CATHEDRAL AM, MAY 2013

Canon Barry Naylor (left) & Riaz Ravat

It's a very short walk between BBC Radio Leicester and Leicester Cathedral, so hardly five minutes after my appearance on Jonathan Lampon's breakfast show, I'm sitting down to a breakfast of my own at Cathedral AM. Half a dozen attendees are seated already when I arrive. At least two of them tell me that they just heard me on the radio!

When I used to live this side of town I came to Cathedral AM often, but this is the first time I've made it in 18 months (literally; the last one was 30 November 2011).

Cathedral AM is an early morning networking event for people with particular interest in the city centre. From the start, the meetings have been hosted by Canon Barry Naylor and Julie Ann Heath. Breakfast is served from 0730 then there's a speaker from 0800. This morning it's Riaz Ravat, Deputy Director at St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society.

Just before leaving, I have a brief word with Jo Tallack, General Manager at Highcross. She asks me if we'll be coming back for our exhibition during Inter Faith Week in November. When I say yes, she asks me to send her the dates so she can put it in the diary.

SO. FAREWELL THEN, SUGHRA AHMED

At the Bombay Pavilion, Victoria Park, for a surprise going-away party in honour of Sughra Ahmed. Sughra has been a stalwart of Leicester Council of Faiths all the years I've been in post. She has recently resigned from the Board of Directors as she is leaving Leicester to take up a post with the Woolf Institute, based at Cambridge University. That's her cake in the photo above, with her edible face on it.

Sughra has worked as a Research Fellow in the Islamic Foundation’s Policy Research Centre, based at Markfield Institute of Higher Education. She remains a Trustee of the Interfaith Network UK. She published Seen and Not Heard: Voices of Young British Muslims. She organised flashmob iftar during Ramadan and “Picnic in the Park” thereafter, feeding homeless people and refugees, coordinated through Facebook. She has been of considerable help to me in my post, most notably when she came forward to be one of a panel of speakers at the Amplified Leicester event I hosted at Phoenix Square in March 2011, Amplified Communities of Faith or Belief. I also recall, in particular, how she lit up our display in Highcross on a busy Saturday afternoon during Inter Faith Week 2010, like a flame attracting moths, at ease with the crowds that busy day, able to persuade people to stop and talk or to to take literature as they passed by. She did that gig better than just about anyone else ever involved in it. Not what I expected from someone whom I had thought of up till then as being something of a dry, closeted academic. How wrong could I be about a person, faithful reader? Seeing her in action that one afternoon completely rewrote the script. She also organised a successful seminar for Leicester Council of Faiths during Inter Faith Week 2012, under the title, Faith in Family.

There's a good turnout in her honour this evening and it's clearly been kept secret, to judge by the look on Sughra's face when she arrives.

Several friends and colleagues say their bit about how they got to know Sughra, what she means to them and how they're going to miss her. In the photo above, Rupal Rajani (from BBC Radio Leicester) is doing just that.

We all wish Sughra well in her new role and in her future. Personally, I'll miss her calling me "Georgie". I can't imagine anyone else doing that until I'm sitting all day in a high-backed leather chair, wearing a drool bib and being told to eat up while being fed Ready Brek by means of a plastic spoon. I'll be staring into the distance, trying to recall ... someone ... or something ... Anyway: good luck Sughra! Keep in touch.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 8: HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

Seventh and final day of our week-long exhibition in Highcross for Inter Faith Week. It might be a wee bit confusing that it's day seven of our exhibition on day eight of Inter Faith Week - a "week" lasting ten days in all, from Sunday 18 to Tuesday 27 November. Just hang in there - it's almost over!

Due to an administrative error, three people turn up for the first shift (1100-1300) but none for the second (1300-1500). Revd David Clark (former Assistant Secretary of Leicester Council of Faiths, photo below) phones me to let me know this, just as Tony Nelson and Yasmin Surti leave after doing two hours together on the display. I've no issue about having an extra person on the exhibition on Sunday morning, which would surely be on of the busiest periods of the week. But under no conditions could we leave our display unattended.

Since David started his stint late this morning, he's happy to wait until I can get there, meaning there's no time at which it's left unattended. I hadn't planned to be at the exhibition today until right at the end, to pack it all away at 1700. This is particularly so as the kids are with me this weekend and I'd had them at the display for a couple of hours yesterday. However, I've no option but to call a cab, bundle Harry, Gracie and her school friend Ellie into the back of it and hightail it to Highcross. We arrive shortly before 1400, in time to relieve David.

Shortly before 1500 I'm joined by Kash Bhayani, whom I met on the Holi Yatra Walk in March this year. Kash had pencilled himself in for several shots on the exhibition earlier in the week, but for one reason or another, he'd had to cancel each one of them. I'm glad he gets to join in near the end.

Mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby, pays an unexpected visit to our exhibition shortly around 1530. He's able to stay and chat for a quarter of an hour or so. In the photo above, he's adding his own contribution to the collection of thoughts and feelings left by visitors and volunteers throughout the week (with Kash on the right of the picture). In the photo below, he's hanging his label on the tree. What did the Mayor write? Ah, that would be telling, faithful reader ...

For an hour or so this afternoon, we’re joined by Ambrose Musiyiwa, who takes several photos which he has posted on Facebook under the guise of Civic Leicester. Some of his photos are used in this blog post; others are sprinkled throughout these reports about our exhibition in Highcross during Inter Faith Week.

Here are some of the dreams, hopes, prayers and wishes that were written on the labels and hung on the little white tree on this final day:

I love multicultural city

Change is the law of nature but human values of love, respect, care, non-violence shouldn't change

May we all be forgiven our transgressions by the God we believe in

Be honest and kind and helpful to others

I wish to be truly able to see the God in everyone 

I want people to know the abundance they have - Kash

"Recognise the human race as one" - Guru Gobind Singh, Sikh Prophet

Health and happiness for 2013

Two young Muslim fellows turn up bang on 1700, tell me that they'd heard about the exhibition, had been looking for it and want to volunteer fronting it for a couple of hours. I take their details and tell them I'll be in touch in time for next year.

Within 20 minutes everything's packed and being trundled back toward the Welcome Centre. Thanks to Harry, Gracie and Ellie for lending a hand right at the end.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 7: JON ASHWORTH MP VISITS HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

Sixth day of our week-long exhibition in Highcross for Inter Faith Week. Jon Ashworth MP (Labour, Leicester South) makes a scheduled a visit to the exhibition at 1400.

I'd been contacted by Jon's office before the start of Inter Faith Week in response to my invitation and asked to gather together a few members of different faith communities with whom Jon could chat for half an hour or so. Friends from the Bahá'í, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh communities respond to the invitation and turn out to meet him.

Jon made a similar visit to our Highcross exhibition during Inter Faith Week last year (see blog post, 26 November 2011). We're glad that he continues to show his public support in this way. He speaks in a supportive and sympathetic manner to those attending, and his words are well received. Since he speaks about the going importance, relevance and significance of the Council of Faiths to the city and people of Leicester in these troubled times, I decide to take the bull by the horns and talk to him about our crisis of funding. I think he's shocked to hear how precarious our situation is right now and offers his assistance in whatever way he can to help us navigate our way through our current peril. I'll be making sure we take him up on that!

Shortly after his visit, Jon tweets (along with the photo at the top of this blog post) to his more than 5,200 followers:

Just dropped by the Leicester Inter faith week stall in Highcross. Good to see lots of interest

The photo at the top of this blog post shows Jon hanging his label on the tree - which is getting pretty crowded by this point. Next to him is Cllr Manjula Sood, Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths, also together in the photo above.

You can see how Jon's visit is written up on  his own website. Between three of us - Jon, Radhika Madhani (his PA) and me - we put together a press release for the Leicester Mercury, sent it to their newsdesk ahead of time and asked for a photographer to cover Jon's visit to the exhibition today, but they didn't bite.

Saturday is a very busy day in Highcross, as you can imagine. Thanks to those who covered the bases today: Yasmin Surti (0900-1100); Mohamed Esat, Allan Hayes (1100-1300); Nimesh Bhogotia, Karandeep Singh (1300-1500); Jasdeep Singh Lamaar, Sukhwinder Kaur - in photo above (1500-1700); Manjula Sood (1700-1900). Harry and Grace do their bit too (photo below).

Today one of the members of the Council of Faiths asks which of the Jewish communities in Leicester I belong to: the Orthodox or the Progressive. Another recently expressed the assumption that I'm Catholic. I've also been asked if I'm a Jain. I wonder what I might be doing that leads them to their conclusions? Given my role with the Council of Faiths, I'd consider it inappropriate to foreground my personal faith. That would be improper, since I'm employed to serve the Council of Faiths as a whole and each of its member communities equally. On the one hand, I've never denied or hidden what I am, or done any kind of dissembling about my own beliefs. On the other hand, I believe I'd be abusing my position if I did any kind of special pleading for my own faith or the community I belong to. I'm not surprised that some members of the Council of Faiths don't know what religion I am - and that's alright.

Here's a selection from the dreams, hopes, prayers and wishes left by visitors and volunteers on the branches of our little white tree today:

Peeps have peace all around the world

I wish for a Ferrari

Violence is not the answer!

I pray other faiths can understand each other

Love from Notts! A, R, D

Smile and th world will smile with you xxx

May there be peace in the world. May ever you be fulfilled [sic]

I wish for a 50CC go-kart

Let's have a good Xmas and celebrate as one - LNP

I just want to thank ou the pepol who help us

Make love no war [sic]

Let's continue to celebrate our diversity and cherish our common humanity - Jon Ashworth MP

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 6: HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

Fifth day of our week-long exhibition in Highcross for Inter Faith Week.

First on duty today are Anne Fishenden (member of Leicester Quakers and Chair of Leicester SACRE - Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) and Michelle Benn (from Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation). This is Anne's second go this week; she was also here on Monday, the first day of the exhibition. Michelle took part in our exhibition two years ago and I'm glad that she's been able to join in again this time. She's going to be part of a multi-faith panel in the next session of the Christians Aware / Faith Awareness course on the Beatitudes at Christchurch, Clarendon Park, this coming Monday evening. We get the chance to chat for a few minutes about that (which is good, as I'm slated to be chairing that session).

After Anne and Michelle, we have Allan Hayes (from Leicester Secular Society) Janette MacDonald (Secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Leicester). Like Anne (above), Allan has done a couple of hours already, on Monday.

  

Following Allan and Janette, from 1400 to 1600: Tony Nelson (of Leicester Hebrew Congregation and Treasurer of Leicester Council of Faiths) and Rashmi Vyas (of Leicestershire Brahma Samaj). It's clearly a day for repeat business, as Rashmi was here for a couple of hours yesterday.

And as if to prove that point, Deirdre O'Sullivan, Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Leicester School's of Archaeology and Ancient History (which produced the Mapping Faith and Place in Leicester and the Leicester Faith Trail), is back after her earlier stint on Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, due to an administrative mix-up, she's one of the few volunteers this week who ends up doing a session on her own (1600-1800). But she can take it - she's a veteran now (she did a couple of sessions last year too).

Julie Ann Heath (from Leicester Cathedral) and Jasdeep Singh Lamar (of Leicestershire Sikh Alliance) cover the last shift of the day (1800-2000).

A selection of the messages hung on our tree today by visitors and volunteers:

I don't necessarily believe in God ... but I have faith in ONE LOVE

I wish for self-fulfilment

May all beings be happy and free from suffering

Thank you for all religions - Iona age 9

I hope that racism stops #saynotoracism

Wish all the people lots of love from the angels

RIP Tommy and Harry xxx

World peace

Better year than 2012

God bless everyone at Christmas

Thanks to Ambrose Musiyiwa for the pictures top and bottom of this post - and for many more photos from our Inter Faith Week exhibition which he has posted on Facebook under the guise of Civic Leicester.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 5: HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

Emma Craig-West, Gurbz, Sheri Paige

Fourth day of our week-long exhibition in Highcross for Inter Faith Week.

First volunteers on the display this morning are Emma Craig-West, one of my longest-standing and supportive friends from the earliest days of Creative Coffee Club onwards (on the left in the photo above) and Sheri Paige, Vice President, Student Welfare at De Montfort University Student Union (on the right). Standing between them is a visitor to the exhibition this morning - Gurbz (AKA Mistah G). He and his sister, Anita Kang, will be holding a fashion show charity event in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust at the King Power Stadium, Leicester, in July 2013. I chat with Gurbz about their proposed fundraiser, and about how things went down at Choice Unlimited II in the Tigers Stadium at Welford Road yesterday.

It's a busy morning, especially around the little white tree. Emma's good at drawing people in and encouraging them to write their dreams, hopes, prayers and wishes on the labels. In the photo above, she's with boys from the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy.

John Florance, from BBC Radio Leicester, arrives around 1100 to do a feature about the exhibition. He records a few minutes with me and with Sheri (photo below). Emma has conveniently gone off to the Post Office. John asks me for a quote about the Church of England Synod's vote on women bishops. After stalling him for a while in the hope that Emma (a church-going Anglican) will come back in time to say something interesting on the subject but it falls to me after all. When I tell John that there are eight different religions represented on the display, and that for seven of them (and for a lot of the Christians too) the vote on women bishops isn't of much importance, he switches off his microphone and asks if I could say something a little more interesting that he can use in a segment that he'll be doing at noon on the topic with Barbara Butler and Stephen Foster live in the studio. So I tell him that, as a discerning consumer of social media, I've found the blogs and tweets about the subject over the past day or so very interesting. When he asks me to pick out the most interesting, I reference Ruth Gledhill and Giles Fraser on Twitter, with brief mention of what they said.

Sheri Paige, John Florance

I'm not on the rota for this morning and came down so I could be here when John turned up. While I'm happy for him to record stuff with the volunteers, but it wouldn't be right to leave them alone to do a radio interview. Neither am I on the rota for the 1200-1400 slot, but one of the volunteers has cancelled, so I stay on to provide cover.

Dr Angela Jagger, member of the Board of Directors and former Secretary of Leicester Council of Faiths is on duty here for the next couple of hours. Angela was my tutor on an Open University Course that I took way back in 1992, "The Religious Quest". Next time I met her, some 15 years later, she was a member of the interview panel for this current post.

Sherry Fulloway, Angela Jagger (and John Coster)

Angela is on the right in the photo above, along with Sherry Fulloway, whom I know from the Christians Aware Monday evening courses at Christchurch, Clarendon Park (and John Coster, Editor of Citizens' Eye Community New Agency lurking in the background).

Angela is on the right in the photo above, along with Cherry Fulloway, whom I know from the Christians Aware Monday evening courses at Christchurch, Clarendon Park (and John Coster, Editor of Citizens' Eye Community New Agency lurking in the background).

Malika Kraamer (who curated the marvellous Suits and Saris exhibition at New Walk Museum and Art Gallery earlier this year) and Kate Dawe (from Victim Support) are volunteering on the exhibition from 1400 till 1600. Kate has brought some leaflets about Hate Crime which we put out on the table.

Ruth Fraser, Noel Singh

Kate and Malika hand over to Ruth Fraser of Leicester Quakers (whom I first met on the recent Walking Pilgrimage round Clarendon Park) and Noel Singh, Policy and Partnerships Manager at at Leicestershire County Council (photo above) at 1600. I pay a flying visit to the exhibition on the way to a meeting of Leicester SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) at Mayflower Primary.

When I return from SACRE, Bev Farrand and Angela Lynn Hunt (from Leicester Cathedral) are on the final shift. They might have been talking about the women bishops vote; but then again ...

Beverley Farrand, Angela Lynn Hunt

Here are some of the messages that visitors and volunteers have hung on the tree today:

I would like my daughter to grow up as a Christian. I would also like my family to succeed in most things

All faiths please get together

Doesn't matter if you're black or white, just smile

Society to work together in peace and harmony - one LeicesterI pray for peace and good health to all people

We teach our children that we are the same on the inside. When the world remembers this lesson, wars will finally end and we will find peace.

Hope my son has a good safe future

Wish peace and prosperity in our family

Happy Christmas from PJEA young boys

I wish health, wealth and peace for my family and the world

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 4: HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

Third day of our week-long exhibition in Highcross for Inter Faith Week.

What with commitments at Leicester Tigers Welford Road Stadium for Choice Unlimited and at Brooksby Melton College for their Interfaith Events Day, I get to Highcross an hour or so before closing time. Rosemarie Fitton (Senior Lecturer in Interior Design at De Montfort University - and member of Leicester Council of Faiths) and Rashmi Vyas (of Leicestershire Brahma Samaj) are doing this final stint of the day. I bring back the two generic banners that have been used today in those other events and return them to their places in the exhibition here.

Here are some of the things that visitors and volunteers have written on the labels and hung on our little white tree today:

Love creates or builds what had been destroyed by hate for a long time!

I am in a state of flux - challenging my current way of deepening my spiritual life

I wish for all my inner desires to be satisfied

Abandon all varieties of Religion, and just surrender unto me. I will protect you from all sinful reactions, do not fear (Bhagavad Gita 18:66)

In this world of toil and trouble / Two things stand alone / Kindness and another's trouble / And courage in one's own

One God, one religion, one humanity

May your spirit be touched by the spirit of another - everyday! R

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 4: INTERFAITH EVENTS DAY AT BROOKSBY MELTON COLLEGE

Today is a complex logistical task - probably the trickiest working day so afar in post, at least in terms of where I have to be and when. Effectively, I have to be in three places at once. Today. I have to make sure the Highcross exhibition is ticking over, set up and front (for part of the day) our shared table at the second Choice Unlimited event in the Tigers stadium and help run the Interfaith Events Day at Brooksby Melton College.

Despite the early start and the complex arrangements, I couldn't resist staying up late last night, as Gold was showing that episode of I'm Alan Partridge where Alan pierces his foot on a spike climbing over the security fence into Choristers Country Club. It's quintessential Partridge: "The Colour of Alan".

I'm not harping on about how complex today is in a misguided attempt for your sympathy, faithful reader. I certainly wouldn't want you to get that impression. Far from it; not at all. I love these missions. I thrive on this sort of thing. Nothing excited me more when I was younger than dashing hither and yon to achieve some mad objective that others wouldn't touch with a bargepole or would tell me is impossible. I've worked hard to earn my reputation as the Can Do guy for these situations. So here's how the early part of this morning pans out:

• Stage 1: Leave home 0645, get to the Welcome Centre for 0730, pick up materials for our display in Choice Unlimited at Tigers stadium
• Stage 2: to the Tigers to set up our table-top display and banner before 0800
• Stage 3: from the Tigers back to the Welcome Centre for 0830 to grab the materials needed for Brooksby Melton College
• Stage 4: to Leicester Station to catch the 0918 for Melton - just one stop, only a quarter of an hour away. But the train sits there … and sits there ... for 40 minutes. After having kept to time so well so far, I have to say it's a bit frustrating.

I get to the college about 1015 and we're all set up ten minutes later. As far as my participation today is concerned, this event is “dual-badged” for Leicester Council of Faiths and Faith Awareness (the inter faith programme of Christians Aware). We have one of the Council of Faiths “generic” pop-up banners borrowed from the Highcross exhibition, as well as a range of the giveaway literature that's also available there. We have a variety of books published by Christians Aware: Food, Festivals and Faith; Meeting Buddhists; Meeting Hindus; Meeting Jews; Meeting Muslims; Meeting Sikhs; Religion – Life Itself. I've also brought a laptop, on which I run a slideshow of 50 or so images associated with various faith communities in Leicester. The Council of Faiths has the more visible presence today, but it's with Faith Awareness that I hope to be able to establish long-term relations with college and community.

I've asked Rita Green, the sole Bahá'í in Melton, to help me here today. Rita has made efforts in recent years to get inter faith work off the ground in Melton, with events, exhibitions, presentations and talks in venues such as the public library. I've known Rita for nigh on 30 years and hope that she'll be able to help me establish an active inter faith group here in the near future. Rita is on the left in the photo above.

The college has put on a nice display here today with lots to see and do, signposted and trailed throughout the campus.

Nicola's colleague, Humera Aziz, has loaned some costumes and outfits from her personal wardrobe for students to try on. There's a well-stocked Fair Trade display. There are tables for the local Anglican churches and Melton Mowbray Baptist Church. Chris Corps, multicultural storyteller and interfaith minister, performs a number of tales and plays ethnic wind instruments. Nicola is offering henna tattoos and I get my first ever one! Can you tell what it is yet? No, nor can I ...

The event climaxes with a dance display in the college theatre, which gets strong support from students and staff alike.

Stuart Wright, Head of Learning, has the last word, describing how the college is obliged to provide students with an education not just for living now in Melton, but for the wider world and later life. Students have to be more aware of different cultures, ethnicities and faiths.

It's all over by 1415. A quarter of an hour later, I'm on the train back to Leicester, heading for Choice Unlimited at the Tigers.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 3: "FAITH IN FAMILY" SEMINAR

I didn't get to attend this meeting as I was manning my post at the exhibition in Highcross till 2000. I'm grateful to guest contributor Sughra Ahmed (photo above), who organised this meeting. Sughra writes:

Leicestershire Police HQ was the venue for Faith in Family, our special seminar for Inter Faith Week.

People from all walks of life from across the City and County came together to listen, share and debate topics such as inter faith marriage, protection of children and young people, as well as parenting and spousal relationships. 

Speakers from Leicestershire and Bedford included Rosalind Birtwistle, Nassera Butt and Batool al Toma - all of whom are experts on their topic. They spoke openly and frankly about their experiences drawing on official data and sources available for England and Wales.

Several members of faith groups went on stage as a panel to share their thoughts on how their religion reflects on such topics.

The discussion was vibrant and lively, people's honesty gave rise to a thorough discussion on how society and institutions could better support those whose lives included challenges and/or difficulties. For example questions were asked on how we can improve the way in which we understand those who have an inter faith marriage and are dealing with unique challenges rather than stereotyping them. Others expressed their thoughts on how Youth Offending Services could negotiate its way around the complex terrain of faith in a restricted environment that serve to punish whilst protecting the rights of people in their custody.

The overall sentiment from those who attended was that these issues are very important for all of us - no matter who we are. Further discussion was encouraged especially given that many people are living through these realities with very little of the complexities involved known about in wider society. Leicester Council of Faiths is glad to have held a seminar on the topic of Faith in Family, and especially pleased to see the appetite for more discussion. We hope others will consider creating opportunities for further discussion on these subjects and we look forward to working with others on these or other areas.

This is the third in the series of open meetings sponsored by Leicester Council of Faiths. I've posted about the other two on this blog: God in my faith, 13 March 2012; Open meeting with City Mayor, 31 January 2012.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 3: HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

Second day of our week-long exhibition in Highcross for Inter Faith Week.

Last time we were in this spot, our ten banners were arranged “circle the wagons” style. That seemed good enough for a while, but palled after a bit – the arrangement appeared somewhat unstable, somewhat shabby, especially when viewed from above. This time I’ve partly followed the style we adopted last year, of putting the banners back-to-back, though this time they’re laid out in a straight line. The display is bookended by the “generic” banners for Leicester Council of Faiths itself, with Leicester University’s "Mapping Faith and Place in Leicester" and "Leicester Faith Trail" behind them.

As regards the individual banners for our faith community members, they're set back to back so that the visitor, approaching from one direction, sees the four Abrahamic religions of Middle Eastern origin in historical order (Jews, Christians, Muslims, Bahá'ís).

Approaching from the other direction, the visitor sees the four Dharmic religions, of Indian origin in historical order (Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs).

First on this morning, John Catt (Leicester Secular Society) and Kartar Singh (Near Neighbours project). They're in the photo at the top of this post. They were joined by Scott MacDonald (Leicester Bahá'ís) shortly after I'd left.

I arrive on the stall just before 1400 to do a couple of hours myself. Dr Ruth Young (Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and Director of Distance Learning Strategy at the University of Leicester School of Archaeology and Ancient History) is photographed above, handing over to Sheila Markham (Leicester Hebrew Congregation). Sheila also took part in the philosophy panel at St Paul's yesterday, so I get a bit more info about how that went.

In the middle of the afternoon we receive a visit from Paresh Solanki of the Inter Faith Network of the UK. I'm hoping for better coverage of our Inter Faith Week activities in the national report than we received in last year's. Paresh and Sheila are pictured below.

Shortly after 1600 I leave the exhibition in the evidently capable hands of Billy Dedat and Ravinder Kaur. This is the first time that either of them have taken part in this event, the first time that I've met either of them - and the first time they've met each other. Their involvement together here today is serendipitous. Billy is Chair of the Leicestershire branch of the Association of Muslim Police and is a member of Leicestershire Police's Prevent Engagement Team, while Ravinder works for Leicestershire County Council's project LWA: Living Without Abuse. They're quickly talking about ways in which they can work together after this event. They're shown together in the photo below (Billy on the left, Ravinder on the right).

My immediate task now is to get a couple of banners and some of our free literature out to Leicestershire Police HQ in Enderby, where our Faith in Family seminar is taking place this evening. What with phone batteries running out, parking in the wrong street etc it's not quite as smooth a procedure as I'd have hoped. Eventually, Fayyaz Suleman (Vice Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths) swings by Pilgrim House to pick up the stuff and get ti to the venue on time.

I'm not attending the seminar myself. We've had no one come forward to fill the Tuesday evening slot and we can't leave the exhibition unattended during opening hours at Highcross, so I'm on duty here for a couple of quiet hours.

After Highcross closes, I head back to Pilgrim House and wait for Sughra Ahmed to drop off the banners and literature, since I'll need to use them very early tomorrow. She brings them back at 2145 - with some nice munchies left over from the seminar.

Here are some of the things that visitors and volunteers have written on the labels and hung on our little white tree today:

The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens

Hate creates hate, love creates love. May love concure [sic] over hate

It's only when we believe we can't make a difference ... will humanity end!

Multiculturality - more of it please!

For all those who are not going to get better

It's your actions that define who you are and not what labels you give yourself

I wish my grandad gets healing from spirits! Love, Tara, Sarita, Simren, Bobby xxx

God bless everyone at Christmas

I wish the peace everywhere around the world

Mutual respect and appreciation

The unexamined life is not worth living

I'd bought a set of mixed coloured Sharpies for people to use when writing on these labels. I left them in the OMG mug on the table at our display overnight. Sometime between the end of last night and the start today, someone nicked them. I can only hope that some underprivileged person will be getting a nice set of Sharpies for Christmas.