The first thing I would like to do is thank all those who made it along to our AGM last Sunday. I felt very privileged to chair this opportunity to look back on a challenging year, learn from the experience and then navigate a way forward through our programme.
Through my report I was also able to thank my vice chair David McKnight for his wisdom. support and a considerable amount of hard work. This AGM also showed how fortunate we are to have Bev Heslin, as our new membership secretary since her through personality and organisational skills, we have over 85 paid up members with the number steadily rising. Just like your average runner bean, the options for this group increase as there is so much more we can do with support.
The role of chair for another year is a wonderful opportunity for me and I am so grateful for your support.
During the AGM our membership established the fixed term of my office and then a need to appoint an additional vice chair to aid the process of succession, I explained how all the time I was looking out for new talent of which there was quite a bit already evident in the room. A few moments later almost half of those present mysteriously decided they have very urgent engagements and needed to get away- perhaps in pure terror of my observational skill and the monstrous responsibility they'd created!
Lately I have been reminded of the opening scenes from Shakespeare's Hamlet in which the main character receives an uncomfortable reminder from the past in the form of his father's ghost. Up until this point it might have been possible for him to be a diplomat among friends, focused merely on gaining the approval of others and being a part of the group, Since Hamlet's father had been murdered, and there was "Something rotten in the state of Denmark", he was given instead a legacy of injustice. Hamlet's famous speech beginning with the words "To be or not to be" showed the dilemma of someone desperately wishing to avoid taking action.To avoid becoming a leader Hamlet first discredited his father's ghost and then steadily lost his own identity by pretending to be mad.
It probably goes without saying that the culture associated with Denmark's legendary history and Shakespeare's England provided very few options in issues associated with murder and revenge. This play is primarily however about truth and how knowledge of the truth can define leadership.
Hamlet very soon discovered that the problem with ignoring his duty was that he was no more likely to be understood or endear himself to others. Instead of creating a comfortable situation, those whom he cared about were confused and misled. Through lack of honesty inevitably the innocent suffered.
That experience of being confronted by the past is common to many faiths. It is also evident that through loyalty to their understanding of the truth, a considerable number of religious leaders have been murdered. Like Hamlet we have the option of considering any evidence of belief and priorities through scriptures, laws and traditions as being an irrelevance. We can ignore the example of those who have made sacrifices for their beliefs, to become so much less than we might be. Leadership I believe is not about importance or popularity but reacting honestly to the truth as you see it. and then allowing yourself to be led.
On Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of attending Reading's SACRE which for those of you not familiar with this abbreviation stands for "Standing Advisory Committee for Religious Education." (SCARY" for those like me who have some difficulty spelling!)
The venue of this meeting was quite special since we were in the Museum Art Gallery surrounded by an assortment of Victorian pictures. Despite a very relevant agenda, one picture telling the tragic tale story of Gelert the faithful hound said a lot to me about duty and injustice, being particularly hard for this dog lover to ignore.
Instead of looking at paintings for the evening we were treated to several mysterious boxes all put together Cherry Gould, founder member of the Reading Interfaith Group. These contained a very wide assortment of religious artefacts all beautifully presented as a resource for teaching about different religions in schools. I came away from this meeting hoping very much that through the recent funding acquired through the rise in membership our group would be able to provide an opportunity at one of our future events to display them.Item 4 on the Agenda took me completely by surprise having been given no indication there would be anything required but to sit still, be quiet and try my best to behave. Suddenly being presented with approximately 10 minutes to speak on the subject of Social Inclusion from an Interfaith perspective seemed a bit like taking part in a Radio quiz show! Helpfully there is rather a lot you can say about this subject without hesitation, repetition or deviation. I now have conclusive proof that those on our SARCE committee are very polite, especially concerning guest speakers who turn up with no notes, visual presentation and "blag on".
On Friday Bev and I had the pleasure of visiting Langtree School to talk to their assembly about interfaith. This proved to be a most enjoyable morning, I was most impressed with the warmth of our welcome, the courtesy of everyone we met and how well their students listened. As we left Langtree School Bev ruthlessly made me get out of her car to pose for a photograph beside the entrance as a record of our visit, so being a little camera shy ( for fairly obvious reasons) I hope she left the lens cap on!
