The Interfaith Observer

January 14, 2017

December 2016, Journal 2016

December 2016 - In Pursuit of Wisdom

The Interfaith Observer

January 14, 2017

December 2016, Journal 2016

In Pursuit of Wisdom

December 15, 2016

Featured

Fostering Wisdom in Children (and the Rest of Us)

by Vicki Garlock

Some decades ago a friend of mine, a college senior way back then, was attending a conference at a large, distinguished university of “pre-faculty” students, collegians who hoped to pursue a higher-education vocation in the next few years. The three-day gathering culminated in a large banquet, some final comments on the benefits of professordom from several university presidents, and a question & answer session.

Read More →

The Interfaith Legacy of Guru Nanak

by Marcus Braybrooke

An overwhelming sense of the Glory and Oneness of God made Guru Nanak (1469-1539), the founder of Sikhism, impatient with religious divisions, doctrines, and rituals. This sense of the Oneness of God is for me at the very heart of the interfaith journey. There are many practical reasons why interfaith cooperation is vital and as many attempts to find a theological or philosophical justification for it.

Read More →

Joseph Prabhu's Anatomy of Wisdom

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

“Wisdom includes action as well as knowledge,” maintains Joseph Prabhu, a professor of philosophy and religion for four decades, a passionate interfaith activist, and Mother Teresa’s first altar boy in India. “Action brings insight into dynamic motion,” Prabhu explains, “and insight without thoughtful action, to my mind, is seriously incomplete.”

Read More →

Praying our Way towards Justice at Standing Rock

by Frederica Helmiere

Oceti Sakowin Camp is a place of juxtapositions and marvels. Tribal leaders ceremonially sing and drum near the sacred fire while helicopters chop and drones buzz overhead. Ten thousand peaceful and prayerful water protectors abut a militarized police force of extractive corporation-protectors.

Read More →

Walking Together in Jerusalem

by Henry Ralph Carse

In the shadow of the ancient walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, on a sunny day in April, I am leading a small group of prophets down a pathway into the Kidron Valley, and then up the slopes of the Mount of Olives. I call them “prophets,” but these women and men in their twenties are not in old-fashioned robes or unkempt beards, nor roaring dire warnings about the end of time.

Read More →

Yom Kippur on the Train to St. Petersburg

by Bettina Gray

On October 12th of this year, I was on a train between Moscow and Saint Petersburg traveling with members of the Slavyanka Russian Chorus on a concert tour of Russia.That particular morning a number of us were standing in the aisles or sitting on the arms of train seats, rocking between concert locations. We were saying the Ashamnu prayer, the prayer of confession and atonement for Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in the Jewish calendar.

Read More →

Personal Perspectives on Spiritual Wisdom

Featured

Interspiritual Perspectives on Wisdom

by Dr. Ed Bastian

Generally speaking, the word wisdom often connotes a holistic knowingness harvested from the totality of one’s life experience, including knowledge gained through intellectual conceptualization and empirical observation. From a spiritual perspective however, Wisdom (note the capital “W”) is generally said to be the result of a transcendent insight that surpasses, informs, and then guides our everyday thoughts, perceptions, and mental projections of reality.

Read More →

A Very Shory Course in Wisdom

by Cynthia Bourgeault

1. Wisdom is not a philosophy or a curriculum, but a way of knowing. It’s not about knowing more but knowing deeper, knowing with more of yourself involved. 2. Wisdom is three-centered knowing: it engages mind, emotions, and body in a single, integral act of perception.

Read More →

Chochmah – the Blueprint of Creation

by Rabbi Rami Shapiro

Wisdom, Chochmah in Hebrew, is the first of God’s manifestations and the means by which creation happens. I am the deep grain of creation, the subtle current of life. God fashioned me before all things; I am the blueprint of creation. I was there from the beginning, from before there was a beginning. I am independent of time and space, earth and sky.

Read More →

The Ground of All Knowing

by Swami Atmarupananda

An infant opens its eyes and ears to the world, and perceives an ocean of sensation. Gradually it learns to distinguish patterns – mother, father, its own hands, its feet. The ocean of sensation begins to make sense as patterns emerge. An ocean of indeterminate sensation gives way to understanding: the beginnings of knowledge.

Read More →

Wisdom – An Ongoing Conversation with Divine Reality

by Shaikha Camille Adams Helminski

The Prophet Muhammad said, “Wisdom is like the truly faithful one’s stray camel; he (she) will recognize it when he (she) finds it.” Within the Way of Islam and the mystical path of Sufism, wisdom is received through the Qur’an (revelation of the “Book of God” conveyed through the heart of the Prophet Muhammad) and the example of how the Prophet, himself, lived, as well as through the “Book of Nature."

Read More →

The Faceted Gem of Wisdom

by Shaikh Kabir Helminski

The Generous Source of our being has brought us to this world and has given us intelligence, insight, compassion, and the possibility to discern: the subjective perspective from the objective, appearances from reality, beginnings from endings, the transient from the enduring.

Read More →

Prajñā – the Buddhist Path of Wisdom

by Dr. Ed Bastian

Shariputra, any noble son or noble daughter who so wishes to engage in the practice of the profound perfection of wisdom should clearly see this way: they should see perfectly that even the five aggregates are empty of intrinsic existence. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form; emptiness is not other than form, form too is not other than emptiness. Likewise, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness are all empty.

Read More →

Featured

The Beginning of Wisdom Is...

by Paul Chaffee

Do you know anyone you truly would call “wise”? What about that particular person leads you to deem her or him a wise person?

Read More →

Featured

Interfaith News Roundup - December 2016

Global Warming, Pilgrims and Progress – Standing Rock and Global Indigenous Rights – Stop the Hate Movement Accelerates

Read More →

OPPORTUNITIES & RESOURCES

Interfaith Films that Make a Difference

Veteran Interfaith leader Ruth Broyde Sharone underscores the urgency and importance of fighting against Islamophobia--especially in the current climate. She offers a Jewish woman's perspective on the documented rise of Islamophobia and a parallel rise in hate crimes against many other minority groups in America: Jews, blacks, gays, Latinos, and against women as well.

RUTH BROYDE SHARONE
Speaking Out Against Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, & Minority Discrimination

THREE FAITHS, ONE GOD: JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM
Interfaith Documentary

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

INTERFAITH CENTER AT THE PRESIDIO

BAIC — Bay Area Interfaith Connect

RELIGIONS FOR PEACE – USA

SPIRIT MATTERS

Andrew Harvey - The Making of a Modern Mystic

UNITED RELIGIONS INITIATIVE

A URI Perspective on the U.S. Presidential Election

USC OFFICE OF RELIGIOUS LIFE

The Interfaith Observer

December 15, 2016

November 2016, Journal 2016

November 2016 - Post Election Tonic

The Interfaith Observer

December 15, 2016

November 2016, Journal 2016

Post Election Tonic

November 15, 2016

Featured

Aśoka: Honour All Religions

by Marcus Braybrooke

“One should listen to and respect the religions of other people.” These words that Aśoka had engraved on rocks across his vast empire more than 2,000 years ago still need to be heard today. King Aśoka, the third monarch of the Indian Mauryan dynasty, was largely forgotten until early in the 19th century when a large number of edicts, inscribed on rocks and pillars, were discovered.

Read More →

Listening to Jesus' Words in a New Kind of Way

by David Parks-Ramage

What woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully till she finds it? (Luke 15:8) Meditation is a choice to become intimate with your own life. In meditation, we are quiet and alert, open and available to what is happening now.

Read More →

I Belong, Therefore I Am

by Jim Burklow

Religion can do a body good. And that’s not just a promise of good-pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die. There’s science behind the assertion that religion can benefit your physical and emotional health on this side of the Pearly Gates.

Read More →

Review: Women, Religion, and Peacebuilding

by Kathe Schaaf and Kay Lindhal

We have been captivated by the subtitle of the anthology Women, Religion and, Peacebuilding, edited by Susan Hayward and Katherine Marshall – Illuminating the Unseen. So much about the contributions of women to our culture and history has been invisible – both unrecorded and unacknowledged.

Read More →

Burkini Bans, Muslim 'Hygiene,' and the History of the Holocaust

by Anya Cordell

There are a lot of issues associated with swimsuits; ask any woman. But the newest is hysteria over what some Muslim women are wearing; too much fabric, beyond that required to barely cover genitals, buttocks, and bits of breasts. Teeny bikinis on women, (and speedos for men), are fine. On some beaches in the world, nudity is fine.

Read More →

Interfaith Options for Christians at Advent

by Vicki Garlock

For Christians, another Advent season will soon be upon us. As one of the quintessential periods in the liturgical calendar, it might seem like the wrong time to be thinking about interfaith efforts. It’s a feeling further heightened by the encroachment of numerous secular obligations. Who has time for “the other” right now?

Read More →

Changing the World Through Social Media

by Sari Heidenreich

“But people just use it to post pictures of their breakfast.” That’s a complaint I’ve heard over and over again about social media – that it has made us self-absorbed and selfish, that it has made us feel we have to create a picture-perfect life and put it on display for the world to see.But when we’re talking about interfaith organizing, social media is so much more.

Read More →

Why We Create an "Us" and "Them" and How We Might Stop

by Bud Heckman

A leader of a well-known nonprofit made a highly unusual public admission. So out of character, in fact, that there was a long awkward pause in the packed meeting room after she said it. A knowing gasp. Her organization works in 30 countries helping people overcome differences of various stripes. So what did she admit?

Read More →

Dr. Mehnaz Afridi: Defying All Stereotypes

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

In an age when Muslim-Jewish tensions are unusually high, when prominent Muslim leaders publicly deny that the Holocaust happened, and when UNESCO recently voted to declare that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is historically sacred only to Muslims, not Jews or Christians – it’s hard to imagine that a Muslim would have been selected to head a Holocaust center.

Read More →

Featured

Nov 15, 2016

An New Kind of Interfaith World

Nov 15, 2016

Editorial by Paul Chaffee

Last month’s TIO editorial suggested that the United States of America was at a critical interfaith juncture. Since then the choice has been made.

Read More →

Nov 15, 2016

Featured

Interfaith News Roundup - November 2016

Standing Rock, Evangelical Divide, and Pope Francis – News-notes from Around the World

Read More →

OPPORTUNITIES & RESOURCES

Getting the Word Out

From TIO

Chrisitan Jewish Peacemakers Project Developing

From Hartford Seminary

Essential Guidelines for Interfaith Higher Education

From Dr. Nathan Kollar

Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College, discusses the role of Muslims in the Holocaust. http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/ Oxford Handbooks Online in Religion brings together the world's leading scholars to write review essays that evaluate the current thinking on a field or topic, and make an original argument about the future direction of the debate.

MUSLIMS AND THE HOLOCAUST
Dr. Mehnaz Afridi

TangibleHope is an online media campaign to reach people with the stories of HOPE in order to counter all of the stories in the media and on social media that make us afraid. #TangibleHope is a collaborative project from URI North America in partnership with 13 co-sponsoring organizations.

INTRODUCING #TANGIBLEHOPE
See TIO's profile of Tangible Hope here

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

INTERFAITH CENTER AT THE PRESIDIO

BAIC — Bay Area Interfaith Connect

RELIGIONS FOR PEACE – USA

SPIRIT MATTERS

Interview with Mirabai Starr

UNITED RELIGIONS INITIATIVE

Interaction – Peacebuilding and Youth

USC OFFICE OF RELIGIOUS LIFE

The Interfaith Observer

November 15, 2016

Journal 2016, October 2016

October 2016 - Ancient Mentors, Emerging Leadership

The Interfaith Observer

November 15, 2016

Journal 2016, October 2016

Ancient Mentors, Emerging Leadership

October 15, 2016

Featured

Monotheistic Mystic, or a Megalomaniac?

by Marcus Braybrooke

Should the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten be seen as an ancient forbearer of the interfaith movement? In one of his prayers he said of God, “You are the Lord of all, who takes care of all,” and he said “God created every person equal to each other.” He is, however, still today as in his own time, a controversial figure.

Read More →

The Remarkable Interfaith Significance of Alexander the Great

by Henry Karlson

Interfaith dialogue is a constant element of any religious faith. Such dialogue, however, tends not to be on the level of the dogmatic teachings of the different faiths but on practical matters, such as questions concerning the morality or immorality of particular actions or on the way communities as a whole understand shared historical experiences.

Read More →

A Report from The Tabernacle Experience

by Jonathan Homrighausen

I stood in front of the Ark of the Covenant, holding my incense while I gazed on the golden wings of the cherubim. No, I am not starring in a remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was inside The Tabernacle Experience, an interactive re-enactment of the Tabernacle which the Israelites built in the desert on their journey from Egypt to Canaan.

Read More →

Koans, Parables, and the Realm of God

by David Parks-Ramage

Christian Koan Groups rely on a spiritual tool discovered in China through the development of Ch’an Buddhism. Koans are dialogs between Ch’an masters and their students, found helpful in leading students to a perception of life as it is rather than as it is imagined, hoped or wished to be. An example of a koan is Zhaozhou’s Dog:

Read More →

Beating a Message of Peace in Uganda

by Vicki Garlock

In a country often known for unspeakable violence and political strife, Buyondo Micheal offers a beacon of hope to those desperately seeking peace. As founder of Faiths Together Uganda (FTU), Micheal uses dance, music, and art to unify and delight. Inspired by global interfaith initiatives, he provides the funding and the energy for events that cross religious, cultural, and tribal divides.

Read More →

Skillsets to Overcome Religious Bigotry

by Ariella Amit

As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed a few years ago, I came across a post encouraging Los Angeles youth to apply for membership on an Interfaith Council. I followed the link to the website reluctantly and began reading about the goals of the council. By the end of my interfaith research, I realized that being a privileged, white Jew living in Los Angeles, I have little exposure to different religions at all.

Read More →

Obama's Final Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

Eboo Patel’s question rang out in Elstad Auditorium on the final day of the Sixth Annual President’s Interfaith Community Service Campus Challenge, held this year in September at Gallaudet University in Washington DC. Founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, and one of the principal architects of the Campus Challenge, Patel posed that key question to some 600 participants: students, professors, university presidents and interfaith activists

Read More →

Review: The INTRAfaith Conversation (2016) by Susan Strouse

by Kay Lindahl

As a Christian who has been engaged in the interfaith movement for over 25 years, I found myself intrigued by The INTRAfaith Conversation: How Do Christians Talk Among Ourselves About INTERfaith Matters? (2016). Susan Strouse’s book explores the importance of intrafaith conversations as a path to deeper and more meaningful interfaith conversations.

Read More →

Shadowing the China G20 Summit: An Interreligious Gathering

by Katherine Marshall

World leaders meeting in Hangzhou, China may be unaware that a few days earlier a shadow group of religious scholars met in Beijing. Their agenda was geared to the G20 and their meeting reflected a determined effort by Chinese scholars and counterparts from across the world to continue a tradition of gathering in parallel with the global encounters of national leaders

Read More →

Following the Path of Transformation

by Weston Pew

On my path over this past year my work for The Sacred Door Trail has taken me to the melting glaciers of Greenland where gigantic ice walls fall into rivers every 20 minutes, shaking ground and bone as a warning call of the coming rising seas.

Read More →

Featured

Oct 14, 2016

The United States at an Interfaith Crossroads

Oct 14, 2016

Editorial by Paul Chaffee

This month’s TIO is being posted 25 days before one of the momentous elections in the history of the United States. From an interfaith point of view, the implications are huge.

Oct 14, 2016

Featured

Interfaith News Roundup - October 2016

September Was a Month of Celebrations and Blessings – Responding to the Refugee Crisis – Making a Difference through Collaboration – Religion and Society

Read More →

OPPORTUNITIES & RESOURCES

#TangibleHope Amplyfing Stories of Hope around the World

From URI

"Principles and Guidelines for Interfaith Dialogue" Available

From Scarboro Missions

If you were to select a colour to represent your faith, what would it be? Yellow, is one colour different religious groups have embraced in Kibera as a show of unity and religious tolerance. The brainchild of a non - governmental organization, Colour in Faith, the initiative preaches cohesion.

COLOUR IN FAITH
Embracing Yellow for Peace in Kiberia

Through the peace drums initiative, we used two big drums as symbols of inter faith and inter cultural diversity. These include; a black and the other being white to represent the different races. The peace Drums' Initiative uses art and music as an instrumental tool in bridging the gap among people of different religions.

BEATING DRUMS FOR PEACE
from Faiths Together Uganda

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

INTERFAITH CENTER AT THE PRESIDIO

BAIC — Bay Area Interfaith Connect

RELIGIONS FOR PEACE – USA

SPIRIT MATTERS

Interview with Rabbi Rami Shapiro

UNITED RELIGIONS INITIATIVE

URI's Multiregion

USC OFFICE OF RELIGIOUS LIFE