BURNS NIGHT 2012

Today, 25 January, is the 253rd anniversary of the birth of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns. Here in Leicester, as in innumerable places all over the world, people of all sorts (many of whom have never set foot in Scotland) will be celebrating Burns Night.

I've never been to a Burns Supper. But then, as a teetotal vegetarian who can't stomach neeps (as turnips are called for this purpose), I might be considered a bit picky over the fare on offer. And I've never worn a kilt; in fact the only way you've ever get me into a kilt is if I'm buried in one. But even though I've never bought into the memorabilia and paraphernalia that surround Robert Burns, still his poetry and songs hit home with me, for q variety of reasons. Back in 1979, when I was just 19, the Bahá'ís whom I first got to know in Glasgow often spoke about the perceived connection between the unity and solidarity of the whole human race that is expressed in Burns's poetry and the same core teaching of the Bahá'í Faith. Of course, all sorts of people and ideologies - religious, political, secular, social and more - claim ownership of Burns, or have hitched their waggon to his star, but I'd like to think that this instance was (and continues to be) more honest, insightful and sincere. It certainly worked for me and got me to appreciate and understand Burns in ways I never had before ... and it gave a route into the Bahá'í Faith that still illustrates its appeal and relevance to Scots.

Burns's universalism (which is, of course, but one facet of his writing) took on particular and personal significance for me when I was working on a book about 'Abdu'l-Bahá's 1913 visit to Edinburgh. The Seven Candles of Unity (1991) by Anjam Khursheed, acknowledges the resonance that Scots Bahá'ís feel with the spirit of Robert Burns. In that context, the book quotes his well-known words which foretell the inevitable overturning of prejudice and tyranny and the coming together of all the world's peoples:

Then let us pray that come it may,

As come it will for a' that

That Sense and Worth o'er a' the earth

Shall bear the gree an' a' that,

For a' that an' a' that,

It's comin' yet for a' that,

That man to man, the world o'er

Shall brithers be for a' that.

George Reid MSP & Carrie Varjavandi

Perhaps the single most significant occasion on which this connection with the legacy of Robert Burns was demonstrated was when Carrie Varjavandi, a member of the Dundee Baha'i community was invited to address the Scottish Parliament during its weekly short Time for Reflection session on 18 January 2006. Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, George Reid MSP made a direct connection between the fundamental principles of the Bahá'í Faith and the words of Robert Burns:

The Bahá'í belief in the unity of mankind matches our commitment to build an inclusive society in Scotland. It recalls the words of Robert Burns [which were quoted] at the Opening of the Parliament in 1999: "That man to man, the world o'er, Shall brithers be for a' that."

Find out everything you wanted to know about Robert Burns (but were afraid to ask) on the Guardian Edinburgh website.

PLENTY TO LEARN FROM SCOTLAND'S GREATEST POET

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

Plenty to learn from Scotland's greatest poet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TO SEE OURSELS AS OTHERS SEE US!

My friend Catriona Robertson, who tweets as @multifaith, has been taking photographs today at the Scottish Parliament and tweeting them. She sent the photo above out on twitter with the following message:

And one for @counciloffaiths (Scots poetry & quotations inscribed all around the Parliament building)

It's much appreciated - and it's nice to be remembered in such an auspicious setting. And on an auspicious day when the first elected Mayor of Leicester reminds us that "we have the eyes of the country upon us and what we do" it seems highly appropriate.

EQUALITY MADNESS! (EXCLAMATION POINT ADDED)

Having bought a copy of The Daily Telegraph just the other day, I break another habit of a lifetime and further sully my hands with today's Mail on Sunday. I couldn't resist that headline, now could I, faithful reader? It reminds me of those alarmist, hysterical, shrieking titles of trashy novelettes and movies of the 40s and 50s, such as "Reefer Madness". And what's that text above the headline? "Government spends £30 million to discover whether preserving fish stocks harm ethnic Chinese, or hovercraft discriminate against gays". Now read on ...

The government has been accused of wasting tens of millions of tasxpayers' money to comply with controversial new equality laws that force organisations to prove they are not discriminating against minority groups.

Whitehall departments have already issued a string of bizarre reports to meet the terms of the Equality Act 2010.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) paid £100,000 to consultants who produced a report investigating how efforts to boost Britain's coastal fish stocks would affect minority communities including the Chines, homosexuals and Welsh speakers.

And the Department for Transport issued a study this month looking at harassment and discrimination on ships and hovercraft. The report covered a range of groups, including transsexuals [referred to as "gays" in the strapline, you'll note.]

There's an in-depth report on a double-page spread inside the paper. Read the full article (then go take a shower).

It's almost Burns Night. As I was writing this blog entry, a few lines from Burns's poem, "To a Louse", came to mind:

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

BBC WORLD SERVICE LIVE BROADCAST FROM GURU TEGH BAHADUR GURDWARA

An early start today at Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara, East Park Road, where BBC World Service is broadcasting live. The World Today is running a feature in which presenter Kumla Dumar is travelling up the M1, stopping off at cities and towns on the way and considering issues to do with identity - encompassing a variety of aspects such as culture, language, faith, values, loyalties, parochialism and nationality. Their first stop was Luton, next is Leeds and today they're in Leicester (with some recorded inserts glancing eastward to Peterborough).

Knowing that Guru Nanak called the time before dawn "the ambrosial hour" and that it has a special sweetness and significance in the devotional life of Sikhs, I eschew the easy option of going by taxi and resolve to walk from home to the Gurdwara. I reckon it should take about an hour to do so, tweeting merrily as I go, along with the dawn chorus. But the curse of Googde Maps strikes again and I arrive with only a few minutes to spare before we go live on air. We start at 0600 (although BBC World Service abides by Greenwich Mean Time, so the programme is going out at 0500 GMT). Already seated around the small table in the vestibule of the Gurdwara are Kumla, his producer, Mr M. S. Sangha (President of Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara - to the right of me in the photo below) and Cllr Manjula Sood (Deputy Lord Mayor of Leicester and Chair of the Council of Faiths).

The main part of the show is broadcast live from London and it cuts to us every few minutes. In our first segment, Kumla announces that he's on a quest to investigate the meaning of Englishness. Then he points the mike at me to ask my opinion. Well he's come to the right guy to answer that question, obviously!

Manjula and I feel obliged to challenge the assumption that as the fortunes of one of the city's communities (whether defined by faith, culture, language, heritage, geographical origin or something as basic as the colour of their skin) rise, it means the fortunes of another inevitably sink. That's certainly not the way it happens in Leicester. We've never been hostage to the crazy world of political correctness, where Christmas is replaced by "Winterval" (I could go on, but surely you, faithful reader, will know your own examples). It is possible and practical for all to rise together. As Leicester's celebrations of Diwali, Eid or Vaisakhi have grown year by year, so there is also greater prominence given to Christmas and Easter (see later blog entries today for more on public celebration of Easter). Leicester just had its first ever St Patrick's Day parade and in a couple of weeks there's a St George's festival lasting several days (nothing much for St Andrew yet though). I mention a few of these when I'm asked to comment on an insert of three young white women recorded at a bingo session, saying that there's nothing for the white community in Leicester, that they're forgotten and neglected in favour of more recent arrivals and incomers.

By the end of the first hour of the show, we've attracted a small crowd round our table. As worshippers begin to arrive at the gurdwara in number and the main door behind us is left open, it becomes rather chilly. We're offered cups of sweet milky tea to keep warm. I got up very early to come here today, leaving home to walk halfway across the city before dawn. Guru Nanak's writings describe the time before sunrise as "the ambrosial hour" and Sikhs are urged to rise early, pray and listen to the hymns of the Guru Granth Sahib at this special time each day. I wanted to get in the spirit and be a wee bit more attuned to this place rather than rushing here by taxi. It was lovely to hear the dawn chorus on the way here, with very little traffic to drown it out. I haven't eaten anything yet, so pick up a piece of pakora from one of the plates left for us on the table. We're not on air at this moment, the show has cut back to London for the news on the hour. Something spicy goes down the wrong way and all of sudden I have hiccups! I haven't had hiccups since I was 12 and here they are, when I'm about to go live on the World Service - broadcasting to the entire planet! Thankfully, a few gulps of tea and panic's over as the hiccups subside.

At seven, we're joined by Barry Naylor, Urban Canon at Leicester Cathedral, who speaks about some of the innovative work being done there. A little later, Baz Kanabar (from the Cooke e-learning Foundation) arrives to talk about teaching English language and Citizenship to adult learners in the city. The show also features an interview with one Sikh who gives all his time in service to the gurdwara as a Seva Dar. He describes a typical day in the life of the gurdwara and gives an introduction to its varied services.

Kumla puts me on air four times in all, Manjula a few times more. She is asked to speak about her own story arc in Leicester, of how she rose to become first Asian female Lord Mayor of any English city (even if she's not given sufficient time to do it justice for those of us who have heard her tell it before). I'm there till eight, when I make way for the first in a new wave of guests for the last half hour on air.

Involvement with the media is a mixed blessing. On the upside, they give you and your cause a prominence that it would be impossible to achieve on your own. It's a good thing to have one's profile raised - if that's a good thing for one's profile. On the downside, the media may approach you with assumptions and preconceptions (even prejudices) about who you are, what you're doing and how the rest of the world looks upon you. On the whole, it's a good thing Manjula and I were able to get this opportunity to talk about the diverse nature of Leicester, even if we weren't able to say much about the Council of Faiths itself. We're glad that Barry Naylor was with us; while not a member of the Council of Faiths himself, Barry is certainly one of our most supportive fellow travellers. Since this occasion was all about diversity, I'll sign off this entry by saying that it's always instructive (in the words of Robert Burns) "to see ourselves as others see us!" Mind you, if folk see me like I am in the photo below, I don't know what they'd make of me. Am I having a stroke there or something?

BURNS NIGHT

All over the world (even here in Leicester) all sorts of people will be celebrating Burns Night: the 251st anniversary of the birth of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns (1759–96). I've never been to a Burns Supper, the traditional way of celebrating this occasion. But then, as a teetotal vegetarian who can't stomach turnips (or "neeps" as they're called for this purpose), I might be considered a bit picky over the fare on offer at such an occasion. And I've never worn a kilt. I did manage to get a vegetarian haggis though, from Green & Pleasant on Queens Road; that will do for a celebration of my national cultural heritage, washed down with some Diet Irn Bru.

Back in 1979, when I was just 19, the Bahá'ís whom I first got to know in Glasgow often spoke about the perceived connection between the unity and solidarity of the whole human race that is expressed in Burns's poetry and the same core teaching of the Bahá'í Faith. Of course, all sorts of people and ideologies - religious, political, secular, social and more - claim ownership of Burns, or have hitched their wagon to his star. His universalism (which is but one facet of his writing) took on particular significance for me when I was working on a book about 'Abdu'l-Bahá's 1913 visit to Edinburgh. The Seven Candles of Unity (1991) by Anjam Khursheed, acknowledges the resonance that Scots Bahá'ís feel with the spirit of Burns. In that context it quotes his well-known words which foretell the inevitable overturning of prejudice and tyranny and the coming together of all the world's peoples:

Then let us pray that come it may,

As come it will for a' that

That Sense and Worth o'er a' the earth

Shall bear the gree an' a' that,

For a' that an' a' that,

It's comin' yet for a' that,

That man to man, the world o'er

Shall brithers be for a' that.

I could go on, faithful reader (I usually do). But if any words should be allowed to speak for themselves, they're the words of Robert Burns.

Find out more about Robert Burns at the official Robert Burns website.

Read Scots poet Don Paterson's introduction to the poetry of Robert Burns on the Guardian website.