PILGRIMAGE ARRIVES IN THE CITY

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Pilgrimage arrives in city

Hindus carrying ornate pots known as kumbhs will parade through Leicester tomorrow as part of a worldwide pilgrimage symbolising their commitment to protecting the environment.

The Green Kumbh Yatra is an international initiative in which a sacred metal kumbh has been carried across numerous countries to promote the importance of conservation and biodiversity.

Launched last year at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad, India, its journey will finish in South Korea in 2014.

The pot has already visited Nepal and Israel, and is in Britain this month before travelling to the USA.

"Spirituality and religion's role in conservation is as old as time itself," said Kusum Vyas, founder of the Green Kumbh Yatra.

The Green Kumbh Yatra will be at the Shree Sanatan Mandir temple, in Weymouth Street, off Catherine Street, from 11.30am to 1pm.

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (1,298)

Regular update on the number of pageviews received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

1. United Kingdom 526
2. United States 372
3. France 126
4. Germany 61
5. Sweden 52
6. Japan 45
7. Ukraine 43
8. South Korea 32
9. Spain 21
10. Russia 20

This week's total: 1,298 (last week: 1,712). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's analytics doesn't show the numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country and they don’t show the cumulative total including those additional countries, which is undoubtedly larger than the number shown above.

The world map at the top of this post is the graphic that I see on the stats page. The darker the green, the more pageviews from that country. I can see different versions of that map for "now" (i.e. in the last two hours), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time". They're updated each time I look at them.

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (2,226)

Regular update on the number of pageviews received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

1. United Kingdom 849
2. United States 603
3. Russia 365
4. France 129
5. India 129
6. Germany 84
7. Ukraine 19
8. Poland 17
9. Canada 16
10. South Korea 15

This week's total: 2,226 (last week: 1,850). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's stats software doesn't show me numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country.

The world map at the top of this post is the graphic that I see on the stats page. The darker the green, the more pageviews from that country. I can see different versions of that map for "now" (i.e. in the last two hours), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time". They're updated each time I look at them.

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (1,713)

Regular update on the number of pageviews received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

1. United Kingdom 739
2. United States 463
3. Russia 264
4. India 81
5. France 64
6. Germany 50
7. South Korea 20
8. Belgium 11
9. Pakistan 11
10. Australia 10

This week's total: 1,713 (last week: 1,935). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's stats software doesn't show me numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country.

The world map at the top of this post is the graphic that I see on the stats page. The darker the green, the more pageviews from that country. I can see different versions of that map for "now" (i.e. in the last two hours), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time". They're updated each time I look at them.

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (1,208)

Regular update on the number of pageviews received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

1. United Kingdom 641
2. United States 164
3. Russia 156
4. Gemany 61
5. India 47
6. France 40
7. Ukraine 30
8. Canada 25
9. South Korea 16
10. Myanmar 8

This week's total: 1,208 (last week: 1,096). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's stats software doesn't show me numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country.

The world map at the top of this post is the graphic that I see on the stats page. The darker the green, the more pageviews from that country. I can see different versions of that map for "now" (i.e. in the last two hours), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time" (which seems to mean the last 12 months). They're updated each time I look at them.

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (1,096)

Regular update on the number of pageviews received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

1. United Kingdom 549
2. United States 255
3. Germany 87
4. France 57
5. India 49
6. Russia 37
7. Ukraine 21
8. Canada 17
9. Denmark 14
10. South Korea 10

This week's total: 1,096. I don't have a comparative figure for last week; I gave my faithful readers the week off for the Festive Season. These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's stats software doesn't show me numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country.

The world map at the top of this post is the graphic that I see on the stats page. The darker the green, the more pageviews from that country. I can see different versions of that map for "now" (i.e. in the last two hours), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time" (which seems to mean the last 12 months). They're updated each time I look at them.

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (3,080)

Regular update on the number of pageviews received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

1. United States 1,565
2. United Kingdom 621
3. France 182
4. Sri Lanka 153
5. Germany 150
6. Russia 142
7. Japan 83
8. South Korea 74
9. Brazil 72
10. Estonia 38

This week's total: 3,080 (last week's: 1,571). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's stats software doesn't show me numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country.

This is the highest number of pageviews in a single week since the blog began - as had been the number last week. This week's figure is almost double last week's. It's the first time that the USA has come out at number one, with the UK at number two. It's also the first time that any single country has topped that 1,000 figure.

The world map at the top of this post is the graphic that I see on the stats page. The darker the green, the more pageviews from that country. I can see different versions of that map for "now" (whenever that is), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time" (which seems to mean the last 12 months). They're updated each time I look at them.

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (954)

Regular update on the number of pageviews received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

1. United Kingdom 452
2. United States 218
3. Russia 64
4. Germany 56
5. Romania 47
6. Ukraine 36
7. South Korea 27
8. Norway 19
9. France 18
10. India 17

This week's total: 954 (last week's: 801). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's stats software doesn't show me numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country.

Wikio's updated rankings were published earlier this week. This blog fell from 45 to 71 in the chart for Religion and Belief. That's a bit of a disappointment, naturally, but I take heart in that the general direction of travel is upward. Well, that rather depends on the October ranking of course, but I remain optimistic! 

The world map at the top of this post is the graphic that I see on the stats page. The darker the green, the more pageviews from that country. I can see different versions of that map for "now" (whenever that is), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time" (which seems to mean the last 12 months). They're updated each time I look at them.

KNITTING BISHOP HELPED BRING CITY'S FAITHS TOGETHER

Here's an interesting article from today's Leicester Mercury - all the more interesting because of the work Leicester Council of Faiths is doing currently, preparing for the celebration of our 25th anniversary.

Bishop helped to bring city's faiths together

By Tom Mack

A former Bishop of Leicester who did much to bring the city's faiths together has died, aged 85.

Richard Rutt was bishop from 1979 until 1991. He converted to Roman Catholicism four years after leaving the post.

He set up the city's council of faiths in 1986, visiting Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims to convince them to join him in forming the cross-faith organisation.

Resham Singh Sandhu, a trustee of the council who served as its chairman for 10 years, said: "I remember Richard as a man of great vision with great ideas.

"In those days, the Church of England and the Catholic Church were the most outgoing of the faith groups in the city and Richard came up with the idea of the council of faiths that has made the city the way it is today.

"He was very well-liked because he would go to religious places and talk to people from other faiths.

"Since then, the council of faiths has created much understanding and mutual respect between all faiths in the city."

Born in August 1925, Dr Rutt was ordained into the Church of England at the age of 27. He spent several years as a missionary in South Korea.

Speaking before being ordained as a Roman Catholic, he said he might have switched church much sooner if he had spent more of his time in the UK.

He was strongly against the move towards the ordination of women, which was allowed in 1992. He was one of 40 retired and assistant bishops who warned the Church of England's governing synod that the church would be split by the change.

He said: "The ordination of women is merely the ears of the hippopotamus. The body concerns morals, marriage and clear statements about faith.

"The Church of England is not able to give a clear message.

"The only place that really does the church's job is the Church of Rome."

A memorial service is to be held at Leicester Cathedral later in the summer.

The current Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Rev Tim Stevens, said: "I was sad to hear that Richard Rutt died in hospital on Wednesday.

"Richard will be remembered by many people in Leicestershire as a prayerful, scholarly and pastoral bishop who brought his Catholic spirituality and missionary experience to bear on his leadership of the diocese for over a decade.

"We give thanks for his life and ministry. He was well-loved in the diocese."

When looking for more on line about Richard Rutt, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he was one of the leading men in the world of knitting. Known as The Knitting Bishop, he was the author of A History of Hand Knitting. There's an interview with him on the Serenity Knitting website.