NORTH AMERICAN INTERFAITH NETWORK
NAINEWS January
2007
The
Newsletter of
the North American Interfaith Network, Inc.
www.nain.org
Greetings_from_NAIN_Chair
Renew Your Membership for 2007
Looking Back at NAINConnect 2006
Sikh_Grant_For_Young_Adult_Scholarship
Richmond to Host NAINConnect in 2007
NAIN_Represented_At_WCRP_Kyoto
Reflections_on_America,_God_and_World
Affairs_
WITNESS_An_Important_Resource
Opening_The_Doors_Of_Wonder
Interfaith_Briefs
New_Editors_Of_NAINews
Greetings
from the
Chairperson of the NAIN Board of Directors
By
Mike
Goggin
In 1988, the North
American Interfaith Network
(NAIN) was
created after a series of meetings of representatives of interfaith
councils
around the continent that dated back to 1985.
In 1988, the first NAINConnect
(billed as "The
North
American Assisi" in honor of the 1986 gathering of world religious
leaders that
was convened by Pope John Paul II in the Italian town made famous by
Saints
Francis and Clare) took place in Wichita, Kansas. In 1988, on a
much less significant note, I
graduated from
high school in Boston, Massachusetts. Now, in late 2006, I greet
you all as the new
Chairperson of
the North American Interfaith Network. I am far from the most deserving
person
to hold the position.
|
Mike Goggin
|
My academic credentials lack the doctorate
in
theology
held by so many of my fellow NAIN Board members. I am certainly not the
holiest
among you. I am not ordained in any tradition, although I am fond of
saying
that I am a Roman Catholic both by birth and by choice which means to
me that I take my faith seriously even when I take it to task. The best
I can
offer is that I have been devoted to the work of NAIN ever since my
first
encounter with you in Beausejour, Manitoba in August 2001.
I came to the 2001 Connect as a young adult
scholarship
recipient and as a new staff member of the InterFaith Conference of
Metropolitan Washington (IFC). Rev. Dr. Clark Lobenstine, my Executive
Director
and boss at IFC, was one of NAIN's founders, and he encouraged me to
apply for
the young adult scholarship while assuring me that IFC would cover the
rest of
my expenses to attend the conference. I was 31 years old that summer,
and I did
not suspect that weekend as I experienced an immersion experience into
aboriginal Native American spirituality the talking circle, the sweat
lodge, the sacramental use of tobacco that my world was about to
change. My mother suffered a stroke in Florida just two days after I
returned
from the conference, and after hanging in the balance between life and
death
for more than two weeks, died on August 26, 2001. I learned that
becoming an
orphan at any age could be a lonely burden.
In the spring of 2002, I asked NAIN Board member
and Young
Adult Chair Christy Lohr about the possibility of again attending NAIN
on
scholarship. Christy told me that NAIN tried to offer the scholarship
to
different candidates every year, but she also asked me if I would
consider
standing for election to the Board of Directors. My organization again
made it
possible for me to attend that year's conference, which was held in
Wichita on
the 15th anniversary of NAIN's founding, and I began my
service on
the Board at the conclusion of that conference. At the 2003 Connect in
Columbus, Ohio, I replaced Christy as Young Adult Chair and in 2004 in
New York
City I became Secretary.
When fellow NAIN Board member Paul Chaffee
visited
my office
on my birthday last year, he asked if I would consider being nominated
as
Chairperson. I laughed out loud. Surely just about everyone on the
board was
more capable of serving in this role than I! Just a couple of days
later,
former NAIN Chairperson Don Mayne wrote to ask me the same question.
While I
remain firmly convinced that my first instinct about being
underqualified for
the position continues to hold true, I agreed to serve in the role if
that was
the desire of the Board. That sentiment was ratified at the conclusion
of the
2006 Connect in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia.
I hope that you will join me and the entire
NAIN
Board of
Directors in our work to connect the interfaith efforts of our member
organizations. You can do that in many different ways. You can pray for
our
work and encourage others in your own tradition to do the same. You can
encourage like-minded organizations and individuals that are currently
not
members of NAIN to join our growing network. Three organizations have
joined
NAIN in the last six months of 2006. The Board is always happy to
consider the
applications of prospective member groups. Individuals are welcome to
join as
Friends of NAIN. The annual dues are reasonable and applications are
available
on our website, www.nain.org.
Simply click
the "Join NAIN" button on the home page to begin the application
process.
Speaking of our website, you can also make
more
interactive
use of NAINOnline one of the major perks of membership in NAIN. There
you will find an Open Forum, Calendar, Library and Directory. A blog
will be
added soon.
Finally, I hope you will consider attending
"NAINConnect
2007: Embracing Religious Freedom Past, Present and Future" at the
Roslyn
Episcopal Retreat Center in Richmond, Virginia over the long weekend of
July
12-16, 2007. Religious freedom is certainly a hot-button topic in North
America
today. The InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington even hired
a
full-time Coordinator for Religious Freedom in 2005. The conference
will
consider religious freedom from a continent-wide perspective while
celebrating the
400th anniversary of the settlement of the Jamestown colony.
An
optional excursion to Jamestown will be offered on the final day of the
conference, which will also feature an on-going community service
opportunity,
an interfaith concert and film fest and a day dedicated to the
contribution
made to NAIN and the entire interfaith movement in North America by
young
adults. More information, including background reading on religious
freedom
issues and registration materials, will soon be available at www.nain.org.
I am grateful for this opportunity to
continue to
serve the
North American Interfaith Network to the best of my ability! May God be
praised
in all that we do together.
Peace,
Mike Goggin
NAIN Chairperson |
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Networking is our
Essence
Renew Your Membership for 2007
Networking is such an instrumental element of our
partnership that it is even part of our name! Any discussion of the
benefits of
membership in NAIN has to revolve around this key term.
Annually, NAIN networking happens face-to-face. As
many as
100 NAIN members travel from every corner of the continent to learn
from each
other. Realizing that we are all experts of our own experience, we
share our
success stories and lessons learned and return home energized to
continue the
task of building bridges between people of different religious
traditions and
cultures. While we are together, we solidify the bonds of friendship by
praying
and playing together. We also engage in table fellowship, sharing food
in banquet
halls and university cafeterias alike. The camaraderie established
during the
annual NAINConnects builds up the trust needed to work together even
though we
live thousands of miles apart.
Since interfaith efforts can sometimes seem like
lonely
work, our virtual networking continues throughout the year on
NAINOnline.
Through the Open Forum, NAIN member organizations are free to share
interfaith
happenings in everyone's hometown. Just by being a member of NAIN,
you'll get
news from Minneapolis to Edmonton, Dallas to Washington, D.C. delivered
right
to your e-mail inbox. In 2007, NAINews (the e-newsletter that you are
reading
right now) will double its production schedule and publish four issues
per
year. Through NAINOnline, you can also browse the documents in our
library,
list an event that your organization is sponsoring on our community
calendar
and find the contact information for colleagues throughout North
America who
are working on the same issues that you are. Organizations can even
list position
openings and internships through NAINOnline Classifieds. A blog will be
added
to NAINOnline in 2007, making the site even more dynamic and
interactive.
If you know of an organization that really should
be part of
our network, please share these benefits of NAIN membership with its
leadership. Membership in NAIN is extremely affordable. Local and
regional
interfaith organizations contribute at least US$75 annually, while
national and
international groups give US$125. Individuals are also welcome to join
as
Friends of NAIN for a suggested donation of US$35 annually. Full
details and
criteria for organizational membership are posted on www.nain.org. Click the "Join NAIN"
button on
the home page.
Prospective member organizations send no money
until their
membership is affirmed by the NAIN Board of Directors. NAIN's
membership is
comprised of interfaith organizations and agencies, interfaith
relations
programs and offices of religious, denominational and other appropriate
institutions
in the United States, Mexico and Canada. It seeks to affirm humanity's
diverse
and historic spiritual resources and bring these to bear on
contemporary
global, national, regional and local issues. It's easy to apply for
membership
online. Go to http://interspirit.net/nainjoin.cfm?group=462822
Each year member organizations are requested to
complete a
membership renewal form which is available online at http://www.nain.org/Renewal.htm.
You
can complete the renewal form and submit it online. At the same time
you submit
your renewal form, you can pay membership dues on line also.
It is time to pay our 2007 dues. Dues can be paid
online,
using Pay Pal. On the bottom of the NAIN homepage is a Donate button.
Click on
the button and then complete the simple form. The amount to be paid is
shown in
the paragraph above. Or, if you prefer to pay by check, payment should
be sent
to the appropriate address in your nation. Organizations in Canada
should send
their payment to:
Paul McKenna
Scarboro Missions
2685 Kingston Road
Scarborough, ON M1M 1M4
Phone: 416-261-7135
info@interfaithunity.ca
Organizations in the USA should send their payment
to:
Kay Lindahl
5762 Campo Walk
Long Beach, CA 90803-5035
Phone: 562-987-5496
Kaylindahl@yahoo.com
Organizations in Mexico should send their payment
to:
Jonathan Rose
Consejo Interreligioso de Mejico
Calle Matamoros #4
Tapoztlan, Morelos
C.P. 62525 Mexico
Phone: 52-739-395-0210
jonrosemx@yahoo.com.mx
Show your support of NAIN by completing the
membership
renewal form and submitting your dues payment as soon as possible.
Looking Back at NAIN Connect 2006
On June 23-27, 2006 the NAIN Connect was held in
Vancouver,
B.C., with the theme of "Passion
for
Peace,
Commitment to Change." It
was held in conjunction with the World
Peace
Forum. A report of the conference prepared by Paul Chaffee, NAIN
Program
Chairperson, can be found at http://www.nain.org/Connect06.htm Go to the bottom of the NAIN home
page to
click on a YouTube video clip prepared by Kinza M. Ghaznavi, one of the
Young
Adults who attended the 2006 NAIN Connect, titled "Our Friendship."
NAIN is committed to having Young Adults attend
each NAIN
Connect, and provides scholarships to express this commitment. One of
the 2006
NAIN Connect Young Adults, Toni Sacco, has shared these reflections on
the
experience:
It was by accident really that I found the
North American
Interfaith Network (NAIN). I was
in the midst of applying for summer internships when I received an
email from
one of the organizations I applied to advertising this 'Young Adult
Scholarship' to a conference for an organization I'd never heard of. Not thinking anything would come of it,
or really even knowing what I was applying for, I answered the brief
essay
questions and waited. Quickly the
onslaught of finals, work, and preparing to study abroad returned me to
the
stressful monotony of long hours and no sleep, pushing the conference
to the
back of my mind. A phone call,
haggling with my mother, another grant, rearranging of summer plans,
and a
conference call later, I found myself stuck in a plane for two hours in
the
middle of Texas waiting for the storm to pass as this New Yorker made
her way
to the West Coast for the first time.
Attending the NAIN conference was something
truly
thrilling. For the first time I
was able to talk to anyone I saw about my passion and they would share
the same
exhilaration that I felt, a feat for a Religion Major at an Engineering
School
[Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio] who 98% of the
time gets
the perplexed reaction: why? My
days were packed with great conversations, lectures, and workshops
saturated
with new ideas and experiences, only adding timber to the flame of
passion,
whether it was talking about the Sacred Art of Listening with Kay over
breakfast, singing in harmony with the group with Nancy Fisher, being
saved
from loss and confusion by Susan and Judith, comparing University
experiences
with Henri, giving a presentation barefoot, dancing for hours, or
laughing with
Paul Chaffee, every moment was an intentional situation for not only
discussing, but living inter-religiously.
Quickly the pages of my journal filled with quotations, ideas,
and notes.
From the start the small group of ๋young
adults' gathered
together into a sort of posse, moving together to different lectures
during the
day and exploring Vancouver at night.
A diverse group of people, ranging from university students to
non-profit
professionals from diverse religious traditions, interacting within the
young
adult circle was as much of a learning and networking experience as the
lectures and the conference as a whole.
We were also given the opportunity to share our knowledge and
experience
through leading our own presentations ranging from discussing concepts
to
sharing specific programming experiences (which were quite exemplary if
I do
say). Over the course of the
conference we built friendships and relationships that have lasted long
past
the conference.
I experienced everything I could have hoped for
at a
conference like this: encountering new ideas and wisdom from past
experience,
meeting dedicated wonderful people who share my passion and refueling
the tank
of energy and commitment that only comes with inspiration and hope. NAIN is an organization forging a new
and vibrant path through a forest littered with challenges. I applaud the effort, energy, interest,
time, and money that NAIN has invested in the young adult community:
scholarships, allocation of time for young adults at conferences,
discussions/lectures devoted to the issue of young adult experience,
and
more. I am hopeful about and
anxious for the continued progress towards and with young adult
involvement. I look forward to seeing more
young
adults attending NAIN functions, involving themselves in NAIN
activities,
taking on leadership roles within NAIN, and more young adult interfaith
organizations in membership with NAIN.
I am grateful for having the awesome
opportunity to spend
a week living and learning in a beautiful city with compassionate,
dedicated
visionaries who inspired and taught me; it is one I will look forward
to again
in the future. I'll end my humble
essay with my favorite quote from the conference despite it's
irrelevance to
the article: "If you don't fall, you won't know how to stand better. Don't be afraid to try and make a
mistake," words of wisdom providing hope, courage, and inspiration to
take that
leap into today and tomorrow.
Interested Young Adults should apply for
scholarship
assistance. A link to the Young Adult scholarship assistance
application now
can be found on the NAIN home page at www.nain.org.
Gian Tej Young Adult
Scholarship
By
Don Mayne, Former Chair of NAIN Board of Directors
NAIN has just received a donation from a Board member to provide a
scholarship each year for a young adult connected with the Sikh
religion. Dr.
Teja Singh of Edmonton, Alberta, has donated sufficient funds to
provide a
scholarship through the Young Adult Committee of NAIN.
Dr. Singh is a member of the Board of Directors of the Edmonton
Interfaith
Centre for Education and Action and the Board of Directors of NAIN. He
has
attended three recent NAINConnects and has been inspired and supported
in his
beliefs that people of all religions should work together to promote
values of
peace and support for people in need wherever they may live. He has
been
concerned that a limited number of young adults of the Sikh faith have
attended
NAINConnects and hopes in this way to assist young adults to
participate in the
interfaith experience which has been so meaningful to him.
The scholarship is named after the parents of Dr. Singh, originally
from
Pakistan. He learned from his parents to share with people of the other
religions which surrounded them, and throughout his life he has
continued to
develop his concept of peace and harmony among the faiths. Dr. Singh
went to
University in the United States and served the United Nations as a
hydrologist
in many parts of the world besides Canada. Personal experiences in many
countries gave him a greater understanding of the ways in which people
of
different religions and cultures can cooperate in spite of their faith
differences.
In Edmonton, Dr. Singh has headed up a successful appeal for $2
million for
the Guru Nanak Dev Healing Garden in the Mazenkowski Alberta Heart
Institute
for the treatment of diseases of the heart which is currently under
construction as part of the University of Alberta Hospital.
Dr. Singh and his wife Lavinia, who is from London, England, have
lived in
Edmonton for 35 years. He is a poet, writing in Urdu and translating
his poetry
into English.
Young Sikhs and young adults of all faith traditions between the
ages of 18
and 35 are invited to apply for a young adult scholarship to attend
NAINConnect
2007 in Richmond, Virginia July 12-16. Application forms are available
at www.nain.org.
For
more information, contact April Kunze, Young Adult Chairperson, at 312-573-8826 or april@ifyc.org.
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to menu of articles
The Interfaith Council of Greater Richmond and
InterFaith
Conference of Metropolitan Washington are the hosts for this Connect
held
during America's 400th Anniversary Celebration for the first
English
settlement in Jamestown. Richmond
is also the location of the first reading of the Virginia Statute for
Religious
Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.
Background and current events related to
Interfaith work for
Religious Freedom will be the focus of dialogues, panel discussions and
"How
To" sessions on Friday, July 13. Isabelle
Kinnard, Executive Vice
President and
Education Director of Council for America's First Freedom will be one
of our
keynote speakers that day.
We will continue these discussions into Saturday
by focusing
on Youth Empowerment in Interfaith and Religious Freedom.
Our Young Adults will present a panel
discussion called "I can do more than make Coffee".
This panel discussion is a special request by the Young adults
who attended the NAIN 2006 in Vancouver.
This should be enlightening, informative and fun.
We will have special guests from
the Virginia Conference for Community and Justice Metrotown and Unitown
programs and a picnic. More "How
To" and FYI sessions will be included in the day's schedule.
Sunday, July 15 our discussions will focus on
Interfaith
collaboration to promote Religious Freedom. We
will be favored with an Interfaith Concert Sunday evening
for the official conclusion of the NAIN Connect 2007.
Our post conference trip to Jamestown will be Monday, July
16.
NAIN Connect 2007 Fees
Conference Complete Package
$460.00
This conference package includes:
4
nights double occupancy lodging (7/12 7/15) Thurs Sun
Conference
meal package
including Sunday banquet and all meals
Thurs-Mon
Conference
fee
A la carte fees per day
Per
Day lodging
$57.50
Commuter
Conference fee (no meals)
$35.00
Commuter
meals
Breakfast
$10.00
Lunch
$14.00
Dinner
$16.00
Sunday
Banquet
$20.00
Jamestown Tour Monday 7/16
$65.00
Local sales, lodging tax and convenience fees ARE
included
in these fees. Payment may be made by Pay
Pal on-line at www.ICGR.org
You can find a link on www.NAIN.org .
COME to RICHMOND! Reconnect with Interfaith
friends from all
over the continent. We look
forward to seeing you here!
Lynn Johnston, Midge Falconer, Mike Goggin &
Sharon
Clayton
NAIN Connect 2007 Planning Team
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NAIN
Board
Members Attend Kyoto World Assembly of Religions for Peace
By Rori
Picker
(RFP-USA) and Dr. Tarunjit Singh Butalia
Three Board members of NAIN traveled from the US
to Kyoto,
Japan in the third week of August 2006 to attend the VIIIth World
Assembly of
Religions for Peace. NAIN Board members who attended the conference
included:
Dr. Tarunjit Singh Butalia (World Sikh Council America Region), Kinza
Ghaznavi (Religions for Peace USA), and April Kunze (Interfaith Youth
Core).
Three and a half decades after the first World
Assembly of
Religions for Peace was held in Japan, the VIIIth World Assembly
returned to
its roots, bringing with it two more groundbreaking assemblies: the
first Youth
Assembly of Religions for Peace and the Women's Assembly of Religions
for
Peace.
From August 21, 2006 through August 29, 2006
approximately
one thousand delegates from over 100 countries representing all major
religious
traditions inundated the historic cities of Hiroshima and Kyoto, Japan.
Participants discussed conflict transformation, peacebuilding, and
security
issues under the theme of Confronting Violence and Advancing Shared
Security.
Inspired by the story of Hiroshima, a city
devastated by the
atomic bomb and rebuilt into a city of peace, youth leaders discussed
the
unique role of religious youth in preventing violence and worked
together to
develop a plan for youth-led multi-religious advocacy and action for
shared
security. In Kyoto, women of faith forged partnerships among religious
communities and representatives of inter-governmental organizations and
civil
society. At the World Assembly, Religions for Peace Interreligious
Councils
shared best practices and religious leaders from zones of conflict,
such as
Iraq, Israel/Palestine and Sudan, came together in special working
groups to
advocate for peace.
Participants and speakers included Junichiro
Koizumi, Prime
Minister of Japan, HE Mohammad Khatami, former President of Iran, Prince Hassan bin Al Talal, Prince
of Jordan, and Ann Veneman,
Executive Director of UNICEF.
For more information, including the full text of
declarations issued by each assembly, visit http://www.religionsforpeace.org/about/assemblies/kyoto-2006.
Photo
Courtesy of
RFP-International
About 1,000
religious
leaders from over 100 countries gather for the VIIIth World Assembly of
Religions for Peace held August 2006 in Kyoto, Japan.
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Madeleine K.
Albright
delivers prestigious 2006 Snowdon Lecture
On September 18, former U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine
Albright shared "Reflections on America, God and World Affairs" at
Georgetown
University during the prestigious Richard W Snowdon Lecture sponsored
by the
InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington.
In addition to the crowd of people from the
Washington area
filling Georgetown's Gaston Hall, some 120 high school, college and
graduate
students who attended the lecture signed up to write a short critical
response
paper making them eligible to win one of three $1,000 Washington Post
scholarships, which were presented during a December ceremony hosted by
the
newspaper.
For a transcript of her speech, go to: http://www.ifcmw.org/Default.asp?page=albright_lecture_text
To read the winning student essays, go to:
http://www.ifcmw.org/default.asp?page=Snowdon_06_Winners
Important resource for
interfaith
human rights advocacy
WITNESS uses the power of video to open the eyes
of the
world to human rights abuses. By partnering with local organizations
around the
globe, WITNESS empowers human rights defenders to use video to shine a
light on
those most affected by human rights violations, and to transform
personal
stories of abuse into powerful tools of justice. Over the past decade,
WITNESS
has partnered with groups in more than 60 countries, bringing often
unseen
images, untold stories and seldom heard voices to the attention of key
decision
makers, the media, and the general public -- catalyzing grassroots
activism,
political engagement, and lasting change.
Go to www.witness.org There
you can
watch videos, select which ones may be appropriate to your group or
organization, and then download or purchase the videos. An example of
the work
of WITNESS is "Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture, and
Disappearances
in the "War on Terror." After watching the video, their web site
provides links
that can assist you to take
action to help end
torture in the world community. For example you can sign Amnesty
International's Petition
Against Torture and Action
Against Extraordinary Rendition or the American
Civil Liberties Union's petition urging U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza
Rice to abolish the use of torture as an acceptable method of
interrogation, or
demand through Human
Rights First that your U.S. Congressperson insist that the next CIA
Director uphold the torture ban.
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Books in Review
By Dr. Hal French
REVIEW OF OPENING
THE DOORS OF WONDER
REFLECTIONS ON RELIGIOUS RITES OF PASSAGE
BY ARTHUR MAGIDA
University of California Press: Berkeley, 2006,
ISBN 13:978-0-520-24545-7.
This is a splendid book. Magida's
writing style is captivating, and the reader, on
probing just the first few pages, may find his or her interest
exponentially
piqued for more!
The book is comprised of Magida's interviews (and
his
reflections on them) of a number of recognized and less well-known
persons. The subject matter was to
assess the effect of their formal entry into their faith tradition as
an early
adolescent, the time usually given to this event.
As he states it, "I wanted to see who isn't
disappointed, who is changed, how they're changed, why they're changed." And he gives objective attention, also,
to those for whom the rite of passage did not deliver.
Magida has managed to compile some rather
amazingly candid
stories. These are intensely
personal accounts of the experiences of bar and bat mitzvahs,
confirmations and
first communions and their equivalent rituals in different faith
traditions. Some clearly worked;
some fell flat; some were only treasured later, as part of a series of
moments
which made persons feel part of a religious community.
Some did not miss having had such a
rite of passage; others, nostalgically, felt that something was missing
if it
didn't occur.
For Elie Wiesel, while his bar mitzvah was
low-key, he felt
that the community was saying, "From now on, we can count on you as a
man." Other accounts give
critiques of the contrasting high status, high spending events of some
celebrations often in vogue today, in which the social splash seems to
eclipse
the spiritual.
Huston Smith, reflecting on his own devout
upbringing,
nevertheless felt that his confirmation was a little disappointing,
that it
could have been more powerful. "The point
is to drill home, 'Okay, you've been playing around
and
people have been taking care of you.
But now you are an adult and that carries all kinds of
responsibility.' " That presents a
challenge to the faith community, to
make it more
formative, yet still a part of a process of conveying a sense of
belonging.
As valuable a resource as this is, one could wish
for a
little more balance. While
accounts from Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam are present, the large
majority of
the interviews are first from Jewish and then Christian respondents. I was least satisfied with Magida's
general treatment of Hinduism, in which distinctions of classes and
castes are
not quite made, and insufficient attention is given to how the classic
societal
restrictions which these once dictated are often modified today.
A part from those observations, however, you will
find that
this book gives rise to very useful reflections. What
was your experience of a rite of passage? Perhaps
this book will re-open your own
doors of wonder.
Interfaith Briefs
Compiled
by
Dr.
Tarunjit Singh
Butalia, World Sikh Council America Region
Vice-Chairperson
NAIN
Editor's Note:
The
following listing was obtained by searching the Lexis-Nexis newspaper
database
for US, Canada, and Mexico for interfaith news on November 26, 2006.
Houston,
Texas,
US: "The Amazing Faith of Texas: Common Ground on Higher Ground"
published by
Idea City Press is beautifully photographic book filled with pictures
of
churches, mosques, temples, and synagogues across the state of Texas.
The
publication of the book has inspired interfaith dinners in the Houston
area to
discuss faith and spirituality. (The Houston Chronicle, 11/25/06)
New
York, US: The
Yorkville Christian-Jewish Council, which owes its founding to a
Catholic
priest who survived Nazi death camps during World War II, honored Rev.
Ernest
Falardeau at Temple Shaaray Tefila with an award for promoting
interfaith
relations. (Daily News, 11/25/06)
New
York, US: The
lives of three women - a Muslim, a Jew, and a Christian are profiled
in
a new book The Faith Club
published
recently by Free Press. By the end of the book, "the Jew empathizes
with
Palestinians, the Muslim discovers a progressive mosque and the
Catholic-turned-Episcopalian develops a Universalist streak." (Chicago
Sun
Times, 11/12/06)
Columbus,
Ohio,
US: The Interfaith Association of Central Ohio held a public forum on
"My Faith
Journey" on 11/12/06. Speakers from Islamic, Sikh, and Jewish faiths
shared
their personal stories of faith transformation. The event, held at a
public
library, was attended by about 50 persons of diverse faith traditions.
(Interfaith Update of IACO, 11/12/06)
San
Antonio,
Texas, US: The Interreligious Council of San Antonio, formed 5 years
before
9/11, celebrated its 10th anniversary in early November
2006. The
organization has become a safe forum to ๋talk about sensitive religious
issues,
emphasizing respect while learning about one another's differences."
Members of
the Council include representatives of Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian,
Ethical
Culture, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, American Indian, Quaker, Sikh,
Unitarian
Universalist, and Wiccan faiths. (San Antonio Express-News, 11/11/06)
Vancouver,
Canada: The Multifaith Action Society of British Columbia has held
interfaith
dinners at the homes of local Unitarians to promote faith-based
conversations
and dialogue over food. The dinners give the guests the "ability to
speak
freely about their spiritual life, without fear of judgment." (North
Shore
News, 11/8/06)
Omaha,
Nebraska,
US: The Omaha World-Herald published an editorial commending the
formation of a
tri-faith campus in Omaha as a step in the right direction to promote
dialogue
and respect among the residents of the city. The Temple Israel,
Episcopal
Diocese of Nebraska, and the American Institute of Islamic Studies and
Culture
are working together on establishing a complex of separate buildings
for each
group but with shared facilities such as a library, meeting rooms,
auditorium,
and food areas. "Ignorance tends to breed fear, which can lead to
misunderstanding, intolerance, and at worst, hateึ Dialogue isn't about
necessarily changing someone's mind. It should involve being open to
furthering
one's knowledge and understanding of that which is different from one's
own."
(Omaha World-Herald, 11/5/06, 11/8/06)
Nanaimo,
British
Columbia, Canada: The Interfaith Community of Nanaimo helped in the
renovation
of an Islamic mosque as it was transformed from a Chinese temple into
an
Islamic place of worship. The renovations were completed in October
2006 with a
tree-planting ceremony. Mr. Daud Ismail, President of the British
Columbia
Muslim Association, remarked, "It's good to see Nanaimo's Islamic
community
work with other faiths so people can see that Muslims are people like
everybody
else." (Nanaimo Daily News, 10/30/06)
Toledo,
Ohio, US:
The Multi Faith Council of Northwest Ohio has initiated an interfaith
youth
film festival project to involve youth of faith to be engaged with each
other
by watching and discussing movies. The program runs November 2006
through May
2007. (Multi Faith Council of Northwest Ohio, October 2006)
Edmonton,
Canada:
The Edmonton Journal has reported that about 20% of Canadian couples
identify
themselves as interreligious. Twenty years earlier about 15% of couples
had
identified themselves as being interreligious. Buddhists were most
likely to be
in interreligious unions with Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus, while Sikhs
and
Hindus were most likely to have an interfaith marriage with a Catholic
or
Protestant. Muslims most commonly paired with Catholics if they were in
an
interreligious union. (Edmonton Journal, 10/4/06)
Toronto,
Canada:
The decade-old Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims was highlighted
by the
Toronto Star on 11/23/06. The Association's co-chairs, Barbara Landau
(Jewish)
and Shahid Akhtar (Muslim), shared their perspectives on the work
accomplished
by the Association. The article showcased the fragile understanding
among the
Muslim and Jewish communities despite the tensions in Middle East. (The
Toronto
Star, 9/23/06)
Vancouver,
Canada: Responding to an early September 2006 federal report that the
greater
Vancouver area had the highest proportion of working poor in Canada,
Mr.
Douglas Todd wrote an article in The Vancouver Sun calling upon the
interfaith
community of Canada to make the minimum wage a moral and religious
issue. He
highlighted the "Let Justice Roll" campaign of the National Council of
Churches
in the USA and called upon Canadians who think of themselves as
spiritual to
take on the challenge and explore solutions to the problem. (The
Vancouver Sun,
9/23/06)
Indianapolis,
Indiana, US: The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) elected Ingrid
Mattson, an Islamic woman from Canada, to be its next President. ISNA
is the
largest Muslim organization in North America. Ms. Mattson is expected
to be a
visible spokesperson for the Islamic faith in the US and Canada. (Los
Angles
Times, 11/21/06)
Boston,
Massachusetts, US: Laine Walters, a research associate at Harvard
University's
Pluralism Project, released a report documenting religious diversity
and
focusing on strategies that universities are using to accommodate a
wide range
of religious beliefs in sacred worship spaces on US campuses. While
schools
such as Northeastern University and MIT have responded by hiring
chaplains to
serve various faiths, the architecture of many campus worship centers
is being
transformed to be more inclusive. The report highlighted Harvard
University's
Andover Chapel. (The Boston Globe, 9/16/06)
Montreal,
Canada:
McGill University hosted an international interfaith conference on the 5th
anniversary of 9/11 titled "World's Religions After September 11." The
National
Council of Churches USA organized a session on Forgiveness and
Reconciliation at the conference. (www.worldsreligionsafter911.com)
New
York, US: The
59th Annual DPI/NGO Conference at the United Nations
included a
Tripartite Forum on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace held on 9/6/06.
The
conference attracted over 100 participants from across the world. Fifty
governments are now part of the Tripartite Forum, along with 15 UN
agencies and
the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, which represents
over
100 religious NGOs. (Canada News Wire, 9/8/06)
Chiapas,
Mexico:
An interfaith delegation of a dozen fair trade activists visited the
region in
January of 2006 to study the status of cooperatives of small scale
coffee
farmers in Chiapas and the impact of US governmental policies on the
region.
(Equal Exchange Interfaith Delegation, January 2006)
New Editors of NAINews
By
Chuck White
As Mike Goggin, the new Chairperson of the NAIN Board of Directors,
has
noted in his article for this newsletter, NAIN was formed in 1988, 18
years
ago. One of the services of NAIN has been the publication of a
newsletter,
NAINews, reporting on the activities of the network and reflecting on
the
growth of the interfaith movement throughout North America over these
years.
There have been three Managing Editors during these years. The first
was Robert
Greenwood who was on the staff of the InterFaith Ministries of Wichita,
Kansas,
the interfaith organization that hosted the North American Assisi, the
conference that gave birth to NAIN. Four years later, I took over as
Managing
Editor, upon completion of my term as co-chair of the NAIN Organizing
Steering
Committee and of the initial NAIN Board of Directors.
A couple of years later Joel Beversluis became Managing Editor of
NAINews, a
post he well served until his death from cancer in March of 2003. He
grew the
newsletter in many important ways. Additionally, www.InterFaithNews.net was founded in 2002 by Joel
Beversluis, late of CoNexus Multifaith Media, and Stephen Fuqua. The
intent was
to create a useful repository for interfaith news and stories on the
Internet.
With the support of the United Religions
Initiative and the North American
Interfaith
Network, INN was launched in August of 2002.
No doubt, at least in my mind and heart, Joel's greatest
contribution to the
interfaith movement in North America, and globally, was his research,
preparation, and publication of "A SourceBook for Earth's Community of
Religions," a project conducted in cooperation with Council for a
Parliament of
the World's Religions, based in Chicago, Illinois. What more fitting
affirmation of this illuminating endeavor could there be than these
words:
"This SourceBook is a major resource for continuing what happened so
fruitfully at the Parliament -- to deepen our understanding of each
other and
to encourage dialogue and cooperation." -- Dr. David Ramage, Chair,
Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions.
The text of the SourceBook is available on line at http://origin.org/ucs/doc.cfm?e=1&fg=3176;
a valuable resource provided by United Communities of Spirit.
A fitting tribute to Joel by Professor Diana L. Eck, of The
Pluralism
Project, can be read at http://www.pluralism.org/affiliates/beversluis/memoriam.php
Upon Joel's death the NAIN Board of Directors requested that I serve
as the
Managing Editor of NAINews. With sadness in my heart because of the
loss of a
friend and colleague, I again took up the task of guiding the
newsletter.
During the past four years we have added two continuing features to
NAINews:
Books in Review and Interfaith Briefs.
Dr. Hal W. French, retired Professor of Religion at University of
South
Carolina, has been serving as Editor for Books in Review for NAINews
for the
past three years. He has brought his years of experience and great
knowledge
about religion to this position, helping to acquaint readers of this
newsletter
with the ever increasing number of books engaged in some aspect of
interreligious understanding and cooperation.
Also, for the past three years, Dr. Tarunjit
Butalia Singh,
past General Secretary and current Chair of the National Interfaith
Committee
of the World Sikh Council America Region, has been compiling
Interfaith
Briefs for NAINews by searching the Lexis-Nexis newspaper database for
US,
Canada, and Mexico for interfaith news. We are providing this service
because
the interfaith movement is increasingly reported in newspapers
throughout North
America, thus opening the ever enlarging constructive interaction
between
people of diverse religious traditions, and of their faith communities.
Now it is time for new leadership for NAINews. With this issue I
complete my
responsibilities as Managing Editor of NAINews. Judy
Trautman has agreed to become Managing Editor of the e-newsletter. She and her husband, Woody, are well
known to
those who attend the annual NAIN Connects. They are the ones who
provided
leadership for the formation of the Multifaith Council of Northwest
Ohio www.multifaithcouncil.org In addition to her deep commitment to
the interfaith movement, she will bring a greatly needed area of
knowledge to
the newsletter. Judy is Technology Trainer for Perrysburg Schools, in
Perrysburg, OH. http://fc.perrysburgschools.net/~jltrautman/
I'm confident she will greatly enhance NAINews technologically, which
is
something that Joel Beversluis and I have both wanted to see happen as
the
Internet has became so prevalent. Going to an e-newsletter is a great
indicator
that NAIN will continue as an effective organization for years to come.
With this
issue, Dr. Hal W. French completes his
responsibilities as Book Review Editor for NAINews. We are grateful for
the
educational work he has done through NAINews, and for his service as a
former
Program Chair on the NAIN Board of Directors. Rob Hankinson of the
Edmonton
Centre for Education and Action will become the Book Review Editor for
NAINews.
He is widely known throughout the network. It was the Edmonton Centre
for
Education and Action that planned and hosted the 10th
Anniversary
NAIN Connect in 1998.
Dr. Tarunjit
Butalia Singh will continue contributing
Interfaith Briefs to each issue. And, it is anticipated the newsletter
will
become a quarterly publication.
I'm
thrilled with the leadership that will be working with NAINews,
beginning in
January 2007. NAIN continues to mean much to me. I am constantly amazed
with
the diversity of groups and organizations that find ways of connecting
with
each other through this network of interfaith understanding and
cooperation. I
have been blessed with multiple opportunities to make friends with
people of so
many diverse faith traditions through the years I have been associated
with
NAIN; together we have encouraged each other to express our faith
grounded in
whatever tradition we are part of, and to be of service to the common
good.
NAINews is one vehicle through which we keep in contact with each
other. I'm
confident the new leadership will bring many blessings to all of us. I
look
forward to being a consistent reader of this newsletter.
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