42. Jemima Prasadam, St Pauls & St Silas Church

For the past 11 years, Canon Jemima Prasadam, the vicar of St Paul and St Silas, has walked Lozells's pavements - she is known as the "alternative bobby on the beat" - befriending people in one of the most varied ethnic neighbourhoods in Britain.

In 1987, she was the first black (Canon Prasadam uses the term black in what she describes as its political sense) woman to become a C of E deacon, and she was immediately ordained when that became possible in 1994.

Lozells is one of Birmingham's most culturally diverse areas. Fruit and veg shops scatter their bright colours out on to pavement stalls; sari shop windows showcase dazzling arrays of rainbow fabrics; a Rastafarian grocery sells huge sugarcanes. The pavements teem with shoppers of every race and nationality.

There is no shortage of faith here - mosques; gudwaras; black churches; temples. Against such competition, Canon Prasadam's congregation is small but, as someone who stands scarcely 5ft tall, she is a firm believer in quality rather than quantity, and is impatient of those who think that faith can be judged by head counts. She speaks many languages of the sub-continent, and she moves easily and unthreateningly among people of other religions.

Canon Prasadam - as far from the stereotype of the white, male vicar as is possible - is uniquely fitted for Lozells.

Her grandfather was a convert (though she doesn't like the term) from Hinduism, and she arrived in Britain from southern India in 1975. She has three daughters, one of whom is also a clergywoman.