POPULAR PARADE TO MARK ST PATRICK'S DAY IN CITY

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Popular parade to make St Patrick's Day in city

By Peter Warzynski

A sea of green, white and gold will sweep through the city again this weekend as thousands gather to celebrate St Patrick's Day.

The traditional annual parade will start at Holy Cross church, in New Walk, at midday on Sunday and snake its way through Leicester past the Clock Tower and finish at the big screen in Humberstone Gate.

More than 1,000 people, including dancers, standard bearers, sports clubs and Irish societies will be led by the West Midlands Fire Service Pipe Band during the procession.

Then, the festivities will carry on into the evening with pubs and bars welcoming revellers with a steady flow of Guinness and traditional music.

Organiser Tony Cusack, from the Emerald Centre, in Gipsy Lane, said: "I'm really looking forward to it – it just gets better every year.

"Seeing all the generations coming together, from all backgrounds and indeed cultures, and turning the streets of Leicester into a sea of green and parading through the streets in such a positive vibrant atmosphere is absolutely amazing – this makes me proud to be Irish."

Last year, hundreds of men, women and youngsters took part in the colourful parade during the day – waving flags, playing music and showcasing traditional dancing.

This year's festivities are starting early with a number of St Patrick's Day events taking place this week in the lead-up to the big day on Sunday.

Jackie Duffy, owner of Duffy's Bar, in Pocklingtons Walk, is putting on a range of Irish evenings, starting on Thursday.

She said: "We've got an Irish Myths and Legends evening on Thursday – I think I'm more excited about that any other part of it – the lady who runs it is captivating, it'll be amazing.

"St Patrick's Day is always fantastic and it's always so well supported.

"I love the parade, it's a great opportunity to show your support for the Irish community in Leicestershire."

O'Neills Irish pub, in Loseby Lane, is also hoping to attract revellers and has a number of events this week including an Irish jig world record attempt on Thursday, and Irish dancing at the bar on Sunday.

Other events include St Patrick's church, in Beaumont Leys Lane, which is hosting a special celebration mass on Saturday, at 11am.

Braunstone and District Working Men's Club, in Braunstone Close, will feature Irish band Echoes of Erin on Friday.

Tickets are £8.

In the city centre, a St Patrick's Day mass will be held at Holy Cross at 11am on Sunday, ahead of the parade.

For pictures of last year's procession, visit: www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk

PLENTY TO LEARN FROM SCOTLAND'S GREATEST POET

This is Fr Gregory Murphy's First Person column, published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Plenty to learn from Scotland's greatest poet

Fr Gregory Murphy considers Robert Burns, Devolution and the cause of Christian unity

The season of Christmas, in the calendar of the Church, continues until the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, or Candlemas, on February 2. It provides a useful excuse if, like myself, you've been a bit tardy with the Christmas cards.

There are some secular feasts as well: especially, if you're Scots, or have Scottish connections, Burns night suppers around January 25.

Robert Burns, the ploughman poet from Ayrshire, rose from humble origins to be feted by the literary society of the late Scottish Enlightenment.

Burns was – on the evidence of his writings – a pretty level-headed character, happy to accept the fame (and the money) while keeping his feet on the ground ("A man's a man, for a' that").

As someone who enjoyed wine, women and song ("'Gae bring to me a pint o' wine") he had a certain reputation in Presbyterian Scotland, though this did not inhibit his secular success – his love songs were quickly set to music, and their popularity endured well beyond Burns' lifetime.

Though a Scots patriot he was happy enough to take the King's shilling, working as a customs officer in a time of chancy employment ("The Deil's awa wi' th'Excisemen") so it's likely that, as most Scots from his time onwards, he'd have looked at the question of devolution with an eye to the main chance.

Growing up in a Presbyterian background his roistering would have attracted negative comment, and he in turn was critical of religious hypocrisy ("Holy Willie's Prayer").

One of his works echoed the age-old question of the Delphic Oracle – know yourself – "O would some power the giftie gie us/tae see oursel's as ithers see us!"

That plea takes on a deeper resonance during this week of prayer for Christian unity.

We are all liable to the gospel critique of being hypersensitive to the splinter in our brother's eye while being oblivious to the beam in our own.

The mutual increase in knowledge and tolerance of other Christian traditions is, I would argue, evidence of the working of the Spirit in our own times.

The great Dominican theologian and ecumenist, Yves Congar, whose work bore fruit in the Second Vatican Council, used to say that each of the main divisions of Christianity emphasised a particular aspect of Christianity which it was their privilege to share with the others: from the Orthodox churches, the sense of life in the Spirit; from the Catholic Church, the presence of the Lord in his sacraments; and from the churches of the Reformation the presence of the Lord in his Word.

Let's pray that we can become mutually enriched by drinking from each other's wells.

Fr Gregory Murphy, OP, is a Dominican priest at Holy Cross Priory, in Leicester

PHILOSOPHY PANEL AT ST PAUL'S CATHOLIC SCHOOL

To St Paul's Catholic School, Spencefield Lane, Evington, this morning, where the Council of Faiths has been asked to facilitate a "Philosophy Panel" for Year 9 pupils. I took a call a fortnight or so ago from Seamus O'Looskan, who is Chaplain there. He asked us initially to provide two people who could represent Islam and Hinduism respectively on a panel to be quizzed by pupils from this year group on some of the big questions of life. A few days later, he sent me another message asking if we could provide a few more participants to help make a balance between people who would speak from a faith background and others who would not. I failed to get a Muslim speaker to come along; nor was I able to obtain the services of a Buddhist (well, I did make the approaches at rather short notice). In the event, an interesting and varied line up of speakers attend:

• Leon Charikar (Chair of Neve Shalom, Leicester’s Progressive Jewish Congregation)
• Ramesh Majithia (Hindu community)
• Kishor Gohel (who took over from Ramesh as the Hindu representative for the second session)
• Fr Peter Hunter O.P. (Holy Cross Priory)
• Harry Perry ( Leicester Secular Society)
• Clare Carr (Global Education LeicesterShire, also a member of the Secular Society)
• Jan MacDonald (Secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Leicester and member of Leicester Council of Faiths)

I should say that the school invited Peter and Harry on their own; the others I drummed up. We're taken into a fairly large hall just after 0900. The pupils are spaced around the hall in six groups, about a dozen of them per group. There's a seat for each of the representatives, facing the group. Each speaker spends ten minutes or so answering the group's questions, then a bell is rung and they move on to the next group. This whole process is done twice, with the first session ending about 1000, then restarting with a new hall full of pupils a few minutes later. This means that all the pupils get to spend more time listening to each speaker than if we were to follow the conventional "Question Time" format of running a panel. Better for the pupils, but more tiring for the speakers, who are "on" virtually all the time, rather than taking it in turns to contribute, then sit back and listen to their colleagues. This activity is being offered to the pupils as something additional to the curriculum, which gives them greater freedom to ask what they want, rather than just stick to topics on which they'll be examined.

I'm in attendance just in case any of the speakers want to bow out at any time, so I can step in and take their place, but that doesn't happen. I take the opportunity then to speak to several teachers, raising the possibility of other opportunities when they could join in appropriate activities arranged by the Council of Faiths - such as during the "Leicester Speaks" week-long event later this month or during National Inter Faith Week next month. Both sessions with the panel conclude with the recitiation of the school prayer, is taken from Micah, 6:

This is what the Lord asks of you: to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with your God.

Those of us who stay on for tea and a chat are taken on a tour of the school by Seamus and Krysia Foster. We're introduced to some of the staff and pupils as we go round. It's all very impressive and we're made to feel very welcome. Props to Mr Gillespie, Head of Design, for having the cover artwork for Weasels Ripped My Flesh by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention on his classroom wall. "Rzzzzz!"

Here's what Clare had to say about her involvement:

I  have to admit that I was surprised, as a person with no religious belief, to have the opportunity to enter into a genuine dialogue with the young people at St Paul's School.  Their questions were well prepared and they showed great respect for a person with a different viewpoint by listening carefully and building on my responses with new and relevant questions.  The morning provided a fantastic learning opportunity for all the people involved and it was heartening to see everyone make the most of that opportunity.  I shall look forward to meeting with the RE staff to evaluate this new philosophy module, drawing on my experience as a Philosophy for Children/Communities (P4C) practitioner.

The morning finished with a tour of St Paul's School.  The building is in need of refurbishment and updating and, thankfully, the planned remodelling under the Building Schools for the Future initiative will be going ahead next summer.  Walking around the school, it was clear that this is a very happy School Community where young people make the most of the very good education on offer.  Personally I do not support the idea of faith schools, but I recognise a good school when I see one.  I don't believe that St Paul's is a good school because it is a faith school.  It is simply a good school, and I wish more schools around the country were as good.

Harry offered the following comments about the experience:

My impressions of the event at St Paul’s were also positive. The Year 9 pupils (13 year-olds) were much better behaved than the 16 year-olds that, thirty years ago, made me realise that teaching wasn’t my vocation! Having said that I also have to say that the presence of crucifixes everywhere did unsettle me a bit!

I was surprised at the make-up of the school, having expected to find a largely white populace of Irish and Polish descent, but in fact finding in addition to these around 40% (roughly speaking) of non-white origin from the Far East, Asia, Middle East and Africa. In a quick briefing beforehand Seamus reported a relatively large number of kids of Filipino extraction.

I was unaware that Clare was going to be there but I had been told there’d be a "Humanist" so I concentrated on the basic atheist position and the pupils’ questions also focused on this area, eg: existence of gods, origin of the Universe and Earth, evolution by natural selection, what happens after death and why I don’t believe in miracles, visions, prayers, etc. Although advised to prepare beforehand for questions on "moral’" issues I wasn’t faced with any and if invited to a similar event in future I think I’ll have to try to bring in the implications of non-belief on those fronts. The sessions were fast-paced and there was no time for detailed argument but that was an inevitable consequence of the format. Perhaps in future the school might consider an alternative format where individual speakers have more time to explain their views in more detail and respond to questions with more depth.

But full marks for the RE staff at St Paul’s – they had no obligation to put on this session and they made it clear their objective was to encourage independent thought, not simply engage in indoctrination.

Here's Jan's reflection on having taken part in the panel:

It was an enjoyable morning meeting with the teachers and students. I think that it was beneficial for us who were there to answer questions because it gave us the opportunity of coming in contact with the students and understanding the kind of information that they want to know. It certainly showed the changes that are taking place and that we are moving into a tolerant society where there are people who are ready to listen to other people’s views. I was very impressed with the school.

Peter's thoughts about the Philosophy Panel were as follows:

I very much enjoyed the morning at St Paul's. Obviously, we couldn't talk at any great length with any one group, but the format had the great advantage of meaning that the students heard from a wide range of voices in a manageable time-frame. The questions were well-prepared and intelligent, and some were very testing! The students were polite, friendly and really engaged, which made the whole experience very much worthwhile. Well done to St Paul's for organising this, and hopefully other schools will follow suit.

Leon offered the following:

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the young people at St Paul’s School to discuss issues of faith and religion. They asked some probing and intelligent questions on issues such as personal experience of God, life after death and why God would allow suffering. I was impressed with the care they had put into their questions and their willingness to listen and engage in dialogue with people from a variety of faith perspectives. I’d welcome the opportunity to contribute to similar discussions with young people and congratulate the school on this initiative.