NAINews Summer 2010

8:45 – 10:15	Attend live weekly national broadcast of the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the spectacular 21,000-seat Conference Center.
10:15 – 10:45	Stroll through the gardens of Temple Square and visit with friends.
11:00 – 12:30	Attend services at, or visit, beautiful area cathedrals, churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, etc.
2:00 – 5:00	Option 1: Premier screening and discussion of “The Asian and Abrahamic Religions: A Divine Encounter in America”, a new documentary that will be released on national public television this fall. [See separate article.] Screening will be at the architecturally unique and award-winning Salt Lake Public Library. This session co-sponsored by the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Option 2: Service project at Swaner Eco Center in Park City.
6:30 – 8:30	Opening Session and Social: An opportunity to Connect and Reconnect. [Tentatively scheduled at the newly remodeled Salt Lake Buddhist Temple.]

Monday, July 26, 2010

8:00 – 8:45	Continental breakfast at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral and Center, site of Monday’s meetings. Early morning meditation in the courtyard labyrinth.
9:00 - 9:20	Morning devotions and welcome to the Cathedral.
9:30 – 10:30	Keynote Doug Johnston – Director of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy and .author of several books including “Religion: The Missing Dimension of Statecraft” [See separate article], “Faith-Based Diplomacy: Trumping Realpolitik”, and “Madrasa Enhancement and Global Security: A Model for Faith-based Engagement”. This speaker is sponsored by the Religious Studies Program at Utah Valley University.
10:30 – 10:45	Break
10:45 – 12:00	Panel and group discussion: Why Interfaith? The critical role of interfaith cooperation in building community, security, and peace – locally and internationally. As suggested by Rabbi Kunin, this section will review models of inter-religious interactions and consider the motivations and value of interfaith dialogue and cooperation. Moderated by Grove Harris, the discussion is intended to expand vision of why interfaith is important and come up with ways, reasons and “sales pitches” to help others understand and become engaged and build local interfaith organizations.
12:00 – 1:30	Lunch on own. (An opportunity to Connect.)
1:30 – 2:00	Golden Rule Projects. Almost every religion and culture has a version of the Rule of Reciprocity, known by many as “The Golden Rule”. A few stellar Golden Rule projects join together for this inspirational and idea-rich presentation that can benefit local interfaith organizations.
2:00 – 3:45	Mini presentations: Spreading the Vision – Increasing Involvement. In five-minute mini-presentations, several NAIN members from throughout the U.S. and Canada will share ideas that work followed by an opportunity for further discussion of projects of interest in breakout sessions .
4:00 – 5:00	Annual General Meeting for NAIN
5:30 – 7:00	Social Hour and Dinner at St. Marks
7:00 – 8:30	Youth Scholar presentations

Tuesday July 27, 2010

	Possible early morning Hindu meditation.
9:00 – 9:20	Morning devotion and welcome to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, site of Tuesday’s meetings.
9:30 – 10:15	Practical Application: Harnessing the Unifying Potential of Faith Presentation and discussion
10:15 – 10:45	Practical Application: Containing the Capacity to Divide. Presentation on “A Call to Civility”, a timely approach to addressing the growing problem of divisiveness and incivility in society.
10:45 – 11:00	Break
11:00 – 11:45	The New Hi-Tech Media: Implications for NAIN Organizations. All NAIN organizations have a role to play in religious communication. Evolving forms of communication/media make it vitally important to have a communications plan to avoid pitfalls, remain relevant and take advantage of new opportunities. This session will include highlights from the recent Religious Communications Congress.
12:00 – 1:30	Lunch – 26th Floor of the Church Office Bldg. Hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
1:45 – 4:15	Working Together for the Common Good. Traditional breakout sessions with NAIN member presenters. Topics to choose from include environmental/earth stewardship, social and humanitarian service (including refugee service), disaster preparedness, healing and forgiveness, educational projects to build interfaith understanding and cooperation and the power of Family History to bring people together.
5:30	Ride TRAX to the Jewish Community Center
6:30 – 9:00	Social hour, dinner and celebration at the Jewish Community Center

Wednesday July 28^th

Morning:

Post-conference optional tours of the LDS Humanitarian Center and Welfare Square, visits to the Family History Center, etc.

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Conference Registration [in case you have not already registered]:

Registration Form Word.doc http://www.nain.org/registration10.doc

Registration rich text format http://www.nain.org/registration10.rtf

$180 for General Conference Attendees

General admission for one day is $90.

Students can attend for $60 for the whole conference or $35 for one day.

Complete, save, and attach Registration Form in email to Wendy Stovall at nainslc@gmail.com (801) 967-8013

For questions contact Ivan Cendese weilland@comcast.net (801) 359-8104

Make checks payable to Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable.

Mail checks to P.O. Box 112016, Salt Lake City, UT 84147

· Registration is complete when the form has been emailed to Wendy and the check has been mailed to above address. Registration does not include accommodation.

· Secure your accommodations directly with the conference hotel.

Salt Lake Plaza Hotel at Temple Square

122 West South Temple

Salt Lake City, UT 84101

801-521-0130 Fax: 801-322-5057

For Reservations call: 1-800-366-3684 http://www.plaza-hotel.com/

· A block of 35 rooms was reserved for very special rates reservations until May 23, 2010. Reservations will be accepted on a space availability basis at the above rates only if rooms are available.

· Please call 1-800-366-3684 to make reservations and identify yourself with the North American Interfaith Network.

A very limited number of homestays are also available by arrangement with the registrar.

See additional conference details and updates at http://www.nain.org/NainConnect2010.htm

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Connect Keynoter’s Book Required Reading

Doug Johnston’s book Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft has become required reading at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute and has been incorporated as a course text in numerous colleges, universities and seminaries around the world. In its sequel Faith-based Diplomacy scholars from five major world religions suggest how the peacemaking tenets of their respective faiths can be strategically applied to ongoing conflicts in which their particular religions are currently involved. The commonalities and differences in relation to peacemaking and conflict resolution are examined with and eye toward future applications.

doug_bio_pic_12-09

Mike Goggin presents Screening of “Three Faiths, One God” at Richmond NAINConnect 2007. Gerald Krell, producer and director is at right.

Documentary to Premier at NAINConnect 2010

NAINConnect 2010 presents a premier screening of “The Asian and Abrahamic Religions: A Divine Encounter in America”. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker, Gerald Krell.

Many of us met Gerald Krell at NAINConnect 2007 in Richmond during the screening of a previous production of Auteur Productions Ltd., “Three Faiths, One God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam”. In the discussion after the screening, a question was raised regarding the film Three Faith’s limitation to the Abrahamic religions. Mr. Krell replied that his next film would address Asian religions. His new film is the result.

The primary aim of “The Asian and Abrahamic Religions: A Divine Encounter in America” is to demystify the Asian religions; the misconceptions and stereotypes that many Americans have about them, and to show the deep historical roots of the Asian religions in America.

The documentary will help create a broader acceptance of religious pluralism in the United States and the world, and serve as a catalyst for interfaith dialogue, understanding and respect. The documentary is also meant to help audiences find greater understanding of these religions as ways to refine and deepen their faith in their own religions; and clarify how they define their own identity.

For decades in America formal interfaith conversations have typically involved Christians and Jews, or Christians, Jews and Muslims. Increasingly, however, adherents of these traditional “Abrahamic faiths” are becoming aware of and thoughtfully beginning to engage devout representatives of various Asian religions. In neighborhoods, in classrooms, in professional settings and in the public square, Americans are discovering the need to understand the religious values and customs of, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and others. Many peoples of the western world are hard pressed to begin to understand and appreciate these seemingly strange and unfamiliar eastern religions whose presence is well established, and growing on
American soil. The program explores how these religions are similar to and yet different from Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

The program will be broadcast on public television stations nationwide beginning in the fall of 2010. The documentary is very much in harmony with the goals and objectives of NAINConnect 2010.

Among the distinguished participants featured in the program are: Dr. Diana Eck, Harvard Divinity School, Director, Harvard Pluralism Project, and author of “A New Religious America;” Dr. Robert Thurman, Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies, Columbia University, President of Tibet House; Karen Armstrong, noted author, “The Great Transformation: The Beginning of our Religious Traditions;” Romila Thapar, Professor Emeritus, Nehru University, Recipient of the Kluge Prize, awarded by the U.S. Library of Congress. Also prominent in the program are Rabbi David Rosen International Interreligious Director of the American Jewish Committee. Bishop John Chane of the National Cathedral and a member of the Council of Sages Professor Akbar Ahmed, of American University. Father Tiso the former Interfaith Director of the Catholic Conference, and Francis Clooney Professor of Divinity and Harvard Divinity School, as well as prominent religious leaders from the Hindu, Buddhists, Sikh, and Jain religions.

A complete list of film participants and advisors may be found at http://www.nain.org/FilmParticipants.mht.

Pioneer Days in Salt Lake City

July 24th marks the day the Utah pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. It is a state holiday. Information about events (including a rodeo) can be found at http://daysof47.com/

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Interfaith Understanding Conference in Rochester, NY

By Ruthie Howard, AmeriCorps VISTA member at the Interfaith Council of S. Nevada

Due to a next generation scholarship provided by Nazareth College, and from the generous support of the Islamic Society of Southern Nevada, I was able to attend the Interfaith Understanding Conference in Rochester, NY from April 11-13, which was a life changing, enriching experience with positive people from all backgrounds.

The conference was geared towards “combining the experience and wisdom of one generation with the vitality and hope of the next”, and was a 3 day glimpse in how the world can be with the progression of the interfaith movement. The IFCSN is definitely apart of a rapidly growing movement which spans a multitude of religious views, secular views and generations. I met peers who just started getting involved in the interfaith world, and met people who have been involved in interfaith for 40 years or more. I attended spirituality practices I had never heard of, met prominent individuals such as Sister Joan Chittister, and attended workshops concerning the growing rate of atheists and agnostics joining interfaith dialogue. I witnessed Eboo Patel, executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, extend his Q&A session by 45 minutes in order to answer all the questions posed from the youth, with the youngest coming from a girl only 13 years old. The conference was a learning experience emotionally, spiritually, philosophically and professionally, and I left feeling incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be apart of the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada. During my 3 day adventure, I had gotten practically no sleep due to over night flights, time differences, late night arrivals and early morning workshops, but I felt more alert than ever. Over 70 young people were granted scholarships to attend the conference, and over 300+ experienced individuals were there to educate us on their history. I left the conference wanting to be among the older generation in 40 years, mentoring next generation scholars on the positivity of interfaith understanding.

I was immediately influenced by the first speaker of the conference, Dr. Leonard Swidler - Founder and President of the Dialogue Institute of Temple University, who set the tone of the conference with a brilliant speech concerning interfaith dialogue, stating:

"Nobody knows everything about anything. It sounds perfectly sensible, right? What biologist would say, 'I know it all'? What psychologist would say 'Oh, there is nothing more for me to learn'?… And yet, the most complicated, detailed, far-reaching discipline of all is religion, because religion is an explanation of the ultimate meaning of life and how to live accordingly based on some notion and experience… [It] is the most complicated [subject]. There are 6.7 billion people on this planet, and I guarantee there are billions of them who would insist [their religious position is] the right position… Remember, nobody knows everything about anything; this includes religion. So how do we get people to take that clear and simple mantra and translate it to the most complicated field – religion? The answer, I think, is dialogue.

In the past, people would talk to those who think differently so they could tell them 'the truth.' That is not dialogue. We humans have been engaging in monologue since the beginning of time… we have always talked with people who think like we do – or should. We don’t talk to people who think differently so that we can learn… I would argue [that dialogue] is radical in the etymological sense of the word: it goes down to the root. In most religions people want to tell you the truth – it is a good intention based in enthusiasm – but they don’t want to hear, they just want to tell. We’ve been doing that for thousands of years and all we’ve gotten are bloody heads… so we’ve got to turn around [and] develop deep dialogue – not just the surface stuff – related to critical thinking. We don’t want to share our ignorances but, together, search for the truth, and with our critical thinking issue an action complimentary to cooperation."

The conference was an absolutely amazing experience. It has been a couple weeks now since returning to Las Vegas, and I can still feel the energy within myself that the conference had provided. The following picture was taken at the closing of the conference, when none of us wanted to leave:

More information on the conference itself can be found at: https://interfaith2010.naz.edu

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News Briefs

Edited by Judy Lee Trautman, NAIN Communicatons Chair

The Lack of Civil Discourse – A New Apartheid?

I was pleased to see the topic “A Call to Civility” in the NAINConnect 2010 schedule on Tuesday morning. The current lack of civil discourse in U. S. politics and society is a matter of deep concern. Joel Hunter, [senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed, a congregation of 12,000 that worships at four sites in Central Florida and at more than 1,000 sites worldwide via interactive webcast, iphone, and facebook] who gave the keynote address at the inauguration of the National Institute for Church Development in South Africa, wrote a provocative article in Sojourners magazine called The Legacy of Apartheid: Are [political] parties becoming just another name for permanent divisiveness?

Excerpt:

Not surprisingly, the whole experience made me think of our own country.

Of course it is an inadequate analogy, but there is no doubt that we are in the barrier-building mode. Think about the hyper-partisanship, the coarse and accusatory language, the fear-provoking warnings of losing our country as we know it, if the right political group doesn’t win. When the struggle is for political power instead of justice (there’s that suspicious but biblical word), when it comes down to an "us or them" mentality, when we build a system that separates and ranks people by category, is that not the definition of apartheid thinking? Are parties (Republican, Democrat, tea) becoming just another name for permanent divisiveness?

Our system of government was built for the deliberation of differences, and when the debates are characterized by respect and civility the results are the betterment of our country. The question for us, as it is for the South Africans, is whether we have the pioneers in faith communities to intentionally focus on people and needs… on solutions rather than suspicions?

It all comes down to this: Apartheid is a system that makes us see stereotypes, not people; threats, not needs. And whether it is a legal or a mental system, it makes us prone to suspicion instead of service. Who are the Christian [and other faith community] leaders in our country that will forgo the self-righteousness of personal resentment in favor of community redemption?

You have to do a free online registration to see the whole article.
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj1007&article=the-legacy-of-apartheid

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URI Celebrates 10^th Anniversary with a Declaration for World Peace

Declaration for World Peace

The United Religions Initiative (“URI”) celebrates its 10^th Anniversary and declares to the World its commitment to continue its work as stated in our Preamble, Purpose and Principles:

We, members of URI from diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions throughout the world promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.

We are a grassroots organization whose strength is on the ground in over 76 Countries and over 485 Cooperation Circles throughout the world.

WHEREAS, religious issues have become an important topic on the agenda of our world and policymakers are recognizing the role of religion in conflict and peace, and particularly in conflict prevention and peacebuilding;

WHEREAS, it is essential that peace efforts move beyond military intervention and diplomatic relations to a new level of intercultural interfaith dialogue and cooperation;

WHEREAS, the Golden Rule is a tenet of peace and endorsed by all the world’s religions and human expressions, interpreted as saying, “Treat others only in ways that you would be treated”;

WHEREAS, URI is working towards peace and conflict resolution in the world thru embracing the gift of peace that comes from all our religious traditions, cultures and values, to moving beyond common declarations to common actions, repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation and to seeking to heal the terrible memories of violence and conflicts that haunt humanity;

WHEREAS, URI joins hand with the United Nations in proclaiming September 21^st as “The International Day of Peace” with its growing involvement of URI across the World in observance of this initiative;

WHEREAS, We, Members of URI, believing in partnerships with other like-minded organizations to bring peace, stability, sustainability, equity, harmony and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals;

NOW THEREFORE, We, Members of URI recommit ourselves to the healing of the Earth and all living beings. This Declaration is given in love for the world by the United Religions Initiative Global Council on the occasion of the celebration of URI’s 10^th Anniversary in Amman , Jordan this 26^th Day of June, 2010.

May Peace Prevail on Earth.

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Media Briefs

By Judy Lee Trautman, NAIN Communicatons Chair

Rumi Poetry Club

The Rumi Poetry Club in Salt Lake city announces its new website of for all faiths, world peace, and spiritual traditions. (www.rumipoetryclub.com)

Abraham’s Children

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and in America. Every 10th child in the New York School system is Muslim. Abraham's Children tells the stories of some of these children through their own voices.

As this diverse group of Muslim children from the greater New York area talks about their everyday lives, they shed a positive and progressive light on Islam.

The goal is to bring this film to as many teenagers, families and teachers across the country as possible. The North America Ramadan Screening Tour, featuring Abraham's Children, will run from August 12 through September 12, 2010. To watch the trailer and find out more about the film please go to: www.abrahamschildrendoc.com

Multi-Faith Saskatchewan’s Faiths & Patient-Family-Centred Care Chart

Krishan Kapila, president of Multi-Faith Saskatchewan, notes the production of a chart titled Faiths & Patient-Family Centred Care. So far, it has been made available in three Health Regions of Saskatchewan.

Mrs. Barbara Dornan will be attending NAINConnect 2010 and will have some copies of the chart.

A link to MultiFaith Saskatchewan’s very impressive guide Treating Patients of Other Religions and Ethnicities: A Guide for Health Care Professionals may be found in the lower corner of their website www.interfaithalliance.org.

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NAINConnect 2010 Tentative Schedule

Conference Registration [in case you have not already registered]:

Connect Keynoter’s Book Required Reading

Documentary to Premier at NAINConnect 2010

Pioneer Days in Salt Lake City

The Lack of Civil Discourse – A New Apartheid?

URI Celebrates 10th Anniversary with a Declaration for World Peace

Rumi Poetry Club

Abraham’s Children

Multi-Faith Saskatchewan’s Faiths & Patient-Family-Centred Care Chart

URI Celebrates 10^th Anniversary with a Declaration for World Peace