40 YEARS: THE UGANDAN ASIAN STORY

Last week, I posted an article lifted from the Leicester Mercury about a forthcoming exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of the expulsion of the Asian community from Uganda. This morning, I found out some more information about this on the website for New Walk Museum and ArtGallery.

40 years: The Ugandan Asian Story

New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester

14th July - 30th September 2012 

Leicester Arts & Museums are planning an exhibition at New Walk Museum & Art Gallery to mark the 40th anniversary of the expulsion of Ugandan Asians, and for some of them, a subsequent move to Leicester.

The exhibition will focus on the 40 years since the expulsion and the impact the Ugandan Asian community has had on Leicester and the way the community has adapted to life in the UK.

As part of the development of the exhibition we are looking to work with the Ugandan Asian community to record memorable stories by interviewing people, scanning photographs and recording objects. We are particularly interested in memories and objects from the early years of moving to and living in Leicester.

Please come along to our event day in March to share your memories and stories as well as to learn more about the events that unfolded over 90 days in 1972.

40 years: The Ugandan Asian Story - Event Day

Saturday 10th March 2012, 11.00am - 4.00pm

Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre, Rothley Street, LE4 6LF

If you would like to find out more about the exhibition or event day please contact: Philip French on 0116 225 4980 / philip.french@leicester.gov.uk

MINDFULNESS & WISDOM 6: THE PLACE OF WISDOM IN THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN TRADITION

At Christchurch, Clarendon Park, for the sixth session in the course, "Mindfulness & Wisdom", offered by Christians Aware as part of their Faith Awareness programme. The eight-week course has been devised by Ian Grayling and Kevin Commons from the Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

Our topic this evening: "The Place of Wisdom in the Judeo-Christian Tradition", presented by Revd Marcus Braybrooke. Marcus Braybrooke is President of the World Congress of Faiths and is the author of many books on religion and spirituality in its many forms. His specialist interest is in relations between Christians and Jews. The copy below is almost entirely adapted from the handout we’re given this evening.

Wisdom literature was commonplace in the Ancient world. Here are a few examples of Ptahotep's advice:

"Do not gossip in your neighbourhood, because people love the silent."

"Only speak when you have something worth saying."

"Love your wife with passion."

"Do not blame those who are childless, do not criticise them for not having any, and do not boast about having them yourself."

Wisdom literature in the Bible

The Wisdom literature includes books such as Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon and perhaps the Psalms and (in the Apocrypha) The Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus, which is the Greek translation of Ben Sirah who wrote the book in Hebrew c. 190/180 BCE and it was then translated into Greek for his grandson in 132 BCE. Wisdom literature in the Bible is of two types: instruction and reflection.

Instruction

Are you good at getting up in the morning? If not, here's one for you: "As the door turns upon its hinges, so doth the slothful turn upon his bed." (Prov 26:13). Again, "The bickerings of a wife are like the ever-dripping gutter." (Prov 19:13). But lest we be accused of sexism, Proverbs also says of a virtuous woman, "her price is above rubies." (Prov 31:10). Sometimes there are parallels with New Testament passages: "The tongue that soothes is a tree of live; the perverse tongue a breaker of hearts." (Prov 15:4) and "With the tongue we praise Our Lord and Father with the tongue we curse man, who hath been made in God's likeness." (James 3:9). There is quite often a suggestion that God will reward the righteous: "Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord will not let the upright go hungry. He thwarts the greed of the wicked." (Prov 10:23). Also, "The righteous man 'shall be like a tree planted by the waterside, but the ungodly are like chaff, which the wind scattereth away from the face of the earth." (Psalm 1)

Reflective literature

Wisdom literature ponders the injustice of life: "God has delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. Know now that God hath overthrown me, and has caught me in a net. Behold I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud but there is no judgement." (Job 19:6-7) The Preacher in Ecclesiastes says: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity".

The personification of Wisdom (who is female)

Wisdom says in "The Lord brought me forth or created me as the first of his works ... I was appointed from eternity, before the world began." (Prov 8:22)

"wisdom pervades and permeates all things. She is the breath of the power of God, pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty ... She is the reflection of the eternal Light, untarnished mirror of God's active power, and image of his goodness." (Book of Wisdom 7:25-26) Wisdom gives understanding and teaches the secret of a good lire, which is obey the Torah. Solomon says: "I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me ... I loved her above health and beauty ... She is a treasure unto men that never fails." (Wis 7:7)

"Thy word is a lantern unto my feet: and a light unto my paths." (Psalm 119:105) "Thy testimonies are wonderful: there fore doth my soul keep them." (Psalm 119:129)

Wisdom in the New Testament - Parallels in the Gospels

Wisdom says: "Put your neck under the yoke and let your soul receive instruction: she is hard to find." (Ecclesiasticus 51:26) Jesus says: "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me." (Matthew 11:25) Testing, and the mocking of a servant of God's claim to be protected by God: Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life: for if the righteous man is God's son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries." (Wis 2:17-18). "He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" (??)

The wisdom of God is foolishness to men (1 Cor 1:17ff)

Wisdom is a challenge to human conceit and to a knowledge-based pattern of education.

Jesus as the Wisdom or Word of God

Several New Testament writers identify Jesus with the figure of Wisdom who was with God from the beginning but how close is the parallel?

Paul actually speaks about Christ as "the power of god and the wisdom of God." (1 Cor 1:24) and says that his message was "of the mystery of the wisdom of God - even the hidden wisdom, which God orddainedCor 2:7) "Wisdom is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness." (Wis 7:26) The author of Hebrews says of Christ: "He reflects the glory of God and hears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power." (Prologue to John's Gospel)

Later Judaism

Rabbinic Judaism said little about Wisdom, but she reappears in Kabbala or mystical Judaism.

"How should we speak of Jesus?"

Some translations of the New Testament avoid "Father" and "Son".

"Stories of the Prophets", and Arabic Bible that uses "Lord" instead of "Father" and "Messiah" instead of "Son".

"True Meaning of the Gospel of Christ", an Arabic translation which removes "Father" in reference to God and removes or redefines "Son".

A Turkish translation of Matthew that uses "guardian" for "Father" and "representative" or "proxy" for "Son".

The Bengali Infil Sharif, which translated "Son" as "Messiah" and "Son of God" as "God's Uniquely Intimate Beloved Chosen One"

We're given an exercise for our small group work that seems a little odd, given that not everyone in the room is Christian (we have at least two Secular Humanists, two Buddhists and a Bahá'í). We're asked to discuss the most helpful way to speak of God's presence in Jesus:

• Jesus is God
• Jesus is the Image of God
• God was in Jesus Christ
• Very God of Very God
• The Wisdom or Word of God was present in Jesus and also in Buddha and Zoroaster and Krishna
• Jesus as a window into God (which is how he is described in Honest to God)

BBC RADIO LEICESTER: DISCUSSING FORGIVENESS WITH MONICA WINFIELD

On BBC Radio Leicester this morning with Monica Winfield, talking about forgiveness. John Florance phoned me last Wednesday morning to ask if I'd take part in the show, speaking to the topic from a Bahá'í point of view.

I walk down to St Nicholas Place from home in Stoneygate (my 11-year old son Harry comes along to keep me company - and to continue our ongoing conversation about DC comics' new 52). That little stroll takes us about 45 minutes at this time of the morning. It's cold, of course, but pleasant enough.

I'm the last of the three guests to arrive, just after 0800. Already there and ready to roll are Allan Hayes, Trustee of the British Humanist Association and past President of Leicester Secular Society and Daud Sameja, Chairman of the Leicester Christian-Muslim Dialogue Group at St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society (in the photo above with Rebecca Bryers, the show's producer).

I haven't met Monica (photo above) before. She keeps us going for a quarter of an hour or so, asking two questions, which all three of us get to answer in turn. Then she allows us each a final thought. It's all very agreeable and matey and a genuinely enjoyable experience.

As well as putting across some of the ways in which I'd say the Bahá'í principle and practice of forgiveness converges and diverges from how it's seen and done in other traditions, I get to use one of my favourite quotations: "Resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other person dies." This is attributed to Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) - although personally, I heard it for the first time uttered by Tim Bayliss an unusually spiritually-centred detective (played by Kyle Secor) in the classic police procedural Homicide: Life on the Street. The quotation came up in connection with our agreement that an important aspect of forgiveness is how it allows us to draw a line under the past and make personal and collective progress.

This is the third time that Allan Hayes and I have sat together in this studio. He remarks (off-air) that he and I will have to put our minds to engineering a public spat of some sort before long, since most people expect the two of us to disagree with each other and we're constantly surprising them that we agree on so much. Thankfully, Monica is not of that opinion and is glad to promote harmony and cooperation on this slot. The programme can be heard on BBC Radio Leicester's Listen Again facility till midnight, Saturday 3 March (our chat begins just after 0810).

"ANTI-GAY" BOOK PUTS GOVE AT CENTRE OF FAITH SCHOOL TEACHING ROW

This article appears on the website of the Guardian today:

"Anti-gay" book puts Gove at centre of faith school teaching row

Education secretary says Equality Act does not extend to school curriculum – allowing faith schools to use homophobic material

By Jamie Doward

Michael Gove, the education secretary, is at the centre of an escalating row over how faith schools discuss homosexuality in sex education classes.

The TUC has accused Gove of failing in his legal duties by insisting that equality laws, which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, do not extend to the school curriculum.

The TUC complains that the current situation sends mixed signals to the playground, because schools are legally obliged to condemn discrimination on sexual-orientation grounds but free to use religious materials that equality campaigners claim is homophobic.

Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary, wrote to Gove in December expressing alarm that a booklet containing "homophobic material" had been distributed by a US preacher after talks to pupils at Roman Catholic schools across the Lancashire region in 2010.

The booklet, "Pure Manhood: How to become the man God wants you to be", discusses a boy dealing with "homosexual attractions" which it suggested may "stem from an unhealthy relationship with his father, an inability to relate to other guys, or even sexual abuse".

The booklet, which claims that "scientifically speaking, safe sex is a joke", explains that "the homosexual act is disordered, much like contraceptive sex between heterosexuals. Both acts are directed against God's natural purpose for sex – babies and bonding."

Referring to the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination against individuals, Barber said: "Schools now have a legal duty to challenge all forms of prejudice. Such literature undermines this completely."

But Gove insists: "The education provisions of the Equality Act 2010which prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their protected characteristics (including their sexual orientation) do not extend to the content of the curriculum. Any materials used in sex and relationship education lessons, therefore, will not be subject to the discrimination provisions of the act."

Gove's response has triggered anger from the TUC. "Having written to the education secretary to express our worry about the distribution of homophobic literature in faith schools, his lack of concern is very alarming," Barber said.

A DfE spokesman insisted: "Any school engaging in the promotion of homophobic material would be acting unlawfully." But the row highlights a grey area over the teaching of sex education. A review intended to provide new guidelines on what was appropriate for schools to teach was kicked into the long grass when the last election was called.

"It would certainly be helpful if there was clarity as to what is appropriate for young people of all ages," said Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights group Stonewall. "The water could no longer be muddied by people pushing age-inappropriate sex material on the one hand and fundamentalist anti-gay religious materials on the other."

The row comes at the end of an extraordinary week in which the role of religion in society has come under acute scrutiny.

The chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, said religious rules should be left "at the door of the temple" and give way to the "public law" laid down by parliament. Phillips said: "Once you start to provide public services that have to be run under public rules – for example, child protection – then it has to go with public law." Phillips spoke out after Baroness Warsi, the Tory minister, warned Britain was under threat from a rising tide of "militant secularisation".

Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, warned that Christianity was being marginalised. Days earlier, the high court ruled that councils had no statutory power to hold prayers in meetings, while the Christian owners of a bed-and-breakfast lost an appeal against a ruling that their policy of restricting double rooms to married couples discriminated against a gay couple.

Concerns that faith matters are being marginalised at school has prompted the creation of a new coalition of faith groups and politicians. The Religious Education Council of England and Wales is to back the creation of an all-party parliamentary group that will focus on protecting religious education in schools and stressing its value to young people.

GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION TO SECULARISM SHOULD CONCERN US ALL

This story appears today on the website of the Huffington Post:

Government opposition to Secularism should concern us all

To call Britain a "Christian country" is only marginally more sensible than calling Italy a "Roman country" and it was appropriate that Baroness Warsi made her most recent rallying cry against secularism amongst all the archaic pomp of the Vatican state. As a simple factual statement the "Christian country" line is of course demonstrably false (the most recent British Social Attitudes Survey published at the end of last year put the proportion of Christians at 40% and falling) and as a historical claim it omits as much of our cultural past as it includes. But on this occasion it was not so much Christianity the Baroness had come to praise but secularism she had come to attack.

But it is not overweening secularism that is the UK's problem - it is continuing and entrenched privilege for Christianity and Christian churches, and the consequent efforts by other religious groups for privileges of their own.

It was especially surreal of the Baroness to accuse secularism of being "intolerant" and "illiberal". It is not secular schools in England that are allowed by law to discriminate against children on the basis of their parents' religious beliefs: it's the thousands of state-funded Christian schools and the handful of those run by other religions. It is not secular agencies that reserve employment opportunities for staff according to their beliefs, but the many Christian and other religious agencies who are increasingly having public services contracted to them by the state. It is not non-religious organisations which lobby for and have received special exemptions from laws - like equality laws - that should affect everyone equally. It's not the British Humanist Association that has unelected representatives as of right in our national legislature - it's the 26 bishops of the Church of England who are there.

These and many many other examples of religious privilege and continued official discrimination on grounds of religion or belief give the lie to Lady Warsi's oft-repeated smears. 

by would be good if we could dismiss her as just a minority of one but - at least in her views on this issue - she is far from isolated. Eric Pickles just last week jumped into the row about local councils not being able to include prayer on their formal agendas with the same anti-secularist gusto he has displayed on previous occasions. At the end of last year, David Cameron made his own extraordinary speech on Britain's status as a Christian country, a speech which provoked more astonished bemusement than outrage, with its self-evidently ahistorical and bizarre statements, and its improbable calls on us all to be confident in our Christian nature.

When they are so palpably out of kilter with reality, why do present day politicians keep saying these things?

The most hopeful political reading is that they don't really mean it and are just attempting to pacify the small but increasingly strident minority of Christian lobby groups who are seeking yet great influence in our public life and greater privilege for those with Christian beliefs. It would be a shame that politicians had bought into the crazy narrative of "christianophobia" that these lobby groups promote, but at least we could rest assured that it would just be political rhetoric and no practical harm would come of it.

More alarming is if Warsi, Pickles and Cameron are serious in their message. A government that tried to make Christianity and Christian beliefs the foundation of British values or a social morality would be building on seriously unstable and unshared foundations. Secularism is essentially a political strategy that says, in the context of a diverse society, the state should not discriminate in favour of or against any person because of their religious or non-religious beliefs. For a government to set itself against that principle is concerning, and the expansion of state-funded religious schools, contracting out of public services to religious groups, and official guarantees of Christian privilege in public life give increasing plausibility to this second interpretation of the politicians' words.

If the latter interpretation is the correct one, then politicians should remember that their approach is far from popular. In a 2006 IpsosMori poll, "religious groups and leaders" actually topped the list of domestic groups that people said had too much influence on government. In the research released yesterday by the Richard Dawkins foundation, over 90% of self-described Christians said they did not think religion should have special place in public policy. A majority of the public surveyed - including a majority of Christians - repeatedly say they are against new religious schools. Policies that pursue religious exceptionalism in defiance of demographic reality and public opinion can only cause division and dissent.

Andrew Copson is Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association. 

LIVE AND LET LIVE OVER THE ISSUE OF FAITH

This appears in the Op-Ed column of today's Leicester Mercury:

Live and let live over the issue of faith

There has been a rather heated debate taking place over the past week about the place of religion in our society. First, there was an outcry over a judge's ruling that the saying of prayers as part of the formal proceedings in a council meeting was unlawful. Then, Cabinet Minister Baroness Warsi spoke out against "intolerant secularisation". And leading atheist Richard Dawkins entered the fray with the findings of a survey which he felt showed that religion was largely irrelevant in our society.

Isn't the answer to this faith versus secularisation debate really rather simple? Surely, it all comes down to that old saying: "Live and let live". As the Bishop of Leicester states in his column on the page opposite, nobody is forced to worship in this country against their conscience. We share his hope that we might all become more relaxed about this subject.

The most difficult issue is to what extent religion should play a part in public life. It seems to us that there are two aspects to this. The first is that there are a large number of people in this country who do adhere to a faith. It seems fair enough, then, that this should play some part in our public life and institutions.

If people want to send their children to faith schools, for instance, that seems a reasonable liberty in a tolerant society. To insist that faith schools should not have state funding would automatically deny that option to the vast majority of believers.

The other aspect is the fact that religion is interwoven into our traditions and culture. Churches are part of every village, town and city across the UK. In Leicester, mosques and temples have become part of our landscape. Similarly, religious services form a time-honoured part of many public events. This is part of the rich tapestry of our culture and that is a great strength of this country. We do not see why the saying of prayers in a council meeting, for instance, is any way objectionable. Those who do not want to say them are perfectly entitled to refrain from doing so.

Let's be honest, in this country it really is very easy to take religion or leave it. There is no societal pressure to follow a faith. It is very much a personal choice. We see no need to change the balance which currently exists. To each his own!

THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO BUILD A SECULAR STATE

The Rt Revd Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester, writes the First Person column each Saturday in the Leicester Mercury. Here's the one that appears in today's paper.

This is not the time to build a secular state

The Bishop of Leicester considers public faith in a week of mixed fortunes for religion

Public faith has been much in the news this week. The story began with a judge's ruling about Bideford Council. Although he did not forbid the saying of prayers in the council chamber, he ruled it to be unlawful that such prayers should be part of the formal council proceedings. The ruling seems to have triggered an outcry from many quarters. It is mostly regarded as another step on the long journey towards removing any religious acts or rituals from our public life.

Many have seen this judgement as part of a process of marginalising Christianity which has shaped and coloured our national story.

The Queen spoke at Lambeth Palace this week of the important role of the Church of England as creating a space in which faith can be celebrated and shared as part of our national life. She, of course, is aware that prayers are said in both Houses of Parliament before the start of each day's proceedings. And she is aware too, that most of our great national occasions are marked by public acts of worship.

That will certainly be the case on many occasions during this jubilee year, and especially in St Paul's Cathedral during the national celebration of the jubilee in June.

It raises the question, what would a secular culture look like? If there were no public prayers said before any Government proceedings, if there were no great services in our cathedrals, and if there was no monarch to act as head of the Established Church, would our lives be more free and fulfilled? What if the spires and towers of our parish churches were removed from our cityscapes and landscape? What if every village no longer had an ancient iconic building at its heart?

What if the mosques, temples and gurdwaras were removed from Leicester?

It seems that the practice of religion is so fundamental to human beings that it is impossible to eradicate it.

So I hope we might all become more relaxed about this in this country. No-one is forced to worship against their own conscience.

The great majority of people in this country are quietly sympathetic to the Church while not practising their faith in any committed way.

But there is no general desire to see a secular State from which all signs of human believing have been removed.

And here in Leicester I have no doubt at all that when the Queen comes to town in three weeks time, she will be feted by people of all faiths and none. Many of us will wish to join her celebration, giving thanks for her faithfulness and Christian witness, and we shall want to pray both privately and publicly for her immense contribution to our national life over 60 years. This surely is not the time to build a secular state, but rather an opportunity to make those who are secular feel at home in a country which is comfortable with celebrating its heritage of faith.

VIEW INSULTING TO RELIGIOUS PEOPLE

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

View insulting to religious people

Yet again, Allan Hayes gives us a dose of secularist propaganda dressed up to look innocent and moderate (Mailbox, February 13).Yes, of course we must all work together, but that will never be achieved without the blessing of God, who is all truth.

To suggest that people holding a particular religious view cannot work with others because of the school they attend is an insult to the very great majority of them.

The idea of the Government to foster the foundation of schools with a religious ethos is a very good one. It is well accepted by many that such schools tend to be better with regard to both the quality of learning and the discipline, and this is why, for example, so many non-Catholic parents try to find a place for their children in a Catholic school, rather than at the Joe Bloggs comprehensive. (There are, of course, notable exceptions on both sides).

Parents have an absolute right to have their children educated in a religious ethos if they so wish, and most will want their children to learn about their own faith before starting looking at other faiths.Most (not all) local education authorities are "dead hands", so taking the provision of assistance to schools from them is no bad thing.

In the end, though, the agenda of Mr Hayes, as always, is to undermine religion, particularly the Christian religion, from which most western culture comes.

It was interesting to hear Baroness Varsi, a prominent Muslim, state that she could see a concerted effort from militant humanism and secularism to push religion out of public life.

Mark W Jacques, OP, Quorn

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (1,839)

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

1. United Kingdom 714
2. Germany 473
3. United States 399
4. France 99
5. Russia 45
6. India 43
7. Canada 18
8. Poland 18
9. Australia 16
10. Netherlands 14

This week's total: 1,839 (last week: 2,331). 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 that map for "now" (i.e. in the last two hours), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time" (which seems to mean the last 12 months). They're updated each time I look at them.

ANOTHER ATTACK ON CHRISTIANITY

This letter is published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Another attack on Christianity

The High Court has ruled that councils did not have the power to put acts of worship on the formal agenda.

The case was brought against Bideford Town Council in Devon by the National Secular Society after atheist ex-councillor Clive Bone said he was "embarrassed and disadvantaged" when prayers were said at council meetings.

I am pleased to see that Prayers will not be axed from the start of Parliamentary sessions.

The Speaker John Bercow insisted that laws dating back to 1689 mean any attempt to end prayers in the House of Commons would fail.

His wife Sally Bercow said on Twitter "if people want to say prayers before or after council meetings fair enough, but right that prayers should not be 'official' part of the proceedings".

I am pleased to see that Eric Pickles the Communities Secretary called this ruling "illiberal and intolerant" and pledged to overturn it with legislation by the end of the month.

This is yet another attack on Christianity in this country and a way of trying to silence Christians. It's a disgrace this ruling was made in the first place. Prayers have been part of council meetings for many years and should continue.

Kevin Fletcher, Coalville