Leicester Council of Faiths holds
its Annual General Meeting this evening at BAPS Shri
Swaminarayan Mandir, Gipsy Lane. These aren't
the minutes of the AGM (which I record) but I've reproduced a few things here
that are of relevance to me and (I hope) of interest to you, faithful reader.
Before the meeting
proper begins, attendees are given a guided tour of the Mandir by Narendra
Waghela (which I miss, because I'm laying out the room for the meeting)
followed by refreshments (which I don't).
The meeting proper is opened by the Chair, Cllr Manjula
Sood, who welcomes attendees, particularly our Patron, the Rt Revd Tim Stevens, Bishop
of Leicester and his wife Wendy. The Chair asks Bishop Tim to offer an opening
prayer.
The Chair singles out former Chairs and
honorary life members attending this evening: Fayyaz Ahmad, TV Majoria and Dr
Attaullah Siddiqui. She reminds attendees that this is Leicester Council of
Faiths' 25th anniversary year and describes some of the events
and activities in Leicester over the past year in which the Council of Faiths
has played a part or which have impacted on the organisation and our role in
the city. These include changes in the funding landscape; higher profile of far
right groups; the visit by HM The Queen to start her Diamond Jubilee in
Leicester; the Olympics and Paralympics; public celebration of various faith
festivals; active participation in the third national Inter Faith Week.
Bishop Tim gives his keynote speech on
the topic, “The Recession and its Effects on Inter-Faith Relations”. His main
points are listed below:
- Massive increase in dependence on food banks as
practical indicator of effect of recession
- Ever-increasing pressure on those who are
dependent on the State
- Poverty is a moral issue, a religious issue,
particularly poverty affecting children
- Personal realisation of impact of Welfare Reform
Bill in debate in House of Lords
- Media response focuses on why unelected,
unrepresentative, privileged bishops should be speaking out on behalf of poor
people; questioning the right of the bishops to speak out on this (or any
other) issue
- Recession is being used to create conflict and
suspicion among and between communities
- Ongoing tension at Thurnby Lodge estate is
stoked by connection to national narratives
- “Marketization” of our lives gathering pace
(e.g. in services such as education healthcare, and – in more extreme forms – in
examples such as paid adoption and fostering, sale of body parts)
- Growing opposition in the public sphere to moral
and spiritual values
- The “floppiness” of our “spiritual muscle”
because people of faith have not had to fight for the right, or contend with
the prevailing orthodoxy like we have to do today.
- Three points to go on our agenda for attention
in the immediate future:
- What are the practical expressions of our shared
responsibilities?
- What are our educational responses in terms of
creating civic character?
- What is our political (with a small “p”)
positioning in relation to local governance? How does Leicester City Council
experience Leicester Council of Faiths as a partner, a creative interlocutor in
helping our city flourish in these difficult times?
The Chair thanks Bishop Tim for his presentation. He's able to respond to a few questions from the
floor before he and Wendy give their apologies and take their leave of the meeting.
David Batchelor, Trustee of
Citizen’s Advice Bureaux in Leicester, is given the floor. He has come to the AGM to encourage members of faith communities to assist Citizens’
Advice Bureaux by helping them tap into our networks, so that CABs can more
fully reflect the make-up of Leicester today. The Chair thanks David for his
presentation. He takes questions from the floor, then gives his apologies and
leaves the meeting.
I briefly present my report of activities over the past year, which was included in the AGM papers. I refer members to a
fuller version of this report to be found on his blog (where individual entries
about most of the activities contained in the report are also posted).
I support the Secretary’s appeal that more members of
the Council of Faiths make greater effort to attend meetings, many of which are
routine and scheduled well in advance and would benefit from involvement of
members from a variety of faith communities. This would free me to do the
equality and diversity work, which has not decreased in its demands, despite my post being reduced to part-time from the beginning of October.
This leads to discussion of how to encourage the spirit of
participation and sense of collective responsibility among members, to carry on
existing work and extend it into new areas. There's a recognised tension of representation
versus participation, “faith leaders” versus community workers, the role of paid
staff in relation to volunteer members. As increasing opportunities have arisen
for members of faith communities to take part in public activities (e.g. the
exhibition in Highcross during Inter Faith Week, occasional schools visits,
events held by our partners and funders) our members have more often than
not been unavailable and representatives of faith communities have had to be
recruited from outside our membership. Organisations and agencies with whom we
work are often unclear about whether our members are representing the interests
of their own faith communities or representing Leicester Council of Faiths itself. It's acknowledged
that many of our members themselves may be unclear about this dichotomy. This
has implications for our ability to justify continued funding from City Council
and applications for future funding from other sources. It was agreed that the
Board should make particular efforts to rectify this situation in the year
ahead.
Funding has been reduced so that the only source of income
is our support from Leicester City Council. This has impacted on the Council of Faiths' ability
to retain staff, with both members of staff currently working on reduced hours
(and reduced hourly rates). We have been assured that funding from Leicester
City Council will continue until the end of 2012. This gives the opportunity to
seek alternate and new sources of funding . In the meantime, there are two
areas in which fundraising can be consolidated: payment of individual member subscriptions
and asking members to approach their own communities (and the organisations
within some of them) to ask for donations of at least £100 for the year.
Under Any Other Business, the meeting is reminded of the upcoming Faith in Family seminar (Tuesday
20 November 2012 at Leicester Police HQ, Enderby). This is our latest Open
Meeting as well as part of our activity for Inter Faith Week.
Alex Keller informed the meeting of his retirement as representative
of Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation. Chair thanked him for his
long-standing involvement and valued contributions to the Council of Faiths.
In closing the AGM, the Chair thanks those who have given
particular service to the Council of Faiths in the past year, including Officers (Fayyaz
Suleman, Vice Chair; Inderjit Gugnani, Secretary; Kehar Singh, Assistant
Secretary; Tony Nelson, Treasurer) and staff (Ajay Aggarwal,
Co-ordinator; Your's Truly). She proposes a special vote of thanks to our
friends at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir for their hospitality this evening. The meeting thanked the Chair for her services over the past year.
