St Philip's Centre

Study & Engagement in a Multi Faith Society

The parish of St Philip’s, Leicester is just 16% Christian, according to the census of 2001.  Muslims are considerably the largest community, and across the road from the 100 year old church, is a large mosque, opened in 2000.  It calls people to prayer by electronic means three times a day, and the adhan can be heard around all the neighbouring roads, including from my garden.  The St Philip’s Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi Faith Society, is housed in church and the former vicarage.  Most of the shops in the nearby Evington Road are Muslim run, and the parish crosses the boundaries of Highfields, the most Muslim area of all within the city, with the next parish of St Stephen’s having the fewest Christians in the whole country.

 The St Philip’s Centre marked this by holding an extended meeting of the Christian-Muslim dialogue group (which has been meeting now every 6 weeks for seven years).  About 90 attended, 50 Muslims and 40 Christians, and there were three speakers, Shaykh Shahid Raza OBE, who is a local Imam, and also runs the oldest Sharia Council in England, based at the Muslim College in Ealing (founded by Zaki Bedawi); the Ven Paul Hackwood, Archdeacon of Loughborough; and Nick Carter, Editor of the Leicester Mercury, the important local newspaper, which takes a very responsible attitude to all cultural and religious issues.  Shaykh Raza expressed the view that the Archbishoip had been trying to help Muslims live with integrity in this country and thanked him for this.  Non Muslims do not need to be afraid of sharia: his definition is that it is what leads Muslims to peace and salvation, and in the hereafter. The only request is that simple aspects of mainly family law can be integrated with the one andonly British law, that is all.  There is no request at all for a parallel system.  Paul Hackwood raised the crucial question, where is it possible to have a reasoned debate on the things of God in a secular society?  Maybe the St Philip’s Centre provides such a place.

The fourth event was much more low key, but is no less significant for that.  The Bishop of Leicester, Tim Stevens, is engaged in a pilgrimage for Lent.  Four days a week he is walking with small groups of companions, around the churches of Leicestershire.  He will say prayers in 123 churches in all and meet their congregations.  In addition, he decided to visit one mosque, and chose Masjid Umar, across the road from St Philip’s.  I went to make the arrangements, and asked if he could say a prayer in the mosque, as he was doing in the churches.  Imam and Chair of the Mosque readily agreed. The Bishop arrived and engaged in a lively half an hour dialogue with those around at 10 in the morning.  He then said his prayer, perhaps the first Christian prayer that had been said there.  I have been countless times to witness prayers with individuals or groups of Christians, and am always very welcome.  But this was a first.  The prayer was then translated into Arabic by the young Imam, and he then added his own prayer.  The Bishop gave thanks for the working together of mosque and church, a sentiment I could heartily say Amen to.

Bishop Michael will say that this is not a typical context.  Maybe not, but what is?   Creating alarm or suspicion is counter productive, and helps to create the very situations which it is trying to avoid.  There are years of hard work that have created the trust that lies behind these four stories.  In the process, Christian confidence has been increased in the way that Bishop Michael calls for.  It is not created by loud cries from a distance.

- Andrew Wingate (Canon Dr), Director of the St Philip’s Centre, and Bishop’s Inter Faith Adviser

    Football team- clergy vs friends of other faiths

Visit of American Ambassador

On 24^th October, we received the American Ambassador to Britain, Robert Tuttle, and his wife Maria.  They made a visit to Masjid Umar, across the road from St Philip’s.  It was a sign of our partnership with the mosque that the meeting combined half an hour in the mosque with lunch and extensive discussion in St Philip’s Church.   About twenty Muslims and ten Christians joined the discussion, and Maqsood Ahmed the Department of Communities and Local Government.  A large retinue of local police, security officers from the embassy, and from local media, were also there.  Dialogue was vigorous, and covered such areas as Gaza and Palestine, the proposed Conference about Israel/Palestine in Atlantis, Guatanamo Bay, Iraq, entry problems for Muslims to the USA, and capital punishment.  We learnt of the legal requirement for the USA not to deal with terrorists, and how this prevented discussion with Hamas.  We shared the precedents of South Africa, and of Northern Ireland, and how settlements came through bold steps to talk to the ANC, and to the IRA.  What was so special for the Ambassador and his wife, was the way Muslims and Christians interacted in a way that showed the long term trust that has developed between the Federation of Muslim Organisations, Masjid Umar, and the St Philip’s Centre.  We realised how central 9/11 is in the psyche of the American people.  We were grateful for his openness to discussion, and how he was not over defensive in a situation that was not easy for him.

Ambassador Robert Tuttle and Mrs Tuttle
 with Muslim leaders at St Philip’s.