PIONEEERING YOUNGSTERS HELP TO FOSTER INTER-FAITH UNDERSTANDING IN COMMUNITY

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Pioneering youngsters help to foster inter-faith understanding in community

A group of 15 young people have completed a three-day stage of an inter-faith leadership programme designed to help them achieve their potential.

St Philip's Centre, Evington, which works to build and enhance inter-faith relations, ran the Catalyst bronze programme for 16 to 24-year-olds from Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College.

The course is funded by Near Neighbours through the Department for Communities and Local Government. It follows on from programmes already delivered to young people from Leicester College, Gateway College and Shree Sanatan Mandir.

Each day of Catalyst is based on a theme, including leadership attributes and styles, presentation and communication skills, running community projects and inter-faith understanding.

Another important module, decision-making, is delivered by Leicestershire Police.

Riaz Ravat, deputy director of St Philip's Centre, said: "Since Catalyst was launched in 2012, nearly 70 young people from Leicester and East London have taken part.

"These are young people in whom we have invested to develop their knowledge, skills and potential to make a positive difference to those around them.

"Catalyst specifically builds trust and good inter-faith relationships."

TRIBUTES PAID TO TEMPLE PRESIDENT

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Tributes paid to temple president

by Peter Warzynski

One of the country's longest-running Sikh temple presidents has died while on holiday in India.

Omparkash Chand, 63, was in the Punjab visiting family and buying religious ornaments for the Shri Guru Ravidass Gurdwara, in Harrison Road, Leicester – where he had been president since 1997.

Colleagues said they believed he may have been the longest-serving head of a Sikh temple in the world.

Mr Chand died in his sleep on June 7 and was brought back to Leicester last Saturday.

However, a post-mortem examination could not determine a cause of death.

Tributes have poured in for the community leader, who lived in Scraptoft with his wife and son. Mr Chand's brother, Kamaljit Mahi, 53, said the family was shocked at the sudden death of the temple president.

"The post-mortem couldn't find a cause of death, but they've taken some tissue samples to see if they can determine what happened.
"It's a big shock and across the family we're all trying to help each other," he said.

"He was a good-natured person and will be sadly missed, not just by the Sikh community – but by Christians and Hindus. He did a lot of work with other people."

Friend and fellow temple member Dev Diwana said: "We believe he is the longest consecutive running president of a Sikh temple in the UK, if not the world.

"That's one of the most impressive things about him. He served the Sikh community with an open heart and he was a great man – he was a picture of calm.

"He'd only been in India for a few days before he died, but he had no health issues which anyone knew of."

Surinderpal Singh Rai, of Leicestershire Council of Gurdwaras, said: "Omprakash Chand was a very dear friend of mine.

"He tirelessly served the Sikh community for well over 40 years and the newly-built Shri Guru Ravidass Gurdwara is a testimony to this.

"He will be dearly missed."

Mr Chand's funeral is tomorrow.

His body will arrive at the Shri Guru Ravidass Gurdwara, at 11.15am, before leaving for Gilroes Cemetery at 11.45am.

It will arrive at the cemetery, in Groby Road, at about 12.15pm.

GROUPS AWARDED LOTTERY FUNDING

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Fiona Kinsey, resource centre manager for Network for Change

Groups awarded lottery funding

by Cathy Buss

Two groups, one which helps families and the other which helps people with mental health problems, have won more than £500,000 from the Big Lottery Fund.

Home-Start Leicester has been awarded £334,370 from the lottery's reaching communities programme.

The group will use the money to train new volunteers to help support families under stress.

Helen Everett, chairman of the trustees of Home-Start Leicester, said: "It is fantastic news. It means we can continue our much-needed support to families in the city and recruit more volunteers and staff. This will secure the future of the service to children and families for the next four years."

Volunteers from the organisation, which has been running in the city for 40 years, visit a family's home once a week to offer support.

They can help with stimulating play activities for children, parenting strategies and accessing services.

Lottery cash will go towards new projects to increase parents' confidence, encourage children's emotional and social readiness for school and promote healthy lifestyles.

Home-Start Leicester has 28 home-visiting volunteers and in the past year supported 71 families.

It has just two members of staff but two more full-time posts will be created.

The city-based Network for Change organisation has been awarded £244,184 from the lottery's reaching communities programme.

It can now expand its work with adults with severe and complex mental health problems.

Gabby Briner, chief executive at Network for Change, said: "There are a high number of people in Leicester with severe and complex mental health issues who are often socially isolated and struggle to access support to keep well, prevent crisis and cope with life.

"Our Mind The Gap project will provide an exciting programme of individual and peer support, plus therapeutic, social and coping strategies, groups and activities."

Fiona Kinsey, resource centre manager for Network for Change, said: "This lottery funding will make a huge difference to us."

FAITH AWARENESS SUMMER VISITS: NEVE SHALOM LPJC SYNAGOGUE

The Faith Awareness series of summer visits to places of worship and other faith-related sites in Leicester continues this evening at Neve Shalom, the synagogue of Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation. As well being contracted to work 20 hours a week for Leicester Council of Faiths, I now do a day and a half a week with Faith Awareness, the inter-faith programme of Christians Aware.

Neve Shalom means "Oasis of Peace" (Isaiah 32:18). The Synagogue is named after a village near Jerusalem known as Neve Shalom / Wahat al Salam, where Jews, Christians and Muslims live and work together for the common good. The village is an inspiration to Jewish people, in Leicester and farther afield. The distinctive building, designed by celebrated Leicester architect Ernest Gimson, has an interesting history of its own. This is hinted at in an article by Olwen Hughes, published in the Leicester Mercury in January 2013 and reproduced in my blog.

I've made half a dozen visits to the LPJC Synagogue since my first time in July 2011, and have always enjoyed the hospitality of the community there. 

We're keeping up good numbers on these Monday evening visits. We've brought along a dozen people this evening (half of them newbies) and we're matched one-to-one by members of the LPJC.

The original theme for this series of visits was "food and festivals". Our hosts this evening have stuck to that theme. Dov Stekel gives a short talk about the theory of kosher food and its place in the life of the community. That's followed up by a practical demonstration, with a delightful spread of food and drink linked to different occasions in the Jewish calendar.

This is the fifth of six Faith Awareness visits planned for Monday evenings in May and June, the others being

• Jain Centre, Oxford Street (13 May)
• All Saints Church, Kerrysdale Avenue (20 May)
• BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Gipsy Lane (3 June)
• Islam Information Centre, Highfield Street (10 June)
• Guru Amar Das Gurdwara, Clarendon Park Road (24 June)

I may not be able to attend every visit personally, but I hope to arrange for a blog post on each of them. Watch this space!

SERVICE MARKS 40 YEARS SINCE UGANDAN EXODUS

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Service marks 40 years since Ugandan exodus

by David W Owen

Leicester Cathedral was the venue for a service commemorating the 40th anniversary of Asians ordered out of Idi Amin’s Ugandan dictatorship finding a new home in the city.

Saturday's thanksgiving service was led by the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Rev Tim Stevens, with Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles special guest of honour.

More than 28,000 people arrived in Britain from Uganda in 1972, with7,000 choosing to settle in Leicester despite an advertising campaign warning them not to come to the city.

The service, however, celebrated their positive contribution to the city – in the fields of business, the professions, politics, arts and science.

Bishop Tim said: “It was a great pleasure that Leicester Cathedral was chosen as the venue to give thanks for the contribution of the Ugandan Asian community.

“The service recognised the importance of friendship and generosity, as shown both by those who came to our city 40 years ago under such desperate circumstances, and those who welcomed them to a strange land and opened their homes and hearts, in the best tradition of the faiths of this city.”

THREE TAKE OATHS AS DEPUTY LIEUTENANTS OF COUNTY

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Three take oaths as Deputy Lieutenants of county

Three Deputy Lieutenants have been commissioned under oath in honour of their service to the community.

The Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Jennifer, Lady Gretton, made the appointments at a ceremony at Beaumanor Hall.

Deputy Ramanbhai Barber, of, Leicester, is president of Shree Sanatan Mandir, in the city, and an executive member of Leicester Council of Faiths.

Janie Martin, of Woodhouse Eaves, is county president of the Royal British Legion (Women's section) and president of the Friends of Charnwood Forest.

Dr Bridget Towle, of Loughborough, is president of Girlguiding Leicestershire and a member of the University of Leicester's Council.

BUDDHIST HOUSE BBQ

This evening I'm at The Buddhist House, Narborough, for a vegetarian barbecue and garden evening. It's been raining quite heavily, off and on, for most of the day, and there's quite a downpour on the way here (hailstones in the middle of June, for goodness sake). But it stops and the sky clears around 1830, so enjoyment of the evening isn't dampened.

This is my first visit to The Buddhist House, though it's not for want of being asked. I recall that one of the earliest activities in which I took part after being appointed to this post six years ago was a Buddhist-Christian dialogue session in Bishop Street Methodist Chapel, next door to the Council of Faiths HQ in Town Hall Square. It was certainly the first Saturday event I attended on the job.

The Buddhist House is home to the Tariki Trust, a community of people who believe that Buddhism is something to be lived, not merely a practice to be fitted in during a busy day. The name Tariki means "other-power" in Japanese, a fundamental concept in Pureland Buddhism. It's the basis for Other-Centred Approach, the model of psychology underpinning the psychotherapy taught on Tariki courses, which are offered at The Buddhist House.

It's a fine, rambling house of character and distinction, dating from around 1900, with a garden to match. There's a Buddha statue nestled under a lime tree.

I get the chance to chat with some interesting people, each of them with different manners of association with The Buddhist House or for being here this evening. I also discuss briiefly with Carolyn Brazier tentative plans to start an informal collective group bringing together the many and varied groups of Buddhists in Leicester and Leicester. I've been asked to help get that going as an "honest broker" working with and between most of these groups.

I also propose that The Buddhist House be fitted into next year's programme of Faith Awareness summer visits to places of worship and faith-related sites in and around Leicester. I'm sure we could fill a minibus for an evening visit here.

I honestly can't think why I haven't made the short trip out here before. I mean, the Arriva number 50 bus from Leicester city centre comes straight to the door, for goodness sake! So I have no excuse for not coming again.

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (1,979)

Here are the top ten countries from which the blog has received visits in the past week.

1. United Kingdom 754
2. United States 604
3. France 171
4. Russia 143
5. India 86
6. Germany 65
7. Ukraine 58
8. Australia 44
9. China 28
10. Romania 26

This week's total: 1,979 (last week: 2,903). 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.

DIABETICS WARNED OVER FESTIVAL FASTING

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Diabetics warned over festival fasting

by Cathy Buss, Health Correspondent

A health specialist has warned thousands of Muslims suffering from diabetes to make sure they prepare properly for Ramadan.

City pharmacist Moinuddin Kolia said people must plan in advance before the religious festival, marked by fasting, or risk major health problems.

Those observing Ramadan will not eat or drink during daylight hours.

Mr Kolia, one of the directors of Moin's Chemist and Wellbeing Centre, in East Park Road, Spinney Hills, said he was concerned at lack of education on how people who fast should manage their diabetes medication.

He said: "This is a subject that really needs highlighting within other communities that fast, not just Muslims.

"Unless people understand what is required when fasting, it can be very dangerous and cause major health problems, such as low blood glucose levels, which can lead to a coma. In some circumstances, it can be fatal.

"Diabetes is something which needs to be managed properly throughout the year and Ramadan is no exception.

"What we are finding in general is a lack of education among many diabetics on how to manage their medication.

"With Ramadan falling at the peak of summer, with long hours, it is more important that those affected understand what they have to do.

"In the majority of situations, it will probably be a simple case of educating patients on how to manage medication, what to do if they have a hypoglycaemic attack when sugar levels fall very low and how the Ramadan diet will affect their diabetes.

"Some people do not realise if their diabetes is very severe they are not expected to fast."

This year, Ramadan begins on July 9 for 30 days.

Moin's Chemist, which recently opened a pharmacy in Market Harborough, has teamed up with experts at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and the Leicester Diabetes Centre, which includes experts from the University of Leicester, to produce a number of ways to help those who are fasting.

This includes a diabetic specialist nurse and a pharmacist who have been running a series of workshops for patients. They have also produced a guide for diabetics called Fasting Toolkit for type two diabetics, which can be picked up from the store.

Mr Kolia said: "Most people who want to fast can do safely."

CHURCH SEES LARGE RISE IN WORSHIPPERS

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

The commissioning of a new Anglican church in Belgrave, which worships in a range of languages, in 2012, has boosted numbers

Church sees large rise in worshippers

by Tim Healy

Nearly 2,000 people have joined Church of England congregations across Leicestershire, a survey has revealed.

Many parishes are reporting that numbers attending services are on the increase following years of decline.

The figures for 2012 have just been published by the Diocese of Leicester, from responses sent in by more than 300 churches.

It means that across the diocese, more than 22,000 people are now regular members of an Anglican worshipping community.

The Bishop of Leicester the Rt Rev Tim Stevens said: "These figures reveal that in times of austerity people are looking for deeper satisfaction and meaning in their lives.

"Churches that are welcoming, responsive and prayerful increasingly meet that need."

The survey detailed many reasons people were prompted to find out more about the Christian faith, with a newer form of all-age, more creative church entitled Messy Church being one of the most popular.

A new multilingual congregation in All Saints, Belgrave was set up last year.

A parish spokesman said: "We have managed to reach out, resulting in 16 people being baptised, including those of other faith backgrounds."

Other churches have been involved in projects to feed those in need.

In Ashby, the CAP (Christians Against Poverty) Midlands National Forest Centre has continued to provide debt counselling and advice to an increasing number of clients.

The Rev Barry Hill, who is responsible for mission in the diocese, said: "This report brings much good news, not least that more than 22,000 Christians of all ages are showing they live, work, study, play and socialise together and that God makes a difference in their lives, in that there is much more with Jesus than without.

"The most reassuring trend is that the increase is a small and steady trend across a large number of churches, so is likely to be sustainable."

About 12,500 people attend worship on an average Sunday, and a further 3,000 on weekdays.

The number of people who attended Anglican services at Christmas 2012 was 36,800 – the highest number since 2008.

Details from the parish showed the majority of churches surveyed, 215, had Sunday congregations of fewer than 50.

There were 40 congregations of between 51 and 100, 16 between 101 and 150, nine of 151 to 250 and two of more than 250.

However, the parish returns show the average age of a worshipper remains about 14 years older than the population as a whole. This is illustrated by 465 members of churches dying in the past year.

The research, conducted annually, is available in full on the Diocese of Leicester website: www.leicester.anglican.org