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Meaning Making, Environment/Climate, Coexistence
Sofia Sayabalian
Among Ice, Lichen, and Light

by Sofia Sayabalian

Having the opportunity to visit Reykjavík, Iceland was a special one. I always thought of Iceland as an isolated place–far, freezing, and frosted with whispers…

Among Ice, Lichen, and Light
March 2025, Inclusivity, Meaning Making, Ethics
Frank DiGirolamo
Authoring our Shared Story

by Frank DiGirolamo

“Wow! … You just listened to my whole anthem.” It was late at night, years ago, on North Broadway in Capitol Hill. “Miguel” had just recited his life story to me for a good 20 minutes…

Authoring our Shared Story
March 2025, Family, Meaning Making, October 2012, Beliefs
Camila Torres
Echale! The Story of Generations Past

by Camila Torres

When I was a child, I was terrified of the dark. I hated going to sleep, because, once the lights turned off, the sheer possibility of encountering a monster kept me awake…

Echale! The Story of Generations Past
Judaism, Family, March 2025, Young Adult
Amina Malkin
An Inheritance of History

by Amina Malkin

When talking about religion, my father will sometimes talk about “the chosen people,” a title that Jewish people have historically adopted as a way to reference being descended from…

An Inheritance of History
March 2025, Family, Young Adult, Catholicism
Gabby Prado
An Ongoing Legacy of Faith and Family

by Gabby Prado

Throughout my life, I’ve lived by the belief that my success and achievements are not solely mine but are deeply connected to the generations of my family who came before me…

An Ongoing Legacy of Faith and Family
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Views of Violence: Abu Dhabi Gallup Center Report

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A widespread belief concerning Islam emerged and solidified in the minds of millions after the 9/11 attack by Al Qaeda operatives. It has been strengthened since by senseless deadly attacks on military and civilian targets, all in the name of Islam. This belief states simply that Islam, at the heart of its teachings, is a violent religion. Its own sacred text is believed to promote and even demand death to those who do not believe and follow the way of Islam.

Conversely there are those who believe that there are politically motivated groups operating from Islamic countries that hide behind their interpretations of the Quran. And it is these groups who act violently, not on behalf of Islam, but on behalf of their own political and social agendas.

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Rita Semel’s 90th Birthday

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San Francisco’s new mayor came to the 7:00 am interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast this year. So did the city police chief, the fire chief, half the city’s supervisors, San Francisco’s own Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, and 400 clergy and lay leaders. For a prayer breakfast in San Francisco?!

It was also the 90th year birthday party for the woman who made such an event possible. The theme for the day tells the story – “Healing the World: Honoring the Work of Rita Semel.”

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Compassion, Charity, and Interfaith Culture

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Karen Armstrong’s The Great Transformation (2007) suggests that compassion became a dominant theme in human experience for the first time between 800 to 200 BCE, called the Axial Age by German philosopher Karl Jaspers. Armstrong notes that over this 600-year period a religious revolution occurred in four different regions of the world: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism on the Indian sub-continent; Confucianism and Taoism in China; monotheism in the Middle East; and philosophical rationalism in Greece. In each case we discover ancient traditions calling followers to compassionate, ethical behavior.

Launching On Common Ground 2.0

Dr. Diana Eck and the Pluralism Project are updating their award-winning resource to explore the religious diversity of the United States.  The first edition of On Common Ground: World Religions in America was released as a CD-ROM in 1996, providing teachers, students, and scholars with an innovative interactive resource in three parts: “America’s Many Religions,” “A New Religious Landscape,” and “Encountering Religious Diversity.”

TIO at the American Academy of Religions

For anyone interested in religion, the American Academy of Religion annual meetings are an embarrassment of riches. What was new in San Francisco this year as 10,000 scholars, students, publishers, and advocates gathered was the unprecedented presence of interfaith studies. Professor Diana Eck from Harvard’s Pluralism Project, who served as president of AAR 2005-06, helped legitimize interreligious studies academically. Five years later the progress is encouraging for anyone interested in bridge-building among religious, spiritual traditions. Interfaith workshops, panels, and receptions punctuated the all four days of meetings last month.

Looking Back at TIO’s First Year

Gratitude is the word underlining The Interfaith Observer’s first year. Dozens of people have gone out of their way since January 2011, when TIO was no more than a dream, to make TIO a unique publication systematically exploring a set of issues critical to humankind’s future.

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Best Practices for Interreligious Ministry

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In addition to adequate theological grounding on how to situate the religious other within the framework of one’s faith tradition, there are certain attitudes, virtues, and skills that would appear to be crucially needed in being able to creatively relate to, engage, and cooperate with religious others. In an excellent volume specifically addressing the subject, Catherine Cornille has laid out humility, commitment, interconnection, empathy, and hospitality as five such key elements to be nourished and cultivated in this regard.

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Translating Kalema - Images that Speak a Thousand Words

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As a little girl, I learned that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” I learned wrong. Words are indeed powerful. As a wordsmith, I know what we say and how we say it can change how you feel about yourself or another. Words can be as sharp as a knife and heavy as a brick. Words can and often do hurt. Yet, if words can hurt, they can also inspire. The adage that a picture is worth a thousand words compels me and led to the notion of an interfaith photography competition.

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What Excites Me about Interfaith Work?

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This article grew out of a presentation Bettina Gray made at a meeting of interfaith leaders attending the November 2011 meetings of the American Academy of Religions/Society of Biblical Literature. The session focused on innovative interfaith activity and was organized by the Coexist Foundation.

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A Timeless Woman with a Timely Message

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The Brahma Kumaris (literally, daughters of God) community has its spiritual roots in Hinduism but is a new religious movement, led by women. ‘Brothers’ are welcomed in supportive roles. Known by their friends as BKs and headquartered in central India, these sisters share the gentle discipline of Raja Yoga meditation with millions around the globe, welcoming all religious traditions as authentic expressions of faith and practice.

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International Conference on Transforming Conflict: Sharing Tools for Cross-Cultural Dialogue

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At a At a time of unprecedented transformation in the Middle East -

TIO In 2012

The December 15 issue will explore all sorts of issues, a practice we’ll continue every other month in 2012 (February, April, June, August, October, and December). These ‘even’ month issues will continue to feature news and reports, interfaith opportunities, major events, and religious calendars.

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Occupy's Sacred Mob and the Politics of Vagrancy

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It is 1 a.m., 37 degrees. Between two noisy bars, twelve people are trying to sleep in their tents, four more are drinking coffee and holding watch. We talk to drunks as they pass by; sometimes we find allegiance that may or may not be remembered in the morning, and sometimes we just bore potential attackers into docility by inviting them to explain their politics. Tent-kickers are rarely brave enough to kick a person, and “Get a job!” is easily answered by “I have two, but unemployment in North Carolina is over ten percent.” This is the Occupation of Chapel Hill. It is the morning of Halloween.

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Religion’s New Face in the World

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Religion’s New Face in the World
All of Heckman’s categories deserves attention and will find their way into The Interfaith Observer. Before concluding this overview, though, consider one other category – “Social issue(s) and action groups.” Dozens of social justice causes – immigration rights, the death penalty, economic reform, environmental responsibility, peace in the Middle East, and many more – organize as interfaith nonprofits.

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International Interfaith Stakeholders Today

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In last month’s TIO, Marcus Braybrooke wrote a brief history of the interfaith movement since 1893. He tells how major interfaith organizations emerged in the twentieth century, starting with the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF), whose roots go back to 1900. The World Congress of Faiths, celebrating its 75th birthday this year, was the first established organization to invite all people of faith and practice to a shared table of dialogue in the “spirit of fellowship.” Both IARF and the Congress remain active international organizations, a tribute to the resilience of their hope for a happier religious future.

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Religious Leaders Assess Impact of Social Media

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DOHA, Qatar — Hundreds of Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders from over 50 countries gathered in Qatar’s capital city this week to discuss the intersection of social media and religion at the 9th Doha Conference of Inter-faith Dialogue, a three-day affair which concluded on Wednesday October 26.

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Interfaith Youth Core

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The big idea for the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) came to our leading founder Eboo Patel in 1998 when he was at an interfaith conference at Stanford University. He and a small group of his peers realized they were the only young people at the conference, and their conversation turned to two questions.

United Religions Initiative

The idea to create a global forum for preventing and responding to interreligious conflict came to URI President and Founder Rt. Rev. William E. Swing, then-Episcopal Bishop of California, asked to host a UN 50th anniversary celebration at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in 1995. He found little interest among top religious leaders, but at the grassroots level he found a deep desire for peace and social justice. From this, the idea for a bottom-up global interfaith network was born.

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The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions

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The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR) history begins with the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions, part of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This first formal gathering of representatives from Eastern and Western spiritual traditions is recognized today as the birth of the modern interreligious movement.

Religions for Peace

The World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP, as it was originally called) convened for the first time in Kyoto, Japan, October 16-21, 1970. However, the origins of Religions for Peace (RFP, as it is called today) date to 1961, when a handful of senior leaders from the world’s major faith traditions began exploring the possibilities for organizing a “religious summit” to address the need for believers around the world to take action toward achieving peace. Principal among the US leaders and architects were Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath (Reform Judaism), Bishop John Wesley Lord (Methodist), Bishop John Wright (Catholic), and Dr. Dana McLean Greeley (UUA).