SACRE AT CHARNWOOD PRIMARY

I'm attending the regular meeting of Leicester SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education), held this time at Charnwood Primary School, Nedham Street.

I've brought two guests with me today: Sam Newton, Editor of the Leicester Wave, is here at my recommendation to make some contacts, gain interest and drum up support from teachers and govenors at this meeting for an article about young Muslim women in Leicester and the burka. I've also brought Rosemarie Fitton, who's shadowing me as part of her MA course in Inter-Religious Relations at St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society. The photo above shows (left to right) Sam, Rosemarie and Jill Carr (Secretary of Leicester SACRE). They're standing before one of the displays created by pupils of Charnwood Primary in the school's "Walk of Faith".

At today's meeting we bid farewell to Rev Dr Alan Race, Vicar at St Philip's Church and Director of Studies at St Philip's Centre. To describe Alan as a mainstay of SACRE would be an understatement to put it mildly. He's a mainstay of everything inter-faith in Leicester and farther afield. He'll definitely be missed around here.

A quick wave

At the Welcome Centre this afternoon, I get a call from Sam Newton, editor of the Leicester Wave, the young people's paper that's distributed free with the Leicester Mercury once a month. They gave us a great front page feature during National Inter Faith Week in November last year.

Sam tells me that they're intending to do a feature on young Muslim women and the burka; would the Council of Faiths be interested in lending them a hand with this? Of course we would. I offer a few suggestions how we might approach the subject. We seem in general agreement and make arrangements to start moving this potential feature on at the start of next week.

PARENT & CHILD MEDITATION AT NAGARJUNA KADAMPA BUDDHIST CENTRE

The Nagarjuna Kadampa Buddhist Centre on Guildhall Lane is having an open day. They had a very successful one when they first opened (see blog entry for Sunday 19 September 2010) and now, hardly five months later, here they are having another.

I bring Harry and Grace, straight from Phoenix Square Film & Digital Media Centre, where they've just been attending the first meeting of the Leicester Wave young reporters club.

I thought I'd take the kids here this afternoon so we could join in the "Parent and Child Meditation" session: a three-minute mindfulness exercise on the breath, the kind of thing that children could learn easily and do themselves without needing an adult on hand to help them. The people here are very good at finding innovative ways to encourage people to join in their meditation practice. Harry particularly likes the idea of this, saying that it's something you could do to calm yourself before an exam or before getting up to sing in front of people. There are five children and three parents in the Shrine Room where Trina leads the meditation - and follows it with a quick round of "Buddha Bingo"!

The centre is really busy today - there's barely a seat to be had in the World Peace Café. It's great to see how quickly they've settled into this city centre venue and how popular their place is becoming. Follow the Nagarjuna Kadampa Buddhist Centre on Facebook and on Twitter.