Pilgrimage 2009: Wednesday 4 March

Today was spent in the Belgrave part of the city.  Another bus from The Haymarket, another challenge to puzzle out bus routes and work out where the stops are!  At St Gabriel’s in the Parish of the Resurrection we were joined by parishioners and the Franciscan Sisters who work in the Parish.  After morning prayer a trip to Northfields School and a chance to sit down with the children and hear their stories and their experience of life in one of the most diverse and multi-racial neighbourhoods anywhere in the country.  On from there to Taylor Road School on the St Matthew’s Estate.  This school has the highest free schools meal count of any school in Leicester and one of the highest in the country.  46 different languages are spoken.  Yet the school is clearly a place of real loving concern for all the children.  Again, the Christian Church is at the heart of these communities, the clergy much valued by the schools and the presence of people who are living out their faith is seen as vital to the health of the whole community.  The Parish of the Resurrection is undergoing huge changes at the moment, facing the closure of two churches and the creation of a new focus for parish life in the third church.  And there is much prayer, reflection and discussion about how to be Church in an overwhelmingly Hindu and Muslim area.  I have spent the day amongst people whose vocation is to reimagine the Church for a new millennium, facing some of the toughest challenges in the country.  They deserve our prayers and our support.