Cycling – it’s ‘green’, it’s cheap, it lets you off time at the gym and is a speedy alternative to sitting in queues of traffic in town centres in the rush hour.

Join me at Speakers’ Corner, Lichfield on Saturday 25 September at 12.00 to Celebrate Cycling, Bring your bike and bring your friends with their bikes. Speakers’ Corner is in Dam Street, by Minster Pool and is also on one Lichfield’s cycle paths, so a great place to meet!

Please spread the word!

Here’s a few dates for your diary:

25 September - A celebration of cycling
If you regularly use the cycle-paths around Lichfield District – especially the one that runs past Speakers’ Corner on Dam Street, come along for a talk on the importance of cycling and celebrate what cycling means to you. Watch this space for more news.

Saturday 16 October at 12noon – World Teachers’ Day & Universal Children’s Day.
To coincide with World Teachers’ Day and Universal Children’s Day, see and hear the views of local people, and especially students themselves, about our current education system. Watch this space for more news.

Holocaust Memorial Day & Portraits for Prosperity – October/November TBC
To commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, and in celebration of the exciting Portraits for Posterity exhibition, which is coming to the Cathedral, the National Memorial Arborteum and South Staffordshire College, local people will mark this momentus occassion.

More about Portraits for Posterity is a unique photographic exhibition drawn from survivors of the Holocaust living in Great Britain today. Very few survived the ghettos, extermination and labour camps of the Nazi regime. Those alive today are now elderly, but still bear witness to ‘the crime of the 20th century’. By creating images of the few survivors, the exhibit provides a permanent memorial that also commemorates the millions who perished without portraits.

This moving exhibition is coming to Lichfield District this autumn, and will be on show at the Cathedral, the National Memorial Arboretum and South Staffordshire College between 11 October and 15 November.  To find out more visit www.portraitsforposterity.com

5 minute Christmas Stories - 4th, 11th & 18th December @ 12 noon
Come along and listen to Canon Pete Wilcox from Lichfield Cathedral telling stories to open up The Christmas Story. Watch this space for more details.

Why not appear at Speakers’ Corner?

If you are hoping to hold any events at Speakers’ Corner, and want to publish details to this blog, just email elizabeth.thatcher@lichfielddc.gov.uk and we’ll check it won’t clash with any planned events we’re aware of, and then add it up for you.

Here’s a fact: the qualifying competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup involved 204 countries – whereas the United Nations has only 193 member states.  Football is the only truly global sport.  It is not ‘just a game’.  It is art, drama and even religion.

The Art of Football

Football is ‘the beautiful game’.  To control a ball while running flat out, to be aware of the movement of team-mates and opponents, to decide in a split second where to pass the ball and to be able to execute the decision perfectly, is exceptionally difficult.  The talent of the world’s greatest players is to make this look simple.  This is art. 

Football fans wait for moments of balletic skill, when a player exhibits such speed and power, ball-control and balance that spectators catch their breath.  Sometimes, in football, it is a feat of individual genius which inspires the fan: mesmerising dribbling skills, a deft back-heel, an acrobatic shot, a sweetly timed tackle or interception.  But what makes most fans purr with greatest satisfaction is the intricacy of slick teamwork: individuals working together, acting in concert, as if responding to a common impulse, somehow synchronised, creating a shared work of art.

This art can be delicate.  Some of football’s finest players have been blessed with incredible finesse.  But speed and power and acute spatial awareness are integral to the art of football.  The anthropologist Desmond Morris reckons these qualities reveal the tribal origins of the game.  Football is, he says, a celebration of the arts of hunting and of battle.  The growth of women’s professional football in Britain, and the increasing attempts by clubs to market themselves to families cannot be ignored; but it is still hard to escape the fact that the beauty offered on the football pitch is savoured most by men.  The caricature of the male football ‘fan’ is the hooligan: destructive, violent and abusive.  But for most fans who are men, football is one way they are able to express their appreciation of beauty. 

The Drama of Football

It’s amazing how often (in almost any sport) the outcome of a match or a tournament feels scripted.  Occasionally a football match is literally ‘fixed’, usually by an international betting syndicate.  But mostly, the drama in football is innocent.  Matches which are subject to nobody’s control (not even the referee’s), unfold in ways that leave spectators enthralled at the apparent scripted-ness.  Plot lines are familiar, and biblical: there’s ‘David and Goliath’ (in which a weaker team defeats a stronger one, especially in cup football, in an act of ‘giant-killing’); ‘the coming of the Messiah’ (in which a hero signs for a new club, or returns from injury, makes an immediate impact on the team and leads it to success); ‘Judas returns’ (in which a hated betrayer, player or manager, comes back to torment a former club, consigning them to humiliating defeat); and ‘the Resurrection’ (in which a team snatches improbable victory from the jaws of defeat).  When Liverpool beat AC Milan in the Champions League final of 2005, to win on penalties after being 3-0 down at half time, newspaper match reports asked ‘Who wrote the script?’.  It’s a common question in the mind of the football fan. 

Like every kind of drama, football draws in its spectators and moves them.  But the reverse is true as well.  In football the fans also move the players.  One reason why sport makes especially good theatre (apart from the fact that the performance is sheer improvisation within limited rules), is that its fans are partisan.  There are two opposing sets of supporters, each with the capacity to contribute not just to the fortunes of a club, but even to outcome of a match.

In our society, football moves many people (again, especially men) more effectively than anything else.  When I was a vicar in Gateshead, I found it sobering to see the same men who sat so impassively in the back pews in church at baptisms and funerals, then singing, embracing and weeping on the terraces of Newcastle United.  They may not easily ‘get in touch with their emotions’ at home, at work or in church; but they did it at the match.  And when those football fans wept tears of joy or sorrow, I wondered if the immediate cause was just a catalyst to release emotions relating to all life’s joys and sorrows. 

The Religion of Football as Religion

If a person’s ‘god’ is the thing that gives meaning to their life, from which they get a sense of identity, which shapes their behaviour and around which their life revolves, then a ‘religion’ is a corporate, institutional expression of that thing.  In these terms, football – or football-supporting – is for many fans a religious activity.      

Besides, the word ‘religion’ comes from a Latin root meaning ‘to bind together’: and since for many fans their club is their primary community, football must be their religion.  It is their team which gives them their sense of belonging. 

Fans identify themselves with a club and keep up this allegiance for years: it becomes part of who they are, not only on match days, not only during the football season, but at all times and in all places.  When Sir Bobby Robson finally achieved his lifelong ambition to manage Newcastle United, he told the press (with a reference to the team’s playing colours), ‘If you cut me, I bleed black and white’.  It’s a belonging expressed in the wearing of replica kits not just to games, but about town or on holiday abroad. 

But the belonging is also expressed more spontaneously and fleetingly on match days and in extreme moments of exhilaration or despair.  In such moments, fans testify to a mystical oneness with their companions.  Honest!  Many football fans know the experience, carried away by the ecstasy or agony of a particular moment, of hugging a complete stranger.  That moment of ecstatic ‘connectedness’, of complete mutual recognition and understanding, amounts to a spiritual experience. 

Of course, football has its dark side.  The amount of money in the game, and in the pockets of elite players, is obscene.  There are still tribal hatreds dividing fans at all levels.  Hooliganism remains a social problem associated particularly with football.  While football has had some success addressing racism in the game, the same cannot be said of sexism and homophobia.  Football players are often poor role models on and off the pitch. 

But for all that, in its art, its drama and its spirituality, football is not just a game.  It could even be said to offer glimpses of the glory of God.

Pete Wilcox, Lichfield Cathedral, June 2010

Lichfield Arts’ free community festival, FUSE, will burn brighter following a £2,000 boost from BUSKATHON.

During the weekend of 22/23 May, Speakers’ Corner saw 20 hours of music, sun and fun, with dozens of buskers entertaining large crowds.

Saturday saw a varied programme of performers, including traditional one-man-and-a guitar buskers, bands, belly dancers and the Boys’ Brigade band.

Also wowing the audience were a circus performer, musical families, a tuba-playing minister, a folk quartet and even Michael Fabricant MP!

Sunday was the turn of Bruford Low (a.k.a. BUSKATHON organiser Dave Simcox) who busked at the piano for 10 hours, ably assisted by a host of singers who joined in with gusto!

Both days were concluded with a singalong round the Joanna; Speakers’ Corner resounding to Beatles numbers and other popular songs.

Lichfield Arts volunteers rattled buckets and handed out hundreds of leaflets publicising FUSE, which takes place in Beacon Park on 9/10/11 July (www.fuselichfield.org.uk)

Dave Simcox was tired but ecstatic by the end of BUSKATHON. “I had set myself a target of £1,000, so to double that is truly amazing. As well as raising much-needed funds, we have also raised the profile of FUSE, and also Speakers’ Corner as a public space for the whole community. My heartfelt thanks to all of those who contributed, either by performing, collecting or just turning up and giving money. We finished the event with the song “Perfect Day” and for me, that sums it up.”

Buskers are being given the chance to take part in a two day musical masterpiece event in Lichfield.

Set to take place at Speakers’ Corner on Dam Street on 22 & 23 May, a Buskathon led by Dave Simcox, will be raising funds for Lichfield’s Fuse Festival.

On May 22 buskers from all genres will play from 9am to 7pm, with the following day seeing Dave Simcox (aka Bruford Low) busking for 10 hours.

Fuse Festival Director Tim Perks said: “This is a great offer from Dave Simcox – aka Bruford Low – and will be a great boost to fundraising effort for Fuse, an event which costs over £30,000.”

For further details of how you can help or to book a spot, call 01543 262223 or e-mail dave.simcox@mac.com.

Speakers’ Corner Lichfield celebrated its first anniversary on the 1st May.

Hundreds of people came along to take part in the celebrations. Over 2o speakers took part, ranging from the youngest ever speaker at to speak at Lichfield’s Speakers Corner (just 5 years old!), through to students, politicians, and artists.

The Lichfield Blog (thanks to Nick and the team!) attended and took lots of great photos.

Find out more on the Lichfield blog 

See photos on the Lichfield Blog’s Flikr site. 

Thanks to everyone who came along to celebrate Lichfield’s heart of public debate – Lichfield’s very own Speakers’ Corner!

My husband and I call Allison the Velvet Hammer.  She is a pretty, petite woman, quietly spoken, so lady like……you always smile after you’ve spoken to her.  Then you think ‘I wasn’t going to volunteer for that…..’ because once more Allison has got you to say yes when you intended to say no.

I knew something was up when  I was asked to come into Lichfield Arts office for a meeting with Stuart and Allison to talk about cultural diversity, it’s a feeling you get.  The question wasn’t would I say yes or no but what would I be saying yes to.

It seems that Saturday 22nd May is going to be a busy day at Speakers Corner with a Buskathon organised by Dave Simcox and people talking about what they think ‘cultural diversity’ is ‘and it would be really nice if we could have someone from Lichfield Arts speak and I would sponsor them’

I am a writer.  I like to write. I have to write.  I am happiest ensconced in my own little world taking the images and thoughts in my head and translating them into the written word.  When I am as satisfied as I am going to get with my work I let people read it.  Like most writers I am never completely satisfied and the beauty of the written word is you always have the option of changing it or even never sharing it.  Speaking publically is another matter.  You can’t stop to consult your thesaurus for just the right word, you can’t decide it’s kettle o’ clock because it’s not going quite the way you wanted and need a break, you can’t go back and edit something once it’s said.

Despite knowing all this and the fact I turn a beautiful, glowing shade of red when I am embarrassed or stressed I found myself saying yes, I’ll do it.

So now comes the hard part.  What do I think the term ‘cultural diversity’ means.  Not just in an abstract way like some government advisory body,  but what does it mean to me personally, in my life and in my community. 

I’m not sure yet.  I have a few ideas and few notes written down, but every time I think I have a handle on it my research takes me off on another tangent.  I suspect that I will be just as surprised by what I say on the day as anyone who stops to listen.

One week shy of its first birthday, Speakers’ Corner Lichfield came of age last Saturday, when there were seldom fewer than 100 people gathered on the site between 12noon and 1pm last Saturday, for an open-air ‘pre-hustings’ event. 

Three prospective parliamentary candidates who were able to be present:  Stephen Hyden, the Labour candidate; Ian Jackson, the Liberal Democrat candidate; and Karen Maunder, the UKIP candidate — the fourth candidate, Michael Fabricant, Conservative, had a prior engagement and was not able to attend)

The candidates fielded questions on the environment, education, defence, health, the local economy and law and order.  

Audience participation was vigorous, but never abusive — grassroots democracy in action! 

Come along to our birthday party at 11am on May 1 2010.

Here’s what’s happening:

11.00am:  Town Crier & Welcome from Pete Wilcox, Chair of Speakers Corner Committee, and compere Lesley Bovington!

11.15am: Talks from students from local secondary schools

11.30am: Talk from Peter Walker, local artist and launch of talking sculpture

11.45am: Great cake giveaway and cake cutting

12.00 noon: Cllr David S. Smith, Leader of Lichfield District Council will bring the proceedings to a close.

Lichfield’s very own Speakers’ Corner celebrates its first birthday on Saturday, 1st May and is inviting Lichfield babies who are celebrating their first birthday, too, in May to come along and be part of the special first birthday party which will take place at Speakers’ Corner at 11 – 12noon. 
 
The Speakers’ Corner party starts at 11 o’clock and will feature local speakers and performers, including local school  students  and noted artist, Peter Walker. Babies are especially invited to come along for the cutting of the commemorative cake, when they will each receive party bag, cake and memento of the occasion.
 
Chairman of the Speakers Corner, Lichfield committee,  Canon Pete Wilcox, said, “Speakers’ Corner gives a voice to people of all ages, young and old, and it would be wonderful to have our Lichfield citizens of the future share their very special first birthday celebrations with us.”  
 
Parents are asked to contact Moira Taylor on 01543 308167 or by e-mail to moira.taylor@lichfielddc.gov.uk to register their baby’s interest!