Faiths during Inter Faith Week are outward-facing, aimed at the general public and that they’re taking place in venues not normally associated with religion or belief. The accusation that we might be "preaching to the converted" certainly doesn't apply to what we're doing this year (or, hopefully, in either of the past two years, for that matter).

Before I leave, I fix a time during the week when Becca can come to Highcross and gather some information about the Multi-Faith Prayer Room there, for next Sunday's show. I’ll have to clear that with Highcross management first, of course.

Then it's off to Bishop Street, to round up everything we need to set up the exhibition in Highcross - and to await Rosemarie Fitton and her little van.

PS: Later this evening, the interview was broadcast again.