HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR BLOG!

Today, this blog is two years old. I started it on (Sunday) 15 November 2009, the first day of the first Inter Faith Week in England, just so we'd have a record of that event. I took that as an excuse to reboot the Council of Faiths website, launch our fan page on Facebook and start our Twitterstream all on the same day. Here we are, two years on and they're still going strong.

MULTI-FAITH PRAYER ROOM PROPOSED IN HIGHCROSS

Leicester Council of Faiths has been invited to advise Highcross (the city's biggest shopping venue) on establishing a Multi-Faith Prayer Room for customers. Following an exchange of emails in the last week, I have a positive conversation on the phone this morning with Jack Payne, Buildings Manager at Highcross and we arrange to meet on site and discuss the development on Tuesday 31 May.

I understand that this sort of facility exists for staff, but this will be the first time that Hammersons, the company which owns and runs Highcross, will have done this for customers at any of their shopping centres. So, once again, Leicester leads the way!

I remember there was a bit of a push to ensure that Highcross would have a prayer room before the venue opened. Although that campaign didn't appear to come to anything at the time, That sort of gentle pressure appears to have paid off in the medium term.

Of course, the Council of Faiths has a good relationship with Highcross, as regular readers of this blog will know. We've put on a display there for National Inter Faith week (at the invitation of Highcross) two years running - and we hope we'll be able to go back for that event this year, when it rolls around in November. Highcross also made a substantial contribution to the exhibition that's been used in those two special weeks - and on many other occasions in several sites around the city in between.

Leicester Council of Faiths is grateful for the opportunity to lend its weight to this project, which we're sure will prove of benefit to Highcross and to its customers, as it seeks ever more fully to reflect the makeup and meet the needs of the diverse community it serves in this city. We're also glad to be able to strengthen our relationship with Highcross, which is such an important part of Leicester life.

There's a full meeting of the Council of Faiths this evening, so this will be a piece of good news to relate there. Undoubtedly we'll be promoting the idea that this kind of facility has to work as something that will be appealing and useful to people of all faiths. Still, it's going to be of more interest to members of some faith communities than of others. It will be helpful to get input from members who have used this kind of facility in other public places; there may be some who've been involved in setting up this kind of prayer room elsewhere. All comments and feedback welcome - from anyone who wishes to express an interest!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR BLOG!

Today, this blog is one year old. I started it on (Sunday) 15 November 2009, the first day of the first Inter Faith Week in England, just so we'd have a record of that event. I took that as an excuse to reboot the Council of Faiths website, launch our fan page on Facebook and start our Twitterstream all on the same day. Here we are, one year on and they're all still going strong. The stats counter for this blog tell me that I've posted 365 entries on it (this one will be 366) making an average of precisely one a day; I couldn't have made it work out better if I'd tried!

CATHEDRAL AM

It's Cathedral AM this morning at Leicester Cathedral Visitor Centre. This bi-monthly networking breakfast brings together people working in, living in, or otherwise concerned with Leicester city centre. For the first time in a long while, I actually get there in time to have breakfast! There's a smaller turnout than usual today (maybe only half what we're used to) which host Canon Barry Naylor blames on "the July effect". I guess that means a lot of people are on holiday just now.

Our speaker this morning is John Florance (photo above, with Barry Naylor) from BBC Radio Leicester. He gives us a whistlestop tour of the past, present and possible future of local radio in general and BBC Radio Leicester in particular. Leicester was the first city in the UK to have its own radio station (from Nov 1967) and it pioneered certain aspects of radio broadcasting that we now take for granted, such as the on-air phone-in. John is very funny (if a bit risque for this time of the morning) and he provides an enlightening and entertaining 20 minute talk. At the end of the session I get the chance to tell him that BBC Radio Leicester's web page on Inter Faith Week was featured in a presentation to delegates at the Inter Faith Network UK national conference in London just last week. This web page was, in part, based on the content of an interview John conducted live with Noel Singh, Ibrahim Moghra and myself on the first day of that week in November last year.

Speaking of Inter Faith Week, this morning I meet Mark Murphy, who has recently been appointed General Manager at Highcross. After introducing myself, I speak with him about the possibility of Highcross once again mounting the Council of Faiths exhibition when Inter Faith Week rolls around again later this year. It's a friendly first meeting and he asks me to drop him a line soon, so that Julie Ann and I can explore this with him and his staff.

BISHOP ENJOYS A PRIVILEGED ROLE

This letter is published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Bishop enjoys a privileged role

Tim Stevens must be glad that Interfaith Week is well behind us now. (First Person, December 12).

Interfaith Week, with its themes of social cohesion and understanding between people of all faiths and none, leaves him once again free to attack non-religious people.

These are the people who number among their ranks some of the most active in defending good community relations against the divisive cancer of sectarianism.

His title is Bishop of Leicester. How a Bishop is appointed is a mystery to many – it certainly isn't through a process respecting equality of opportunity, in an organisation tearing itself apart over gender rights and an obsession with sexuality. And he didn't come to be "of Leicester" through any election of the people of our diverse city.

Nonetheless, he enjoys enormous privileges. He is part of the senior management of the Church of England, one of the country's biggest property businesses, and one whose coffers will be filled from donations in proportion to the numbers persuaded of the importance of the Nativity story enough to put their bums on church pews a few times over the festive season. Our unwritten constitution even guarantees him a seat in the national legislature.

Let's return to our goodwill and cheer this festive season, and look forward to a future time when people with a genuine spirit of peace in their hearts are our favoured opinion makers.

Frank Friedmann, Scraptoft

REPORTING TO OUR BOARD ON INTER FAITH WEEK

I prepare a written report on our Inter Faith Week exhibition in Highcross for the meeting of the Council of Faiths Board of Directors at the Welcome Centre this evening. This is the first such meeting since a radical overhaul of our governance that was adopted at our AGM in October. I’m not required to stay for the meeting and deliver the report in person, so I distribute the paper to members as they arrive then I'm off to the Swan and Rushes for the monthly meeting of PIPS (Philosophy in Pubs).

IT'S IN THE GENES

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

It's in the genes

Looking at religion with, possibly, a more practical slant than the recent inter-faith week my impression is that:

Societies where a majority have a personal religious belief tend to prosper. Societies where organised religions are in charge tend to ossify. Societies where religious belief is largely absent tend to decay in an excess of personal self-indulgence.

It is said that the majority of people are "hard-wired" to believe in a deity. If so, then Darwin's theory of the "survival of the fittest genes" suggests that we should not discourage such belief. In terms of evolution, it is the most successful adaptation and the most highly evolved.

Russ Ball, Leicester

UNITED EFFORT TO SOLVE PROBLEMS IN OUR SOCIETY

Alan Hayes has written the First Person column in today's Leicester Mercury:

 

United efforts to solve problems in our society

In the fourth article to mark Inter Faith Week, humanist Allan Hayes makes the case for secularism

It is very welcome that this first National Inter Faith Week aims "to increase understanding between people of religious and non-religious belief". Both sides have much to contribute. There have been encouraging developments in Leicestershire this year: the city's new religious education syllabus includes humanism, and both city and county Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (SACREs) now have humanist representatives. The Secondary Student's RE conference, aimed at forming a Student RE Council, was a stimulating experience with students from all backgrounds getting to know one another, and humanists and the non-religious generally were urged to join the council. But we need to go beyond understanding, to working together on the problems that we see in our society.

Leicester Secular Society, founded in 1851, is the oldest secular society in the world; it arose in the 19th century from the struggles, shared with non-conformists, Jews and Catholics, for freedom of belief, education and expression, and for democracy and equal respect – often, it must be said, against the Established Church. The notable tolerance of our country is due in large part to such struggles, as are the Human Rights Declarations and our recent equality legislation.

The society's vision combines secularism, emphasising equality and separation of state and religion, and humanism, emphasising a view of life based solely on humanity, with a fierce defence of free thought; it has a long tradition of dialogue and engagement with others; its talks, discussions and social events, are open to all.

Many of our concerns and interests are shared with people in the religions: the Sea of Faith Network studies and promotes religious faith "as a human construct"; the Accord Coalition, including Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews and Humanists, is concerned about division and discrimination in our educational system; the think-tank Ekklesia wishes to see separation of state and religion.

We must guard against being blindly divided by religious/non-religious classifications.

Secularism protects the right to belong to a religion, the right not to belong to one, and the right to get on with our life without such a classification. It encourages co-operation by removing the possibility that the state will take sides. The American and Indian constitutions are both secular.

Humanism, by viewing humanity as our own responsibility, and religions and beliefs as our own creations, allows us to be proud of what we have achieved and draw on all our experience; and by seeing ourselves as one humanity and part of the natural world it urges us to care for one another and join in protecting our planet. We will have different, sometimes conflicting, views, but we must offer friendship and goodwill in making a better life for all.

Allan Hayes is president of Leicester Secular Society

INTER FAITH WEEK 2009: LAUNCH EVENT AT COUNTY HALL

This evening is the official launch of National Inter Faith Week for the city and county at County Hall, Glenfield (seat of Leicestershire County Council). Since I stayed at Highcross for the change of shifts at 1800, I arrive at County Hall after most of the food and drink has gone. Thanks to Sugra Ahmed, for guiding me to some vegetarian items that were left. Thankfully there aren't many vegetarian Muslims here this evening.

This is a well supported meeting, in the Council Chamber, in the presence of the Leader of the County Council, Councillor Roger Wilson, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Leicester (for the second time today) and the Bishop of Leicester. It’s chaired by the Venerable Paul Hackwood, Archdeacon of Loughborough and Chair of the Interfaith Forum for Leicestershire. There’s an interesting mix of speakers and topics: Islam Awareness Week; Faiths Forum for the East Midlands; an “inter-faith recipe book”; an extract from a panto staged by Loughborough Council of Faiths; the signing of an “Inter-Faith Charter” by faith community leaders and representatives. Resham Singh Sandhu (Vice-Chair of Leicestershire Inter-Faith Forum and former Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths) delivers a typically rousing closing address. The evening concludes with a solo musical performance by Naim Cortazzi. I find out later that this was the first time a guitar had ever been wielded in the Council Chamber at County Hall!

Noel Singh gets a well-deserved ovation for his work in co-ordinating the week’s events and for being directly involved in organising this evening. In his own presentation, introducing the County Council’s small grants for community cohesion work, he's clearly conscious of the schedule running over by almost half an hour; I’ve never heard him speak so fast!

The keynote speaker is Dr Maureen Sier, Interfaith Development Officer for the Scottish Government. Scotland has had its own annual National Inter Faith Week for several years (theirs starts next week) and Maureen was speaking about the Scottish experience, how it has developed over the years and what we might learn from it as we hold the first such week nationally in England. I’ve known Maureen for over 30 years and I’m glad she was able to come down from Glasgow to speak at this event. She’s given me a lot of encouragement and support in the two-and-a-half years I’ve been at Leicester Council of Faiths and has been something of a touchstone to me in this important work that I'm fortunate enough to be doing.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2009: DAY 2

Today is the first full day of our exhibition at Highcross for Inter Faith Week. Lord Mayor of Leicester, Cllr Roger Blackmore, and Lady Mayoress, Mrs Hilary Blackmore, officially open the exhibition at 12 noon. It's a low-key affair, but entirely appropriate given the setting. Chair of the Council of Faiths, Deputy Lord Mayor Councillor Manjula Sood, is present, as are our immediate past Chair, Minou Cortazzi and Vice-Chair, Tony Nelson. No ribbon to cut, no big scissors to wield, but the Lord Mayor makes a short supportive speech to the dozen or so gathered around him. Manjula says a few words too. We look round the display together, talk about the messages on the banners, enjoy some positive chat and have a few photographs taken. John Coster, from Citizens’ Eye Community News Agency takes several which he posts to Flickr within a couple of hours.

We're joined by Sarah Harrison, City Centre Director, who spoke recently to a full meeting of the Council of Faiths about her work. The Council of Faiths would seem to be a natural ally in what she’s trying to do in the ongoing regeneration of Leicester city centre.

A few words about the exhibition itself would be appropriate here: Julie-Ann Heath, “Workplace Chaplain” at the Cathedral, made the initial contact that led to us having this exhibition. She's a member of Leicester Council of Faiths and brought us into contact with the management at Highcross some six months ago or more, when they expressed an interest in having a display about the city’s faith communities. Without going through all the ins-and-outs of it, we were given this space for National Inter Faith Week to put ourselves on show to the public. We agreed informally with Highcross management on a number of terms, none of which were especially onerous:

• that we should be even-handed, promoting all the faiths involved equally, not appearing to favour one faith over another;
• that we should avoid dispute and contention among volunteers fronting the display or between those on the display and members of the public who might stop and look;
• that the message of the display should be positive;
• that the exhibition material should be harmonious in style and of professional design and production;
• that it should be accessible to members of the public using Highcross;
• that the content should say something relevant to the lives of the people who see it on show.

We were told that we could expect up to 400,000 footfalls over the week! Whatever else it might be, it’ll be the biggest single exposure to the people of Leicester of the Council of Faiths, its member communities and the relationship between them. There’s more to say about the exhibition, but I’ll stretch that out over the posts for this week.

The Leicester Mercury runs the second column in its First Person series for National Inter Faith Week, but I couldn’t get my hands on a copy today (too busy even to step into a newsagents – can anyone really be that busy?) so I don’t know who is featured or what they said. I’ll catch up with that later in the week. I’m disappointed to note that the First Person column isn’t available electronically on the Leicester Mercury’s website. I’d like to be able to link to that occasionally.

From today's entries in the reflective journal, written by one of the volunteers on the stall:

“The banners are great! So far most pass by with a passing glance, but some do slow down and read and some even ask questions – a step in the right direction!”

ISLAM WEEK AIMS TO RAISE AWARENESS

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Islam week aims to raise awareness

People from different backgrounds are being encouraged to get to know each other and celebrate what they have in common this week.

Today marks the start of Islam Awareness Week, which aims to improve community relations and raise money for charity. It is also the first ever Inter Faith Week in England.

Sughra Ahmed, co-ordinator of the week's activities in Leicester, said: "It's really important that we understand each other better, but most importantly that we put our words into practice – we have to go beyond talk and actually do things to make our city better."

From 11am to 3pm today at Leicester Central Mosque, in Conduit Street, food and shelter will be offered to asylum seekers and homeless people.

Fundraising events are planned and Canadian musician Dawud Wharnsby will perform at city schools.

Muslim women are encouraged to take part in an initiative called Dine at Mine and take non-Muslim friends out for an evening of traditional food and fun.

BOWLS AND BELIEFS IN NATIONAL FAITH WEEK

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Bowls and beliefs in national faith week

An afternoon of bowls is being staged at a leisure centre as part of national Inter Faith Week.

The short mat bowls event will be held at Whitwick's Hermitage Leisure Centre, in Silver Street, on Friday, from 3pm. It has been organised by North West Leicestershire District Council and Leicester's St Philips Centre. Organisers hope people from a variety of faiths will take part. Activities are taking place across the county this week.

Councillor Rowena Holland, equality champion at North West Leicestershire District Council, said: "We are pleased to welcome people of different beliefs to our district for this event."