This week's visitors

Here's the update on the number of pageviews the blog has received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

1. United Kingdom 350 
2. United States 97
3. Russia 68
4. Germany 41
5. Iran 32
6. Slovenia 30
7. Ukraine 18
8. Moldova 14
9. Canada 10
10. Israel 9

This week's total: 669 (last week's: 942) 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.

A big fall in the course of a week, that's true - but I've only posted one new entry this week. I've had other demands on my time (Open University essays to mark, childcare over the Easter holidays etc). I've got quite a backlog sitting in the "drafts" file, that should see the number of pageviews fair shoot up in the week ahead!

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 this 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 that them.

OUR MESSAGE IS ABOUT TRUE ISLAMIC VALUES

This is Dr Habib Akram's First Person column, published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Our message is about true Islamic values

Dr Habib Akram wants us all to get on board his community's bus peace campaign

Not a day goes by without some bad news relating to my faith. Atrocities and extremist actions "in the name of Islam" fill the national news pages. No good, it seems – if the media were to be believed – ever comes from Muslims. No wonder Islamaphobia is at such a high.

A recent survey has found that a total of 98 per cent of respondents gained information about Islam from the press and broadcast media. Islam was therefore associated with terrorism, extremism and repression of women. Decades ago, it was not Islam that was the menace (it was then an ally) when communism was the great threat and the West feared the "reds under beds". Prior to that, fascism too had wreaked havoc across Europe.

Ideologies – be they faith-based or political – taken to extreme threaten us all and the extremists' interpretation and expression of Islam that panders to the media is in fact anathema to Islam. This is why, in common with many Muslims across all walks of life, my community is driving home a message of peace through a nationwide peace campaign.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, founded over a century ago on the basis of the peaceful practice of Islam, has placed banners proclaiming Loyalty, Freedom, Peace on 240 buses in British cities, including Leicester. From the end of this month and in May, a number of Leicester buses will display the values that Islam inculcates. This is part of an Affirmative Action campaign by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to send out a clear message to religious extremists as well as Islamaphobes about true Islamic values.

At the very heart of the campaign is the belief that it is not sufficient to simply declare that Islam is a religion of peace – one must live this belief by setting an example. The belief in peace stems from the very inception of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community who have peace missions in towns and cities across the UK, including Leicester. My community is actively engaged in local and national fund-raising, volunteering, peace conferences, charity and interfaith work. The peace campaign comes as a national youth charity drive in the Midlands by Ahmadiyya Muslims aims to raise £225,000 for British charities.

The vast majority of Muslims live ordinary, decent lives and wish to contribute to the wellbeing of the country in which they live – it is where we and our children and their children will live. It is in all our interests – as well as an act of faith – to be good and loyal citizens and we must not allow extremist thinking and behaviour to destroy what we hold dear.

My community has launched a dedicated website for those who want to find out more about the peaceful message of Islam: www.loveforallhatredfornone.org

Dr Habib Akram is President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association Leicester

Holy Saturday, according to @His_Grace Archbishop Cranmer

In a blog entry posted a couple of days ago, I described Holy Saturday as "the day largely forgotten, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. That may be so in terms of public celebrations, but it's only the case if you're not thinking deeply enough about the story of Jesus.

The Book of Common Prayer (1662) states that after Jesus "was crucified, dead and buried" he "descended into hell"; Common Worship (2000) that he "descended to the dead". Both these translations of the Apostle's Creed are authorised in the Church of England. The latter translation concurs with that included in the Roman Catholic Catechism.

If you'd like to read more the soteriological significance of this day and reflect on its place in the progress of Holy Week, I can do no better than recommend you pay a visit to the blog of "His Grace", "Archbishop Cranmer". His Grace expends his online energy "examining religio-political agendas with politico-religious objectives". Here's how he's described on his blog:

Archbishop Cranmer takes as his inspiration the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: "It’s interesting," he observes, "that nowadays politicians want to talk about moral issues, and bishops want to talk politics." It is the fusion of the two in public life, and the necessity for a wider understanding of their complex symbiosis, which leads His Grace to write on these very sensitive issues. Things got just a little bit too hot on 21st March 1556. His Grace hasn't been around much since, but he is as keen as ever to investigate and expose religio-politics or politico-religiosity, so email Cranmer with your insights, and he shall investigate - whatever the cost...

Here's a link to His Grace's blog entry for today, entitled "Holy Saturday: devastation, anguish, hell". Read and think on: http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2011/04/holy-saturday-devastation-anguish-hell.html

Follow Archbishop Cranmer on Twitter: @His_Grace

This week's visitors

Here's the update on the number of pageviews the blog has received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

1. United Kingdom 471 
2. United States 189
3. Russia 64
4. Germany 59
5. Denmark 52
6. Iran 44
7. Slovenia 24
8. France 16
9. Cyprus 12
10. Canada 11

This week's total: 942 (last week's: 869) 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 this 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 that them.

So, if you're a visitor to the blog from one of these countries, why not leave a comment? Tell me something about yourself - and what you think of what you've been reading here. Don't be shy now ...

EARTH DAY

Today (Friday 22 April) is Earth Day, dedicated to raising awareness of – and appreciation for – the natural environment. Earth Day was founded in 1970 and for the first two decades remained focused almost entirely on activities and events in the USA. It went global in 1990 and is now celebrated in more than 175 countries and by a significant number of national governments. In 2009, the United Nations designated 22 April International Mother Earth Day. Over the years, many communities have extended their observance to celebrate Earth Week. Earth Day is now the first day of Earth Month. This is, obviously, the kind of occasion in which faith communities can participate jointly and alongside other agencies which promote the common weal. However, I'm not aware of anything taking place locally (or nationally for that matter). This may be because Earth Day coincides with Good Friday this year. Some religious groups and organisations have put advice, guidance, information and resources online. If you're interested in looking at these, they can be found in the usual ways.

CHRIST IN THE CENTRE ON GOOD FRIDAY

I take Harry and Gracie in to see Christ in the Centre this morning. We don't make it in time to see the whole thing and miss the first half, that was performed in the appropriately named St Peter's Square in Highcross, then moved along High Street to Humberstone Gate. We join the crowd there, at the point in the story where Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The second half of the story is played out on a stage in front of the giant TV screen (which was used to great advantage), between Primark on one side (as seen in the photo above) and Superdrug on the other. I took that picture just at the moment in the story when Pontius Pilate infamously washes his hands of Jesus.


I found the whole thing very moving - and some of it distressing. There were clearly many people watching who weren't well versed in the Easter story and didn't seem prepared for the fairly harrowing depiction of these events in the final hours of Jesus' earthly life.


It was a beautiful warm and sunny morning and the event attracted a huge crowd. This was one of a number of public performances of the Passion Play, in diverse forms and settings, taking place in many parts of Britain today.


Here's a link to the report published the next day in the Leicester Mercury. There's a great slide show of photos taken on the day (along with reader's comments, although they barely touch on this event, but focus on the erroneous notion that St George's Day events are banned in Leicester),

Silence will fall

On the way back from St Thomas' the Apostle in South Wigston where Harry was singing in the choir at the Maundy Thursday service, we pass through the city centre shortly after 2100 and see rehearsals for Christ in the Centre, which takes place tomorrow (Good Friday).

In keeping with displaying the bricolage, here's a picture of rehearsals for the Crucifixion in Humberstone Gate, in front of the giant TV screen. I'm not trying to fool myself (or you, faithful reader) that it's a good photo. I snapped it as the giant screen was showing a trailer for the new series of Doctor Who, showing the phrase "Silence will fall in 2 days". That would be Holy Saturday, the day largely forgotten, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. This is the kind of thing that simply leaps out to me. The juxtaposition in that moment just seemed meaningful - profound in a banal, everyday sort of way - and in keeping with the question Harry asked me as we left the Maundy Thursday service just half an hour before.

THOUSANDS EXPECTED TO SEE PROCESSION: CHRIST IN THE CENTRE

Today's Leicester Mercury carries an article about the Good Friday public event, "Christ in the Centre". Leicester has become world famous for its celebrations of events related to its faith and cultural communities, such as Diwali and Vaisakhi. I've often heard Leicester people complain that more fuss is made over the celebrations of the city's minority communities, than about anything that would be meaningful to the longer-standing communities. I've often heard them say that there is nothing done here for them. Well, this is one of those events that such people seem to forget, ignore or disregard. "Christ in the Centre" will be performed tomorrow for the ninth year in succession. And it will be followed by a very full and public programme of events celebrating St George's Day. 

I've never had the chance to see "Christ in the Centre" for myself; I hope I can catch some of it this time.

Thousands expected to see procession

By Kelly Pipes 

A dramatic recreation of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection will be performed in front of thousands in Leicester city centre on Good Friday. 

An estimated 10,000 people will gather to see the ninth Christ in the Centre passion play, which includes a procession from the Highcross shopping centre along High Street to Humberstone Gate. 

A cast of 45 amateur performers will open the Easter spectacle at 10am, in St Peter's Square at the Highcross. 

They will act out biblical stories on the theme of hospitality, which they have been rehearsing since the new year. 

Organiser Jonathan Wheeler said: "The square is a fabulous amphitheatre made to have drama performed in it. 

"The Testament stories will be performed against the backdrop of a new environment, quite an inspiring place to do it." 

The 30-minute series of plays feature miracles such as the feeding of the 5,000 and the turning of water into wine at the Wedding of Cana. 

After bringing the Old and New Testaments to life at Highcross, the actors will form a procession behind Jesus, who is played for the first time by actor Walt Kissack. 

The 33-year-old said: "The overriding feeling I have is excitement. 

"It's a performance and a coming together of people who want to share with the wider community a celebration of Easter." 

Organisers say the procession will be a joyful, musical re-enactment of Christ's arrival into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. 

It will be welcomed into Humberstone Gate by Leicester's Christian praise band, Resonance, who will take to the stage below the big screen. 

The music will be replaced by a sombre portrayal of the trial and Crucifixion of Christ, followed by a celebratory representation of the Resurrection at noon, which will then close the play. 

Mr Wheeler said: "The final scenes of the passion play can be a very inspiring, humbling, thought-provoking experience." 

"I come away feeling a wave of emotion. It's a very special event." 

The Bishop of Leicester, the Right Reverend Tim Stevens, will open and close Christ in the Centre 2011 with a blessing. 

The event's organising committee, which also includes religious leaders from the Catholic and Methodist church, has fought to cover its costs this year and has been prompted to start fund-raising for 2012 as soon as this week's play is over. 

A mixture of professional and voluntary stewards have been trained to ensure things run smoothly and to hand out programmes on the day.

To find out more about Christ in the Centre, visit the Diocese of Leicester's website: http://citc.dioceseofleicester.com/

PAVILION OF PEACE AT THE ECOHOUSE

Second meeting of the day at St Philip's in Evington; this timethough, it's in the Centre rather than the Church. This evening’s meeting has been convened by Groundwork Leicester and Leicestershire in the context of their programme for revitalising the EcoHouse.

In an earlier incarnation as Environ, Groundwork Leicester and Leicestershire played a leading role in establishing Leicester as Britain's first Environment City in 1990. The EcoHouse, in Leicester's Western Park, was Britain's first environmental show home. Both supporters and detractors feel that the Eco House has lost its cutting edge in the past few years. Consequently Groundwork is embarking on a major project to refurbish the EcoHouse and its grounds, a project which it is hoped will keep it in the forefront of its field till the year 2050.

With specific reference to the city's faith communities - and to Leicester Council of Faiths - Groundwork is intending to build a Pavilion of Peace within the grounds of the EcoHouse. The Pavilion of Peace will provide a space for prayer, contemplation, meditation and reflection for people of all faiths or of none. It will be set amongst the greenery and abundance of the gardens. The hope is that the Pavilion will provide a focus for sacred ecology. All sacred texts call on us to honour and conserve natural resources, and to reverence God's creation. We all have a duty of care as guardians, toward honouring, protecting and nurturing the great gift of planet earth to humanity.

While this is clearly a worthwhile project that will surely be of interest to all members of Leicester Council of Faiths, Groundwork hasn't chosen the best day or time for this meeting, with little chance of the kind of support they'd hoped for this evening. It's Holy Week, which means many of the Christians who might have been able to attend are occupied; it's Passover, which means most of the local Jewish community are busy; and it's the First Day of Ridván so Bahá'ís are engaged in celebrating the most sacred festival in their calendar and electing their local Spiritual Assembly.

A number of steps are considered and tentatively agreed with the desire of engaging faith and cultural communities in the city and county so that we can make collective progress not only on the Pavilion of Peace but on the more general refurbishment and relaunch of the EcoHouse and its environs.

Three years ago, in the summer of 2008, I took part in an educational project based at the EcoHouse and using the ancient oak tree in Western Park. This was called "Tree of Life" and involved several local schools in day-long sessions of storytelling, handicrafts, honing their thinking and speaking skills, music and movement - and new ways of seeing, thinking about and expressing their relationship to the natural world. It was one of the highlights of my many activities in this post and stands out as a beautiful, enjoyable and fulfilling experience on a number of levels. The sun shone the whole week long and the warmth and light of that week and the relationships that were strengthened then continue to nurture and illuminate my life and work in special ways today. I speak briefly this evening about Tree of Life but it doesn't seem to ring any bells. I'd like to see us be able to make something of the legacy of that project; that would be a fitting way for Leicester Council of Faiths to pitch its contribution to this new ongoing project.

This Pavilion of Peace has the potential to be one of the most significnt and practical contributions to inter faith relations in Leicester for a long time. The fact that it will be a permanent structure, located in an accessible and attractive site, have an educational purpose and be associateed with one of Leicester's most successful and distinctive brands are all very positive aspects indeed. And it seems to me that this would be something highly suitable for us to get behind, in public, during our 25th anniversary year.

In the photo above: Raheema Caratella (Leicester Interfaith Youth Hub), Rosemarie Fitton (MA student in Interreligious Studies at St Philips, who is shadowing me as part of a 30-hour placement with Leicester Council of Faiths), Penny Poyzer (Groundwork Leicester and Leicestershire). They're sitting in front of a display of the proposed work to be done on the EcoHouse and its grounds. Among the group of eight people here this evening, two work with the Black Environment Network (BEN).

MEETING JON ASHWORTH AND HILARY BENN MP

A meeting at St Philip's Church this morning with Jon Ashworth, who is standing as Labour candidate in the Leicester South by election. He's asked for the chance to listen to members of different faith and cultural communities in the constituency. A dozen or so people are in attendance, with five faith communities represented. We're joined by Hilary Benn MP, shadow Leader of the House and former Secretary of State for International Development and former Secretary of State for the Environment. Jon Ashworth is in the front and centre of the photo above, Hilary Benn MP behind him.


We were hoping that Sir Peter Soulsby, who is standing for the post of Leicester's first elected Mayor (and who was Labour MP for this constituency until he gave it up to launch his Mayoral campaign), would be here too but he is unable to join us this morning.


After a few minutes of mixing and mingling in the church hall, we take our seats in a circle. Each of us is invited to introduce ourselves, the organisations we work for and communities we represent. Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths, Councillor Manjula Sood, speaks first, introducing the Council of Faiths and St Philip's Centre, which is hosting this meeting. She makes particular reference to the challenge of right wing movements, organisations and parties, historical and contemporary (e.g. National Front, British National Party, English Defence League) and how the settled and new communities of Leicester have responded to these.


There are welcome, if unexpected, tributes to Leicester Council of Faiths, from a few people I haven't met before and whom I wouldn't have thought know much about us and our work. I have to say that the Council of Faiths is given credit for an initiative or two on which we didn't necessarily lead - and at least one that we didn't have anything to do with directly. Even so, the Council of Faiths plays as active a role as we can in creating and maintaining an environment in the city that encourages and sustains such activities.


Of course, we can't keep local and national politics out of the discussion and since there are people here who have personal of family roots in other countries (or who represent others who do), matters of international interest are also raised. At the end of the meeting, Mr Benn responds to some of the comments and concerns we've raised, clearly drawing on his experience as former Secretary of State for International Development and former Secretary of State for the Environment.


I should stress that this was not a political meeting and that the attendance of any of our members or employees should not be interpreted to mean that Leicester Council of Faiths supports any particular political party or any individual electoral candidate. If any of the other by election candidates organise a meeting at which they'd like to meet members of our faith communities, no doubt we will arrange similar attendance, interest and support.