KNOWING AND RESPECTING THE BELIEFS OF OTHERS

Allan Hayes's First Person column appears in today's  Leiceester Mercury:

Knowing and respecting the beliefs of others

Allan Hayes, of Leicester Secular Society, looks forward positively to 2012

The New Year looks hopeful for the improvement of relations between religions and beliefs. In the past year much more effort has been put into trying to understand one another, into working together and creating an idea of humanity that we can all share and contribute to – what Giles Fraser in this week's Sunday programme called a "big story". This does not mean that serious differences will not be discussed robustly and frankly – they must be – what it does mean is that they will be discussed more in a spirit of co-operation, contribution and accommodation rather than combat and confrontation.

At bottom it means that we will meet one another as people to be respected and listened to. I find that some of the people I now most look forward to meeting again are ones with beliefs different from mine – there is a deep pleasure in sharing humanity.

Here are some recent personal highlights:

A "Challenging RE!" day, with 200 secondary school pupils at Holy Trinity Church was a revelation – young people from a all backgrounds sharing views about what mattered to them; a visit to Gateway school organised by St Philip's Centre during which I was vigorously challenged about my beliefs by pupils; exchanges of views at the Leicestershire Interfaith Forum at County Hall; several events organised by Muslim groups; talking to St Philip's Christian-Muslim discussion group and their subsequent visit to the Secular Hall; the continuing and rewarding involvement with Christians Aware; a very pleasant visit to the Gujarat centre in Preston. Probably the most demanding work, but in many ways the most useful and rewarding, was the preparation of a display on humanism at the invitation of a local primary school.

Two books should be mentioned as looking for understanding and mutual benefit: the first one, out in a few weeks, Religion for Atheists, by Alain de Botton (himself an atheist), tells us that religions are good at some things to do with life and, rather cheekily, that atheists should steal from them. It goes some way to meeting my criticism that humanism needs to be more human – a view that came home to me very much in designing the humanist display referred to above.

The second one by the Vicar of the University Church, Oxford, Canon Brian Mountford is entitled Christian Atheist: it is very sympathetically dealt with in a Westminster Abbey sermon by the Rev Robert Reiss, Canon in Residence; it is of great interest to me as a trustee of the Sea of Faith Network, many members of which might accept the description "Christian Atheist".

Some people may find these developments disturbing. I suggest that they need not: for the more we know and respect one another as people the more we can respect one another's choices of belief. So, things are looking up – but do please think about the effect of faith schools.

STUDENTS TAUGHT ON VARIETY OF RELIGIONS AT ROADSHOW

From today's Leicester Mercury:

Students taught on variety of religions at roadshow 

Students and volunteers got together to take part in a faith roadshow. 

More than 1,300 young people from Gateway College met with religious representatives from eight faiths at the Religion and Belief Roadshow. 

It was aimed at teaching students about a variety of religions including Baha'i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Humanism and Islam. 

The event was organised at the college, in Colin Grundy Drive, Leicester, by the St Phillip's Centre, based in Stoughton Drive North, in Evington. 

Riaz Ravat, from the St Phillip's Centre, said: "The Religion and Belief Roadshow is an important part of our Inter Faith Week programme because it will reach hundreds of young people. 

"Students saw several world views all interacting with one another and spreading inter faith messages of compassion, respect and peace. 

"This is a powerful statement which they can use as an example to tackle intolerance and promote peace."

In photo above: Carrie Potter, of Gateway College, Buddhist the Venerable Amitha and Gateway students Anil Chohan, 18, during the religion and belief roadshow

INTER FAITH WEEK 2011, DAY 5: HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

Fifth day five of our week-long exhibition in Highcross to celebrate Inter Faith Week, showcasing the eight communities represented on Leicester Council of Faiths.

Yesterday was a relatively quiet day compared to this one: it's very media-intensive today, in three distinctly different ways. Around 0945, Bharat Patel arrives with a crew of two, to film some material for Pukaar News. He does some straight-to-camera stuff inside the display area, interviews Fayyaz Suleman, our Vice Chair, for 20 minutes or so, then records a few minutes with me. After they're finished filming at Highcross, they head off for the City Council buildings on New Walk, to film an interview with our Chair, Cllr Manjula Sood.

Early this afternoon, Rebecca Bryers, Production Assistant on John Florance's Sunday morning show on BBC Radio Leicester, arrives on the scene to record an interview with Jo Tallack, General Manager at Highcross and with me - first about our presence there during Inter Faith Week, then about the Multi-Faith Prayer Room. I took the above photo when the three of us were inside the prayer room. It's just about ready to go into use, but today the piped music was still playing in there. Rebecca's interview with Jo will have Dionne Warwick's "All the Love in the World" all over it when it's broadcast this coming Sunday.

Around 1600, we have our long awaited "speedfaithing" event that we seem to have waited the best part of a year for. However, a number of factors conspire to make it something of an anticlimax. I was hoping we'd have at least half a dozen people of different backgrounds of religion or belief here but there's only three of us (Noel Singh, Martin Stern and myself). Several of those whom I hoped would be joining in are out at Gateway College doing the Religion and Belief Roadshow organised by St Philip's Centre and there's no chance of them making it back here in time. There's a similarly small number of young reporters (Holly, Christina and Vickie in the photo above) and I'm not sure all of them took part in the "pre" event at Phoenix Square during Leicester Speaks. We make the most of it though - and the girls certainly seem to get something positive out of it - but I wouldn't call it our greatest moment.

Here are some of comments entered in the reflective log by volunteers on the exhibition today:

“Spirituality or shopping? Seems this morning consumerism and the offer of sales is winning!”

“Lots of people glanced at the displays and wider literature. A few read with greater attention and one picked up lots of leaflets to help with her educational consultancy work. So the stall is doing its work in many ways including giving us volunteers the opportunity of meeting across the faith boundaries.”

“I found that it was an interesting experience being able to find out myself about other faiths and being able to talk to other volunteers. I realised it is hard to grab the attention of passers-by to invite them into the space to talk about interfaith week but didn’t want to feel as if I was pestering them. A few people took occasional glances as they walked past, but only a couple stopped. I feel the space would benefit from a more interactive environment which would encourage people to enter the space and not feel afraid of talking to people with the aid of hands-on experience / interactivity rather than just leaflets and banners. The Highcross although deemed an ideal location to gather large quantities of people, at the time of year in particular you find that people are rushing around the shops and don’t have time to stop.”

“I enjoyed volunteering at the Interfaith stand. I learnt more about religion and found it very interesting. Although quite a few people looked at the stand from afar, there wasn’t actually many people who wanted to come up and talk. However I did speak to a couple of people who were quite excited when I told them about the film festival. Although the stand in Highcross meant more people knew about interfaith week, I think it would be a good idea to hold an interfaith festival in one of the parks which would attract lots of attention.”

“It has undoubtedly been a wonderful experience visiting and volunteering at the interfaith stand."

HARMONY ACROSS BOUNDARIES OF DIFFERENT BELIEFS

Here's Bishop Tim's First Person column from today's Leicester mercury:

Harmony across boundaries of different beliefs 

The Bishop of Leicester says people will be reaching out to others during Inter Faith Week 

Tomorrow afternoon I shall be standing outside Asda supermarket in Oadby. It will be part of Mitzvah Day – the Jewish community's outreach to those of other faiths in the city. All around us next week will be signs of people of faith reaching out to those who are different from themselves as part of Inter Faith Week. 

There will be an exhibition in Highcross, a film festival at Phoenix Square, special lectures and talks and a Faiths Roadshow at Gateway College. 

In Leicester we are used to a tradition of building bridges between faiths established by Leicester Council of Faiths 25 years ago. This quarter century anniversary is something to be really proud of. 

Although there are similar Councils of Faiths in other cities, it was Leicester which was a pioneer in developing this work and now, 25 years later we can see the fruits of it. That is why people come to Leicester from other parts of the country and from around the world to see how we have enabled and encouraged relations between faiths to deepen and grow. 

At the heart of Inter Faith Week will be the St Philip's Centre in Evington which was established five years ago as a Christian centre for study and engagement with other faiths. This week we launched the Near Neighbours project at St Philip's, a national programme providing small grants for neighbourhood projects to build relationships between people of different faiths in their local communities. 

I can well remember when I was first ordained in East London over 35 years ago, how important it was to get to know our Muslim neighbours in East Ham. The exchange of conversation and indeed of food across the garden fence meant a great deal to us in those days. 

All of us need good neighbours and in so many cases here in Leicester our neighbours are those who come from other traditions, other countries, other faith communities. 

Yet in the 25 years since the Council of Faiths was founded, we have learned that having neighbours who are different is not a problem but an enrichment to our lives. All the greatest cities in the world are multi-cultural and multi-religious. I am proud that Leicester is one of them and that it is showing the way in how to build harmonious and strong communities across boundaries of different beliefs, languages and cultures. 

Next week's Inter Faith Week will, I hope, touch the lives of everyone in the city in one way or another. And I hope we shall feel proud to be celebrating a quarter of a century of effective work which changes lives, changes the reputation of the city and gives hope to so many.