by Diana Whitney
I was in India, teaching Appreciative Inquiry and leading a leadership retreat with colleagues Dinesh Chandra and Anil Sachdev, when one of my co-founders of the Taos Institute…
Creating the Blessed Community
To Be Your Khalifa
They say many people have a calling in life. Well, I knew from a very young age that my calling was to protect the ocean.
A Jewish-Muslim Convergence of Sacred Seasons
In 2015, the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (September 16- 21) almost precisely overlaps with the period of the Hajj (September 20 – 25), which culminates in Eid al-Adha on the day after Yom Kippur. A public program at the GTU on Sunday, September 20 will explore many of the shared themes of this season, including repentance, pilgrimage, and sacrifice.
New Encyclopedia of Asian American Religion Celebrated
Graduate Theological Union faculty members and other contributors will celebrate the publication of their encyclopedia Asian American Religious Cultures at a special event this coming October 1, 2015. The editors and authors will share their insights on Asian American spirituality and on the project.
New Options for Interreligious Studies
The GTU is a great place to study different religious traditions. Resources abound for students interested in Christianity (Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox), Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, Taoism, and now Hinduism and Sikhism. But in today’s increasingly pluralistic world, many students come to the GTU not to study any single tradition but to explore the connections between two or more of them. Students may be interested in Muslim-Jewish relations, or Buddhist-Christian dialogue, or the history of interaction between Hinduism and Sikhism. Or they want to learn how different religious traditions address a critical contemporary issue such as climate change or religious violence.
The Middle East & the West – Building Bridges through the Arts
“Art is the conversation … Art offers an opening for the heart ... Art is, at least, the knowledge of where we are standing … In this Wonderland … we are partners straddling the universe.’”
International Interfaith Festival in Guadalajara, May 3-9, 2015
As excitement builds for the Parliament of the World’s Religions next year in Salt Lake City (October 15-19), a second major international interfaith gathering has been announced, this one in Guadalajara, Mexico, set for May 3-9, 2015.
Spiritual Practice and Everyday Life in a Digital World
Spirituality & Practice is a website with 27,000 webpages, each a resource for individuals and communities seeking spiritual wisdom and guidance in their everyday lives. The site receives about 1.5 million unique visitors each year (more than 6,000 every day), who click on 5 million page-links. The site also hosts more than 100 online on-demand e-courses, all having to do with spiritual practice. Thousands sign up each year for the modestly priced courses. Hundreds of books and movies have been reviewed, and spiritual leaders from dozens of different religious traditions, alive or passed, are profiled, quoted, and linked to additional resources. S&P includes blogs, “Praying the News,” curricula, videos, galleries, poetry and stories, and more.
Join the Global International Day of Peace Celebration!
Francis Younghusband – Explorer, Mystic, Interfaith Pioneer
Who Cares About Living Peacefully?
A TIO Editorial
Who Cares About Living Peacefully?
by Paul Chaffee
Interfaith dialogue is sometimes characterized as wine ‘n cheese talk-fests for progressive religionists. In fact, the interfaith movement is strongest in countries where people are at risk, though their stories don’t often get told. Preparing for TIO’s launch, we discovered the painting below, the work of at-risk children in Pakistan who yearn to grow up in an interfaith-friendly, peaceful land. TIO is a site where voices like theirs will be heard.
“Multicultural Harmony” was painted by Sara, 10, Zehra, 12, and Ayla, 11, students at Funkor Childart Centre for disadvantaged students in Islamabad, Pakistan. In a troubled world, their clear yearning for friendship and goodwill among the world’s races and religions shines like a beacon for the rest of us. The mural was painted under the guidance of artist Fauzia Minallah. Learn more about Funkor’s work and ways to support it at www.funkorchildart.com.