In 2004 I attended the Parliament of the World's Religions in Barcelona, Spain. When the appointed translation services broke down during the explanations of indigenous rites being enacted, I was asked to help translate. I speak Spanish and come from an indigenous-related spiritual tradition. So began my journey into the world of interfaith relationships.
June 2012 Resources
NAINConnect 2012 Comes to Atlanta Next Month
Twenty-four-year-old North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) convenes on July 15 for four days to explore “Creating Interfaith-Friendly Cities and the Beloved World Community.” The general public is invited to register and attend.
“Interfaith 3.0” from the Outside
In the December 2011 issue of The Interfaith Observer, Bettina Gray wrote about the recent changes in the interfaith movement. Her piece is impressive and inspiring, an optimistic view of our interfaith future. She wrote as one with significant experience and a long history in interfaith work; but she also wrote from the perspective of someone embedded in the “mainstream” religions that have dominated interfaith work since its beginnings. Once restricted to Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), the administrative core of interfaith work gradually expanded to include the other two members – Buddhism and Hinduism – of what have been called “the big five” religions.
Getting To Know You
Without shared service, interfaith dialogue achieves very little. This interfaith commonplace is good advice for anyone committed to a healthy interfaith future. Dozens of TIO articles this past year draw their power from collaborative efforts among those who were strangers and now active in a larger family.
Why Interfaith Understanding Is More Important Than Ever in Leadership
The Alpha Leadership conference taking place today in London is a reminder that despite all the negative news about religion, a different face of faith is visible and real the world over. The Alpha course on leadership, which was begun under Nicky Gumbel of the Holy Trinity Church in London, has been taken by 18 million people world-wide and is all about spreading a gospel of compassion and service to others. A similar message is given out from the remarkable Rick Warren’s church in Southern California where his congregation now numbers in excess of 100,000 people and his global reach extends to every nation on earth.
NewGround Interfaith Engagement Model Reaches Egypt
NewGround began in 2006 as a response to the climate of tension and mistrust between Jews and Muslims in Los Angeles. It was established to create a national model for healthy relations, productive engagement and social change between American Muslims and Jews.
Talking with Tomorrow’s Peacemakers
We live in a violent world filled with conflict, and we always have. But every member of every generation has a responsibility to our world, each in our own way, to lessen the unhappiness that reigns on this planet. Our generation, like the ones before it, will grow up and lead the world. It is essential that tomorrow’s leaders, trying to fix our world’s problems, are empathetic, understanding not only their own people’s suffering, but the suffering of those on the ‘other side’ as well.
Interfaith and Peace, Social Justice, and Respect for the Earth
“War no more.” That was the hope that inspired Charles Bonney as he explained in his opening address to the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions. Bonney believed that a major cause of conflict was “because the religious faiths of the world have most seriously misunderstood and misjudged each other.”i One hundred years later, Hans Küng declared that there would be “No peace in the world without peace between religions.”ii
Peacemaking – Seeking, Finding, Starting
Turning the final page of Eboo Patel’s Acts of Faith, I felt what only comes from finishing a great book: a mixture of equal parts exhilaration and disappointment that it’s over. Patel is an engaging writer with an intriguing personal story, and the major ideas encapsulated in his book spoke to me on a very basic level.
Identifying Interfaith’s Collaborative Imperative
A year ago “Social Justice” was chosen as the theme for the May 2012 issue of TIO. That developed into “The Big Issues – Peace, the Earth, Economics, and…” As we gathered material for this vast, still imprecise, amorphous arena, new issues emerged, along with the confirmation, over and over, that the big issues facing humankind and our future are interwoven, even interdependent.
Debate Over Mother Earth’s ‘Rights’ Stirs Fears of Pagan Socialism
Religious and political conservatives have long feared the global march of paganism and socialism. In their view, it was bad enough when Earth Day emerged in 1972, promoting a socialist agenda. But now, under the auspices of the United Nations, the notion has evolved into the overtly pagan, and thus doubly dangerous, International Mother Earth Day.
Seventh World Religious Freedom Congress Meets
Addressing nearly 900 delegates and guests at the Seventh World Congress of the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA), Denton Lotz, a noted Baptist minister and IRLA president, summarized the purpose of this three-day event: “We’re here today because we believe that freedom of religion is basic to all human rights.”
Letter to the Editor
Just a little note in response to the April issue that I am browsing and studying and contemplating this morning...
The first thought is that everything is so beautifully done, with such finesse and excellence. So much care has gone into this. It is remarkable and very much deserving praise and conscious appreciation.
Interfaith Peacemaking on the Documentary Screen
Encounter Point and Budrus, two films produced in Israel by Just Vision’s resourceful executive director, Ronit Avni, exemplify what documentary film does at its best: raise public consciousness and inspire people to change.
Social Justice as a Unifying Issue for Dharmic Communities
Religious communities are never the same once they reach America. In my view, they often become even more remarkable.
A Review of Ruth Broyde Sharone’s Minefields & Miracles
Truth be told, I approached Ruth Broyde Sharone’s Minefields & Miracles – Why God and Allah Need to Talk with trepidation – review a 350-page memoire of her travels interwoven with enough photos to fill one of grandpa’s slide carousels?!
Interfaith Call to Action on Climate Change
The Interfaith Moral Action on Climate Change is a collaborative interfaith political action initiative to wake up politicians in the United States and begin taking responsibility for the disaster of climate change. You can endorse the call at IMACC’s website.
Thich Nhat Hanh: In 100 Years There May Be No More Humans on Planet Earth
The acclaimed Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh talks to the Ecologist about the loss of biodiversity and why human vulnerability is not something we should despair about
Occupy Faith National Conference: Let the walls come crumbling down!
Just before noon on March 20, in Berkeley, California, Rabbi Arthur Waskow blew the shofar, an act most often associated with the call to repentance on the morning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Some say that the shofar, famous for causing the walls of Jericho to fall, awakens the Divine within each hearer.