This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:
Prayers said in Leicester for Haiti earthquake survivors
Religious leaders gathered in the city centre to conduct a public prayer for survivors of the earthquake in Haiti.
All of the city's major religions joined in to show support for victims of the humanitarian disaster.
They said it was important to show solidarity at a time of crisis.
Prayers were said outside Leicester Town Hall yesterday lunchtime, after which a collection was held to raise money for the Disaster Emergency Committee's Haiti appeal.
The Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Rev Tim Stevens, read a prayer prepared by the Church of England.
Speaking beforehand, he said: "The world understands the scale of the tragedy that has hit Haiti.
"In recent days it has gone off the headlines. We feel a responsibility to pray for Haiti and keep it in people's minds. The faith communities of Leicester represent a global crossroads – global events always touch us here."
The Lord Mayor of Leicester, Councillor Roger Blackmore, joined religious leaders from the Hindu, Islam, Jewish, Sikh, Buddhist, Bahai and Jain faiths who also led prayers.
They were observed by a small crowd of well-wishers.
Ramanbhai Barber, president of the Shree Sanatan Mandir Hindu temple in Belgrave, Leicester, said: "Prayer is important to give strength to those people in Haiti. By all the faiths joining together we can give more strength and keep raising awareness."
The collective prayer was organised by Leicester Council of Faiths.
Chairwoman Councillor Manjula Sood said: "Leicester people are very generous and have always come together to help in times of suffering.
"This devastating disaster has touched everybody's hearts and when things like this happen our prayers and thoughts go out to those people. It is important that people of all faiths show solidarity."
The quality of the photos on the Mercury's website really does leave a lot to be desired though. They look alright in the paper.
The "First Person" column in in the same edition of the Mercury is entitled "Wrong to blame wrathful God for Haiti earthquake", by Manzoor Moghal, Chair of The Muslim Forum and long-standing member of Leicester Council of Faiths.
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!”
