Maitreyabandhu: Buddhist and gay talking about his life

This is a short (16min) video interview with a friend of a friend of mine. Both are ordained members of the Western Buddhist Order. I have not met Maitreyabandhu but I find his openness, warmth and ordinariness impressive. 
Here is the link: http://www.videosangha.net/video/Maitreyabandhu;recent

I preached against homosexuality, but I was wrong

Jack Drescher, NYC gay psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, keeps watch through the dark night
http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/03/27/presbyterian_minister_changes_mind_about_gays/

Jesus and Judaism: The Connection Matters

The Third Annual Rabbi Tann Memorial Lecture: Jesus and Judasim - The Connection Matters
Prof. Amy-Jill Levine, University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, will deliver the 3rd Annual Rabbi Tann Memorial Lecture on Thursday 2 June 2011 at 5pm in ERI Room G51 followed by a Drinks Reception. Her books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (HarperOne). A self-described “Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Christian divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt,” Professor Levine combines historical-critical rigour, literary-critical sensitivity, and a frequent dash of humour with a commitment to eliminating anti-Jewish, sexist, and homophobic theologies. For information contact Charlotte Hempel at c.hempel@bham.ac.uk or Isabel Wollaston i.l.wollaston@bham.ac.uk.

Anyone interested in joining me on this trip out to Birmingham? I will gladly buy the driver dinner in Brum.

Faith schools- a comment

Watching my friends, mainly on facebook, talk about the choice of schools for their children is instructive, The middle classes may be short of money but they are certainly not short of savvy when it comes to choice of school for their children.

I am frequently asked by friends who are not themselves Catholic to comment on the virtues (hang on not of St Thomas) but of possible Catholic schools. I have no idea so tell them this. I do not know if they think I (me?) pull strings for them. I ask them why Immaculate Heart of Mary School for the Creative Arts or St Galileo's Specialist School for Science etc? The answers come back multilayered - results. discipline, uniform, 'the atmosphere' (I do not sniff at this) and pastoral care.

I would not like to be a parish priest having to sign off parental applications. Nor a school selector.

We had a leaflet through the door for the first state funded Hindu school opening in Leicester http://www.krishna-avanti-leicester.org.uk/
We were tickled at the last sentence on the flyer:  School address: Spencefield Lane, Evington, Leicester LE5 6HN (follow the sign for St Paul’s Catholic School).  I could not imagine any other faith school giving directions via another faith school. Speaks volumes about the HIndu values at least as I experience them in this city.

Association of Art Historians Warwick University 31 March-2 April

To Warwick this week for the AAH jamboree. Besides the big hitters there are 19 parallel sessions covering the cutting edge, as we say even in the rather dusty world of art history, and my paper is in the Colour stream. Originally it was a two hander covering neuroscience as well as psychoanalysis. Only the latter of the two legs is left standing. My paper is on the colour yellow how it has been used to badge Jewish people for a very long time http://www.aah.org.uk/page/3234

Apart from being one of the big art history conferences it attracts a lot of up and coming art historians. I imagine there will be a lot of brownosing going on as well as the young, desperate for jobs realise that there are few of them around.

It is said that when Melanie Klein had finished preparing a conference paper she laid it aside and got on with the really important task of choosing a new hat. Thank you, Mrs Klein. Well, I begin my paper with a chunk of Klein's startling 1946 paper 'Notes on some schizoid mechanisms' which, when I first read it many decades ago, it was one of the moments when you know something is going on, difficult as it was to understand, it was important. So it has proved to be. I am taking the precaution of taking some copies with me of the text (and the references in my paper). Paul has made a beautiful to look at set of powerpoints to illustrate the talk.

If readers would like to have a copy of the paper and the ppts then do ask after next week please.

What is sexual orientation?

The Vatican is clearly getting itself into a tizzy if it has to resort to this kind of position-making statement. Notice how easily and eerily it slips into a seductive binary of feelings/thoughts versus behaviour. As if it was as simple as that. My view is.... well read what follows and then let me know what you think then I will post what  I think.

Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-32108?l=english

HOLY SEE STATEMENT ON "SEXUAL ORIENTATION"

"Human Sexuality ... Is Not an 'Identity'"

GENEVA, MARCH 24, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, permanent representative of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, delivered Tuesday at the 16th Session of the Human Rights Council on "sexual orientation."

* * *

Mr. President,

The Holy See takes this opportunity to affirm the inherent dignity and worth of all human beings, and to condemn all violence that is targeted against people because of their sexual feelings and thoughts, or sexual behaviors.

We would also like to make several observations about the debates regarding "sexual orientation."

First, there has been some unnecessary confusion about the meaning of the term "sexual orientation," as found in resolutions and other texts adopted within the UN human rights system. The confusion is unnecessary because, in international law, a term must be interpreted in accordance with its ordinary meaning, unless the document has given it a different meaning.[1] The ordinary meaning of "sexual orientation" refers to feelings and thoughts, not to behavior.[2]

Second, for the purposes of human rights law, there is a critical difference between feelings and thoughts, on the one hand, and behavior, on the other. A state should never punish a person, or deprive a person of the enjoyment of any human right, based just on the person's feelings and thoughts, including sexual thoughts and feelings. But states can, and must, regulate behaviors, including various sexual behaviors. Throughout the world, there is a consensus between societies that certain kinds of sexual behaviors must be forbidden by law. Pedophilia and incest are two examples.

Third, the Holy See wishes to affirm its deeply held belief that human sexuality is a gift that is genuinely expressed in the complete and lifelong mutual devotion of a man and a woman in marriage. Human sexuality, like any voluntary activity, possesses a moral dimension: It is an activity which puts the individual will at the service of a finality; it is not an "identity." In other words, it comes from the action and not from the being, even though some tendencies or "sexual orientations" may have deep roots in the personality. Denying the moral dimension of sexuality leads to denying the freedom of the person in this matter, and undermines ultimately his/her ontological dignity. This belief about human nature is also shared by many other faith communities, and by other persons of conscience.

And finally, Mr. President, we wish to call attention to a disturbing trend in some of these social debates: People are being attacked for taking positions that do not support sexual behavior between people of the same sex. When they express their moral beliefs or beliefs about human nature, which may also be expressions of religious convictions, or state opinions about scientific claims, they are stigmatized, and worse -- they are vilified, and prosecuted. These attacks contradict the fundamental principles announced in three of the Council's resolutions of this session.[3] The truth is, these attacks are violations of fundamental human rights, and cannot be justified under any circumstances.

Thank you, Mr. President.

NOTES

[1] Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties, Article 31(1): "A treaty shall be interpreted in good faith in accordance with the ordinary meaning to be given to the terms of the treaty in their context and in the light of its object and purpose" (emphasis added). Article 31(4): " A special meaning shall be given to a term if it is established that the parties so intended. " These rules of treaty interpretation are based on customary international law, and are applicable to "soft law."

[2] Moreover, many publications have given definitions of "sexual orientation," and all of the ones that we have seen are similar: they do not refer to behavior; they refer to sexual feelings and thoughts. E.g.:

(1) "sexual orientation means the general attraction you feel towards" another person or persons. Equality Commission (The United Kingdom); See, www.equalityhumanrights.com, under "What does sexual orientation mean?

(2) "sexual orientation may be broadly defined as a preference for sexual partners …." International Labour Office, ABC of Women Workers' Rights and Gender Equality (2nd ed., 2007), p. 167). A "preference" is a mental-emotional state; it is not conduct.

(3) "sexual orientation refers to a person's sexual and emotional attraction to people …." Amnesty International, Crimes of Hate, Conspiracy of Silence (Amnesty International Publications, London, 2001), p. vii (emphasis omitted).

(4) "'Sexual orientation' refers to each person's capacity for profound emotional, affectional and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations …." Asia Pacific Forum, ACJ Report: Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (15th Annual Meeting, Bali, 3-5 Aug. 2010), p. 8.

[3] L-10 on freedom of opinion and expression; L.14 on freedom of religion or belief; L. 38 on combating intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization.

Further material from Northern Ireland

Today's Guardian reports mounting piles of evidence about the extent of the antigay attitudes in Northern Ireland http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/23/workplace-homophobia-northern-ireland

This develops the piece on the blog the other day. Now that there is less killing it seems as if the hatred formerly acted out between the IRA and the so-called Loyalists, is turned towards The Other - migrants and, especially, LGBT people. Of course, the versions of Christianity adopted by some, not all, in Northern Ireland are fundamentalist illiberal and ultimately doomed. Monocredal state funded faith schools do little to challenge the idea that people are more alike than they are different.

It is no surprise that so many LGBT people flee Northern Ireland either for the Republic or the UK. The trouble is that they often bring the internal psychic wounds that being on the receiving end of such hatred with them if they flee into exile. It is sad and, when the general suicide rate is already higher than the UK and that for LGBT (especially) young people  even higher makes it utterly tragic.

The Barber Institute University of Birmingham

Dr Martin O'Kane, author of many books and articles on the links between faith and art, is leading a study session at the Barber in Birmingham on Saturday 14th May 2011. I understand that the uptake is not good so I thought I would mention it to readers of the blog. My motives are, of course, mixed. I want to spread the info about the day and I want the day to go ahead.

The Barber is a small art gallery in the University of Birmingham with a high quality collection from medieval to contemporary art - mainly paintings. Martin O'Kane, whom I have not met or heard but I have a good impression of him from emails, is a scholar who seems to wear his scholarship lightly. He was at Newman in Birmingham and is now at what was Lampeter, University of Wales.

If you want to come on this trip could you let me know and I will ensure the organiser at Newman College has the right numbers.

For those who do not know Birmingham, it has wonderful municipal art galleries especially strong on the PreRaphaelites and Buddist art.

Cassone - a new e-journal of the arts

Alice Anderson's new sculpture ties-up the Freud Museum using thousands of metres of red dolls hair

Blog readers may be interested in this new venture - an e-journal of the arts. See side bar My Blogs for a link to Cassone. They have asked for review of an exhibition by Alice Anderson at the Freud Museum in Hampstead. From Friday 15th April.
Details:  http://www.freud.org.uk/exhibitions/74077/alice-anderson%C3%A2%E2%80%99s-childhood-rituals-/

Save Ulster from Sodomy?

The BBC report on this case can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12818480

What balance is to be stuck between the 'right' to freedom of speech and the 'rights' of minorities? What precedence should be given to claims that a group's dogmas, scriptures, 'rights' have some kind of priority? Who or what should decide? On what prinicples? How do we talk to each other when we have very different world views? What happens when one group claim that their insights must have priority? How do we live together when some claim absolute truth over other's 'mere opinions'. I could go on but will rest for a while.

Loose Cannons

This is from the Pheonix Cinema film diary:
"As a homosexual man choosing how and when you come out to friends and family is no small matter. So having rehearsed your announcement a thousand times, what would you do if your brother makes the same announcement before you, and your father has a heart attack? Ingrained family attitudes are rarely examined in Italian cinema and while undeniably comic in tone, Loose Cannons achieves an openness and humanity which is surprisingly inspiring."


I found it beautiful to look at, especially the street scenes, the close ups of the faces, the formality of the mise-en-scene. The dressings of the interior room scenes were so perfect.  My subjective experience was of great sadness as it made me think of the human suffering such a  society needs as it  struggles to fit in with the 20th century's Freudian revolution in our understandings of sexuality. This revolution is not of Copernican dimension but it certainly is enormous and the use of the device of the father's heart attack is a such a multi-layered metaphor for what is going on and needs to go on.  Perhaps the Italian experience is particularly difficult because of the presence of the HQ of the Catholic Church is currently in Rome. But even here in Leicester, the recent row over the BBC Radio Leicester programme by Dulcie Dixon illustrates that, whilst it might not be stylish here compared with Italy, there are almost identical forces at work that would cajole gay people into pretending they are heterosexual. Is heterosexuality compulsory?


It is no wonder that one of the great contributors to critical theory, Leo Basani, was Italian pushing queer theory out of the narrow closet so that the lives seen and lived in the film can sometimes produce considerable works of creativity but usually not. I thought the, perhaps over easy, polarisation of the younger gay son's choices between factory management and starving novelist does capture something important not just in Italy. Then there is the allowed hypocrisy of heteronormativity which is so claustrophobic with the the husband being allowed a mistress and his wife being forced to condone it.


Having said all this I liked the film and am glad it is popular in Italy where it must contribute to to debate about the sexualities, repression and the gap between theory and practice which needs to be better balanced.


https://tickets.phoenix.org.uk/visInternetTicketing/visMovieInfo.aspx?MovieName=Loose+Cannons&CinemaID=1001

Pappano and Mahler in Birmingham

Great week for Italy. Thursday was the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the modern Italian state. Saturday we have the greatest Italian orchestra coming to Birmingham Symphony Hall playing Mahler.
http://www.thsh.co.uk/view/pappano-conducts-mahler-1
There are still tickets available.

Campaigning to turn back the clock on equalities legislation: Stop Civil Partnerships, Gender Recognition etc

In the last week we have watched a fascinating example of how the forces that would change progressive measures affecting LGBT people, their families and friends gain momentum. Watch how the media, uncritically, allow so called 'victims' of equality to  appear on TV and radio programmes with out discovering who may be managing them. Often powerful, well funded, groups find individuals and couples who claim to have been 'persecuted' for their religious beliefs. For example, a business refuses to serve potential customers because they are gay or lesbian and cries "foul" because they claim it is against their religious beliefs. A couple are refused approval to foster children because of their religious views on homosexuality.

The word 'Christian' is used cleverly to give the impression that all Christians are heterosexual and homonegative. Gay and lesbian people are sloppily called 'the homosexual lobby'. The notion that the Christian church is monolithic is simply off the map. The reality of diversity is ignored. Language needs to be monitored constantly. And challenged if you have the energy.

The latest to join this argument is The Catholic Union http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=17839 but all the main Christian denominations have their own versions.

For a local example listen to BBC Radio Leicester's Dulcie Dixon show from 13 March which is on iPlayer for seven days. It will be interesting to see how the programme of 20 March deals with the aftermath of the previous week's programme.

If you want to listen again to the programme of 13th March and it has gone from iPlayer we may be able to help you with a recording made by a well-wishers.

If you feel a comment to the BBC is in order it is easy to put a comment on the BBC website or ring up and leave a message. Every little helps.

Murdoch is a threat to us

We have five days left to challenge Rupert Murdoch's bid to dominate our media.

The government's public consultation on its approval of Rupert Murdoch's takeover of BSkyB ends this Monday. Our media and democracy are on the line -- and this is our chance to show that the British people reject this deal.

Our messages in recent weeks have already pushed Jeremy Hunt, the minister responsible, to squeeze some limited concessions from Murdoch. It's time to make Hunt go much further, and send this bid to the Competition Commission for full scrutiny rather than wave it through. Click to send a message directly to Hunt's official consultation, and then forward this email to everyone: 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/murdoch_send_messages/97.php?cl_tta_sign=1bbd480a076f0de3371e7a7dc1625dcb 

Thanks to hundreds of generous donations from across the UK, Avaaz has launched an all-out campaign to stop the Murdoch deal -- running an opinion poll to be released to national press, buying adverts urging key decision-makers to stand up to Murdoch's corrupting power, and initiating a legal challenge. But to succeed, we must match these tactics with our voices in the official democratic process. We must show that this is something people take personally, in every corner of the country -- and that ignoring us would carry a political price. 

Many say the deal is done, but if we bombard the political elite, the public and the official process with one clear message -- the people of Britain reject this deal -- we can still win. 

To bypass critics, Murdoch promised to spin off Sky News as an "independent" company. But media experts point out that this is a farce: News Corp will still pay Sky News's bills, provide its satellite access, and be able to place loyalists on the board. This fake and only temporary independence is exactly the sort of "safeguard" that Murdoch has created to whitewash previous takeovers -- and subsequently brushed aside like a cobweb. 

Let's tell Jeremy Hunt that Murdoch has too much power already -- we don't want him wholly owning Britain's largest commercial broadcaster any more than we want him owning our politicians! 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/murdoch_send_messages/97.php?cl_tta_sign=1bbd480a076f0de3371e7a7dc1625dcb 

Responsible media is a vital pillar in any democracy, informing voters and holding the government to account. Murdoch's media is the opposite: it spreads hatred, war, and division, and turns politicians into puppets. This week is a major battle for our media freedom. Let's stand up for our democracy. 

With hope, 

Alex, Sam, Alice, Brianna, Pascal, Graziela and the whole Avaaz team 

Sources: 

Jeremy Hunt 'wrong not to refer NewsCorp bid for BSkyB':
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/8358824/News-Corp-clears-way-for-BSkyB-bid-with-plan-to-spin-off-Sky-News.html 

Jeremy Hunt a Rupert Murdoch fan:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/03/04/jeremy-hunt-a-rupert-murdoch-fan-115875-22964525/ 

News Corp-Sky deal: opponents urge MPs to lobby Jeremy Hunt:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/14/news-corp-sky-jeremy-hunt 

Letting Rupert Murdoch buy BSkyB creates a media superpower with worrying influence:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/features/2011/03/04/letting-rupert-murdoch-buy-bskyb-creates-a-media-superpower-with-worrying-influence-115875-22964550/ 

---

BBC Radio Leicester Dulcie Dixon

Last Sunday's edition of Dulcie Dixon, unusually, had a theme. It usually is made up of mainly black/Gospel music and events many of which are not in Leicester/shire. This Sunday the programme began by examining an examination of the recent legal case involving a Derby couple who are Christian and black who wanted to start fostering children again. The case went to a high court and, even though they were supported by a Christian legal organisation, they lost. The programme went on, unusually, to consider the relationship between homosexuality and the black community, or at least the Black churches. It then attempted to discuss the aetiology of homosexuality. A number of people appeared on the programme. Most of them took the view that homosexuality was a sin to be avoided.

The programme can be heard for just a few more days here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d738

It would be interesting to read your opinions.

James Macmillan on blogging and cultural censorship

Writing in his occasional blog in The Daily Telegraph, James Macmillan gives good reasons why the extension of blogging is a good thing. He feels some what sidelined by the cultural arbiters of taste in Scotland so he has his own blog in the DT and his own website. In the DT posting from early February he makes the point that so-called lay critics can often be just as insightful as the professionals. ENO's recent Borgia is an example where most critics laid into it - probably because Mike Figges dared to insert film into the opera - but all those around me in the stalls seemed to enjoy the evening because of the film not despite it.

What do others think?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/jmacmillan/100051206/the-blogosphere-allows-me-to-shrug-off-the-orchestrated-venom-of-the-scottish-arts-media/

Of Gods and Men

This is our Sunday treat at the no longer brand new Phoenix in Leicester.

"Of Gods and Men

Causing a sensation at Cannes, Beauvois’ powerful drama reduced hardened journos to tears when premiered at the festival. When a civil war breaks out in Algeria, seven Cistercian monks are caught in the middle. Do they abandon their local Muslim community, or do they accept their fate and stay? This is bold, grown up filmmaking, anchored by a beautifully understated performance from Lambert Wilson." We will see. Sunday 13th March. Well we went to see it and know now that the above quotation is not over the top. If I did not know many Cistercian monks at first hand and over many decades I would have perhaps found the monks in the film rather odd. From my experiences with them they are actually, well some of them, ordinary human beings who wear woolly hats, swear occasionally and have the same conflicts internally as anyone else. I suppose the extra twist with these Cistercians is that they are French and French Catholicism, I have come to realise mainly from watching www.ktotv.com is sui generis. It tends not to look over its shoulder to see what Rome wants or not, it is independent and it is French. Some of the lines from the frere Christian are jewels and some up so much of what I think to be true. The comment above about being a "grown up" film are true in my opinion. Cinematographically, it is beautiful to watch.

Thomas Ades and Steve Reich in Birmingham

Well the truth is that it is the music of Reich rather than the man himself in Birmingham. The other piece is a joint effort by Ades and a video artist http://www.thsh.co.uk/view/ades-conducts-ades-and-reich .

For those who enjoy Reich here is a You Tube snatch. Enjoy.

Norah Cox nee Ratigan + 3 March 2011 aged 98

The last remaining aunt in the generation above me died last week. She had been well-cared for in a nursing home in the same village in which she had lived most of her life. My understanding was that she was the second eldest child of her parents, Lawrence and Ellen, (my paternal grandparents). Her elder brother Lawrence and younger brothers Bernard (my father), John and Willie (a child) together with her sister Nellie, all pre-deceased her.

She married John Cox and they adopted Anthony, my cousin alongside whom I was brought up. Anthony, called Tony, was a school teacher and school head. His father was caretaker of Cardinal Langley School, Middleton. Tony married Dymphna Ryle and so my family was linked with the Murphy family who figured much in my childhood through the Ryle-Murphy link.

Tony and Dympna have four children, my second cousins, Gregory, Eleanor, Magdalene and Damian.

Norah has been well supported over the years since her beloved Tony died. Her daughter in law and her four grandchildren have been the best.

Norah worked with my mother Mary O'Brien from the mid 1920s. They attended the same parish church and school in Castleton. Norah was a deeply pious good woman who worked tirelessly for the church being sacristan for  many years. She was a kind woman and the result of her and John Cox's love was manifest in Anthony and the marriage he had with Dympna.

Norah, having worked closely over decades with the clergy, had few illusions about their fallibility. She she served them and at times saved a number of them from the silliness that having a non married, six foot above contradiction, life can bring. Her piety was legendary and it was not false but genuine.

May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

"Bring flowers of the rarest
Bring blossom the fairest...."


Of that generation's children there remain,after my sister Margaret died in 1986, my cousins Cathryn Wardle nee Ratigan, Anne Stansfield nee Ratigan and myself Bernard the last of this branch of the Ratigan family.

Evensong New College Oxford Saturday 5th March 2011

As a teenager in the 1960s I was much influenced and helped by two people: Morley Dobson and his female partner Sue Fisher. Morley taught, or tried to teach, at Rochdale Technical School for Boys. He had, I understood been at Harvard and Cambridge, he wore a very threadbare Harris Tweed suit, his hair went everywhere and had pebble small glasses. His partner, though we did not use the word in those days, was a social worker. They were members of the Society of Recorder Players. They took me to many concerts. One day they took me to Choral Evensong in York Minister just after I started at the University there. It was a cold autumnal evening. The music was wonderful. I had no idea what it was all about. Afterwards, we had tea in Betty's tea rooms. We chatted and I spoke about the oddness of going to what I called a "Protestant" service. They put me right and casually they said they were agnostics (not atheists) and it was for them a purely an aesthetic experience - like going to any other concert but in rather a "smashing" building.

I sent many hours in the next three years sitting at Evensong in the Minster and it became one of the more important experiences of my undergraduate time in York. I also came to know some of the Minster clergy and the last thing they could be called was "Protestant".

Fast forward to now and there I was in New College Oxford hearing one of the finest choirs in any religious foundation that I know. My current favourite is their recording the J S Bach's St John Passion sung entirely by current and past members of the College choir including James Gilchrist http://www.newcollegechoir.com/cds/bachpassion.htm

They were not on top form last night but still very decent. What struck me again, as it did in York Minster all those decades ago, was that this was more liturgy as performance (as it always is to some extent) rather than liturgy as the common worship of the people of God present in the chapel.

I remain grateful to the cathedral and collegiate musical tradition of the anglican church. It has added so much to the musical life of the country. I would not be without it. However, my preference is for liturgy as the common worship of God of the people gathered together. I realise among my musical friends this view is not popular.

BBC Regional Audience Council

Last week I took part in a selection process for the BBC regional audience council -East Midlands.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/ace/ Yesterday I was visited by two BBC Trust staffers checking that I understood that the task was to comment on output not run Radio 3 or even the BBC as a whole. They  want certain boxes ticking. I seem to tick some but they expressed anxiety that I may not take some of the other council members' views seriously.

One of the requirements is being able to ask one's social network for opinions on BBC output: TV, radio, internet everything.

The BBC Royal Charter (Article 39) states:
• There shall be Audience Councils the purpose of which is to bring the diverse perspectives of licence fee payers to bear on the work of the Trust, through the Councils' links with diverse communities, including geographically-based communities and other communities of interest, within the UK.
• The Councils must use their engagement with and understanding of communities to advise the Trust on how well the BBC is promoting its Public Purposes from the perspective of licence fee payers, and serving licence fee payers, in different parts of the UK.

This is where you come in.

Amplified communities of faith and belief in Leicester

Amplified communities of faith are holding a one hour event at the Phoenix on 23 March 7-8
http://ampleic.ning.com/events/amplified-communities-of-faith


It does not seem long for a chair and three speakers. We will see..