hot cross buns! hot cross buns!

This morning, during the BBC World Service live broadcast at Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara, Urban Canon Barry Naylor mentioned he'd be involved in an Easter activity at lunchtime in the city centre, handing out hot cross buns in Leicester Market.

There's a gazebo in the market, with a number of folk from the church under it, offering freshly warmed (and buttered) hot cross buns to passers by. I recognise Revd Pete Hobson and Bishop Tim exercising generosity to the passing shoppers.

I know this isn't exactly on the scale of Leicester's celebration of Diwali or Vaisakhi, but I've heard a lot of ill-informed comment over the past few weeks that the prominence of other faith communities in Leicester has meant the downgrading of the place of the church in the public life of our city. I just wanted to put this in to show that that's not necessarilly the case. Chatting with Barry earlier today, I expressed my thoughts that one could look on what's going on at Leicester Cathedral as being the church's innovation unit - by which I mean Cathedral AM, Street Pastors, the Workplace Chaplaincy (add to that the forthcoming development of the old Grammar School). These are ways of serving the whole community with practical acts of love, compassion and kindness.

And I recently heard someone say that if the traditional song is correct ("Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns! One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns!") then they were the first recorded BOGOF promotion: Buy One Get One Free.

Cathedral AM (2)

At Leicester Cathedral Visitor Centre for Cathedral AM, starting 0730. This is a bi-monthly networking event, bringing together people working in, living in, or otherwise concerned with the city centre. We have breakfast together (assuming we arrive in good time!) get the chance to listen to a relevant guest speaker for half an hour or so, then quiz them. This morning we get two for the price of one, with Julie-Ann Heath and Barry Naylor. Julie-Ann and Barry have been organising these meetings since the start. Attendees at Cathedral AM have often asked Julie-Ann and Barry about their own work; they thought it time to present something direct about that today.

Julie-Ann's background is in retail management; she was ordained four years ago, Barry was ordained in 1976 and had several months' experience as a monk. She's given up the Mercedes, he's given up giving things up! There's definitely a pilot for a sitcom in there. "She's an ex-barmaid; he used to be a monk. Together they walked the streets of Leicester city centre - with hilarious consequences!" Or an offbeat detective pairing, maybe ...

They spoke to us about the Workplace Chaplaincy and about Street Pastors. Both these ministries are prayer-based; both have, at their core, the establishing, maintaining and furthering of partnerships. Julie-Ann and Barry describe how this involves them going out with love, care and compassion - going out to encounter people where they are, going through whatever it is they're going through at that time, with whatever they have in their heads and hearts, who want to share whatever is on their minds or in their hearts, whether it's good or bad. They tell us that their chaplaincy is all about active listening. They listen to people tell their stories, express their thoughts, to someone independent of their workplace. They give time to listening to people who often have no one to speak to in their dialy lives. People's work in the city centre has become more target-focused; the Workplace Chaplaincy is spirit-focused, working with the whole person.

The Workplace Chaplaincy (which is more Julie-Ann's sphere of influence) has a distinct multi-faith dimension to it (for which, it has the support of the Council of Faiths). Street Pastors, on the other hand, is identified as a more overtly Christian ministry. Neither is conducted with the intention of seeking to convert anyone though. Many of the people they meet in the city centre can't believe that they are Christian, let alone that they are Christian clergy! Most young people have an image of the church - and of church people - as being aloof and disinterested in them.

There is the possibility of extending Street Pastors sometime within the next year or so, with appropriate training. The possibility was raised from the floor that city centre businesses could sponsor the work of Street Pastors. If 100 such businesses pledged just £5 per month, it would free them from having to raise funds and allow them to just get on with their work.

Today is Julie-Ann's birthday. There's a nice-looking cake that gets cut up and passed around.

Find out more about Leicester Cathedral Visitor Centre:
http://www.cathedral.leicester.anglican.org/visitor_centre.html

Find out more about Leicester City Centre Street Pastors:
http://www.streetpastors.co.uk/ProjectArea/Midlands/LeicesterCentre/tabid/425/Default.aspx