EAST MEETS WEST IN BURTON ON TRENT

This afternoon I attend a joint meeting of the East Midlands Network on Spirituality and Mental Health and its West Midlands counterpart (or, depending on your viewpoint, the other way round) at All Saints Church, Branston Road, Burton on Trent. There's a good turnout of more than a dozen today, including faces old and new to me:

• Sarajane Aris, Head of Adult Clinical Psychology, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
• Peter Gilbert, Emeritus Professor of Social Work and Spirituality at Staffordshire University, Visiting Professor at the University of Worcester, Lead of the National Spirituality and Mental Health Forum
• Phil Henry, Director, Multi-Faith Centre at the University of Derby
• Sam Malins, Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University of Nottingham
• Katja Milner, Spirituality Healthcare Worker, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
• Abdullah Muhammad, Chaplain at the University of Derby, Community Projects Leader.
• Dr Helen Philpott, Clinical Psychologist, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
• Paul Quilter, Head of Spiritual and Pastoral Care, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
• Keith Shaw, Chaplain, South Staffs & Shropshire Healthcare Foundation Trust
• David Waldram, service user representative for Derbyshire Voice (thanks Dave, for the photo below)
• Sharon Warwick, Researcher and Psychotherapist, Apertum Associates

High on our agenda today is how to make best use of our personnel and resources across the East and West Midlands. We decide that from now on, both networks will meet four times a year: independently then jointly then repeat the pattern. We'd like to encourage members to cross over between the regions in the independent meetings as well as taking part in the joint meetings.

We enjoy three presentations today:

• "On Common Ground / The Wounded Healer" by Peter Gilbert
• "The Development of a Spirituality E-Learning Package" by Helen Philpott
• "We Need to be Made to See the Elephant: Clinical Psychologists' Experience of Addressing Spirituality in Supervision" by Sam Malins

We discuss some upcoming conferences and hope we'll be able to participate in some of them, in one way or another:

• "Living in Hope: Spirituality and Practice in Mental Health Care", Liverpool Hope University, Thu 13 October 2011
• "Doctors, Clergy and the Troubled Soul: Two professions, One Vocation?" St Marylebone Parish Church, London, Wed 2 November 2011
• "Dementia and Belief systems", Staffordshire University, Fri 6 January 2012
• "Spirituality in a Fragmented World", Highgate House, Northampton, Tue 15 - Thu 17 May 2012

Phil Henry speaks about the proposed programme of public events at the Multi-Faith Centre at the University of Derby in the autumn (and possibly into the new year) on the theme of Well Being. He gets several volunteers today willing to present sessions in the programme - including me! I fancy doing something based on the consultation about indicators for measuring national well being run by the Office for National Statistics, to which I responded for the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP) in May.

Professor Peter Gilbert has edited a new book, Spirituality and Mental Health, which he brings to our attention today. This will be of interest and importance for everyone interested in the relationship between the two. I promise Peter I'd give the book a boost in every way I can, including here in the blog.

This is a handbook for service users, carers and staff wishing to bring a spiritual dimension to mental health services. It contains 23 chapters on aspects of spirituality and mental health written by experts in the field. It promotes an understanding of people’s belief systems rather than a mechanistic approach to mental health services and proves the increasing importance of spirituality in health and social care.

EMAS COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT EVENT FOR LEICESTERSHIRE & RUTLAND

 

This morning I take up on invitation to attend a "Community Engagement Event" with the Leicestershire and Rutland Division of the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS). I'm here today (with the agreement and support of my Personnel Management Group) rather than being at the National Meeting of the Inter Faith Network being held in Birmingham (the first time in four years I've missed attending that).

The venue is The Venue, a multi-purpose community facility in Gwendolen Road that I didn't know existed before today - and very nice it is too. The event has been funded through proceeds from EMAS's recycling scheme, so not a penny has been taken from front line services to pay for this today.

When I arrive and start putting up our banner, I'm told that there's already a Council of Faiths pop up banner inside the main meeting too. I'm initially baffled by this and go in to have a look. I'd forgotten that EMAS had paid for one of the banners when the exhibition was made for display in Highcross during National Inter Faith Week 2009. EMAS had said that they'd be using this banner at their own events and, true to their word, here it was. So I put up the banner I'd brought in the foyer That's it in the photo above, flanked by Mukesh Barot on the left (Equalities Manager at EMAS) and Jagtar Singh (conference facilitator) on the right.

This event provides an opportunity to meet the Interim Chief Executive of EMAS (Prof. Tamar J Thompson OBE) and members of the Management Team for Leicestershire and Rutland; for the Ambulance Service to hear the views of the patients, public and communities they serve; and for us to become more directly involved in discussions about EMAS's current and future service provision.

East Midlands Ambulance Service provides emergency, urgent care and patient transport services for 4.8 million people across the six counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (including north and North East Lincolnshire), Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. EMAS is currently in the process of becoming an NHS Foundation Trust. An NHS Foundation Trust is a new form of NHS organisation with greater freedom from government control so that it can better meet the needs of local communities. It remains part of the NHS and is subject to NHS standards, providing care paid for by the taxpayer, to NHS patients. To make this transition successfully, EMAS it has to involve service users and community representatives. People from all walks of life in the area served by EMAS can sign up to become members of its Trust.

This is the first meeting of its kind that EMAS has held, focusing on one of its geographical divisions (in EMAS terms, Leicestershire includes the city of Leicester). It's introduced as having an educational purpose, with the intention of helping save lives by encouraging communities, families and individuals to take better care of their health and well-being. We're asked not to think that it's merely a box-ticking exercise on EMAS's part, but a genuine beginning of working with alongside communities as partners. It follows up EMAS's presence and involvement in the Mela in Leicester at the weekend just gone, where more than 350 people were enrolled as members of EMAS's Trust.

A few facts and figures that we're given about EMAS (Leicestershire and Rutland Division) today:

• Geographical area: 1,000 square miles
• Population served: 984,000
• Ambulance stations: 11
• Staff: 544
• Accident and emergency call demand (2010-11): 91,000

With the current restructuring of service providers, EMAS will shortly be the only genuinely regional health body serving the whole of the East Midlands.

I feel a debt of gratitude and loyalty to EMAS, inasmuch as they contributed to funding my post after the initial grant from central government ran out at the end of March 2008. If it hadn't been for that assistance (paid for helping EMAS organise a summit on issues of religion and belief related to ambulance service provision in August 2008) I don't think my post would have survived beyond that initial stage. The summit was covered in depth in an illustrated article in EMAS's Lifelines magazine which is still accessible online (issue no. 9, Autumn 2008, pp.11-14).

As well as being here as a show of good faith with an organisation (and certain individuals inside that organisation) that helped preserve my post, I've also been asked to be here specifically because of a small number of incidents involving paramedics at local places of worship. More than once in recent months, paramedics have been called to attend places of worship for what is classed as a "Category A8" call ("A" signifying top priority - meaning that there is a perceived immediate risk to life, "8" being the number of minutes within which they must arrive at the scene of the incident) but have then been denied entrance to the premises because they have not removed their shoes or have not taken the time to cover their heads. One such incident also involved people at the place of worship being upset because a female paramedic arrived to treat a male patient. I take the time to speak with members of the EMAS team who have a special interest in these matters and we tentatively agree to meet up soon after this event and discuss in more depth what can be done to avoid such incidents occurring in future.

I also have a friendly and interesting chat with Simon Behan, EMAS's Recruitment Manager, about ways in which to make a career in the Ambulance Service more appealing to young people within the diverse faith communities of Leicester.

Kelly Jussab and Liz Harrison are here with promotional material for the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP) as is Chino Cabon from The Race Equality Centre (TREC). REDP has been involved in helping EMAS develop its Community Engagement Strategy - both through attending focus group meetings around the region and critiquing the strategy as it has developed on paper.

There's a demonstration of how paramedics treat patients suffering cardiac arrest and the opportunity to take a guided tour round an ambulance vehicle. We're also offered a free mini health check today. The queue for that forms to the left of our banner and leaflet display, as you can see in the photo above. That's good news for one attendee, who is discovered to have a dangerously slow pulse and is given what's described as "life saving treatment" right away.

There's a choice of four workshops:

• Performance and response: what happens when you ring 999
• Infection control and vehicle cleanliness: practical demonstration with Q&A
• Engagement: how can EMAS engage/involve you more effectively
• Access: what can the Ambulance Service do to improve access to services and career opportunities?

Guess which one I attended, faithful reader ...

A buffet lunch brings this short, but very useful meeting to an end. We're told that we won't be allowed to leave today until each one of us has designated an ICE number on our mobiles. That's a person who should be contacted In Case of Emergency. Paramedics routinely look for this number on the phone of patients who are unconscious or can't communicate. I do this for mine - and sign up as a member of EMAS's Trust too.

COULD COMMUNITY RELATIONS SURVIVE A HOMOPHOBIC CAMPAIGN?

There's a common assumption that the two protected characteristics of religion or belief and sexual orienation are incompatible. While that's not necessarilly the case, I'm glad to say, the friction between the two can lead to considerable sparks. Here's a piece on that topic from today's Guardian Society:

Could community relations survive a homophobic campaign?

Jack Gilbert, gay rights campaigner, on what really happened between faith leaders and his community after homophobic stickers appeared in a diverse London borough

It's late afternoon on Bethnal Green Road, in east London, and I am rushing from the tube for a meeting. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I catch something that brings me to a stop: a rainbow flag turned into a no entry sign, with the words "gay free zone" written across. Above are the words "Arise and warn" and below "And fear Allah. Verily Allah is severe in punishment". Both with a Koranic reference. I shiver, and am reminded of the words "Juden raus" (Jews out) that my mother would have seen in Berlin in the 1930s. It is not something I thought I would ever witness 70 years on in one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in Britain, where gay pubs share the same streets as synagogues and Halal butchers.

The previous December, at a meeting of Rainbow Hamlets – the Tower Hamlets lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) forum, which I co-chair with Rebecca Shaw, the police had told us about two reported anti-gay sticker sightings in the borough. They linked them to a sighting in neighbouring Hackney, one across the capital in Twickenham, and another in Nottingham.

Between 11 February and the end of March, more than 65 similar stickers were displayed around London, with over 50 in Tower Hamlets. This was turning out to be the most intense homophobic hate literature campaign since the 1980s battle over section 28.

Coverage of the sticker campaign, particularly online, often seemed ill-informed. Comment pieces from both sides tended towards a rabble-rousing tone, inspiring a torrent of racist and Islamaphobic abuse. I experienced more back-to-my-roots shivers, this time thinking about my grandparents' fight against Oswald Mosley's blackshirts.

Acting on Rainbow Hamlets's advice, a joint statement was issued by Tower Hamlets' mayor Lutfur Rahman, the Inter-faith Forum, and the East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre (ELM). This represented the first public condemnation of homophobia by both Rahman and the ELM.

The local authority, Tower Hamlets Homes (the largest social housing provider in the borough), and the Metropolitan police also issued directives to ensure that within a further 48 hours hundreds of public servants were on the lookout to report the stickers and remove them.

A series of specially convened meetings at the town hall drew representatives from council departments, education, housing, the police and community organisations. At these meetings, the sticker campaign, homophobic hate preachers, racism among some members of the LGBT community and the infiltration by the far right of East End Gay Pride were placed firmly on the agenda, each with equal vigour. And here, the ELM first admitted there had been homophobic incidents in the mosque in the past and that it had adopted new policies and procedures to ensure it would not happen again.

Add in regular community consultation and the police operation, and these joint actions represented a rapid and timely response to events.

At informal meetings involving the Council of Mosques, the ELM, and the Inter-faith Forum, chaired by a Christian minister, we looked at how to address homophobia in faith communities. We argued that no hatred, harassment or bullying of any LGBT person is ever justified by faith, even when scripture forbids same-gender sexual relations. Whatever any community's teaching, this is entirely separate from its duty to respect human life and to develop good relations with its neighbours and other communities of culture and belief.

Out of these meetings came the idea for a major interfaith conference on the International Day Against Homophobia on 17 May. A multifaith LGBT steering group was assembled and Rahman and the cohesion minister, Andrew Stunell, agreed to join more than 80 LGBT and straight people from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist and secular backgrounds.

But in April, it suddenly became hard to get a response from the Council of Mosques and the ELM. We realised that neither would talk publicly about their new stance on hate speech, or even, despite our strenuous efforts, send any formal representatives to the conference. A couple of community members were sent along to participate in their own right, but a chance was missed, goodwill dissipated and the trust that had been built up sorely tested.

All too often, these issues are dealt with in ways that create enormous tensions and hurt, reinforce ignorance and disrespect, and build anger and hatred. At the same time, whatever good words are said to us in meetings in private, they are only of value if they lead to public action. Otherwise, what use are they in building understanding between communities when tensions exist?

Meanwhile, it soon became clear that the law does not deal with anti-gay hate material in the same way as it does racist, antisemitic or anti-faith literature.

The relevant Public Order Act section depends on whether the material displayed is: threatening, abusive or insulting (section 5); whether there was also an intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress (section 4a); and if the conduct or material is threatening and is intended to stir up hatred (section 29).

If the offending material is racist, antisemitic or anti-faith, there is a special aggravated status given to the section 4a offence which means it becomes a serious criminal charge that can be dealt with in the crown court, with more extensive powers of sentencing and greater police powers of investigation. This does not apply to homophobic hate material.

Whereas the case law for racist and antisemitic material is well established, many of the provisions relating to homophobia only came into effect last year. There is no case law directing police or the Crown Prosecution Service towards the appropriate charging level or identifying what constitutes threatening homophobic material.

Neither Metropolitan police nor British Transport police (BTP) investigating officers would accept that the stickers were threatening. The BTP, which had CCTV footage, charged Mohammed Hasnath under section 5. He was convicted last month after admitting to displaying and disseminating the stickers to others, but not to intending to cause distress. Hasnath claimed he was merely promoting his faith. However, District Judge Jeremy Coleman said when passing sentence: "I think you used these stickers deliberately to offend and distress people, you certainly succeeded in doing that. You have upset people and they deserve an apology, you are not entitled to behave in this way." Hasnath received a £100 fine.

In June, we obtained a month-by-month analysis of homophobic crime figures in the borough. It reveals that incidents in Tower Hamlets have risen by a third (33%) between April 2009-March 2010 and April 2010-March 2011, much more than the 21% widely reported in the media. The increase is of even more concern because the data counted all the reports of stickers in the borough as one linked incident.

The ELM is a leader of the Muslim community, with a responsibility to set an example. It has accepted it has hosted at least one homophobic speaker, Abdul Karim Hattin, in 2007, whose Spot the Fag lecture was featured on Channel 4's Dispatches programme. Last month, the ELM contacted Rainbow Hamlets after accusations of culpability for the rise in homophobic crime in Tower Hamlets appeared in the national press. It asked what could be done.

We are now engaged in intense dialogue. Our approach is to treat the ELM like any other body in which homophobia has occurred. So we have made clear that we intend to compile an evidenced-based report. We have asked the ELM for a clear statement of its policy towards homophobic speakers. On its website it does say "those hate preachers who circumvented our bookings policy in the past are now barred; our vetting procedures for speakers and guests appearing at our mosque and centre have been significantly tightened over the past year". But to date no one has seen its policy. We have also asked how it will enforce the policy and, crucially, for a clear response about which preachers are barred. We intend to report progress next month.

Today, moderate communities have a simple unequivocal duty: to be seen to show all their neighbours respect – whether or not they agree or approve of their beliefs or lifestyle. What is needed is a paradigm shift among LGBT and Muslim opinion formers, one that enables the leaders to find a rhetoric that can speak of respect and joint-working publicly, and which addresses patterns of prejudice on all sides without fear.

Twenty years ago this month, I was secretary of the Jewish Lesbian and Gay Helpline when it was banned from a cross-community charity walk organised by the chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, because it was an event for families. Clerics, like all of us, can change. Nowadays, Sacks says: "Jews cannot fight antisemitism alone, Muslims cannot fight Islamaphobia alone, gays cannot fight homophobia alone. The victim cannot cure the crime, the hated cannot cure the hater. We are as big or as small as the space we make for others who are not like us."

We should all take note.

And wisdom makes three

At the offices of Christians Aware in Saxby Street this afternoon, where half a dozen of us gather to review the course offered in the last spring term, "Mindfulness and Morality", and discuss the one for spring 2012, "Mindfulness and Wisdom".

Here's the rough format we agree today for the spring course:

• Week 1: Definitions: what's the difference (and relationship) between data, information, knowledge, wisdom
• Week 2: Wisdom related to faith (James W Fowler's Stages of Faith)
• Week 3: Wisdom related to faith (Dana Zohar's Spiritual Intelligence)
• Weeks 4-7: Wisdom from different faith perspectives, following the overall brief
• Week 8: Summary session, reviewing the different perspectives, looking for common ground

Presentation (40 minutes)
Presenter would answer the following questions from their faith perspective:
What is wisdom?
How is wisdom manifested in life (a) generally and (b) by an individual faith practitioner?

Group activity (20 minutes)
On the basis of the presentation, the groups prepare a challenging question to put to the presenter.

Presenter responds (30 minutes)
The presenter responds to one question perform each group and leads discussion on it.

The final session would draw together appropriate threads from all three years' worth of these courses: Mindfulness and Meditation (2010); Mindfulness and Morality (2011); and Mindfulness and Wisdom (2012). These cover the three-fold Buddhist practice of meditation, morality and wisdom. Once they're all done, there's the possibility of a book coming out of it. I owe a 1,500-word article on the "Mindfulness and Morality" course in for the Christians Aware magazine - due before the end of August.

In the photo above: Barbara Butler, Kevin Commons

EXPLORING FAITH AND THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

At County Hall, Glenfield (seat of Leicestershire County Council), for a meeting of the Interfaith Forum for Leicestershire. There's a good turnout, with over 40 attendees just about filling the Sparkenhoe Committee Room. There are people here from city and county groups - and from further afield.

This evening's topic is "Exploring Faith and the Justice System". The aims for the meeting (as stated in publicity circulated beforehand) are:

• to explore faith/religious beliefs, in the context of the justice system/Rule of Law
• to hear different perspectives around justice and the law, from a legal specialist, and also from faith perspectives
• to explore faiths which provide separate systems of law for their followers, and if/how these can be reconciled at all with the UK legal system, or whether this brings followers into conflict with their faith
• to get our members to think about what we agree as being morally/ethically right or wrong and to potentially explore issues around human rights.

Our speakers are:

• His Honour, Judge Simon Hammond of Leicester Crown Court
• Shaykh Faiz-Ul Aqtab Siddiqi of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal and Principal of Hijaz College Islamic University, Nuneaton

Judge Simon Hammond started his talk with a list of qualities that are expected of a Judge (each one illustrd with a an amusing or instructive anecdote): honesty; patience; briskness; attentiveness; independence. He addresses two practical issues relted to faith identity and practice in the courtroom: Muslim women wearing veils when giving evidence and saccomodating breaks for observance of prayers at specific times. In more general terms, he considers the relationship between justice and forgiveness, darawing on experience and knowledge of cases related to domestic abuse and crimes of a sexual nature (such as the Ealing Vicarage Rape Case). He ended by reading a prayer for Judges of all faiths. He left us with a question: does the conventionally accepted Locke/Rousseau Social Contract compromise the integrity of people who want to live their lives in submission to the will of God?

Shaykh Faiz-Ul Aqtab Siddiqi describes how he helped found the Muslim Arbitration Council in 2007 as part of a process to help Muslims born into third and/or fourth generation families here feel equally at home in being British and Muslim. The Council is different from Sharia Courts inasmuch as they can go beyond the conventional areas in which sharia Courts are seen to bbe involved. He tells us how 98% of the Council's work is with young people and that around 15% of those who bring their issues to the Council are not Muslim - indeed there are a growing number of cases where neither partyis Muslim). Their goal is to deal with issues before they escalate to the level where they come to the attention of the authorities and have to be dealt with by the Law.

We also hear from two young Muslim women from Leicester, involved in the Interfaith Youth Hub run by St Philips Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society, who tell us about their perspectives on Trade Justice. They had attended a meeting of the Christian-Muslim Youth Forum at Lambeth Palace, where they'd had the opportunity to meet the Archbishop of Catnerbury, Dr Rowan Williams. They pepper their brief presentation this evening with references from the Quar'an and Hadith to justice, fairness and honest dealing in trace and business. Given the strength of their conviction and the warmth of the reception from the audience, I have to say I'm glad I'm wearing my Ethletic trainers this evening!

There are some Bahá'ís heer this evening and, although it is not mentioned aloud, I am sure that they, like I, have in mind this verse from Bahá'u'lláh's Hidden Words:
The meeting is brought to a close by Noel Singh, Policy Officer at Leicestershire County Council, who organises these meetings (and more) from behind the scenes. He tells us that this is the last meeting of the Interfaith Forum for Leicestershire to be chaired by Resham Singh Sandhu, who has held the chair (which goes round members on an annual rotation) for the past twelve months. Noel also informs us of a memorial meeting for Rachel Carmichael, who passed away at the weekend. the memorial meeting will be held at the Quaker Meeting House, Queens Road, Leicester on Wed 28 July, 1430.

The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.

Christian MP sets up inquiry into religious discrimination

An interesting piece published today on the website of The Guardian:

Christian MP sets up inquiry into religious discrimination

Amid General Synod discussions on religious freedom, Gary Streeter calls on colleagues to examine hate crime and equality

By Riazat Butt, Religious Affairs Correspondent

A select committee-style inquiry on Christianity is to be held in order to clarify how the law affects believers, amid increasing claims of religious discrimination and persecution.

The public hearings, scheduled to last for about three months this autumn, will invite peers and politicians to examine legislation on hate crime and equality and evaluate whether changes are needed.

The inquiry is the idea of Gary Streeter MP, a Christian who chairs the cross-party group Christians in Parliament. He said that, while there was religious freedom in Britain, some groups were "whipping up an alternative view and generating fear" where there did not need to be any. He said: "That fear is growing, that voice is growing. There is a particular problem. In the last 12 months, we have had legal cases that provoked concern. These now need to be tackled."

Christian Legal Centre, which is at the forefront of representing those who feel they are being discriminated against in the workplace because of their beliefs, said earlier this year it had about 50 cases on its books and received up to five calls a day from Christians seeking to take action against employers for failing to respect their faith.

Their clients have included Colin Atkinson, an electrician who wanted to display a crucifix in his van, and Owen and Eunice Johns, who refused to tell foster children in their care that homosexuality was acceptable.

Streeter said the panel would invite submissions from legal professionals, businesses, individuals and social policy groups from faith and non-faith backgrounds.

"The outcome of our inquiry might be that the law needs to be nudged back in certain areas and we won't shy away from saying so," he said.

"The public at large don't care what we do but, in the Christian community, there is a measure of concern about the issue. They will be pleased to see Christian parliamentarians doing something. They will be pleased to receive some reassurance that the fear whipped up is not necessary.

"It's only people of the Christian faith running up into the law; secularists aren't doing that. We are not putting one group of people above one another."

The MP's move came as the Church of England grappled with the issue of religious freedom at this weekend's General Synod meeting in York.

The chair of its public affairs council, Dr Phillip Giddings, told the legislative arm of the Church of England that some employers had "interpreted the law in ways which seem to assume that reasonable respectful expressions of faith, are, almost by definition, offensive".

He said: "This is a cause of great concern. We shall continue to monitor the emerging case law on how far employers can lawfully limit the ability of Christians to manifest their faith in the workplace."

Synod member Alison Ruoff asked if he was aware of an increasing marginalisation of Christians, leading to persecution. Giddings replied: "I am well aware that many Christians believe that to be the case. We are reflecting those views in our dealings with government."

The bishop of Bradford, Nick Baines, welcomed the inquiry: "It will be a good thing to have people in parliament doing this kind of thing. They can nail down some of the myths.

"I don't believe Christians are being persecuted. Having said that, I do think there is still a degree of religious illiteracy which is prejudiced against Christians in some circumstances. To say we're being persecuted is nonsense."

Trevor Phillips, who chairs the Equality and Human Rights Commission, claimed last month that the person most likely to "feel slighted" because of their religion was an evangelical Christian.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, he said there were a lot of Christian activist voices who appeared "bent on stressing the kind of persecution that I don't think really exists in this country".

LIGHTS OUT ON THE DARK SIDE

Sorry to see that The Dark Side Cafe close down this weekend. The cafe, in Leicester's Cank Street, had acted as an informal centre for many in the local Pagan community, as well as being a watering hole for a good number of folk who would pride themselves as being of an alternative nature. Meetings such as the local Pagan Moot were held there, as were other gatherings, many of which were open to the public. The basement had potential for use as a performance space, although it was never really put to such use. I gave The Dark Side a big shout out in the blog whenever I could (including local media coverage about its struggle to stay afloat) and I took a group of girls visiting from Blackpool there as part of a tour of Leicester's centres of faith or belief. It's notoriously difficult to run an independent cafe and Leicester city centre is overrun with Costa and Nero and Starbucks as it is, leaving the ten or so independents to square off for a relatively small share of the remaining customers. Although The Dark Side undoubtedly had its loyal fanbase, that wasn't enough to ensure its survival in a very competitive market.

The closure of The Dark Side cafe is a sad loss to the richness and diversity of Leicester. I (and many, many others) wish all the best in future to Lucie Belikova (above), who was the warm, welcoming and charming manager and hostess at The Dark Side.

NEVE SHALOM: OASIS OF PEACE

Despite having been in post for more than four years, I'd not yet visited Neve Shalom - the synagogue of Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation. I was speaking with my friend Leon Charikar (Chair of LPJC and Programme Manager for NHS Pacesetters in the East Midlands) earlier this week and mentioned this omission - yet again. All the more shameful on my part, as I live only ten minutes walk from Neve Shalom and pass it on a fairly regular basis. Not for the first time, Leon extended an invitation to visit the synagogue. He mentioned that today would be a good occasion on which to do so, as they'd be celebrating a Bat Mitzvah, with  Baroness Rabbi Julia Neuberger, a public figure I've long admired (even if she doesn't share my enthusiasm for Glasgow novelist James Kelman) coming up from London to conduct the service.

I've visited the Orthodox Synagogue in Highfields Street three or four times now, so this seems like a good day on which to start redressing the balance.

Neve Shalom means "Oasis of Peace" (Isaiah 32:18). It is named as a tribute to the village near Jerusalem known as Neve Shalom / Wahat al Salam, where Jews, Christians and Muslims live together, creating a living example of harmony in diversity, showing that these three great faiths can live and work together for the greater good. The life of that village is a constant source of inspiration and a beacon of hope for peace for Jews, not just in Leicester but all over the world.

I'd picked up some of the story of the origin of Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation when I was part of the team working on the Jewish Voices oral history project, covering the life of Jews in the city in the 1940s and 50s. Most of the information given below has been taken from literature that I picked up in the Synagogue today. I prefer to have people and groups featured in this blog speak for themselves, in their own words as much as possible.

In the late 1940s a small group of Jews in Leicester were seeking an alternative to Orthodox Judaism. In 1950 they formed the Liberal Jewish Group, affiliated to the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues, later renamed Liberal Judaism. They held services in members' homes and hired halls  for festival services and religion school.

By the 1960s the name was changed to the Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation. they held biweekly services at the Friends Meeting House until the present building was bought in January 1995 and refurbished to become a synagogue. the building itself had previously been used as a nursery school and was designed by Leicester-born Ernest Gimson, described by one authority as,  "the greatest of the English architect-designers".^[

Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation is an affiliate of Liberal Judaism. They cherish and honour Jewish heritage, but interpret Jewish tradition in the light of modernity, while preserving all that is good in those traditions. They promote pluralism and engage in dialogue with other streams of Judaism, other religions, cultures and philosophies. it practises full gender equality in all aspects of congregational life. Services are conducted by visiting rabbis from the Liberal and Reform movements, as well as by their own members. The prayer books they use, published by liberal Judaism contain gender-inclusive language, in both Hebrew and English.

LPJC is represented on Leicester Council of Faiths and is active in the field of inter faith understanding. They support and work for Tikun Olam (Repairing the World) in its widest sense. They support and help Asylum Seekers and a number of other good causes, Jewish and non-Jewish. Neve Shalom is registered as a Fairtrade Synagogue.

Eleven o'clock is the starting time for the service; Leon has advised me to get there a quarter of an hour before that. When I arrive, the first person I meet whom I know is Denise Bergman. I've worked alongside Denise a few times at events in Leicester College (where she teaches), at SACRE and on our first exhibition at Highcross during National Inter Faith Week 2009. She finds a spare kippah for me to wear and we go to the back of the gathering, where I sit with her and her husband Andrew.

Today's Order of Service contains a page about Bar/Bat Mitzvah by D. Mottram-Epson, entitled, "Just in case you aren't sure what it is all about":

A Bar/Bat Mitzvah is a male or female aged thirteen or over who gains adult responsibilities within their synagogue and Jewish community. A Bat Mitzvah means daughter of the commandments, and refers to a Jewish girl who has reached the age of thirteen. Strictly speaking you become Bar or Bat Mitzvah, rather than have a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. The rite of passage ceremony will vary according to the branch of Judaism and the customs of the synagogue. But in all cases the ceremony marks the Jewish child going from childhood to adulthood.

In a Liberal synagogue the ceremony is the same for both genders. It has evolved so that the Bat/Bar Mitzvah can demonstrate that they are able to fulfil the necessary requirements of a Jewish adult in the service. For a Liberal or Reform Jew the person should be familiar with Jewish history, Jewish practices and festivals and have a decent standard of reading Hebrew. This ceremony is Incorporated into the Shabbat Morning service on or after the child turns thirteen. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah leads certain prayers. Then they have an aliyah (call up), where the rabbi calls them up to the bimah using their Hebrew name, to read from the Torah scroll. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah says the blessing before and after reading from the scroll, and will generally read between 10-25 verses of the week's portion. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah may also choose readings and/or poems from Jewish literature to personalise the service. It is a Jewish parent's religious obligation to teach his or her child or children about Judaism including helping them to prepare for their Bar/Bat Mitzvah though importantly it should not signal the end of their religious education.

Family is a very important part of Judaism and, like other religions, they gather for important festivals and events and this occasion provides a perfect opportunity to get family together. In addition, some family members are often asked to participate in the service. For example, opening the doors of the Ark, undressing the Torah scroll or holding the Torah. This is considered an honour. After the service the Bar/Bat Mitzvah holds a party and celebrates.

I must say, I am very impressed with the young girl who takes centre stage as Bat Mitzvah today. As part of the service she reads an exegetical essay on the story of Balaam and his talking donkey from the Torah. It's a remarkable thing to listen to, researched, written and read by someone who has just turned thirteen. Rabbi Julia Neuberger (who is officiating today largely because she is a long-term friend of the family) takes this text as the basis of her short sermon later on, in which she extols the virtues of being able to change one's mind.

While I would confess to being lost in the many passages of Hebrew singing, I don't need to know the language in order to clap along.

Over a hundred people attend the service today, not all of them from the Leicester congregation. This (apparently) is evident in the variation in tunes and rhythm followed in the singing; not that I'd have noticed, but the rabbi does, remarking on it with good humour more than once). A great many of those present are children and young people. Live music at the beginning and end of the service is provided by the Bat Mitzvah herself (doubling up on trumpet and clarinet) and her family. The gathering ends with the serving of what has become the Jewish signature dish on such occasions: bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon and dill pickle.

I am really taken (moved, even) with my first visit to Neve Shalom - Leicester's own Oasis of Peace. I'll certainly ensure that it isn't my last!

This week's visitors

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

1. United Kingdom 432
2. United States 22
3. Germany 43
4. France 36
5. Romania 24
6. Canada 22
7. Iran 20
8. Ukraine 20
9. Russia 17
10. Estonia 12

This week's total: 847 (last week's: 806) - in the week we jumped 51 places, from 137 to 86 in the Wikio Top Blogs chart for the topic of Religion and Belief. 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.

Network Nature Express exhibition

At Pedestrian Arts, Rutland Street, this evening, for the launch of the Network Nature Express exhibition.

Network Nature Express is an art project for people with mental health problems who use the Resource Centre at Network for Change. It is funded by Ecominds, a £7.5million funding scheme managed by Mind on behalf of the Big Lottery Fund. The project provides the opportunity for expression through the arts, inspired by the local environment, culminating in an exhibition accessible to the general public. It also provides the opportunity to access green spaces on rambles and residential trips which provide the chance to get out of the city to experience nature and improve mental and physical well being.

I taught Creative Writing at Network for Change on Friday afternoons for five years. I love these guys and what they do. It's great to see this exposure of the terrific work the service users have done. There are examples of their writing on display here, cleverly printed onto pages from an old book of wallpaper samples. It's all stuff they've done under Clare in the last few months (as well as one of Clare's own pieces). Everything has been made anonymous, no names are attached to any of the exhibits - which leads to me constantly embarrassing myself in guessing who's done what.

After a week at Pedestrian Arts, the Network Nature Express exhibition moves to Fabrika Independent Art Centre, 68 Humberstone Gate, Leicester LE1 3PL.

Read the Network Nature Express blog.