EMAS COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT EVENT FOR LEICESTERSHIRE & RUTLAND

 

This morning I take up on invitation to attend a "Community Engagement Event" with the Leicestershire and Rutland Division of the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS). I'm here today (with the agreement and support of my Personnel Management Group) rather than being at the National Meeting of the Inter Faith Network being held in Birmingham (the first time in four years I've missed attending that).

The venue is The Venue, a multi-purpose community facility in Gwendolen Road that I didn't know existed before today - and very nice it is too. The event has been funded through proceeds from EMAS's recycling scheme, so not a penny has been taken from front line services to pay for this today.

When I arrive and start putting up our banner, I'm told that there's already a Council of Faiths pop up banner inside the main meeting too. I'm initially baffled by this and go in to have a look. I'd forgotten that EMAS had paid for one of the banners when the exhibition was made for display in Highcross during National Inter Faith Week 2009. EMAS had said that they'd be using this banner at their own events and, true to their word, here it was. So I put up the banner I'd brought in the foyer That's it in the photo above, flanked by Mukesh Barot on the left (Equalities Manager at EMAS) and Jagtar Singh (conference facilitator) on the right.

This event provides an opportunity to meet the Interim Chief Executive of EMAS (Prof. Tamar J Thompson OBE) and members of the Management Team for Leicestershire and Rutland; for the Ambulance Service to hear the views of the patients, public and communities they serve; and for us to become more directly involved in discussions about EMAS's current and future service provision.

East Midlands Ambulance Service provides emergency, urgent care and patient transport services for 4.8 million people across the six counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (including north and North East Lincolnshire), Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. EMAS is currently in the process of becoming an NHS Foundation Trust. An NHS Foundation Trust is a new form of NHS organisation with greater freedom from government control so that it can better meet the needs of local communities. It remains part of the NHS and is subject to NHS standards, providing care paid for by the taxpayer, to NHS patients. To make this transition successfully, EMAS it has to involve service users and community representatives. People from all walks of life in the area served by EMAS can sign up to become members of its Trust.

This is the first meeting of its kind that EMAS has held, focusing on one of its geographical divisions (in EMAS terms, Leicestershire includes the city of Leicester). It's introduced as having an educational purpose, with the intention of helping save lives by encouraging communities, families and individuals to take better care of their health and well-being. We're asked not to think that it's merely a box-ticking exercise on EMAS's part, but a genuine beginning of working with alongside communities as partners. It follows up EMAS's presence and involvement in the Mela in Leicester at the weekend just gone, where more than 350 people were enrolled as members of EMAS's Trust.

A few facts and figures that we're given about EMAS (Leicestershire and Rutland Division) today:

• Geographical area: 1,000 square miles
• Population served: 984,000
• Ambulance stations: 11
• Staff: 544
• Accident and emergency call demand (2010-11): 91,000

With the current restructuring of service providers, EMAS will shortly be the only genuinely regional health body serving the whole of the East Midlands.

I feel a debt of gratitude and loyalty to EMAS, inasmuch as they contributed to funding my post after the initial grant from central government ran out at the end of March 2008. If it hadn't been for that assistance (paid for helping EMAS organise a summit on issues of religion and belief related to ambulance service provision in August 2008) I don't think my post would have survived beyond that initial stage. The summit was covered in depth in an illustrated article in EMAS's Lifelines magazine which is still accessible online (issue no. 9, Autumn 2008, pp.11-14).

As well as being here as a show of good faith with an organisation (and certain individuals inside that organisation) that helped preserve my post, I've also been asked to be here specifically because of a small number of incidents involving paramedics at local places of worship. More than once in recent months, paramedics have been called to attend places of worship for what is classed as a "Category A8" call ("A" signifying top priority - meaning that there is a perceived immediate risk to life, "8" being the number of minutes within which they must arrive at the scene of the incident) but have then been denied entrance to the premises because they have not removed their shoes or have not taken the time to cover their heads. One such incident also involved people at the place of worship being upset because a female paramedic arrived to treat a male patient. I take the time to speak with members of the EMAS team who have a special interest in these matters and we tentatively agree to meet up soon after this event and discuss in more depth what can be done to avoid such incidents occurring in future.

I also have a friendly and interesting chat with Simon Behan, EMAS's Recruitment Manager, about ways in which to make a career in the Ambulance Service more appealing to young people within the diverse faith communities of Leicester.

Kelly Jussab and Liz Harrison are here with promotional material for the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP) as is Chino Cabon from The Race Equality Centre (TREC). REDP has been involved in helping EMAS develop its Community Engagement Strategy - both through attending focus group meetings around the region and critiquing the strategy as it has developed on paper.

There's a demonstration of how paramedics treat patients suffering cardiac arrest and the opportunity to take a guided tour round an ambulance vehicle. We're also offered a free mini health check today. The queue for that forms to the left of our banner and leaflet display, as you can see in the photo above. That's good news for one attendee, who is discovered to have a dangerously slow pulse and is given what's described as "life saving treatment" right away.

There's a choice of four workshops:

• Performance and response: what happens when you ring 999
• Infection control and vehicle cleanliness: practical demonstration with Q&A
• Engagement: how can EMAS engage/involve you more effectively
• Access: what can the Ambulance Service do to improve access to services and career opportunities?

Guess which one I attended, faithful reader ...

A buffet lunch brings this short, but very useful meeting to an end. We're told that we won't be allowed to leave today until each one of us has designated an ICE number on our mobiles. That's a person who should be contacted In Case of Emergency. Paramedics routinely look for this number on the phone of patients who are unconscious or can't communicate. I do this for mine - and sign up as a member of EMAS's Trust too.

ANGEL AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GARDEN

Julie Ann Heath with a copy of her book, The Angel at the Bottom of the Garden, an illustrated fable for adults

To St Martins House, in the precincts of Leicester Cathedral early this evening, where I've been invited to attend a launch for three books written (and two of them illustrated) by my friend and colleague Julie Ann Heath.

Julie Ann is in charge of the Diocese's Retail Chaplaincy (keeping an eye on the spiritual needs of those who work in the city centre), organises Cathedral AM (the bimonthly networking breakfasts in the Cathedral Visitor Centre) and is a member of Leicester Council of Faiths.

She's been of great help to me in my work, especially helping secure our first exhibition in Highcross during National Inter Faith Week 2009. To me, she's really rather inspirational.

She gives a brief talk about how and why she came to write these books, her own sources of inspiration in C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) and George McDonald (1824-1905) and how her books have been received.

Julie Ann's books are published by Potters Maze.

RELIGION AND PLANET VIEWPOINT DAY AT NEW COLLEGE

At New College, New Parks, early this morning preparing for "Religion and Planet: Viewpoint Day". This is a whole day activity, for Year 10 students (most of them 15 years old).

I'm here as one of a team of four facilitators, working together on different strands of the day's theme.

• Clare Carr, of Global Education LeicesterShire, is running a session modelled on "Philosophy for Children", using artifacts from different religions (most notably a "Jain cloth") as stimuli to encourage the students to come up with their own questions, developing skills of enquiry and reflection.
• Linda Harding, Leicester City Council Arts and Museums Outreach Officer, helps students explore the spiritual nature of our world in a "hands-on" session involving art objects - some of them created by the students themselves.
• Madeleine Coburn, freelance consultant currently attached to the Museums Department, helps students explore displays from the exhibition, "Our Leicester, Our Story", mounted in the school library.

In my sessions, I break the class (usually numbering 24) into eight groups of three (roughly), give each group a quotation from each of the religions who are members of Leicester Council of Faiths and ask them, first of all, to match their quote to the religion from which it comes.

• “Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own self.” (Bahá'í)
• “Hatreds never cease through hatred in this world, through love alone they cease. This is eternal law.” (Buddhist)
• “God is love. Those who live in God live in love and God lives in them.” (Christian)
• “Where there is joy there is creation. Where there is no joy there is no creation. Know the nature of joy.” (Hindu)
• “Do not injure, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture or kill any living being.” (Jain)
• “Devote yourselves to justice; aid the oppressed. Uphold the rights of the orphan, defend the cause of the widow.” (Jewish)
• “We have created you from a male and a female and made you into different nations and tribes so that you may know each other.” (Muslim)
• “A place in God’s court can only be attained if we do service to others in the world.” (Sikh)

These are the same quotes that feature on the pop-up banners that were created originally for the National Inter Faith Week exhibition in 2009 at Highcross.

New College doesn't have the sort of obviously mixed student body as you find in city centre schools. There's not a large number of students from religious or ethnic minority communities. Many of the students wouldn't normally go to parts of the city where they'd see a gurdwara, a mandir or a mosque; nor can it be assumed that they'll have seen a public religious festival, such as Diwali or Vaisakhi. When I went round the different groups, asking which religion their quote comes from, the first response was almost always Christianity - said with certainty and conviction. Any that they didn't think was Christian was almost always Buddhist. 

When preparing for these sessions, I'd spent some time trying to find other quotes for today, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that it would be good to pitch caring about the planet as caring for other people. So the second part of the exercise was to get the groups to discuss how living according to these principles would change things in the world around us (assuming , of course, that they would affect change). Then I got them to recommend three changes they would like to see made in how we live, that would change the way people can share the planet with each other.

Many of the students were surprised (and interested) that the Council of Faiths has such a strong presence in social media. We picked up several new fans for our facebook page today.

Five one-hour sessions with Year 10 sudents: tough gig.

staking out Highcross

This afternoon, I meet with Suzie Wood, Commercialisation Co-ordinator at Highcross. She was the person who oversaw our exhibition there during National Inter Faith Week last year, and I'm speaking to her in advance of our return to Highcross this weekend. After meeting in her office on the third floor, we head down to the Lower West Mall so she can show me the spot where we'll be located this time.

As we walk further along mall and come closer to the outer doors, my heart sinks. When Suzie stops and shows me the place we've been given, I have to ask her ot reconsider. I've been staking out the possible site since we heard a few weeks ago that we'd be doing this again and this is the very spot I was hoping we wouldn't get. It's just too windy here - our banners would be unstable, and be in danger of blowing over. They'd become a safety hazard here. Furthermore, the bannes aren't waterproof and they'll catch some rain in this position. Suzie doesn't need much convincing and we head back up to her office to check availability of other areas during the week.

While I waif in the reception area for her to come back out from her office, Julie-Ann Heath enters. She has a meeting scheduled with someone else for three, but of course I want her to be in on this one. Julie-Ann was mainly responsible for getting the Council of Faiths this gig last year. We couldn't have done it without her - honestly. It's nice to have Julie-Ann there when Suzie re-emerges and is able to tell us that the space we had last year on the Lower West Mall is available, so we can go there. Result!

at Christians Aware

At Christchurch, Clarendon Park Road this evening, visiting friends attending the regular Monday evening meeting of Christians Aware. It's the last session in a series focusing on spirituality and the visual arts, run by my neighbour, Beatta. I've attended two of these Monday evening courses at Christchurch, "Exploring the Diversity of Hinduism" and "Mindfulness") and spoken at one of them (on the Bahá'í Faith and environmental responsibility) all of which have been featured in this blog but I've been unable to attend any sessions of this present course, sad to say.

I'm here to drum up some support for our exhibition in Highcross during National Inter Faith Week. Members of Christians Aware gave strong support to the event last year and I'm hoping to draw on the same this time. As this is the last meeting for this term, the attendees are sharing a communal meal rather than having a formal meal. Between the savouries and the sweet, Barbara Butler asks me to speak about the exhibition. I've brought along one of the banners, chosen at random (it's the Jewish one) and put it up at the end of the table. It attracts many positive comments (naturally). There's general support and just about everyone here promises to consult their diaries then see if they can commit themselves to helping out at one or more slots.

National Inter Faith Week 2010 planning meeting

It's our first (and only?) planning meeting for the forthcoming National Inter Faith Week, at the end of November. There are nine of us gathered here in the Welcome Centre this afternoon: Daphne Beale (Faiths Forum for the East Midlands, Loughborough Council of Faiths); Gill Buttery (Leicester City of Sanctuary); Rachel Carmichael (Leicester City of Sanctuary, Religious Society of Friends); Amanda Fitton (Christian Aware); Janet Ingram (Leicester Diocese Education Officer); Resham Singh Sandhu (Interfaith Forum for Leicestershire, Leicester Council of Faiths, Sikh Cultural & Welfare Scoiety); Noel Singh (Leicestershire County Council); Mike Smith (Leicester Diocese) - and me.

We debrief on last year's inaugural week, discuss what worked then and what didn't work so well, talk about what we should try and improve on, repeat or forget for this year.

There were several planning meetings for the 2009 event. We think that this will be the only meeting of this kind we need hold this year.

INTER FAITH NETWORK UK: ANNUAL NATIONAL MEETING 2010

This is my third time attending this annual event since I began working for Leicester Council of Faiths. The first was in this same venue, Glaziers Hall (2008), the second at Grace Road, home of Leicestershire County Cricket Club (2009). On those two earlier occasions, I acted as note-taker at one of the workshops. This time I'm free to take part in the day in my own right.

The theme of the National Meeting this year is "Shaping Our Shared Society: The Key Role of Local Inter Faith Organisations". Growing numbers of inter faith organisations are working at local level to develop good inter faith relations and to encourage cooperation on social issues. This meeting offers a chance to hear about how they are developing their work and about the challenges they are facing and the opportunities they see ahead. The topic is relevant to all types of body in membership of the Inter Faith Network: to local bodies themselves; to national faith communities which support and encourage their work; and to national and regional inter faith bodies which are, increasingly, looking to find ways to work in partnership with local projects and to support their work.

We're welcomed by Rt Rev Dr Alastair Redfern and Dr Girdari Bhan, Co-Chairs of the Inter Faith Network

Plenary sessions this morning:

Building good inter faith relations locally: a task for our times
Dr Harriet Crabtree, Director, Inter Faith Network, considers the changing landscape for local inter faith work and some of the key issues helping shape this; and reflects on the vital importance of local inter faith initiatives.

Developing good relations in the multi faith city
Kashmir Singh Rajput, Chair of Bradford District Faiths Forum, gives an insight into how this busy metropolitan faith forum has been working to identify issues of importance to the different faith communities in the city and its neighbourhoods and to build a range of partnerships to enable dialogue and social cooperation, both across communities generally and also bilaterally and trilaterally between particular communities.

A perspective from Government on the importance of local inter faith work as part of developing good community relations
Andrew Stunell OBE, MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Communities and Local Government with responsibilities including community cohesion (including future of Prevent); building regulations; race equality and the Big Society.

Dialogue on the spot
A moment to talk with your neighbours about the themes of the day

Developing local inter faith work in less diverse areas
Dr Maureen Sier, on secondment from the Scottish Inter Faith Council to the Scottish Executive/Government draws on her experience of working with local inter faith groups in Scotland to discuss how inter faith work is being developed in less diverse areas. How – if at all – does this differ from work in a multi faith city?

National faith communities – supporting and encouraging local inter faith work
Moulana M Shahid Raza OBE, Chair of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB) talks about its new initiative to encourage imams to play a role in local inter faith bodies and to encourage their congregations to do likewise.

Inter Faith Week
Stella Opoku-Owusu, Local and Regional Inter Faith Officer and Elin Henrysson, Project Assistant, Inter Faith Network give a short presentation of images of the 2009 Week and ideas for 2010. Fakhara Rehman, Community Faiths Coordinator, Kirklees Faiths Forum: our Inter Faith Week story - a packed Week of events for every age!

Sustaining the vision: resources and structures
Anna Allen, Head of Programmes, Community Development Foundation (CDF), talks about how recent funding programmes have been helping support local inter faith initiatives and reflects on some of the challenges for these of developing sustainable patterns of funding and structures which can help underpin their work well.

Seven workshops are run this afternoon on the following themes:

1. Developing a relevant and lively programme
Hear from two local groups about how they have been developing their programme and exchange ideas with members of groups in other areas.

Facilitator: Patricia Stoat, Chief Executive Officer, Faith Forum for the East Midlands

Presenters: Ryad Khodabocus, Community Relations Development Worker Luton Borough Council/Luton Council of Faiths and Peter Adams, Luton Council of Faiths; Dr David Capey, Suffolk Inter-Faith Resource

2. Outreach and membership
Developing a strong membership base and involving the faith communities in your area. A chance to discuss methods of outreach and patterns of membership, including some of the issues to consider when developing a constitution.

Facilitator: Amy Willshire, "Faith Ambassador", Waltham Forest Faith Communities Forum, London

Presenters: Brian Pearce OBE, Adviser, Faith and Public Life, Inter Faith Network; Resham Singh Sandhu MBE DL, Member, Leicester Council Faiths, Vice-Chair, Leicestershire Faith Forum and Trustee Faiths Forum for the East Midlands

3. Resources and training for religious literacy and inter faith understanding
A number of local inter faith bodies now run training for public authorities and others and produce materials to help people learn about the faiths in their areas or to understand what inter faith work is about. A chance to hear from two groups and to share your own experiences of this kind of work.

Facilitator: Rev Andrew Brown, Public Education Programmes Manager for the Woolf Institute, Cambridge

Presenters: Jatinder Singh Birdi, Warwick District Faiths Forum; Jonathan Marshall and Vallabhdas Meswania, Plymouth Centre for Faiths and Cultural Diversity

4. Involving young people in local inter faith programmes
Last year’s Inter Faith Network National Meeting had a special focus on young people and inter faith relations and an Inter Faith Network/National Association of SACREs looked at this in the course of a seminar on joint working by local inter faith bodies and SACREs. This workshop is a chance to talk about how local inter faith bodies are working to involve young people in their activities.

Facilitator: Ramona Kauth, Birmingham Council of Faiths

Presenters: Pastor Charles Kwaku-Odoi, Faith Network 4 Manchester; Dr Phil Henry, Director, Multi Faith Centre at Derby University which is developing a Derby Youth Inter Faith Forum (in consultation with the Faith Forum for Derby)

5. Multi media approaches to making the work known
Websites, radio interviews, DVDs, leaflets, newspaper articles. What are some of the ways that local inter faith bodies are using to gain more profile for themselves?

Facilitator: Jyoti Mehta, Institute of Jainology, Young Jains and Inter Faith Network Executive Committee member

Presenters: Paresh Solanki, Assistant Director (Communications and Development), Inter Faith Network; Selina Brown, Executive Communications Officer, West Midlands Faiths Forum

6. National faith communities and support for local inter faith work
Looking at how national faith communities are helping local members building good inter faith relations locally – and also learning from local inter faith groups.

Facilitator: Mgr Andrew Faley, Assistant General Secretary, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and Inter Faith Network Executive Committee member

Presenter: Philip Rosenberg, Interfaith Officer, Board of Deputies of British Jews

With brief responding reflections from Dr Joy Barrow, Inter Faith Relations Officer, Methodist Church in Britain and Ramesh Pattni, Co-Chair, Hindu-Christian Forum and Chair of the Interfaith Committee, Hindu Forum of Britain

7. Inter Faith Week: Looking back to 2009 and forward to this year’s Week
Discussion about the 2009 Week and plans for the 2010 Week. Come and share your news and ideas.

Facilitator/ Presenter: David Vane, Buddhist member and Secretary, Southampton Council of Faiths

Presenter: Rev Alan Bayes, Chair, Inter Faith Council for Wales

The final session of the National Meeting is:

Perspectives on the development of local inter faith work for the future
Short reflection pieces from: Deanna Van der Velde, Newcastle Council of Faiths, Chair, North East branch of Council of Christians and Jews and Chair, Newcastle SACRE, and member, Task Group, North East Regional Faith Network Ganesh Lall, member of South London Inter Faith Group and Caribbean Hindu Society; Mehru Fitter, member of Coventry Multi Faith Forum, Executive member, West Midlands Faiths Forum and member of Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe.

National Inter Faith Week lives on

Just had a phone call from the Inter Faith Network UK. They're putting together the final report on National Inter Faith Week 2009 and want to use pictures and text from this blog in their report. You never know when someone will look at older entries in the blog and want to make use of something that might otherwise appear dead and buried. The text and images can have an interesting afterlife. A bit self-referential to mention this here in the very blog itself, but I do like that sort of thing. Very Post-Modernist, innit!

national inter faith week 2010

The Inter Faith Network UK has announced that there will be a National Inter Faith Week later this year. National Inter Faith Week in November 2009 was the first of its kind in England and Wales (a similar event has been running in Scotland for the past six years). When the 2009 event was announced and then held, it had not been decided whether it would be a one-off. Those organisations that took part in it were asked to recommend whether they would like to see it run again. We at Leicester Council of Faiths said that we would. Here's the text of the letter from the Inter Faith Network UK:

An Inter Faith Week will take place across England and Wales from Sunday 21 to Saturday 27 November 2010. The aims of the Week are:

• to strengthen good inter faith relations at all levels;
• to increase awareness of the different and distinct faith communities in the UK, in particular celebrating and building on the contribution which their members make to their neighbourhoods and to wider society;
• and to increase understanding between people of religious and non-religious belief.

This will be the second time that such a Week has taken place in England and Wales. It builds on the very successful pattern of events held last November which ranged from social action events, to discussions and dialogues, inter faith football matches, meals, inter faith walks and pilgrimages, festivals and celebrations, tree plantings, exhibitions, concerts, film festivals, activities in schools and in FE and HE and other institutions.

Minister for Cohesion Shahid Malik said "The 2009 Week was a big success. It raised the profile of faith communities and their contribution to society, increased inter faith engagement and understanding and helped people of religious and nonreligious beliefs get into dialogue. I am delighted that there will be a similar Week in 2010.”

Co-Chairs of the Inter Faith Network for the UK, Rt Revd Dr Alastair Redfern and Dr Girdari Lal Bhan, said “Inter Faith Week offers a tremendous opportunity for shared learning, making new connections and deepening inter faith understanding.” It is hoped that faith communities across the country will take part, alongside schools, colleges, universities, local authorities, health care organisations, and many others.

The Week is being led by the Inter Faith Network for the UK, working with its member bodies, in consultation with the Department for Communities and Local Government and also with the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Local Government Association and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Regional Faith Forums in England will again play a key role in supporting and making known the pattern of events in their regions.

The Inter Faith Network for the UK was founded in 1987 to "advance public knowledge and mutual understanding of the teachings, traditions and practices of the different faith communities in Britain" and to promote good relations between people of different faiths in the UK. IFN links over 170 member bodies including: national representative bodies of the Bahá'í, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and Zoroastrian faiths; national, regional, local and other inter faith bodies; and academic institutions and educational bodies concerned with inter faith issues.

The Inter Faith Week website will be further developed across the coming weeks to provide additional resources (including a report on last year’s Week) and event and project ideas.

Find out more about the Inter Faith Network UK:

http://www.interfaith.org.uk/

Find out more about National Inter Faith Week:

http://www.interfaithweek.org.uk/

electronic rights

Phone call this morning from friend and colleague, Maureen Sier in Glasgow. Maureen is Interfaith Development Officer for the Scottish Government (that's her speaking at the launch of National Inter Faith Week for Leicester and Leicestershire, Mon 16 Nov at County Hall, Glenfield). One of the local authorities in Scotland with which she's been working is interested in purchasing the rights to the leaflets and banners that Leicester Council of Faiths has produced and adapting it for use in their own area. We're able to sell the electronic rights to the leaflets, which allows the purchaser to adapt it to their own circumstances. We estimated the cost of the leaflets to be around £10,000 all in. We sell the eletronic rights for a mere £450. The advantages in buying these texts from the Council of Faiths is that:

• all the research and writing has been done;
• the treatment given to the faiths arises from questions asked of, or asked by, professional contacts;
• the writing is in a consistent tone or voice;
• all eight member faith communities are treated in an even-handed manner;
• copy is provided in easily digestible chunks;
• an equal amount of copy is devoted to each faith and to each topic;
• the language is "outward-facing" (i.e. not for practitioners of the faiths, talking about themselves to themselves);
• the material is focused on practical issues that might arise on a day-to-day basis;
• it's been contributed to by practising, knowledgeable and experienced members of faith communities;
• it's been approved by authoritative representatives of faith communities

Anyone buying the texts like this has the rights for multiple use, and is free to amend it to different purposes and circumstances without coming back to the Council of Faiths for further permission. All we ask is that the purchaser doesn't resell or gift the rights to anyone else and that they give a simple line credit to say that the items using the text are based on material orginally produced by Leicester Council of Faiths.

So far, these electronic rights have been bought by East Midlands Ambulance Service, Leicestershire Constabulary and Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust.

That slogan, "We have faith in Leicester!" is very adaptable.

My friend Flickr

This afternoon, Athea Ghani, Development Officer with Faiths Forum for the East Midlands calls, asking if she can have some photos of our National Inter Faith Week exhibition in Highcross to put into their quarterly newsletter. She needs these promptly; I'm able to direct her to our photostream on Flickr, where she can have her pick of more than 30 photos. That's one practical benefit of doing things this new way, with an enhanced electronic presence. I'm sure more benefits will become evident soon. Earlier today, I found photos from the launch event for National Inter Faith Week hosted by the Interfaith Forum for Leicestershre at County Hall. I've added those to our photostream now. Here's a photo of Athea on the podium, addressing that launch event at County Hall. She's much too modest to put this in her newsletter, so I've put it on here instead.

But seriously folks ... Athea paid me an unexpected compliment at that event, by mentioning, during her talk, the training I deliver on behalf of Leicester Council of Faiths. So I'm glad to acknowledge that here and give a little back.

Read FFEM's newsletter with our National Inter Faith Week photos (on p. 5):
http://www.ffem.org.uk/FFEMNewsletterIssue2March2010

Find out more about the Faiths Forum for the East Midlands:
http://www.ffem.org.uk/

2009'S TOP 10: 3

Inter Faith Week exhibition,

Highcross, Sunday 15 – Saturday 22 November 2009

Anyone who saw the exhibition, or took part in it, may be surprised to see that it's not at number one in my top ten countdown for 2009. But in this list I've tried to balance things that affected me deeply, or things that I feel I did well, alongside things that brought benefit to, or spread the good name of, Leicester Council of Faiths. No doubt this exhibition for Inter Faith Week met all these criteria. It was by far the biggest single project that I was involved in since taking up my post and it was surely the biggest single public event that the Council of Faiths has mounted in its history. Rather than write loads of new stuff about the exhibition here, I'd rather refer anyone who hasn't already seen the earliest entries in this blog to go back to the start and see the full week's worth about what went on at Highcross.

Having said that, I would like to add a little, from an unexpected source. I posted this entry on the morning of Tuesday 29 December, shortly before catching a train to London, where I visited an exhibition at the Design Museum, entitled, "Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams". Rams was the chief designer for the Braun electrical consumer goods company in Germany, whose principles and practices had a significant influence on the aesthetic of everyday life from the late 1950s onwards. In the texts on display that accompanied the exhibition, there were two statements that resonated with me when I thought about their relation to the exhibition we put on at Highcross. One text stated how Rams's designs "used different materials and colours but they all reflect a single sensibility", another how he adopted "restrained simplicity as the route to order in a chaotic world." Though speaking about something utterly different - and purely coincidental - both these quotes stood out enough for me to copy them down and want to add them here. Potentially, the exhibition at Highcross could have been chaotic. For many people, inter-faith work itself is chaotic and muddled. Several people, out of perfectly sound motives, asked for certain elements to be featured - pictures (photos of places, paintings illustrating sacred themes, portraits of special people), artifacts, music, food and drink, ready-made exhibitions that had been used on earlier occasions, one source even offered to come along with a number of helpers to build what sounded like a semi-permanent structure out of wood. While all these offers were appreciated and acknowledged, they would have made the Highcross exhibition a ragtag jumble, without theme or dynamic, not following any kind of line or narrative - and not linked to the other material the Council of Faiths had already produced (our series of leaflet and our new website). Some might have looked at what we presented there during National Inter Faith Week and wondered how such a display could have taken so many weeks in the planning and execution. For me, those two quotations in the Dieter Rams exhibition expressed perfectly how I would want to encapsulate the spirit of what we showed in Highcross that week, and that is now a lasting legacy for promotion of our work in Leicester: "different materials and colours but they all reflect a single sensibility"; "restrained simplicity as the route to order in a chaotic world."

Well, I'm not going to apologise for this significant and successful event not making number one in the list. However, I imagine that the entries that take up the top two slots will be surprising!

INTER FAITH WEEK 2009: IT'S ALL OVER NOW

Here we are on Sunday 22 November, a day of hard-won ease and reflection (which is the decorous way of saying it's been a day of flaking out). Nevertheless, today offers me the chance to present a few interesting facts and figures to round off our exhibition in Highcross for National Inter Faith Week 2009 and to offer a well-deserved thanks to all those people who played their part in making this event a success.

There were 99 individual slots on the rota; we had volunteers for 98 of those slots before the week started - though that one last elusive slot (between 4 and 6 on Wednesday afternoon) seemed determined to remain unfilled.

We gave out freebies (leaflets, bookmark, keyring, sticker) only to people who stopped (or slowed down) long enough to show their interest in the display; by the end of the week, we'd given away around 900 leaflets to such people.

We had a total of 57 different people volunteering on the stall across the week (59 if you count my children helping put it up on the first day, but I volunteered them!) This, in itself, was a testimony to the unity and diversity in action, right in front of the people of Leicester.

Highcross management told us to expect up to 400,000 "footfalls" over the course of the week; there was no way to count this, but I'm willing to to take their word for it!

So, thanks to all those who helped put up the exhibition, helped take it down and helped keep it going at all times in between: Ros Adam, Imran Ali, Dana Bagshaw, Grace Ballentyne, Harry Ballentyne, Irshad Baqui, Michelle Benn, Denise Bergman, Sumaya Budkovska, Raheema Caratella, Clare Carr, Rohini Corfield, Minou Cortazzi, Judith Devons, Amanda Fitton, Hannah Fitton, Monica Glover, Zee Zee Heine, Derek Hood, Doreen Hood, Laura Horton, David Hurwich, Farida Ijaz, Humeyra Seylan Izhar, Angela Jagger, Penny Jones, Kirti Joshi, Susthama Kim, Gwyneth Little, Jan Macdonald, Scott Macdonald, Lizzie Maitland, Sheila Markham, Ramesh Mashru, Stephanie Maud, Barry Naylor, Tony Nelson, Jai Parmar, Surinder Sandhu, Maureen Sier, Noel Singh, Ian Snaith, Manjula Sood, Chris Starbuck, Sudana, Gursharan Thandi, Kaspalita Thompson, Narendra Waghela, Abdul Waheed, Elizabeth Wayne, Simon Williams, Liz Wilson, Arthur Winner, Barbara Winner, Teresa Wright. If I have missed anyone out, my apologies - I'll keep updating this until everyone who should be included is included. Thanks to the management people at Highcross (Michael Holland, Suzie Wood and Steve Farmer) who were generous and helpful beyond all expectation. Thanks to Mukesh Barot and Melanie Wright at East Midlands Ambulance Service for organising their contribution toward the cost of the display; to the Faiths Forum for the East Midlands for their financial contribution too; Jason King, Alistair Bell and their team at printing.com in Charles Street for speedy, efficient, sympathetic and creative service in getting the display and website ready on time; to Gloria Jean's Coffee, for providing a safe haven (even that one day when I managed to tip half a regular latte all over my hand!) Their iced Bakewell tart saved my day more than once. And last but not least, an enormous vote of thanks to Julie-Ann Heath. If it weren't for Julie-Ann and her powers of gentle persuasion - which she worked on me as much as on anyone else - none of this would have happened.

I thought of doing this blog, just to cover this week. Should I continue? I think I will, for a while at least ...

INTER FAITH WEEK 2009: DAY 7

Final day of our exhibition in Highcross. Well, if I thought I'd lost track of the days, there really couldn't be any doubt that this is Saturday! Highcross is much busier, which shows itself in one unexpected way: while no one has bumped into the exhibition all this week (well, none that I saw anyway) today it felt like it had a bullseye painted on it! In one 20-minute period, four or five people collide with it, including one boy who almost runs right through the banners into the space in the middle and a young mum with a buggy, who hits one of the banners so hard, it spins right round 90 degrees!

Having got on the phone to the Leicester Mercury yesterday evening, a photographer from the paper arrives today. He seems only to want to shoot with the Christian stall in the background. When I ask him why he's doing this, he replies, "Well that's the religion bit, isn't it?" I persuade him at least to pull back a bit, so at least he gets the Buddhist and Hindu banners on either side of the Christian one. He takes some photos of me and Raheyma as if we're chatting and looking at some of the literature. In the end, however, the Mercury ends up printing neither the pictures nor the article I had sent in the day before.

An interesting visitor to the stall this afternoon: one Bhasker Solanki, a cameraman / Senior Producer for the BBC, who lives in Leicester. He's co-founder of the Rushey Mead Foundation, through which the school of that name in Leicester sponsors a school in Gujarat. Bhasker phoned me a couple of weeks ago when he'd heard about the upcoming exhibition, offering some material for it. We couldn't make use of it on this occasion but hopefully we'll be able to arrange for some way to use it at another time. We had a very interesting chat, which promises some good things for the future.

The very last visitor to the stall (when most of the banners had already been taken down and put away) was a woman carrying a wet umbrella, who stood right up against the wrap-around poster on the drum stand and got it all wet. This results in a great big splodge where the ink has run! Thankfully, we've been using these wrap-round posters as stop-gaps as they're the wrong size. We've just been using them for this week, and they'll be replaced by proper ones shortly. We'll have to be careful, though, when lending these items out to anyone - will have to give clear instructions that they should not be allowed to get wet!

The exhibition ends at seven o’clock. Two of us are able to dismantle the exhibition, pack it away and get it all back to the Welcome Centre by eight. It's raining cats and dogs all the while and just before we quit Highcross, staff are positioning big yellow buckets near the spot we've just left.

Here are some comments from the reflective journal, by some of those who helped out with the exhibition on this final day:

“I’m very happy that Council of Faiths organised such an event and brought faiths to public eyes. The place (Highcross) is the best place to promote community cohesion as so many people pass by with no interest or with an interest but look around and realise so many different faiths can live together happily.”

“This is the first time that something so visible for members of the public has been organised. I feel strongly people should learn about each faith and discover how they are connected to each other as they all come from the same source. Hope this is the start of many other events for members of the public.”

“First comment: people (the visitors) to Highcross are aiming at shopping and slightly less interested in stopping. However they do glance at the exhibition when walking. Secondly there were some visitors who were not tolerant to the exposure of LCOF during this week.”

“Much busier today, and more people stopping to chat.... One child, a boy aged about eight years, stopped and read each banner intently. Children this age seem to be hungry for knowledge wherever they find it.”

As well as this reflective journal which has been used by those volunteering on the exhibition, we've kept a visitors book in which members of the public could leave their comments. There are 17 pages filled with these. Some follow similar lines, with many examples of "Brilliant!", "Well done!", "Very good!", "Lovely!", "Fabulous!"and so on - welcome as they are. Some run a bit longer: "Beautiful info, people and display", ""Great idea to understand others and bring people together"; "It's great to see the multi faith. Religion is great - we can all be friends"; "Fantastic, an exemplary display of oneness, community cohesion and respect. Bravo"; "Great concept - I hope it flourishes!"; "Really good to see religions coming together!". Two visitors from London commented, "Good discussion. Should not be funded by taxpayers" (it wasn't, but they didn't leave contact details so we could tell them that). Some comments were left by teachers who happened to be passing by ("Good positive posters. I would love to have A4 sized copies for my citizenship teaching please"). We were visited by a number of schools, the biggest group being from the Leicester Community Islamic School on the Tuesday. Lots of young people wrote in the visitors book during the week. My personal favourite, from one of them, simply says "Thanks babes!"

National Inter Faith Week: day 6

The end is in sight. This morning I feel tired enough to be looking forward to our exhibition being over, but am also dreading it at the same time. I've really enjoyed this week. There are one or two things that I would wish had turned out differently, but only one or two (and I'm not prepared to share them publicly - anyone interested will have to figure them out for themselves!)

Tony Nelson has written the "First Person" column in today's Leicester Mercury, the sixth article the paper has published to mark National Inter Faith Week. Tony is a former President of the Leicester Hebrew Congregation and is currently Vice Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths. His piece is entitled "Learning about other faiths can curb prejudice" which is a nicely practical angle on one of the reasons for this special week.

Here are some of the thoughts of some of the volunteers, from today's reflective journal:

“Very nice encounters with several people including a group of Muslim young men who were very warm and supportive of interfaith work. Thank you – lots of smiles.”

“A sign of hope for everybody seeing the faiths working together. A privilege to be part of it.”

“It’s been a very interesting experience – watching people’s reaction to the exhibition. Some just glance as they go by, others stop and read and a few stop and talk. People seem to be walking with a purpose this Friday evening. Perhaps they have less inclination to stop compared with other times of day.”

“Very interesting experience – positive reaction from passers-by. More should be done like this throughout the year at different venues.”

National Inter Faith Week: day 5

I spend an hour on our stall in Highcross between 0900 and 1000. Suzie Wood (Highcross’s Commercialisation Co-ordinator) is there, taking a few photographs for their own records. She tells me that she’s impressed by how organised and professional we’ve been. I’m glad that’s the sort of impression we’ve made.

Here are some of the things we’ve had on the stall as giveaways: a sticker (kids love stickers!), blue, credit card size, with our name, our logo and the motto, “We have faith in Leicester!”; a plastic keyring, plum coloured, with our logo on one side and “We have faith in Leicester!” on the other; a bookmark which is virtually a scaled-down version of the Council of Faiths banner, with our website address on one side. If we’d been able to get a little more funding for this week, I’d have loved to have done this for all the faiths banners. That’s something for the future.

I phone Noel Singh to ask if we can do anything more to get decent coverage for the week’s events in the Leicester Mercury. So far, they have only mentioned the upcoming football match at Judgemeadow Community College. We agree a plan of action between the two of us.

Today’s “First Person” column in the Leicester Mercury is by Resham Singh Sandhu, offering the Sikh perspective. It’s as forthright and focused as Resham himself with some insightful things to say about the present and some challenging things to say about the future.

This is the first day I’m away from the display. It's mostly been "hands on" all week so far, but not today. We expect a visit from the newly-formed Students Council for RE at 1215. Must find out how that goes!

The Council of Faiths is holding a social event this evening in the Welcome Centre as part of its programme for National Inter Faith Week. I can’t be there as I have a work engagement. I’ve made a game for this evening though, a quiz of 20 questions that require everyone to get up and move around, talk to each other and interact if they’re going to answer the questions. I email this to Julie-Ann Heath and Gursharan Thandi, who are in charge of the event. Must find out how that goes too!

Here are a few notes from today's reflective journal, written by some of those volunteering on the exhibition:

“I have enjoyed participating in this initiative and having the opportunity to engage with people and discuss multifaith issues. Both of the periods I covered were in the morning and fairly quiet, people generally sharing little direct interest, although those that have, on the whole spent some time and asking questions and sharing their thoughts. This, it seems to me, is a necessary part of faith work and I am impressed with the exhibition and the other inter-faith activities that have been organised.”

“This has been a really good experience, speaking to the public and promoting the importance of inter-faith understanding and awareness.”

“A wonderful event to be involved in. An opportunity for the community of Leicester to see what religion has to offer and that it isn’t about ‘conversion’ and ‘preaching’. I personally, on the two occasions that I was able to help out, had very interesting conversations with individuals, covering many of the diverse communities of Leicester. Some very soft, nice conversations and some a little more diehard and aggressive. However, no one I spoke to can deny the benefits of the faith communities working together to promote the opportunities for community cohesion in the city.”

On checking before bedtime, the Council of Faiths has 48 fans on Facebook.

National Inter Faith Week: day 4

Here’s how the arrangements work for those volunteering to help out on the display at Highcross. No more than three people on duty at any time, in two hour shifts. Anyone can do more than one shift, some people do a few on the trot. Across the whole week, that’s 99 individual slots. By the time the exhibition started on Sunday, all but one of those slots was filled, by 56 different people. A small number have had to pull out because of illness or because of unexpected work, study or family commitments; a smaller number just haven’t turned up. I’ve tried to ask people whom I know and trust to do the job right, but I’ve had to take a few people on others' recommendation. On the whole it’s all worked out fine. There’s been no time where everyone on the exhibition has come from just one faith community. The way we’ve arranged the rota has itself gone some way to meeting one of the goals of National Inter Faith Week: to increase understanding between people of religious and non-religious belief. We’ve provided some guidelines for how volunteers should conduct themselves on the stall, but for the most part, folk can be left alone to get on with the work.

This morning is a nice example of that mix, in a more visible form than usual, with an Anglican priest and two Buddhists taking a turn on the display.

Today’s “First Person” column in the Leicester Mercury is by Allan Hayes, President of Leicester Secular Society. He's written a very strong and positive piece that fits in with the tone of National Inter Faith Week without compromising his or the society's humanist principles.

I never look at the "Thoughts for the Day" in the Mercury; I've never been a fan of that sort of roadside pulpit approach. I should though, from a professional point of view. So I read today's. There's always two pieces: one from the Old or New Testament and another from one of the other religions in the city. Today's "other" is a lovely quote from Paris Talks by 'Abdu'l-Bahá: "It is my fervent prayer that the star of the East will shed its brilliant rays on the Western world, and that the people of the West may arise in strength, earnestness and courage, to help their brethren in the East."

Here are some of the comments written in the reflective journal by volunteers on the exhibition today:

“It was a valuable way to spend a morning with faith colleagues, witnessing to our unity in the midst of this temple of consumerism and materialism. Well worth doing and I hope it touches many people.”

“Thank you very much for organising this event. I liked very much the presentation. I have been here in quiet time, but still feel the importance of it. It would be great when the panels will go to other places, schools … Thank you.”

“Thoroughly enjoyed being part of this event. I hope there will be many more to come. Received great interest and many people were friendly.”

“Thanks for the opportunity to present unity in diversity. Although few people stopped to talk for long, many passers-by did read the quotes on the faith banners and many others will have subliminally registered the stand and its message. I’m sure events like this help to sustain Leicester’s reputation as a peaceful, cohesive and diverse city.”

“I’ve really appreciated the opportunity to meet, talk to, work with other people from faith groups in Leicester. Only a few passers-by interested to stop and take time to talk, but interesting conversations with those who did. A very worthwhile initiative.”

“Delighted to be involved in this initiative – small steps in sharing faith for better understanding and co-operation. Wish more people were less suspicious when seeing the word ‘faith’!”

“Thank you for inviting me to be part of this inter-faith initiative. Although many passed by only a few people stopped. The couple of conversations I did have, however, with people of different faiths were very enlightening – quality not quantity!”

“Delighted to be part of something so positive. Many people took leaflets and stopped to ask questions. Many positive comments about the display. I think many people thought we were there to convert them, which of course isn’t true and that’s why they were suspicious to come and ask questions. It was an enlightening experience for me and I would happily be part of something like this again.”

“It’s been a very interesting and, if I may use the word, ‘comforting’ week. I have loved the fact that so many people have stopped to read the banners and so many young people have shown an interest in faith.”

At the end of the evening, I have dinner in the Holiday Inn with Maureen, debriefing on the past few days and reminiscing about our shared experiences and common friends in our younger days back in Scotland.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2009: DAY 3

A few of my personal highlights on the exhibition today: An elderly man, holding the hand of a small boy, no more than four or five years old, They took a few minutes to walk by the display, while the older man pointed out various things, speaking to the boy in their own language. A young couple walked quickly by the display, hand in hand. The guy pointed to the Jain banner, “Jains! I’m a Jain!” he said, pointing to himself (pointing to his heart, if I'm being specific). The girl pointed to the next banner: “And I’m Jewish!” she said. They turned to each other and both went, “Oh!” with smiles on their faces, as if this were the first time they had ever spoken about this to each other, smiled and kept walking. Then, in synchronised fashion, they sucked on their flavoured coffees and walked on. And, staying with Jains, a group of four teenagers came to the stall, one shy girl in the front, the other three arranged behind her. She told me that she's a Jain, but had never been able to explain her faith to her friends. Did we have a Jain leaflet? We were happy to give them one each and they walked off slowly, reading them.

After inexplicably failing to get my hands on a copy of the Leicester Mercury yesterday, I make sure I get it first thing this morning. In today’s “First Person” column for National Inter Faith Week, Dr Siri Ram Chhabra “outlines the tenets of Hinduism. Dr Chhabra has been secretary of Geeta Bhawan, a Hindu temple-cum- community centre in Loughborough, for the last 30 years. The Mercury carries a disappointingly thin and silly article about National Inter Faith Week itself, which mentions only the football match at Judgemeadow College on Saturday. Something will have to be done about that before the end of the week.

The goals of National Inter Faith Week are: to strengthen good inter faith relations at all levels; to increase awareness of the different and distinct faith communities in the UK, in particular celebrating and building on the contribution which their members make to their neighbourhoods and to wider society; and to increase understanding between people of religious and non-religious belief. It’s useful to bear them in mind when reflecting on this exhibition and related activities, today and in other blog entries.

Much inter faith activity is undoubtedly “preaching to the choir” (what John Florance picked upon in his radio interview with us on Sunday morning). Conferences, seminars, workshops or retreats for clergy, professional religious people, people focused on religion to the exclusion of many other things in their lives, academics or earnest enquirers. This is necessary and there’s plenty of it going on during National Inter Faith Week of course. But your regular punter doesn’t get a look in there. This exhibition in Highcross is a rare opportunity for people in Leicester to find out who the major faith communities are in their city and to see them represented side by side.

Since we’re in such a busy place, we couldn’t put up a display that requires lots of reading, or would need explanation by the people fronting the stall. Of course we’re happy for visitors to take their time going round the banners and for them to stop and chat, but this exhibition also has to work quickly for those in a hurry. It wouldn’t be right to say that we’ve selected soundbites from each of the faiths (that would be trivialising it). But we have had to choose quotations that passers-by can “get” without too much effort. And they have to be positive, uplifting, inspirational, not preachy, or assert any one religion’s superiority over any others. They should offer some ancient, eternal or tried-and-tested truth that is relevant to our world today. Phew: I don’t believe in making things easy, clearly! We want people to be able to walk past, slow their pace a little in the middle of all this bustle, catch a glimpse of the names of the faiths, their symbols and the quotations and go, “Never heard of them before”, “Oh, I like that” or “That’s nice”; to read something and think “That’s alright by me”, “I never knew they believed that” or “That’s what I’ve always thought”. We’ve used core texts from each of the faiths as our sources, so that people of different denominations, sects or interpretations within the faiths can feel confident that something authoritative is being presented. This also avoids any problem of visitors to the exhibition asking, “Where did you get that quote? Who said that?” or protesting that what we’ve got doesn’t properly represent their religion.

The banners are stylistically keyed to the leaflets on each faith that we’ve had for about 18 months now. At first glance, the banners appear to be the front of the leaflets, expanded to be six feet tall. The banners are linked to the leaflets by colour, typography and design, so there’s a sense of continuity between them. Here are the quotations on each of the banners:

“Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own self” (Bahá’í – from Bahá’u’lláh’s “Tablet of the World”)

“Hatreds never cease through hatred in this world, through love alone they cease. This is eternal law.” (Buddhist – from the Dhamapadda)

“God is love. Those who live in love live in God and God lives in them.” (Christian – from the First Epistle of John)

“Where there is joy there is creation. Where there is no joy there is no creation. Know the nature of joy” (Hindu – from the Maitri Upanishad)

“Do not injure, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture or kill any living being” (Jain – from Jain scripture)

“Devote yourselves to justice; aid the oppressed. Uphold the rights of the orphan, defend the cause of the widow.” (Jewish – from the Book of Isaiah)

“We have created you from a male and a female and made you into different nations and tribes so that you may know each other.” (Muslim – from the Qur’án)

“A place in God’s court can only be attained if we do service to others in the world.” (Sikh – from the Guru Granth Sahib)

The banners are arranged alphabetically by the name of the faith community. I do as much s possible alphabetically in this job. The alphabet is God’s gift for impartiality and even-handedness. Then no one can question why so-and-so is here instead of there. One visitor to the display was delighted to see the Jewish banner alongside the Muslim one. “However did you think of that? Was it deliberate? Are you trying to make a point here?” he asked me. “No mate, it’s alphabetical”, I replied. But then, sometimes things like that are just a wee gift from above.

SIKHS IN BRITISH SOCIETY

In the evening, a choice: either I go to Shree Sanatan Mandir for the last of the Diwali celebrations, or to Secular Hall, to hear Resham Singh Sandhu speak on "Sikhs in British Society". This isn't an official part of the programme for National Inter Faith Week, but it's an auspicious day for it. I imagine that most members of the Council of Faiths will be going to Shree Sanatan Mandir - and there's no denying the obvious attraction of that. I opt for supporting Resham, since I reckon he'll probably be at Secular Hall on his own. This isn't an official part of the programme for National Inter Faith Week, but it's obviously a good day to have this talk. I arrive at Secular Hall a few minutes late and Resham's already speaking, to an audience of 20 or so. He gives an eloquent and wide-ranging presentation on Sikhs' relations with British society, its people and institutions, past, present and future. He has to leave promptly, before Q&A. On the way out, he pauses to ask me, "Aren't you coming to Hindu temple?" but he doesn't wait for my answer.

I decide to stay for Q&A, in case my meagre knowledge of Sikhism might help. Noel Singh is sitting beside me and responds to questions from the perspective of being a Sikh by birth, culture and upbringing – but having chosen not to follow the religion himself. A Sikh mother and daughter also speak there, mostly about gurdwaras in Leicester and a little bit about Sikh funeral practices. It's all conducted in an amiable atmosphere and several of the members of the Secular Society tell their own tales about acts of kindness and generosity shown to them personally by Sikhs at one time or another. They seem to conclude that the only trouble with Sikhism is that it's a religion and not a social movement - that they'd find it perfectly acceptable if it weren't for the fact that Sikhs believe in God. I tell them that that's their problem, rather than the Sikhs'! I leave the meeting (after tea and biscuits and the customary convivial chat with their President, Allan Hayes) with a distinctly warm feeling about this evening.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2009: DAY 1

It's also day one for for our exhibition at Highcross, for Leicester Council of Faiths' new website – and for this blog of course!

To BBC Radio Leicester early this chilly, misty Sunday morning, to appear live on John Florance's show, just after 0800. I'm one of three being interviewed, the others being Noel Singh (Policy Officer, Leicestershire County Council) and Shayk Ibrahim Moghra (Chair of the Muslim Council of Britain's Interfaith Committee, amongst other positions). Ibrahim will be speaking mostly about Islam Awareness Week (when I arrive at the studio, Ibrahim is already in another soundproof booth, doing an interview on that subject with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire). Noel has been coordinating NIFW events throughout the city and county, publicising them through leaflets and posters and the County Council's website.

John introduces me live as someone rejoicing "in the title of 'Quality and Diversity Officer' for Leicester Council of Faiths". I don't know what a "Quality" officer would do in the context of that organisation (or any organisation, for that matter), but I like the sound of it too much to correct him on air. Each of us is given the opportunity to respond to three questions. I speak mostly about the exhibition in Highcross, Noel about what's going on in the wider scene around the city and county, while Ibrahim gets the harder questions about differences and divisions among and between religions - which he handles adroitly and diplomatically of course. I get a chance to plug our conference at Leicester College this coming Wednesday and then it's over. We leave the studio at 0830, shake hands, wish each other good luck with our respective activities for the rest of the week and go our separate ways for now. John Florance has posted about National Inter Faith Week and its celebration in Leicester. My content on that web page is not from the radio interview, but from a written statement I'd sent in to the station (at their request) a few days earlier.

Soon after, on to Highcross, to unload our exhibition material, put up our banners and display our wares in the Lower West Mall. First of all, we go to the Welcome Centre, to get all the stuff into Clare's little car. Amazingly, it all fits, but we've left behind the map of how to find "Service Area C". Once that's located and we get the material inside Highcross through the back door. Harry and Gracie are there to help, and do their best to pitch in, despite the greater attractions of the "Nintendo House" nearby.

We're a bit behind schedule, but have the whole thing up around 1130. I think itt's rather beautiful in its simplicity and adaptability. While I'm not officially on the rota today, it's hard to pull myself away. Julie-Ann Heath, Gursharan Thandi and Amanda Fitton are there virtually all day, till Highcross shuts at 1700. They do a great job together, of course, but I hover around the display – when I can drag the kids out of that Nintendo House, that is. They play Wii Sports and Super Mario Bros while I get my "brain age" checked. It's 71, apparently. The woman there tells me not to be upset about it, as most people "my age" come out around the mid-80s. Somehow, I feel neither relieved nor reassured by that.

We've provided a "reflective journal" for volunteers, in which they can record their thoughts and feelings about working with the exhibition, interacting with visitors, the reactions of those visiting etc. Excerpts from this journal will appear throughout the blog for this week, which will open it out with more than just my impressions.