FAITH AWARENESS SUMMER VISITS: JAIN CENTRE

The Faith Awareness series of summer visits to places of worship and other faith-related sites in Leicester begins this evening at the Jain Centre, Oxford Street. As well being contracted to work 20 hours a week for Leicester Council of Faiths, I now do a day and a half a week with Faith Awareness, the inter-faith programme of Christians Aware.

I must have visited the Jain Centre more than a dozen times. I think I first came here in 1988, in the first year that the Jain Centre was open and within a year of my moving to this part of the world from Dumbarton. I was entranced by it then and still am now. On each visit I see something new and learn something new. I don't know how anyone can say, "Oh yes, I've seen the Jain temple" and just tick it off their list. This place seems to change, develop, evolve in ways - and at a rate - that set it apart from most other faith sites in Leicester. I hope it's not too fanciful to believe that my own changes, development and evolution may be keeping pace with it in some way.

Our small group is taken on a guided tour of the Centre by Dr Ramesh Mehta and Pradip Mehta. As well as giving us an overview of the history and teachings of Jainism, they describe the history of the Centre itself and discuss the community's plans for celebrating the 25th anniversary of its foundation this summer. Many of the occasions associated with this anniversary are taking place in London, because it's central for the many participants coming from overseas and because Jains in Leicester don't have access to venues here large enough to be able to hold the number of people taking part. The Centre has a flag flying above it, which is renewed annually on 14 July, the date of the founding of the Centre. The flag which will be raised there on 14 July this year (precisely at 12:39), marking the silver jubilee of the Centre, is currently being taken on a circuit of Jain community centres, homes and places of worship around the country. At each stop, it becomes a focal point for practices of devotion, meditation and purification. Dr Mehta said we could think of it as being like the Jain community's version of the Olympic Torch relay. Dr Mehta helped me write the Council of Faiths leaflet on Jains, which was one of my first tasks in this post. Now that it's time to prepare a new edition of that leaflet, I hope to call on his help again.

Carved pillars of Jaisalmer yellow sandstone in the worship area of the Jain Centre 

When I was first looking for information about Jains and Jainism for my work, nigh on six years ago, I could find little that was accessible or reliable online. That has changed recently with the appearance of professional sits created by Jain organisations such as the Institute of Jainology, Jainworld.com, the Jainpedia Project, a comprehensive section on the BBC Religions website, thorough representation on Wikipedia and on more specialist sites such as the New World Encyclopedia. Even Kew Gardens Plant Cultures website has a section on Jainism.


The hand represents fearlessness and symbolizes the attitude of ahimsa (non-violence) to all living creatures



Dr Mehta tells us that if we want to understand the Jain way of life in a nutshell, we should remember the three "A"s:

• ahimsa: non-violence
• aparigraha: non-acquisitiveness
• anekäntaväda: multiplicity of views

He also gives us a mnemonic by which we can remember the principles of this ancient religion with a message for the modern world:

• "J" is for justice
• "A" is for amity
• "I" is for introspection
• "N" is for nobility

Two of my favourite Jain Centre facts: the building accommodates several sects of Jainism, each with their distinctive interpretations, identities and practices. The different sects have their own spot set aside in the Centre for their use.

  

My other favourite Jain Centre fact: it's the only Jain place of worship in the world with stained glass windows. Rather than brick up, cover or replace with ordinary glass the stained glass windows from of the original Congregational Church, the local Jain community decided to create a series of windows of their own, telling the story of Mahavira (599-527 BCE), 24th and latest in the line of Tirthankaras. A contemporary of Gautama the Buddha, Mahavira is credited with establishing Jainism in the form we know today.

Detail from one of the stained glass windows in the Jain Centre, illustrating episodes form the life of Mahavira

I love that word: Tirthankara. The best translation into English is "ford-maker". Think of this life as a fast-flowing river which can only be crossed by means of the ford made by the Tirthankara. To ignore the ford that the Tirthankara has made and try to cross otherwise means being caught up in the currents and risking being swept to your doom!

This is the first of six Faith Awareness visits planned for Monday evenings in May and June. The others are as follows:

• All Saints Church, Kerrysdale Avenue (Monday 20 May)
• BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Gipsy Lane (Monday 3 June)
• Islam Information Centre, Highfield Street (Monday 10 June)
• Neve Shalom Progressive Synagogue, Avenue Road (Monday 17 June)
• Guru Amar Das Gurdwara, Clarendon Park Road (24 June)

I may not be ale to attend every visit personally, but I hope to arrange for a blog post on each of them. Watch this space!

PETERBOROUGH INTER-FAITH COUNCIL VISIT LEICESTER

Today Leicester Council of Faiths is hosting a visit to the city by our counterparts from Peterborough. Their party of 31 (including seven children) arrives an hour late due to circumstances beyond their control, as their coach has broken down not long after setting off, and they've had to wait for a replacement one to turn up.

In the photo above, Rosemarie Fitton and Narendra Waghela (both members of Leicester Council of Faiths) await the arrival of our visitors at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Gipsy Lane. Narendra represents the local Swaminarayan community on our Council of Faiths and often acts as guide to visitors here at the Mandir. Rosemarie is Senior Lecturer in Interior Design at De Montfort University, her specialism being sacred spaces in public places (that's not what it's called officially, but I made up that diescriptionand I'm going to keep using it). Rosemarie's company, Heterarchy, designed the interior of the Mandir. She's on hand to speak to our visitors today about the work Heterarchy has done in this site - and both she and I will be accompanying the Peterborough group on the other stages of their visit.

Stage 1: BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

As the Peterborough group arrive an hour late, it's more of a speedy dash through the Mandir than we would have liked. Still there's time to take in some of its many pleasures and treasures and to whet the appetite for a return visit.

Stage 2: Masjid Umar, Evington Lane

Despite having lived in the area for a couple of years, I've never set foot inside Masjid Umar before today. We arrive just in time to observe worshippers taking part in afternoon prayer. By a happy coincidence, Fayyaz Suleman, Vice-Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths, is among the congregation today. He joins us for a Q&A session, responding to comments and questions from some of the visitors.

Stage 3: Jain Centre

Our final stop is the Jain Centre on Oxford Street. We arrive just at the end of a major event in the Centre, as the community has come together to celebrate the end of Paryushana, an eight-day period of fasting and one of the two most sacred periods in the Jain calendar. Smita Shah, past President of Jain Samaj Europe and a Director of Leicester Council of Faiths, shepherds the group round the centre (see photo above). I'm glad of the chance to meet some members of the Institute of Jainology, who are demonstrating their online resource, Jainipedia - and we're all glad to end the day by sharing in a vegetarian meal here, provided through the generosity of the Jain community. In the photo below, Smita Shah is talking with Jaspal Singh, Chair of Peterborough Inter-faith Council.

It would be remiss of me to end this blog post without mentioning a few things I noticed about this Peterborough group that distinguish it from ours here in Leicester.

Firstly, the size of the group: 31 is an impressive number, but even then their Chair, Jaspal Singh, informs me that there were would have been even more of them, if it were not for the fact that their local Buddhist and Jewish communities are involved in events of their own today, so have been unable to come along. A fortnight ago, we struggled to fill a minibus with less than half that number on our annual Peace Visit to three places of worship: and only three actual members of Leicester Council of Faiths were amongst that number.

Secondly, the composition of the visiting group: this was certainly different from any lineup that we could have drummed up from our membership. There were children present - seven of them. The only kids that show up at anything organised by Leicester Council of Faiths are mine! Once you subtract the children from the total number of visitors (leaving 24), a third or so of the adult members of the group were young people, of typical student age. Leicester Council of Faiths has long experienced difficulty in engaging young people in our activities (so much so, that we've recently been toying with the idea of appointing a volunteer position of Young People's Champion to try and get some movement on this issue). The Peterborough group had five Nepalese people, none of whom could speak English (one of the main group translated into Urdu, and one of the Nepalese women translated for their group from that).

Thirdly, membership and structure: Peterborough Inter-faith Council seems a looser and less formal entity than Leicester Council of Faiths - even, it might be said, less hierarchical and rigid. As far as I can see from today's visit and from the contacts leading up to it, the Peterborough group doesn't seem to have issues about who is there to represent local faith communities. The group appears to be made up of a diverse membership of people, brought together by their interest in finding out more about what other religions stand for and how their followers live. However, it might be fairer and more accurate to compare Peterborough Inter-faith Council with something like Dr Russell's Interfaith group in Leicester. Our more formal, more representative nature may be the key to opening doors for engagement with local authorities, service providers, schools, colleges and universities. Although it often gives cause for complaint, it may be the very thing that elevates Leicester Council of Faiths to the position where it can actually do some good for the city as a whole. It's horses for courses, innit?