THUG SPAT ON WOMAN WHO WAS WEARING A HIJAB IN HUMBERSTONE ROAD, LEICESTER

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Thug spat on woman who was wearing a hijab in Humberstone Road, Leicester

A thug spat at a woman in the street apparently because she was wearing an Islamic head scarf.

Police have appealed for help tracing the man, who targeted the woman in Humberstone Road, near Leicester city centre.

The 20-year-old woman was walking near to the St Matthews service station when she noticed three young men approaching her.

One of them spat on her as they passed by and the three began laughing as they walked away.

Officers have released a CCTV image of three people they want to trace.The incident happened shortly before 1pm on Monday, February 4.

Pc Dave Adams said: "The victim felt upset and frightened following the incident and feels that she was targeted because she was wearing a hijab.

"We will not tolerate people feeling intimidated and frightened on our streets and I would urge anyone with information to call us as soon as they can.

"The road was quite busy at the time of the incident so there is a possibility that passers-by and passing traffic may be able to help."

The three suspects are white, 18 or 19 and of slim build.

One was wearing a peaked cap and another was wearing a black hooded top.

Contact Pc Adams on 101 or Crimestoppers, which is anonymous, on 0800 555 111.

RELIGIOUS CENTRE PLAN TO GO AHEAD

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Religious centre plan to go ahead

Plans to build a place of worship and education centre look set to be approved despite neighbours' objections.

Goodwood Community and Education Trust wants to put up a three-storey religious centre, with a 19m-high minaret and 31-space car park.

It would be at the corner of Gamel Road and Davenport Road, Goodwood, Leicester, where temporary cabins have served a similar purpose for five years.

The redevelopment plan – for a former pub site – will go before Leicester City Council's planning and development control committee on Thursday. Senior planning officers are recommending the scheme be approved.

However, 33 people have signed a petition opposing the plans and six sent in letters of objection. They said the site was not big enough, would be too noisy and would create traffic and parking problems.

Carol Wellborn, of Davenport Road, said: "We've lived here for 50 years, but every Friday can't get a parking space in our own street.

"The big thing for me is the buses. During prayer times on Friday, the roads are blocked. It means buses can't get through. They are a lifeline to the many elderly people in this area.

"My neighbours are Sikh and Muslim and I have no problem with that, but my view is there are enough mosques.

"This place would be ideal for a youth or community centre, which people are crying out for – something everyone could use."

A Harringworth Road resident, who did not want to be named, said: "They say they're a community centre, but a tenants' association meeting the other day was the first time in five years they've invited us in.

"Come prayer time, it's impossible to park."

Another resident said: "Thirty-one parking spaces is nowhere near enough."

If approved, hours of use will be from 7.30am to 11pm on most days and conditions would prohibit parking on verges and live or amplified music or calls to prayer.

In his report, planning director Andrew Smith said: "I consider a new building and car park would greatly improve the appearance of this prominent corner plot.

"The proposed conditions would help to minimise the impact on nearby residential properties."

ANGER AS FAMILY TOLD TO TRY HINDU FREE SCHOOL FOR PLACE

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Anger as family told to try Hindu free school for place 

A family have been told to send their five-year-old two miles away to the city's Hindu free school after they were informed three local primaries were full. 

Micayla Dodd and her partner, Ryan Thompson, moved from Thurmaston to Lymington Road, in Netherhall, in October, along with Micayla's daughter, Grace, five. 

They have since been told none of their three nearby primaries, including Scraptoft Valley, at the end of their road, has places. 

Leicester City Council has instead suggested the family apply to Krishna Avanti Primary, which is more than two miles away, in Spencefield Lane.

The family said they would prefer Grace studied closer to home than this school, which has a Hindu ethos and takes half of its pupils from the Hindu faith.

Krishna Avanti Primary said it "promotes educational excellence, character formation and spiritual insight through holistic, responsible lifestyles and a vegetarian diet, as well as a curriculum that integrates yoga and meditation".

It draws on the teachings of the Indian Saint, Sri Chaitanya, to "emphasize equality, love, compassion and selflessness that stretches across all faiths".

Mr Thompson said: "I have nothing against the faith, but, it's not the type of school we would consider sending Grace to. It's disgusting the local authority can't find a local school to send her to and is suggesting one that's not even part of the local authority."

Krishna Avanti is the city's first free school and has control of its own finances and curriculum. In keeping with its Hindu ethos, the school provides only vegetarian food.

Mr Thompson said: "It's not good enough that although we applied in November for a place, Grace still doesn't have one, let alone that the only one available is Krishna Avanti, and not any of the three schools close to where we live.

"The council needs to do something about the fact there are no places.

"Grace was thriving at her old school, Church Hill Infants, and now she's really withdrawn. She had lots of friends there and the best thing to do would have been to start her new school straight away.

"Now, she's scared about going to a strange place where she doesn't know anyone. She's lost all her confidence."

A spokesman for the city council said it was only obliged to ensure there were a sufficient number of places within the local authority area.

He said: "This includes voluntary-aided, trust and free schools, as well as academies and community schools. We are not obliged to provide solely community school places.

"We were unable to offer a place at any of the applicant's three preferred schools as they were all fully subscribed and advised that places were available at the nearby Krishna Avanti Primary. We also advised the applicant of their right to appeal the decision.

"We're exploring a range of options to increase capacity and create additional primary places across Leicester. This work is ongoing and it's too early to discuss in detail."

The council needs to find thousands more primary school places to tackle a shortage caused by an increase in the city's birth rate and more people moving to the area.

Options could include some secondary schools taking pupils from the age of four and expanding some schools for pupils aged four to seven into all-through primaries.

WORLD FAITHS ADVISORY GROUP AT LEICESTER UNIVERSITY, FEBRUARY 2013

A meeting of the World Faiths Advisory Group (WFAG) at the University of Leicester's Chaplaincy Centre (The Gatehouse, University Road) this lunchtime.

Present today are Rev Canon Dr Stephen Forster (Coordinating Chaplain), Ian Snaith (Chair, WFAG), Chris Sharp (Equalities Adviser to the University of Leicester) and Resham Singh Sandhu (Chair of the Sikh Cultural and Welfare Society, Vice Chair of Leicestershire Interfaith Forum and past-Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths).

With Chris present at today's meeting, it makes sense to talk about the World Faiths Advisory Group's relation to the University's management of equality issues. Under the terms of the Public Sector Equality Duty, the University of Leicester - like all public bodies - has to apply itself to three aims of the general duty:

• To eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010. By removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics.
• To advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. By taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people.
• To foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. By encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.

 

We discuss the possibility of establishing a Religion or Belief Forum, which would function alongside hose already operating at the university in relation to other Protected Characteristics as enumerated in the Equality Act 2010. If such a forum existed, it would free WFAG from having to be involved in governance issues and allow this group to make progress on issues that fall within its specific remit. I am able to speak to the meeting in support of this idea. It's been my experience that the Protected Characteristic of Religion or Belief is taken more seriously an treated with more respect when it is see in context with the other Protected Characteristics, rather than trying to stand alone outside the general scheme of things or to make special pleading on grounds of exceptionalism.
 

 

 

 

BBC RADIO LEICESTER: SAME SEX MARRIAGE & ASIAN FAITH COMMUNITIES

This evening I'm live on BBC Radio Leicester, discussing the response of the city's Asian faith communities to the Commons vote earlier this week on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill with Kamlesh Purohit (photo above). Kamlesh broadcasts music, entertainment, news and features of special interest to an Asian audience every Sunday between 1800 and 2000.

We're joined in the studio by Paul Fitzgerald, Equality and Inclusion Officer at Leicester LGBT Centre.

Our appearance together here this evening follows on from a chat I had with Kamlesh's producer, Dimple Patel, when we met at the Student Volunteering Fair in Leicester College earlier this week. Once we'd agreed that this had the potential to be a good feature on this evening's show, I recommended involving Paul (my counterpart at the LGBT Centre) especially as he is coordinating the new Multi-Faith Support Group there. Paul and I meet up an hour or so before the show in the Almanack at Highcross so we can have a wee chat and avoid going on air cold. When we meet there, I recognise Paul from last week's edition of The Big Questions broadcast from Leicester, on which he made a memorable contribution to the discussion on same sex marriage. Here's a transcript of the interview:

KP: And talking of dealing with issues that affect you, there was one issue this week which exercised many minds, I can tell you, and got a lot of people talking. Because this week, MPs voted in favour of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, which will enable same sex couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies. However, no religious organisation will be forced to conduct same sex weddings. Many religious organisations, including the Church of England, are strongly opposed to gay marriage, so what support is there for Asian gay people in the Hindu, Sikh or Muslim communities who’d like to get married but feel that their faith community may not support them?

Well in Leicester, the Council of Faiths and the Leicester LGBT Centre have been working positively with people of all backgrounds, including Asians, who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender with faith communities: a very complex but very important issue. So I am delighted to say that joining me in the studio now are George Ballentyne, from the Leicester Council of Faiths, and Paul Fitzgerald, who is from the Leicester LGBT Centre.Chaps, a very good evening and thanks to you both very much indeed for joining us to talk about this very important issue. George, if I can start with you – because you work with faith communities and leaders in Leicester – we’ve spoken to you in the context of the Leicester Council of Faiths many times before. In your experience, what has been the response to the marriage bill and gay marriage, particularly within the Asian communities in Leicester.

GMB: Well it’s a very interesting topic to try and deal with just now because of course the actual parliamentary process isn’t complete yet, the bill has to go through the House of Lords, to get Royal Assent. So you could say well the dust hasn’t settled and it’s not yet time for organisations to make a complete and systematic response. Now that doesn’t mean that people don’t have opinions right now about it and certainly it’s been something which has been a topic of conversation and discussion amongst the faith communities. And, as you can imagine, the diversity of Leicester being what it is, there’s no single response really from the Hindu community or the Sikh community; there has been from the Muslim community, I think which is quite well known, but there … I think if you were looking for a consistent, systematic response, you and your audience will know that there’s not going to be a single kind of spearhead comment that will say everything for those communities.

KP: But isn’t that frightening because, like you say, you know, it’s not quite law yet because it’s go through the House of Lords as well before it’s ratified, but nonetheless, you know, progress has been made, this is the second reading of the Bill, so you would expect the faith communities at least to have got the ball rolling in some way.

GMB: I think the ball might be rolling but it’s not actually come out into the open yet. And I always say, particularly in situations like this in the studio, that I’m an employee of the Council of Faiths, I’m not a member, I’m not a Director, I can’t make policy or set the direction for the Council of Faiths, but I would stress really that over the past five years that I’ve been in post, we’ve worked very constructively, very positively and very collaboratively with the LGBT Centre. We’ve been members of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership together. And it’s quite often an interesting event that we’ll do things together and people will automatically assume that we should not be collaborating, that faith identity and sexual orientation as an identity should be things which are mutually antagonistic – and they’re not; people have both these things going on in their lives, we recognise that and work together.

KP: That’s the reality isn’t it? That is the reality. Paul, Paul Fitzgerald, from the LGBT Centre, what do you make of what George is saying because I suppose you kind of see it from the other side, you deal with gay Asian people in Leicester all the time. [PF: We do] What is the feeling amongst that community?

PF: I think the vast majority of feeling is one of rejection, that they can’t be honest and open with either their families or certainly their leaders within their chosen faith. To do so carries great risk, you know, family honour is hugely problematic, letting the family down, feeling that, you know, they’re going to have to go along with the process of getting married to sort of prove their sort of heterosexuality. There’s so many problems on so many levels with a lot of the community, particularly with men. The women tend to be more silent if I’m honest, gay women, unless they make contact with other gay women, remain very isolated. It’s the gay men that have the bigger issue with us who come to the Centre, talk to us about the problems they’re experiencing, the sort of issues that are affecting them, from their, you know, from whatever religious background they ‘ve come from. But certainly their families are hugely problematic in sort of coming out to them, and letting them know what’s been going on.

KP: So for those people, does the marriage bill complicate the issue even further? Because at the moment you have civil partnerships, so people can coexist together and they have certain rights, the fact that there’s now this possibility of a marriage bill coming along puts added pressure on them because they may feel they want to get married but they don’t get the support from the communities – either the family or the religious communities - isn’t this just kind of putting just another, another – if you like – kind of iron in the works?

PF: I think it is. We’re a long way from, you know, a large number of religious organisations accepting same sex relationships and equality across the spectrum. I think all this does is add weight to their levels of concern, their levels of angst for want of a better term, because they can’t come out, they can’t be open, they can’t be honest with, with, about who they are. I think it will mean, in essence, very little to them because they still won’t be able to go through the process of approaching their religious leaders to help conduct a same sex marriage. We’re 25-30 years away from that happening, I think, in the UK at the present time.

KP: So in many ways, for those people who may – who are of Hindu and Sikh backgrounds and they may want to choose to get married in their religious establishment, it’s not going to happen anyway so isn’t this just a waste of time for them?

PF: No, because I think equality is very important. I think if we continue the path that we’ve chosen, to make our world, our country, human beings more aware of equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights then I think that somewhere in the future along the way we will open those doors where people can feel that they can approach their leaders, to have the opportunity to get married, if that’s the choice that they make [KP: George –] We have to start somewhere we have to start one step.

KP: Absolutely, it’s a right, in a democracy, they have a right. Do you think the faith communities, in many ways, are afraid to deal with this very difficult issue which is perhaps why we haven’t heard anything definitive from them or is it just, like you say, early days at the moment because it’s not been – it’s not gone through the House of Lords, it’s not been ratified yet.

GMB: It’s not just early days in terms of the parliamentary or the legislative procedure. This is something that’s going to play itself out, you know, like Paul said there, over the course of a generation or more. I think it’s going to be very interesting to see how the young people in the communities respond to this changing landscape, how they might ask for clarification or challenge the leaders and elders in their own community. It’s very difficult to explain to a young person why people of the same sex can’t get married in Britain today. They just look at you like you’re an idiot if you try to explain what the legal or the Canon Law reasons are for this, and it’s going to make a big change in our society and all the faith communities have to respond to a changing social environment. I cannot say, I cannot predict what that might be. I think it’s also important to remember that within the law there is protection for those organisations, they cannot be forced to conduct a religious ceremony for a same sex couple.

KP: But isn’t that something, you know, organisations can hide behind then? In other words, because they don’t want to confront this very difficult issue, they can turn around and say, we refuse to allow this to happen because it’s – you know – not allowed in the religion.

GMB: Well you could say that they are maybe hiding behind it, but the government has placed it there as a shield and as a protection for those organisations which cannot, in good conscience, conduct a ceremony like this and it would be quite interesting – I don’t, I mean, you know – your wedding day is supposed to be the best, most memorable day of your life, or the most memorable several days of your life, and it’s impossible to imagine why someone would want to force a priest to conduct the ceremony. You don’t want to be married by someone who is, as it were, biting their tongue while they’re doing the ceremony. It should be positive and loving and collaborative and supportive. And I think the situation now there – it’s just in a complete flux. We can’t really say anything meaningful about it for quite a long time to come.

KP: But in reality Paul, how does this transpire in reality, because you talked about the pressure young people are on. On the ground, because you deal with gay Asian people all the time, you know – are they under stress, you know, is it sort of putting their health at risk? What – How does it transpire?

PF: Well it’s not just young people, it’s people across the age spectrum. Of course it materialises in their physical and emotional well-being being severely compromised. High rates of suicidal ideation – which is the thought of suicide – we know there have been suicides across the UK as a direct result of trying to be something that you’re not. That happens across all communities, not just within the Asian community. But your sexual orientation , fundamentally, is a big part of who you are. It’s not the only thing, but It’s an absolutely vital component that brings the whole together, where people feel comfortable and confident in themselves. And if one part of you is having to remain hidden and you can’t be true and honest to yourself, first and foremost, let alone anybody else, that will have and does have a detrimental effect on both your physical, psychological and emotional well-being.

KP: Okay, well on a final note then Paul, if faith community leaders listening to the programme this evening, what one thing would you say to them in the context of the marriage bill?

PF: Please come and talk to us at the Centre. We take on board anyone’s values, anyone’s particular beliefs, we’re not there to sort of dictate one way or the other , what we want to do is have meaningful dialogue – and George does some amazing work with the Council of Faiths to bring that collaboration and those communities together to talk openly and honestly and move things forward. You can move mountains just with discussion. We don’t have to all agree that everything has to be absolutely perfect, but we can move things forward with genuine concern for the well-being of our community.

KP: Dialogue; dialogue is the way forward. Okay, Paul Fitzgerald from the Leicester LGBT Centre and George Ballentyne from the Leicester Council of Faiths, thank you both very much indeed for joining us this evening.

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (1,681)

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

1. United States 631
2. United Kingdom 423
3. Russia 296
4. France 99
5. Poland 62
6. Germany 60
7. Taiwan 36
8. Spain 29
9. Ukraine 23
10. Thailand 22

This week's total: 1,681 (last week: 2,325). 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.

PHILOSOPHY IN PUBS, FEBRUARY 2013

On the first Wednesday evening of every month, Leicester PIPs (Philosophy in Pubs) meets upstairs in The Crumblin' Cookie on the High Street. Our stimulus tonight is the question, "Is chronic boredom a problem that politicians should worry about?" facilitated by Clare.

I missed the last two session at the end of last year and there was no meeting in January. It's good to be back!

Visit Leicester PIPs page on Facebook (and check out The Crumblin' Cookie too, while you're there).

UNITED APPROACH TO CELEBRATE DIVERSITY

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

United approach to celebrate diversity

Police and councils are flying a rainbow flag outside their bases in a show of support for the gay community.

The flag is flying outside Leicestershire police headquarters in Enderby, County Hall in Glenfield and Leicester Town Hall to mark the national launch of Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) History Month.

Leicestershire's assistant chief constable Steph Morgan, who speaks on LGBT issues for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: "Flying the rainbow flag together in this way is a symbol of our joint commitment to the LGBT community locally and is part of ongoing work with our local authority partners to create a just and fair society for all.

"As national LGBT strategic policing lead, I was pleased to see 10 police forces, including Leicestershire police, featured in the Stonewall 100 Index of gay-friendly employers in January 2013.

"LGBT History Month is a great opportunity to become aware of the challenges LGBT people face everyday."

Councillor Nick Rushton, leader of Leicestershire County Council, said: "We are delighted to be joining our colleagues at Leicestershire police and Leicester City Council in raising the flag to mark the start of LGBT History Month.

"LGBT people have overcome huge challenges throughout history, both here in Leicestershire and across the world.

"This month is about remembering the contribution of those people and celebrating the diversity of our city and county."

Councillor Manjula Sood, assistant mayor of Leicester, said: "The city council is committed to celebrating Leicester's diversity."

FAITHS COME TOGETHER AS PLAY SHINES A LIGHT ON LINKS IN RELIGIONS

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Faiths come together as play shines a light on links in religions

An audience of different faiths enjoyed a play highlighting the similarities between two religions.

The performance of The Christian Martyr of Karbala, which details the sacrifice of Wahab, was the latest event arranged by leaders of the Masjid Al Husayn mosque in North Evington, Leicester, to bring city communities together. The play, followed by talks about religion in Leicester, took place at Beaumont Leys School hall.

The events organised by Masjid Al Husayn are free and attended by religious leaders, city councillors and members of the public.

Organiser Zaheer Ali said: "It was a great event and the guests enjoyed the theatrical performance and after that we had some talks about the importance of inter-faith relations.

"We had speakers including two Christians and a Muslim and they spoke about the story and the similarities between the faiths."

Previous events arranged by the Masjid Al Husayn mosque have centred on figures such as Abraham and Jesus, who both play an important role in Christianity and Islam.

Wahab was a Christian who was with Iman Hussain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, when they were killed with about 70 others in the massacre at Karbala, in modern day Iraq, more than 1,300 years ago.

GOING ON BEYOND 2: MYSTICISM FROM A CISTERCIAN PERSPECTIVE

At ChristChurch, Clarendon Park, this evening for the second session in the course, "Going On Beyond: Meditation and Mysticism in the World Faiths", offered by Christians Aware as part of their Faith Awareness programme. The nine-week course has been devised by Ian Grayling and Kevin Commons from the Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

Our topic this evening: “Mysticism from a Cistercian Perspective”, is presented by Father Joseph Delargy, Abbot of the Monastery of Mount St Bernard Abbey. Father Joseph (on the right of the photo above, with Kevin Commons) was kind enough to send me the complete text of his talk, which is reproduced in full below:

I have been invited to speak about Mysticism from a Cistercian Perspective. There are two words in that title that may need clarification.

Cistercian is the order of monks I belong to. It is a Roman Catholic Christian order founded in the year 1098. Today it numbers about 4000 of both of monks and nuns, about 2000 monks and 2000 nuns spread throughout 200 monasteries throughout the world.

Mysticism is harder to define. Even though it is a word that is used much in Christianity – we speak of mystical theology, mysticism, and mystics, we think of the Spanish Mystics Teresa and John of the Cross, or the English mystics, Julian of Norwich, Richard Rolle, the Cloud of Unknowing - we find it hard to actually define it. A definition of mystical theology is: the study of the human experience of God and a definition of mysticism is: involving the explicit experience of the immediate presence of God. So it is to do with the experience of God in this life.

Another problem with the word mysticism is the tendency to equate it with unusual phenomena like ecstasies, trances, visions, but these are always peripheral to true mysticism, all the true mystics never sought anything like that and if they did experience them they often found it an embarrassment. A saying that is often said by older monks to over eager novices is that mysticism "begins in mist, is centred on I and ends in schism."

The mystical teaching of the Cistercians would be above all found in the writings of the first Cistercians monks, people like St Bernard of Clairvaux, William of St Thierry, Ailred of Rievaulx, Guerric of Igny and others. The Cistercians were originally a reform movement, started in 1098 in France, when a group of monks left the abbey of Molesme to found a new monastery with a simpler lifestyle and following the Rule of St Benedict more closely, stripped of all the accretions that had attached themselves to it over the years.

Their teachings are found in their sermons, treatises and commentaries. The Song of Songs in the Old Testament was one of their favourite books of the Bible and they never tired commentating on it. St Bernard’s great commentary runs to 86 substantial sermons and he only got as far as chapter 3 verse 1, not even half way through. The English Cistercians John of Ford and Baldwin of Ford continued this work after Bernard’s death in 1153.

The Cistercians saw the love story between the bride and the groom in the Song of Songs as representing the relationship between God and the soul.

Bride = the soul (or the Church) = anima

Groom = God = the Word

One verse they homed in on was 2:4. Our modern bibles say: He brought me to the banqueting hall and his banner over me was love but the old Latin bibles they would have used instead of saying his banner over me was love say He set love in order in me. That seems to be the whole key to Cistercian mysticism – the ordering of our love.

We do love, as humans we can’t do anything else, but we either love the wrong things or love the right things but love them too much or too little. Our love needs to be put in order.

Another important theme is that of image and likeness. Following Holy Scripture and the book of Genesis they believe that man is made in the image and likeness of God. After the fall of Adam we are still the image of God but we have lost our likeness. The spiritual/mystical path has as its goal to restore our likeness to God.

The Cistercians couldn’t get over the fact of the Incarnation, it fascinated them, the fact that God emptied himself to become man in Jesus Christ, the true humanity of Christ, a man like us in all things but sin. Pope Benedict XVI speaking on this aspect of St Bernard’s teaching in 2009 said:

In the extenuating battles between Nominalists and Realists two philosophical currents of the time the Abbot of Clairvaux never tired of repeating that only one name counts, that of Jesus of Nazareth. "All food of the soul is dry", he professed, "unless it is moistened with this oil; insipid, unless it is seasoned with this salt. What you write has no savour for me unless I have read Jesus in it" (In Canticum Sermones XV, 6: PL 183, 847).

For Bernard, in fact, true knowledge of God consisted in a personal, profound experience of Jesus Christ and of his love. And, dear brothers and sisters, this is true for every Christian: faith is first and foremost a personal, intimate encounter with Jesus, it is having an experience of his closeness, his friendship and his love. It is in this way that we learn to know him ever better, to love him and to follow him more and more. May this happen to each one of us!

Silence was another important element to the Cistercian mystical path. Not just silence to foster recollection but silence in order to "hear" God. They believed that hearing comes before sight. We will only see God in heaven but in this life we can ‘hear’ God (metaphorically speaking) speaking to our soul.

Simplicity was important – simplicity in liturgy, architecture, and life style. Whilst beautiful things – statues, stained glass, etc. - can lead us to God they can also be a hindrance getting in the way of a pure experience of God. In a sense the Cistercians were minimalists.

The Cistercians followed the Rule of St Benedict (c. 530) and so its teaching was foundational to them. Humility and obedience were essential elements of their spirituality and mysticism.

Manual work was held in high esteem by the Cistercians. St Bernard said he learnt more from the woods and the trees and the rocks than he ever did from books.

The Cistercians described the mystical experience as ‘Visits from the Word’ – no strange phenomena – but when prayer is easy and living the virtues then the Word (God) is with us. When prayer is difficult and living the virtues is a struggle then the Word has departed. We sense the Word’s presence and absence but we don’t know the moment when he came or went. The comings and goings of the Word are entirely up to God, though we can facilitate them by making ourselves ready.

No saint is as optimistic as St Bernard, no saint is as hopeful as he is, in the ability of man, wherever and whoever he is, to return to God. No one was beyond hope for Bernard. The most wretched sinner was seen by Bernard as a man with his foot on the first rung of the ladder back to God. For Bernard the man at the very bottom has nowhere else to go apart from up. No saint was ever as encouraging as St Bernard. In a very well known passage Bernard writes – and this comes after speaking about the heights of the spiritual life and union with God – he writes:

Every man – even if burdened with sin, enmeshed in vice, ensnared by the allurements of pleasures, caught in mud, fixed in mire, a slave to care, distracted by business, afflicted with sorrow, wandering and straying, filled with anxious forebodings and uneasy suspicions – every man, I say, standing thus under condemnation and without hope, has the power to turn and find it can not only breath the fresh air of the hope of pardon and mercy, but also dare to aspire to union with God…. Why should he not venture with confidence into the presence of him by whose image he sees himself honoured, and in whose likeness he knows himself made glorious? Why should he fear a majesty when his very origin gives him ground for confidence. (SC 83)

St Bernard certainly lived by this. In the well-known story, one day St Bernard was on his way to see Count Theobald and on the way he came across a crowd leading a man out to the gallows for execution. The man was Constantius and he was guilty of murder. We can imagine the scene, the baying crowds heaping insults on the murderer and the terrified man being dragged along. Bernard stopped and took the rope by which the man was tied and said to those in charge "Let me have this murderer, for I wish to take him and hang him with my own hands" (i.e. by living the penitential monastic life). Such was Bernard’s authority that those in charge let him take the man and Bernard took him to Clairvaux where he became a monk. Under Bernard’s guidance Constantius made atonement and reparation for his sins by a life of obedience and penance as a monk for the remaining thirty years of his life until his holy death. Constantius is remembered in the menology of our Order on June 20.

When the crowds looked into the terrified man’s face they saw an evil demon, when St Bernard looked into the man’s face he saw past his sins to a potential saint. Cardinal Basil Hume used to say (quoting Oscar Wilde): "Every sinner has a future and every saint has a past."

In his sermons on conversion he paints and all to familiar picture, when we try to convert we are beset with greater temptations. But we are not to despair. He writes: (If we ask) … "Is it possible for such wretchedness to make a person happy?" (I say to you) Whoever you are, if you are in this frame of mind, do not despair: it is mercy, not misery, that makes a person happy, but mercy’s natural home is misery. Indeed it happens that misery becomes the source of our happiness when humiliation turns into humility and necessity becomes a virtue. Sickness has real utility when it leads us to the doctor’s hands, and he whom God restores to health gains by having been ill. (Conversion 12)All I have been saying is from the past, from history, so I would like to speak about a modern Cistercian Mystic, Thomas Merton. In December it was the 46^th anniversary of his death.

Thomas Merton was born on 31 January 1915 in Prades in France in the eastern Pyrenees where his father was painting. His father, Owen, was a New Zealander, and his mother Ruth, was an American. When Merton was one year old the family moved to the US, first to Douglaston on Long Island then to the borough of Queens in New York. Merton had one brother, John Paul, who was a few years younger than he. When he was 6 Merton’s mother died and this was followed by a period of wandering for the family. First his father took him to Bermuda and then once again to France, where Merton went to school. In 1928, when Merton was 13, it was decided to continue his education in England and they moved to Ealing, W. London. He began school at Ripley Court, a prep school in Surrey, and then when he was 14 he moved to Oakham Public School in Rutland, just 25 miles away from where we are sitting now. After Oakham he gained entrance to Cambridge University where he studied modern languages French and Italian. At Cambridge something went wrong, though we are never told quite what it was, but to the end of his days Merton seemed to have a real hatred of Cambridge. After two years at Cambridge he transferred to Colombia University in NY and was much happier there reading English Literature and doing his Masters degree on William Blake. He lived in NY on and off for the next 6 years and during this period he converted to the Roman Catholic faith, being baptised on 16 November, the feast of St Gertrude, in 1938, when he was 23. Three years later he entered the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky in the U.S. and soon after began his prolific writing career.

There is no single opinion on Merton: some see him as the most important monk of the 20^th century, and indeed the most important monk of modern times, others see him as an anomaly. Whatever the opinion, though, it can’t be denied that he was a significant figure and still is. What his influence on the development of the Order was is hard to say; it could be argued he had an enormous influence on the Order, or equally, that he had no real lasting influence on the Order. My opinion at the moment is that he had a large influence on the Order, but not directly, but indirectly. I don’t think we can point to anything and say we do or don’t do this because of Thomas Merton, but I think the attitude and outlook of the Order has been very much shaped by Merton.Just recently I came across a piece of his writing that I think can serve us as a good meditation.

It is his first ever Christmas he spent in the monastery, so that is just after a few weeks, bearing in mind he entered on 10 December, Merton was waiting in church for the midnight Mass to begin and Merton writes in his journal:

Lord it is nearly midnight and I am waiting for you in the darkness and the great silence. I am sorry for all my sins. Do not let me ask any more than to sit in the darkness and light no lights of my own, and be crowded with no crowds of my own thoughts to fill the emptiness of the night in which I await you.… Your brightness is my darkness. I know nothing of you and, by myself, I cannot even imagine how to go about knowing you. If I imagine you, I am mistaken. If I understand you, I am deluded. If I am conscious and certain I know you, I am crazy. The darkness is enough. (Bridges to Contemplative Living, edited by Montaldo & Toth, Ave Maria Press, 2010. p. 28)

Powerful words from someone who has just been in the monastery for two weeks.

Twenty four years later this basic theme and attitude is still there in his mature writings. In 1965 in the Climate of Monastic Prayer he writes:

Contemplative prayer is, in a way, simply the preference for the desert, for emptiness, for poverty. One has begun to know the meaning of contemplation when one intuitively and spontaneously seeks the dark and unknown path of aridity in preference to every other way. The contemplative is one who would rather not know than now. Rather not enjoy than enjoy. Rather not have proof that God loves him. He accepts the love of God on faith, in defiance of all apparent evidence. This is the necessary condition, and a very paradoxical condition, for the mystical experience of the reality of God’s presence and of his love for us. Only when we are able to ‘let go’ of everything within us, all desire to see, to know, to taste, and to experience the presence of God, do we truly become able to experience that presence with the overwhelming conviction and reality that revolutionize our entire life. (Ibid. p. 29)

I think that is a good and helpful passage. We all experience periods of aridity in the spiritual life but here Merton teaches that we have only begun to know the meaning of contemplation when we "intuitively and spontaneously seek the dark and unknown path of aridity in preference to every other way." So our aridity is not a hindrance on our journey to God but rather it is the way, the path, to Him.

Father Joseph has set the bar rather high for the speaker following him next week. Hang on a minute - that'll be me! *gulp*

ChristChurch is busy. We're used to the City of Leicester Singers rehearsing here on Monday evenings. Tonight, session four of an eight-week course on the history of the Old Testament is being held in the Vaughan Powell Room, next to ours - though no one can remember that being on last week. In the Worship Space (the main area of the church), Rev David Jennings, Canon Theologian, is delivering the monthly Leicester Theological Society: "Is the Bible the word of God? Discuss". Until this evening, Leicester Theological Society has held its monthly meetings on Fridays. I've often wanted to attend their lectures but they've either coincided with the kids staying with me or some other social commitment. But it's odd that they should be holding them here now on Monday evenings, when some of those who regularly attend the Christians Aware / Faith Awareness sessions would more than likely want to attend the lecture. For that matter, I'd fancy joining in the Old Testament history course too!

But it's a wee bit more than a minor irritation here this evening. In the Worship Space, David Jennings is using the microphone and PA and his talk is seeping into our room via a speaker that we can't switch off. It's turned down as low as it'll go but we can still hear every word, bubbling under Father Delargy's talk. When he's about to take us into a period of silent meditation, I break ranks and dash into the Worship Space to see if they can cut the sound to our room. But even though they're on to Q&A, there's no natural break in the flow that would allow me to interject. After standing there for the better part of ten minutes and failing to make myself seen or heard, I head back to our session. I have to say I'm relieved that that particular distraction won't be there next week.