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July 2016

The Gift of These Voices

The Gift of These Voices

Those of you who have followed TIO since it launched in September 2011 know that a major motivation for creating this publication was to tell the untold interfaith stories proliferating around the world. That much has begun, with 1,500 articles in TIO’s archive now being programmed with new software that should make them much more accessible by subject, theme, and author. We hope to launch TIO’s renovated website this September, with TIO’s whole library available to you in just a few clicks.

Creating Sacred Space for All of Us

Creating Sacred Space for All of Us
What might a space designed to accommodate the needs of all faiths look like? In 2004, an international ideas competition was held to design sacred spaces where people from all religious traditions could feel comfortable, safe, and respected.

The Dark Side of the Golden Rule and Other ‘Universals’

The Dark Side of the Golden Rule and Other ‘Universals’
The following reflection is excerpted from a longer presentation Donald Frew delivered at the August 2011 annual gathering of the North American Interfaith Network in Phoenix, Arizona, dedicated to exploring the Golden Rule

When Nature Talks Back

Several years ago, I attended a North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) “Connect” in Las Vegas. The program was organized in three tracks, including one called “Caring for Creation.” As might be expected, all of the Pagans and indigenous people gravitated towards that track.

Opening the Indigenous Door

Opening the Indigenous Door
Full Disclosure – Don Frew and Paul Chaffee have been friends and colleagues in the interfaith vineyard for more than 15 years, and Don has been a TIO supporter from the time the idea first glimmered. However close this association, though, devoting a credible exploration of “Indigenous Traditions in the Modern World” and leaving him out would be impossible. For 30 years Elder Don Frew has been the official interfaith representative of Covenant of the Goddess, the world’s largest Wiccan tradition. Don is a witch, a misunderstood word which can repel those unacquainted with paganism. But his relations with leaders from all traditions, established and indigenous, and within his own community are a perfect antidote to that discomfort. A grassroots bridge-builder with a global reach, he has championed indigenous, Earth and Nature-based traditions around the world, developing ways for them to be in dialogue with the rest of the global interfaith/interspiritual community. If you are interested in pagan and indigenous interfaith relations, you need to know about Don Frew. Ed.

Finding Light in the Midst of “Devil-worshippers”

Finding Light in the Midst of “Devil-worshippers”

As we’ve watched horrific reports of the “Islamic State” terrorist organization this year, most Americans have heard about a religious/ethnic group called the Yezidis1 for the first time. However, the stories of Yezidi refugee families being displaced and attacked by ISIS fighters leave out an important fact: across the Near East, Yezidis are known as “Devil-worshippers.” Perhaps editors assumed this would be too difficult to explain to American audiences.