NAINews Spring 2007

After more than seven happy years with the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington (IFC), I left the staff of that NAIN-member organization in late March. On April 1, 2008 I became Executive Director of the St. Vincent Pallotti Center for Apostolic Development, a national Roman Catholic non-profit based at Theological College on the campus of Catholic University. The Pallotti Center works with young adult Catholics before, during and after a year of volunteer service. We work to link people with the volunteer program that is right for them, either somewhere in the United States or around the world. The organization does not have an interfaith component to its mission, but you can be sure that I will be looking to find one in the years ahead!

Since I am no longer working for an interfaith organization, I will be stepping down as Chairperson of the Board of Directors of NAIN after the upcoming NAINConnect 2008 in San Francisco. I have been grateful for the trust you have placed in me during my two-year term, and I look forward to continued service on the Board until my current term expires in 2010. Please pray for our upcoming leadership transition!

Editor’s Note: The NAIN Board of Directors now has the most difficult task of finding a replacement to the position that Mike has filled with ability and grace. We will certainly miss Mike. At the same time, we wish him all the best in his new position.

NAINConnect 2008:

Embracing an Interfaith Future

July 24-28, 2008 at the University of San Francisco

Register now! http://www.nain.org/regform08.doc

NAINConnect 2008 Update

By Paul Chafee

o Early-Bird Registration deadline May 15

o Huston Smith to be honored

o Interactive website www.nain.org/2008

o Pre-Connect Workshops

NAINConnect 2008 Early-Bird Registration - Save $75 on registration until May 15

Until May 15, NAINConnect registration if $275. As of May 16, registration will be $350.

At this writing, more than 50 have registered. We hope to have more than 100 by May 15, and would like to double that by the time we get to meet face-to-face in July. Back to NAINConnect Update.

Huston Smith to be honored

Professor Huston Smith will be honored as an interfaith pioneer at the closing banquet of NAINConnect 2008 in San Francisco this July. Professor Smith, who turns 90 on May 31, will be thanked for helping educate the thousands of grassroots interfaith leaders across the country who work to build better relationships among religious communities.

Smith’s fourteen books include The World’s Religions, which has sold more than 2.5 million copies, and Why Religion Matters, which took the Wilbur Award for best book on religion in 2001. In 1996 Bill Moyers devoted a 5-part PBS Special, The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith, to his life and work. His film documentaries on Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism have all won international awards. Back to NAINConnect Update.

Join the dialogue

An interactive website – www.nain.org/2008 – devoted to NAINConnect 2008, is up and running. You can get all the conference details, register at the site, and read workshop descriptions.

The site goes the next step, thanks to Bruce Schuman’s wizardry at Interspirit, allowing us to start our workshop conversations right now. So actually, or at least virtually, the Connect has begun.

At the site you’ll find a webpage devoted to each of our workshops. About a third of them have an interactive blog started, and most of the rest will in coming weeks. You are invited to add your two cents, suggest a link, or ask a question. By the end of May, most of the workshop sites should be interactive. A free and quick one-time registration gives you the ability to join the conversations.

So even if you are unable to make it to San Francisco, you can be part of the conversation! Starting now, at www.nain.org/2008.

Back to NAINConnect Update. Back to Contents

Pre-Connect Workshops scheduled

Those who come a day early, or get to registration by early afternoon on Thursday, July 24, have an opportunity to attend one of several pre-Connect workshops that Thursday afternoon. (The titles below are ‘working’ titles and may change. Later in May, descriptions will be added to the website.)

o The Spiritual Practice of Those Who Lived Here First will be led by Anne Marie Sayers, an Ohlone tribal chairperson, and one of the most respected American Indians in the region. (Later Thursday afternoon, Anne Marie will lead us in an outdoor welcoming ceremony.)

o Beyond Theology – Producer-director David Kendall will show clips from his ten-part PBS series, Beyond Theology. He and colleague Laura Mead will tell how they took the question “What would Jesus do?” to religious thinkers and visionaries like Karen Armstrong, Diana Eck, and John Shelby Spong. The workshop will feature the section that focuses on “Interfaith Dialogue.”

Compassionate Listening: What It Is, How It Works, Why It Matters will be led by Rabbi George Stern. He’ll tell about learning this discipline on a journey that took 20 Christians, Jews, and Muslims from southeastern Pennsylvania to Israel and the West Bank to master the art of “speaking and listening from the heart, even in the heat of conflict.” Back to NAINConnect Update. Back to Contents

Young Adult Scholarships

By Mike Goggin

For the past decade, the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) has been offering scholarships to make the annual NAINConnect more affordable for young adults, which NAIN defines as people between the ages of 18 and 35. Initially, people affiliated with NAIN member organizations were the only eligible candidates, but a few years ago the scholarship was opened to all.

We have extended the May 1 deadline to June 1. Please do not delay in visiting

http://www.nain.org/2008/scholarships.cfm to submit the required application. Applicants (only) will be able to register at the early registration rate of $275, even if they do not receive a scholarship. The scholarship is valued at US$300, which will cover a substantial portion of the conference fees but not the full cost of the conference. Please keep that in mind before deciding to apply.

Thanks to the generosity of NAIN Board member Teja Singh, an additional award - the Gian Tej Scholarship - will be offered for the first time this year to a young adult representing the Sikh faith community at NAINConnect 2008 at the University of San Francisco. A number of past scholarship winners continue to serve NAIN as members of the network’s Board of Directors, including current Chairperson Mike Goggin, who received a scholarship to attend the 2001 Connect in Beausejour, Manitoba. If you have any questions about the scholarship, please contact Mike at 202-529-3330 or mikegoggin@pallotticenter.org.

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Dues are Due

This is a friendly reminder that 2008 dues for all member organizations and Friends of NAIN are due. If you have not already paid for this year, the renewal form is found at http://www.nain.org/Renewal.htm.

Membership Dues

$75 US per year for Local or Regional Interfaith Organizations

$125 US per year for National or International Organizations.

Full membership in NAIN is by organization only and is voting. Individuals may join NAIN as non-voting "Friends of NAIN." NAIN encourages individuals to participate in their local interfaith organization where possible. A donation to cover costs of NAINOnline use, the subscription to NAINews, and our scholarship fund is requested. $35 per year is suggested.

Renewal dues may be paid on-line through PayPal or sent to your regional representative:

United States -

Canada -

Mexico -

Kay Lindahl

PO Box 3531

Long Beach, CA 90803-3531

Paul McKenna

% Scarboro Missions

2685 Kingston Road

Scarborough, Ontario,

Canada M1M 1M4

Jonathan Rose

% Consejo Interreligioso de Mexico

Calle Matamoros #4

Tepoztlan, Morelos

C.P. 62525 Mexico

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Interfaith and the Environment

How does your interfaith organization address the issue of the environment?

This was the subject of a call for submission made in the last newsletter.

Neighborhood Interfaith Movement (Philadelphia) Environmental Programs

Submitted by Rabbi George Stern, Executive Director

Neighborhood Interfaith Movement (NIM) began addressing environmental issues in 2003 when a board member created an environmental support group called Sustaining Creation, which, without staff support, provided opportunities for congregations to share information on environmental programming. In 2006 NIM limited staff time enabled the creation of a Sustaining Creation Task Force which created opportunities for congregations to engage in energy audits of their buildings, helped establish an Earth Day Fair, recycled printer cartridges and computers, organized congregational letter-writing in support of more public transit and held energy workshops at which all participants got a free CFL bulb.

In 2007 the Task Force began to develop “environmental justice” programs, linking health, ecology, and poverty concerns and broadening the support base beyond “mere” environmentalists. As part of Philadelphia’s annual Martin Luther King Day of Service, we just sponsored an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) workshop to train people in ecologically sound control of rodents and insects, of great concern in at-risk neighborhoods whose residents suffer the health and quality of life effects both of the pests and of the chemicals often used to control them. Environmental Justice infused our annual MLK Interfaith program, at which a seminary professor, a clergyman who recently ran a progressive race for City Council, and a representative of IPM emphasized the moral imperatives behind environmentalism. We also compiled a tool kit called Sustaining Creation: A Faith Community Call to Action, which provides theological and ethical texts for faith community use (http://www.nim-phila.org/images/PDFs/Envirof).

NIM is seeking funding for Healthy Homes, a project that would take IPM to a new level, identifying through congregations homes in need and empower residents to make their homes safer not just through IPM and green cleaning, but through weatherization and the elimination of mold, lead, and other safety hazards for young children and seniors, cohorts which already receive NIM services. We hope to hire a full-time employee to carry out this project and expand the partnerships with other organizations.

NIM’s Executive Director serves as Vice Chair of Sustainable Mt. Airy (a progressive and diverse neighborhood of Philadelphia), a new community-based initiative aimed at taking a holistic approach to community sustainability – environmental and social. We see environmental justice as a unifying theme for much of the social service and community-based work we do.

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The Greening of the Interfaith Movement

By Mike Goggin

More and more interfaith groups around North America are responding to the mandate to exercise good stewardship over creation. In Washington, D.C., Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light (GWIPL) is working with congregations of many different faith traditions while encouraging them to make wise decisions about using energy and reducing their carbon footprint. GWIPL is headquartered on the campus of Wesley Theological Seminary in Northwest Washington. Their founding Executive Director was Rabbi Daniel Swartz. When he moved into congregational ministry in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he was replaced by a young Jewish lay woman named Allison Fisher who had recently graduated from American University.

For the past two years, Allison has worked tirelessly to make GWIPL’s message heard in an astonishing number of houses of worship in the Washington, D.C. area. She screened the film “An Inconvenient Truth,” conducted energy audits, weatherized the homes of the poor and lectured extensively on the moral implications of global warming. Put simply, she managed to open doors that others could not because people rallied around this common social justice issue. The Interfaith Power and Light model is being employed in other cities across the United States as well, but perhaps nowhere more effectively than in Washington, D.C. thanks to Allison’s determination.

The InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington (IFC) in recent years has worked both with GWIPL and with an environmental initiative called the Religious Partnership for the Anacostia. The Anacostia River is the “other” waterway that flows through Washington’s poorest neighborhoods. It is not often photographed, unlike the picturesque Potomac River. In fact, it is one of America’s most polluted waterways.

Some years ago a coalition of environmental organizations that included the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Earth Conservation Corps got the notion that healing the dirty waters of the Anacostia might be the key to improving the neighborhoods that surround the river. So they enlisted the support of IFC to bring young people out to do occasional river clean-ups and they found young people in the Anacostia neighborhood who were interested in being trained for careers in “green-collar” jobs. IFC held a very moving pilgrimage on the Anacostia River on Labor Day 2003 that featured boat trips on the water, a community fair in the neighborhood and even the scattering of the ashes of Dr. Diane Sherwood, IFC’s Associate Director who had been an organizer of the Rio Earth Summit in the 1990s and a great champion of IFC’s work on the Anacostia before her death just two months prior to the pilgrimage.

Another interesting development in the green interfaith movement has been the development of the Green Rule poster. We in NAIN are all familiar with the wonderful Golden Rule poster that Paul McKenna and the interfaith desk of Scarboro Foreign Missions produced that considers different expressions of the Golden Rule in the sacred Scriptures of thirteen different faith traditions. Now comes the Green Rule poster, which contains teachings on the protection of the environment in the Scriptures of 14 world religions. The detail provided in this excellent teaching resource is impressive. The Scripture passages appear within a lush forest of leaves emanating from different types of plants – all of which have some particular significance in the history of the faith tradition being discussed. I introduced the Green Rule poster at the end of a Golden Rule workshop at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia earlier this month and I found the students really eager to learn more about what the great religions of the world have to say about the environment. You can order the Green Rule poster along with other resources that might be of interest from Faith and the Common Good at http://www.faith-commongood.net/resources/index.asp. Back to Contents

Churches across the country celebrate Earth Day 2008

From NCC News Service

April 22, 2008, Washington – Using Earth Day resources developed by the National Council of Churches, hundreds of congregations and communities around the country celebrated Earth Day this year, recognizing their faithful call to protect God’s creation. From sermons on climate change to toxic audits, people of faith around the country are finding ways to further their understanding of and involvement in creation care. http://www.ncccusa.org/news/080422earthday.html

A sample of some of the faith-based Earth Day events and worship activities are available online at: http://www.nccecojustice.org/

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Earth Hour

Noted in The Interfaith Unity Newsletter http://interfaithunity.ca/current.htm

On March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming – coal-fired electricity – by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. What began as one city taking a stand against global warming caught the attention of the world.

In 2008, 24 global cities participated in Earth Hour at 8pm on March 29. Earth Hour is the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis. It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.

We are all invited to sign up for Earth Hour 2009.

http://www.earthhour.org/ and http://interfaithunity.ca/current.htm#earthhour Back to Contents

A Call for Articles on Local Interfaith Work

The purpose of this section will be to share some of the work that is going on in our member organizations. Each quarter, the editor will suggest a topic related to interfaith work. All of you are invited to submit articles of how your organization addresses that topic / issue. A selection of articles will be published in the subsequent NAINews. Hopefully, this will publicize some of the good work that is being done in our member organizations, while it inspires the rest of us in our own programming.

The topic selected for the Summer 2008 issue of NAINews is How does your interfaith organization address the issue of Service? Please submit your articles of 300 words or less to ‘news_editorATnain.org’. [The email address substitutes AT for the usual @ sign, in order to avoid spam. Please compose the email address in the usual way.] You may include up to two small jpegs related to the article. The editor reserves the right to shorten the article for publication, but will make every effort to communicate with you regarding any content edits.

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Karen Armstrong: Charter for Compassion

Her 2008 TED Prize wish

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) started in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Its scope has since become even broader. The TED Prize is awarded annually to three exceptional individuals who each receive $100,000 and the granting of "One Wish to Change the World." After several months of preparation, they unveil their wish at an award ceremony during the TED Conference.

In February, 2008, author and scholar Karen Armstrong was awarded one of the 2008 Ted Prizes. In her acceptance speech, she talked about how the Abrahamic religions -- Islam, Judaism, Christianity -- have been diverted from the moral purpose they share to foster compassion. But Armstrong longs to change this fact. People want to be religious, she said; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. She asked the TED community to help her build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine.

You may view her 21 ½ minute speech at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/234. It is well worth the time. Alternatively, you may read the transcript at http://blog.ted.com/2008/03/karen_armstrong_1.php#more. Her idea is perhaps quixotic, but is none-the-less wonderful. We believe that all of NAIN’s members are working toward building this kind of harmony and compassion.

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Memorials

Krister Stendahl

Edited from NCC News

New York, April 17, 2008 – Krister Stendahl, a tireless ecumenist who was dean and a member of the faculty of Harvard Divinity School and a former bishop of Stockholm, Sweden, died April 15 in Boston at age 86.

Harvard Divinity School immediately issued a statement expressing "immense sadness" and "immense thankfulness for a singular life wonderfully well lived."

The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, said Stendahl was a leading definer of ecumenism and how churches should relate to other faiths.

"He was certainly a practitioner of the 'golden rule of ecumenism,'" Kinnamon said. "He taught us to try to 'understand others, even as you hope to be understood by them.'"

In an interview in the Spring 2007 issue of Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Stendahl advised Christians to listen carefully and honestly to one another. "Let the other define herself," he said. "Don't think you know the other without listening'. Compare equal to equal (not 'my' positive qualities to the negative ones of the other); and find beauty in the other so as to develop 'holy envy.'"

At the time of his death, Stendahl was Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Harvard. Harvard's news report of Stendahl's death said that "through his biblical scholarship, teaching, interfaith work, and church and academic leadership, exerted the kind of profound influence on other people's lives that transcends a single institution or country."

A memorial service will be scheduled for sometime in May.

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Interfaith Christmas

Interestingly, I received two submissions about Christmas from an interfaith perspective. I felt that they contained universal perspectives that superseded seasons. So here is a little Christmas in springtime.

Christmas in light of “whole world ecumenism”

From Sermon by Robert Hankinson: “Christmas as Others See Christmas”

December 23, 2007- 4th Sunday of Advent Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25

“In an interrelated world and in an increasingly multicultural nation, it is vital that we should do our utmost to understand and learn from one another. One can go further to speak of a genuine ecumenism based on the unity of the human race that calls for the greatest possible cooperation among people of good will belonging to all faith communities and none, an ecumenism that demands especially high priority in view of growing threats to the very survival of humanity. Christians who find in Jesus the great agent of reconciliation have all the more reason to commit themselves to this ecumenism.” (John Webster Grant, January, 1991, cited in “Towards a Renewed Understanding of Ecumenism”, Record of Proceedings, General Council 1992, United Church of Canada)

That quote from one who perhaps was Canada’s greatest church historian of the 20th century forms the centrepiece of the national Interchurch Interfaith Committee’s report to the General Council of the United Church of Canada in the summer of 1992. The members of the research team who drafted the discussion paper exploring a new ecumenical agenda for our church felt that Dr. Grant’s vision captured the essence of, what the team coined and the General Council affirmed, the notion of “whole world ecumenism”.

In the opening paragraphs of the 1992 report, it is stated that we believe: “whole world ecumenism [to be] based on four key principles, all [of which] stem from the fundamental conviction that it is the church’s role to be a credible witness to God’s new creation, and thus to honour faithfully Jesus’ prayer ‘that all may be one’. These principles are: 1) that the church’s doctrines and statements of faith will honour God’s love for all people and (my emphasis) creation; 2) that the church’s commitments will be to peace, justice and compassion; 3) that the church’s allegiances will be with all who seek the health and well being of the whole creation; and 4) that the church will seek to discern and celebrate God’s Spirit, not only in the people of the church, but also in people of other faiths and ideologies.”

As one who participated in the ecumenical agenda research project team, there was no doubt in my mind then (and even to this very day) that our humble efforts were part of a larger enterprise which sought to recover the original meaning of the Greek word ‘oikoumene’ which we have come to translate in English as ecumenism.

The Oxford Universal Dictionary places parenthesis around a single word in its first definition: “belonging to or representing the whole (Christian) world”. This restricted meaning has always been implicit in the use of the word even to today. Some of our partner churches emphasize this distinction by naming their Office of Christian Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations. Our 1992 proposal was to remove the parenthesis from the dictionary definition and allow the word to revert, or move on, to its original meaning: the whole inhabited earth, which is consistent with the Oxford’s more general root meaning, “of or belonging to the whole inhabited earth” in the broadest possible theological and ecological sense.

Like others, I believe it was this ever-widening-circle sense of the word ecumenism which led Visser ‘t Hooft, the first general secretary of the World Council of Churches, to declare in 1974: “The ecumenical movement can only have a future if it avoids the temptation of choosing between the unity of the church and the unity of mankind, and instead learns to realize more and more fully that the Lord gathers his people in order that they might be a light to the world.”

Now, I mention all of this today because I want to commend to your attention the feature story of the December issue of our United Church Observer, “Christmas as others see it”. In many ways the fact that this is the feature story is a testimony to our church’s efforts “to revert to, or move forward to, the original meaning of ‘oikoumene’”. As the introductory comments declare: “We live in a multicultural, multifaith country. Yet Christmas prevails. Rampant commercialism and ‘holiday’ concerts notwithstanding, Christmas remains a Christian celebration. Whether you love it or simply go along with it, you may have wondered what it must be like to be on the outside looking in at Christmas.” (pg. 18, Observer, December 2007)

So, “5 non-Christian Canadians” were asked to describe how Christmas appears to them. And as the introduction concludes, there is this telling remark: “As with other things, we can learn a lot about ourselves from the perspective of others (my emphasis).” (ibid) I believe the fact that we have consulted and purport to listen to others is a sign of our commitment to whole world ecumenism.

The Muslim contributor observes: “It was the aesthetic quality that first drew me to Christmas as an adult. I loved the smell of the evergreen trees and the wreaths, the bright greens and reds, the lights visible through snowy window panes. I also loved the joy …” “Since Jesus is an important figure in Islam, I can celebrate his birth as part of my own religious practice. By contrast, while I also love the Easter vigil, there I am a spectator, as the Qur’an denies the crucifixion of Jesus. At Christmas I am a willing participant in the joyous celebration of a birth.”

The Jewish contributor observes, “Often, when Christians learn that I am Jewish, the first question they ask is ‘Do you celebrate Christmas?’ My … answer is ‘Certainly. Why wouldn’t I want to celebrate the birth of a good Jewish boy?’ Many are taken aback by my answer - some even seem offended. Yet I think it is very important that we realize and recognize the common roots of these two heritages. Christmas can be a great meeting place for Christians and Jews.” “Christmas and Hanukkah for me are a time when the darkness of the year is pierced by the warmth and joy of being with others who want to share music, food, drink, and some expression of our affection for one another.”

Addressing the darkness of the year, the aboriginal contributor observes: “After my brother’s suicide (Dec. 10, 1978), I chose not to celebrate Christmas. In fact I ran away from it … It became very clear that everyone experiences extreme stress during this … season. We all want the sense of belonging and togetherness that the advertising promises, but what I have observed is an empty feeling that never gets filled in an insane, compulsive pattern of consumerism. What is filled are the coffers of the companies who hire … marketers to manipulate the emotions of consumers. … As an indigenous woman, I see Christmas as a crass commodification of Spirit.” “Even though Christmas is not my holiday, I join my family for good food and laughter. I get cosy with my nieces and nephews. … Most importantly, I silently pray for no deaths during the holiday season.”

The humanist, self-described as a “joyless, Darwin-worshipping atheist”, observes: “I have a soft spot for Christmas which I militantly refuse to refer to as the holiday season.” “Christmas … is easy for the atheist - it’s so pagan, it almost might have been invented as solace for the non-believer. Like you, I hate commercial excess - because at heart most atheists are puritanical, in spirit if not in theology.” “… One of the things I enjoy most about … Christmas is that it feels endlessly flexible and open to … serendipity … the best way to celebrate is to do the opposite of whatever causes stress, guilt and anxiety the rest of the time. And if that means doing nothing at all - what could be a greater gift and a better lesson for devotes of the work ethic, Protestant and otherwise? Christmas may be the last remaining time of the year when a thoughtful inertia can be justified, even glorified (my emphasis).”

The Hindu practitioner observes, “At this time of year, I reflect on what it is we are celebrating during Christmas. Are we just celebrating the dominant culture and religion in Canada? We should embrace and celebrate festivals from all religions, such as Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism. Are we celebrating the capitalist economy? Can we make gifts ourselves, or be of service to others who need our help? Can we use recycled paper for gift wrapping, or low energy bulbs for lighting?” “Let us celebrate and respect Mother Earth and her limited resources. Let us respect and accept all, and be grateful for all we have, and share our abundance with others.”

Finally, I wish to return to the comment made by the article’s editor: “As with other things, we can learn a lot about ourselves from the perspectives of others.” I believe that we can also learn a lot from how we speak of “others”. The five stories, we were told at the outset, originated from “non-Christian Canadians”. Notice how we continue, despite almost two decades professing whole world ecumenism, to describe “others” by what they are not, rather than by what they are. As the old ad used to declare, we’ve “come a long way, baby”. Yet it seems we still have a distance to go - until we refer to one another as Canadians “belonging to other faith communities and none”.

Not wanting to end on a judgemental note, allow me to say that these five Canadian neighbours have prompted me this Christmas to think about how I not only celebrate, but also honour or “keep” this incarnation of good news about which I have enthusiastically spoken and sung and imagined and prayed for six decades. Possibly they may occasion that for you as well in order that we together might learn what it is to be an ecumenical household, living together in harmony, with justice and compassion, not just for a season of proclaiming “peace on earth, good will to all”, but rather as a lifetime commitment to kinship in the whole inhabited earth.

Surely this commitment is the greatest gift we might both give and receive. Amen.

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Loving One Another: Children Come Together to Celebrate the Holidays in Lahore, Pakistan

Submitted by Yuel Bhatti Coordinator Tehreek Taraqe-E-Insaniate-URI-CC (Organization for Community Development) Lahore-Pakistan

On December 23, 2007, artists dressed in elaborate historical costumes gathered to present the beautiful story of Christ’s birth to an audience of Muslim and Christian children brought from local schools in Lahore, Pakistan.

Organized by URI’s Tehreek Taraque Insaniate CC and Peace and Development Foundation CC, the event drew over 250 participants together to celebrate two religious holidays that are strikingly different, Eid and Christmas. One of the most notable activities at the event was an Eid & Christmas Quiz, where all of the children competed to answer questions about each other’s religions and Holy Books to win prizes. They also fellowshipped together by eating, playing games, and finally, excitedly received gifts such as blankets, books, stationary, and treats.

You may read more on this event at http://www.uri.org/CC_News/Asia/Eid%26Xmas.html. You can also view the article in www.uri.org CC/News: click Asia.

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Media Briefs

By Judy Lee Trautman, NAIN Board, MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio

A Dream in Doubt

Video / 56 mins. / English / USA 2007 Director/Co-Writer: Tami Yeager; Producers: Tami Yeager, Preetmohan Singh, Todd and Jedd Wider; Co-Writer: Valerie Kelly; Cinematographer: Gary Mercer

Awards: 2007 Arizona International Film Festival: Best Feature Documentary; 2007 Slamdance Film Festival: Grand Jury’s Honorable Mention Award; 2007 San Francisco Int’l Asian American Film Festival: Special Jury Award; 2007 IFP selection: screened in “Independent’s Night” at Lincoln Center

“A Dream in Doubt features Rana Sodhi, an Indian immigrant whose life is forever altered by the 9/11 terror attacks, not because he knew someone who died in the rubble, but because Rana’s turban and beard—articles of his Sikh faith—now symbolize America’s new enemy.

Rana’s eldest brother Balbir Singh Sodhi was America’s first post-9/11 hate crime murder victim, gunned down at his gas station by a man named Frank Roque, who claimed he was rooting out a terrorist. “A Dream in Doubt” travels to Rana’s hometown to explore post-9/11 America from his perspective, telling a personal story of national tragedy, murder, family, community, and the American Dream.

The film follows Rana as he seeks to educate fellow Phoenix-area residents about hate crimes; acting as the spokesman for his family and the Sikh community; running his gas station to support his family; and attempting to guard his own school-aged children from bullying and harassment.

Rana endures these injustices through a steadfast belie