Friday, October 22, 2010

Spectrum of faiths join together at OPF conference

Spectrum of faiths join together at OPF conference
By Teresa Peneguy Paprock

An imam, a priest and a rabbi walk into a bar, and the bartender says, "What is this? A joke?"

It's not often you see Muslims, Christians and Jews in a room together. But at the 2010 Orthodox Peace Fellowship North America Conference, representatives of the three Abrahamic faiths talked together, laughed together, broke bread together and discussed the challenges of interfaith dialogue in today's complex world. The conference was held Oct. 1 to 3 at St. Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine, California.

The stage was set Friday evening by keynote speaker Dr. Ben Campbell Johnson, executive director, Institute of Church Renewal and the author of more than a dozen books including "Beyond 9/11: Christians
and Muslims Together: An Invitation to Conversation."

A former evangelical, Johnson taught at Columbia Theological Seminary from 1981 to 2000. "Nothing in my life would have predicted that someday I would be standing here (at an interfaith event)," he said.

At the age of 75, Johnson had an epiphany: the 21st century would be all about Christians and Muslims, "and I didn't know anything about Islam." After reading and research on Islam as a faith tradition, he found himself sitting across from a Muslim woman having a true heart-to-heart conversation. He thought to himself, "This woman believes in the same God that I do … I began to see the world differently."

Johnson admitted that for most of his life, he had been afraid of engaging people of faiths other than his own brand of Protestant Christianity. But the more he learned about different religions, and the more time he spent with people of other faith traditions, the deeper his own faith became. He also expressed the need for interfaith communication to include not only the three Abrahamic faiths, which were represented at the conference, but also other faiths such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

After dinner in the parish hall, the conference participants gathered for some comic relief from Ted & Company Theaterworks. Ted Swarz, a Mennonite, had planned to become a pastor, but fell in love with
theatre in college and has been performing ever since. His satiric play, "I'd Like to Buy an Enemy," exposed the ironies of American society as it relates to peace, justice, and fear ("War is such an eclectic endeavour," he sighs with a smile. "Sooner or later you get to play with everybody").

The next morning, three concurrent dialogue sessions were held: Jewish-Muslim (Daniel Spiro and Hytham Younis, co-founders of the Jewish-Islamic Dialogue Society, Washington DC); Catholic-Orthodox (Fr. Steven Tsichlis, St. Paul's, and Fr. Al Baca, St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church, Tustin, Calif.); and Orthodox-Mennonite (Alexander Patico, OPF secretary, Fr. Alexander Goussetis, pastor of Annunciation
Greek Orthodox Church, Lancaster, Penn., and Swarz).

Ms. Jahan Stanizai, president of Culver City, Calif., Interfaith Alliance, a Muslim, then participated in a community dialogue with Fr. John-Brian Paprock, Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church, Madison, Wis., and creator of Wisconsin's Interfaith Awareness Week, which celebrates 13 years this December.

Stanizai is from Afghanistan – the "old" Afghanistan, before most of the country was seized by extremists. "We were a secular country that was 99 percent Muslim," she says. "We were the Switzerland of Asia. We
had women in power, we had excellent education. Now they say you can't find a wall more than a foot high without a bullet hole in it."

As a result of the current power structure and the war, she says, "So many opportunities have been lost. Educated people are under attack. No brains are left – they have been killed or imprisoned, or they have
left the country. Afghanistan has lost a generation."

Stanizai, a psychotherapist who works in family therapy, says she senses peoples' discomfort when they find out she is a Muslim. "People hold back. I can see their reaction," she says. "I learned more about my religion in the US than I did in my own country," she said. "I analyzed the Koran here, and I see how many Muslim cultures are wrong. (Hatred) is contradictory to the Koran."

Rev. John-Brian Paprock, a priest and hospital chaplain, said he deals with interfaith issues all the time – especially at the hospital, where more than 90 percent of the people he sees are non-Orthodox.

While serving in the Madison Urban Ministry, involved in issues such as homelessness, he worked with an all-white group of clergy. "We were talking about race relations and I thought, 'There's a problem here,'"
he said. But when the group became more diverse, conflict arose – not between people of different races, but between people of different religions: specifically a Baptist and a member of the Nation of Islam (both
African-Americans).

"I realized the biggest issue we deal with is not race, but faith," he said. Dealing with interfaith issues can be
uncomfortable, said Paprock, "But it's the struggle, when you are most uncomfortable, that is when you meet God."

Like others at the conference, Paprock pointed out that as he has become more involved in interfaith, "I've gone deeper into my own faith. And I realized that God is bigger than all religions. God doesn't need religion; we do. God allows us to be separate."

After lunch and into the evening, conference participants watched three films. "Arranged" tells the story of the friendship between an Orthodox Jewish woman, Rochel (Zoe Lister Jones), and a Muslim woman, Nasira (Francis Benhamou), who are new teachers at a Brooklyn elementary school. The young women both respect their family traditions, which include arranged marriage, but must also deal with modern frustrations.

The second film, "Out of Cordoba: Averroes and Maimonides in their Time and Ours," is about inter-religious harmony in the ancient Spanish city of Cordoba. Director Jacob Bender attended the conference
to comment on the film, which was seven years in the making. The film takes Bender, and American Jew, on a post 9-11 journey to Spain, Morocco, France, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, and Israel, and finds that
conflict between Judaism and Islam is not inevitable.

Ruth Broyde Sharone presented the third film, "God and Allah Need to Talk." Sharone, a filmmaker, interfaith pro-activist, community organizer and motivational speaker, was inspired to make the short
film after she saw a billboard saying "God and Allah Need to Talk" at the intersection of Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard. The film promotes the Islamic Center of Southern California, which welcomes visitors of
other faiths, as well as Temple Kol Tikvah, which holds an annual Muslim-Jewish Seder of Reconciliation.

Before and after the film, Persian singer Mamak Khadem performed some of beautiful and haunting
melodies with Israeli musician Yuval Ron.

At the end of the conference, Paprock invited the participants and all members of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship to next year's conference, to be held in his hometown of Madison. The theme of the 2011 conferenc will be "Forgiveness."

The conference presented all the participants with an amazing opportunity to live verse 19:33-4 Leviticus: "The stranger that stays with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you, and you shall love
him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

Teresa Peneguy Paprock is a journalist in Madison, Wis. and a member
of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship. She is married to Rev. John-Brian
Paprock of Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church.

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  • Tuesday, October 19, 2010

    More than two dozen sites sacred to Native Americans are at risk of being destroyed by 'development at any cost'

    THE GUARDIAN (UK)
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/18/sacred-sites-native-amer
    ican

    Saving North America's sacred sites

    More than two dozen sites sacred to Native Americans are at risk of being
    destroyed by 'development at any cost'

    By John Schertow
    http://guardian.co.uk/
    Monday 18 October 2010 16.00 BST


    Whether it's an ancient burial ground, a simple cave that witnessed the
    birth of a language not heard in centuries or the mountain home of a spirit
    that brings abundance to an entire ecosystem, every culture has its sacred
    sites. They provide an irreplaceable sense of continuity, identity, purpose,
    sustenance and fulfillment.

    However, one culture's sacred site may be nothing more than empty space to
    another. This is frequently the case in countries such as Canada and the US,
    where more than two dozen sacred sites are in danger of being
    desecrated and destroyed.

    One such site currently making a lot of headlines is the Glen Cove burial
    site and shell mound in Vallejo, California. Over the course of 3,500 years,
    the 15-acre site, known to the Ohlone peoples as Sogorea Te, was a
    traditional meeting place for more than 100 indigenous nations. Over the
    centuries, it became the final resting place for thousands of people.

    However, as far as the Greater Vallejo Recreation District (GVRD) and the
    city of Vallejo are concerned, the site is simply undeveloped land which,
    they say, they have a "responsibility" to put to good use. That's why
    they're about to convert the entire site into a public park with its own
    trails, picnic tables, toilets and parking lot. Native American are using
    lobby groups at every level of government. If they fail, we are all
    diminished. Native Americans say the plan couldn't be more insulting or
    sacrilegious. But the GVRD and their partners are beyond reproach. A court
    ruling may not even stop them from getting their way.

    Another site making headlines is Fish Lake, also known as Teztan Biny, in
    south-central British Columbia. Canadian company Taseko Mines wants to empty
    the pristine lake so it can use it as a permanent storage site for its toxic
    mine waste rock.

    The proposal is beyond unacceptable to the Xeni Gwet'in, who are part of the
    Tsilhqot'in nation, because the lake and surrounding area is so important to
    them: it's the site of pit houses and burial grounds, a place
    of worship and ceremony, a school for children to learn their culture and a
    place to gather foods and medicines. The lake itself is home to an endemic
    species of rainbow trout that Taseko wants to transport to a brand new,
    smaller, man-made lake that can't accommodate the current trout population.

    In essence, Taesko's plan, which could be approved any day, will rob the
    indigenous people of their cultural, religious and economic wealth. Whether
    we're talking about Glen Cove, Teztan Biny or any other endangered sacred
    site, there is a cultural conflict at play that casually disregards
    religious beliefs, human rights and people's basic needs.

    It is "development at any cost", which is a cultural belief like any other,
    but one that is decimating what Wade Davis has termed the "ethnosphere". A
    National Geographic explorer-in-residence, Davis defines the ethnosphere as
    "the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, intuitions and
    inspirations brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of
    consciousness . humanity's great legacy." Sacred sites are part of it. And
    without them a culture may lose its foundation, making it as vulnerable as a
    human body no immune system.

    Indigenous peoples are doing what they can to protect such a wealth, but
    it's an uphill battle. In many cases they're going at it alone: against
    corporations, their lobby groups and every level of government. If they
    fail, we are all diminished.

  • Buy "Neighbors, Strangers and Everyone Else" a book by Rev John Brian Paprock
  • Monday, October 18, 2010

    Toward a Jewish Theology of Religious Pluralism

    "Toward a Jewish Theology of Religious Pluralism" was the public lecture of Jewish Theological Seminary chancellor, Arnold Eisen.  He is the third annual honoree of the Thering Fellow award given by the Lubar Institute for Abrahamaic Studies.  On October 12, 2010, Chancellor Eisen spoke at the UW-Madison Grainger Hall to a full audience.

    
    Chancellor Arnold Esien in Mordridge Auditorium, UW-Madison
    October 12, 2010
    photos by Teresa Paprock et al - layout by JBP
     Chancellor Eisen quoted Rabbi Heschel in his introduction "No religion is an island."  He then outlined three reasons to develop a theology for religious pluralism:

    1. The energy for dialogue and interaction between faiths is usually promoted by a crisis, a necessity, or an urgency.  We no longer can wait for negative occurrences before developing a theology of religious pluralism.

    2. The purpose of such a theology is not to achieve sameness, but to bridge differences for there is a need to overcome problematic differences, but no need to come to the lowest common denominator. "Pluralism is a requirement of covenant."

    3. Such a theology must work up from each religious tradition. It must come from an organic thread within the religious traditions, especially from the scriptures.

    He then spoke about Jewish theology and how an effective theology of religious pluralism must not start with Moses; not start with Abraham. It must start with Adam, the ancestry of all humans.

    Chancellor Eisen spoke about Torah and covenant, about God and human fallibility.  He led his concluding statements by quoting and then paraphrasing Deuteronomy: "The hidden things belong to the Lord. The revealed things belong to us."  He compared this to the great commandment: "to love God with all your heart, mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself."

    "Space for pluralism is carved out by the certain humility that comes from the human inadequacy in the knowledge of God."
     
    He concluded with his hopes for interfaith dialogue within the theological institutions and in the community.

    "We need to make maximum use of what is revealed to figure out what we are suppose to do."

    The event was recorded by LISAR.

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  • Bishop Gladstone from India Welcomed at UW-Madison

    Bishop Gladstone spoke at Luther Memorial Church to an ecumenical audience.
    Pictured (L to R): Rev. Fr. Thomas Fergusen (Episcopal), Ms R. Paul (LISAR Fellow),
    Rev. Fr. John Brian Paprock (Orthodox), Bishop Gladstone (CSI) and
    UW Professor Emeritus Robert Frykenberg, author of Christianity in India
    (photos by JBP et al)

    Bishop John W. Gladstone, recent Moderator of the Church of South India and Bishop of the South Kerala diocese, visited UW-Madison on October 7, 2010. He was traveling through the US to visit CSI parishes and made a stop in Madison.  He spoke after lunch at Luther Memorial Church.  He gave an excellent talk on the history of the Church of South India and answered questions about some of the issues of Christianity in India.

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  • Interfaith Dialogue Conference Closing

    Fr John Brian Paprock
    photo by Teresa Paprock
    Interfaith Dialogue Conference
    Closing Remarks
    by Fr John Brian Paprock

    With an invitation to convene in Madison, Wisconsin for the 2011 Orthodox Peace Conference.

    This recording was made of at the end of conference sessions of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship-North America Conference 2010, "Interfaith Dialogue: Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom." It was recorded in the evening of Saturday, October 2, 2010 at St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, California (by JBP - audio editing by Christo)

    "The stranger that stays with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Leviticus 19:33-34

    RSS feed for podcast or download
    http://frjohnbrian.hipcast.com/rss/interfaithsociety.xml
    Or listen on-line here:

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  • Mennonite-Orthodox Dialogue - discussion

    Rev. Fr. Alexander Goussetis
    photo by Teresa Paprock
    Mennonite-Orthodox Dialogue
    Part 2 Discussion

    Led by
    - Fr Alexander Goussetis, Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church (Lancaster, PA)
    and
    - Alexander Patico, OPF Secretary (North America)

    This recording was made of one of the break-out sessions of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship-North America Conference 2010, "Interfaith Dialogue: Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom." It was recorded in a meeting room Saturday, October 2, 2010 at St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, California (by Dena Fokas Moses - audio editing by Christo) Audio quality may vary due to cell phone recording device.

    "The stranger that stays with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Leviticus 19:33-34

    RSS feed for podcast or download
    http://frjohnbrian.hipcast.com/rss/interfaithsociety.xml
    Or listen on-line here:

  • Buy "Neighbors, Strangers and Everyone Else" a book by Rev John Brian Paprock
  • Mennonite-Orthodox Dialogue - Presentations

    Alex Patico gives presentation on Mennonite
    photo by Teresa Paprock
    Mennonite-Orthodox Dialogue
    Part 1 Presentations

    Led by
    - Fr Alexander Goussetis, Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church (Lancaster, PA)
    and
    - Alexander Patico, OPF Secretary (North America)

    This recording was made of one of the break-out sessions of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship-North America Conference 2010, "Interfaith Dialogue: Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom." It was recorded in a meeting room Saturday, October 2, 2010 at St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, California (by Dena Fokas Moses - audio editing by Christo) Audio quality may vary due to cell phone recording device.

    "The stranger that stays with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Leviticus 19:33-34

    RSS feed for podcast or download
    http://frjohnbrian.hipcast.com/rss/interfaithsociety.xml
    Or listen on-line here:

  • Buy "Neighbors, Strangers and Everyone Else" a book by Rev John Brian Paprock
  • Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue - Discussion

    Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue
    Part 2 Discussion

    St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, CA
    photos by JBP & Teresa Paprock
    layout by JBP

    Led by
    - Fr Steven Tsichlis, St Paul Greek Orthodox Church (Irvine, CA)
    and
    - Fr Al Baca, St Cecilia Roman Catholic Church (Tustin, CA)

    This recording was made of one of the break-out sessions of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship-North America Conference 2010, "Interfaith Dialogue: Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom." It was recorded in a meeting room Saturday, October 2, 2010 at St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, California (by JBP - audio editing by Christo)

    "The stranger that stays with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Leviticus 19:33-34

    RSS feed for podcast or download
    http://frjohnbrian.hipcast.com/rss/interfaithsociety.xml
    Or listen on-line here:

  • Buy "Neighbors, Strangers and Everyone Else" a book by Rev John Brian Paprock
  • Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue - Presentations

    
    St Paul Greek Orthodox Church Parish Hall
    photo by H. Younis
     Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue - Part 1
    Presentations - History of A Dialogue

    Led by
    - Fr Steven Tsichlis, St Paul Greek Orthodox Church (Irvine, CA)
    and
    - Fr Al Baca, St Cecilia Roman Catholic Church (Tustin, CA)

    This recording was made of one of the break-out sessions of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship-North America Conference 2010, "Interfaith Dialogue: Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom." It was recorded in a meeting room Saturday, October 2, 2010 at St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, California (by JBP - audio editing by Christo)

    "The stranger that stays with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Leviticus 19:33-34

    RSS feed for podcast or download
    http://frjohnbrian.hipcast.com/rss/interfaithsociety.xml

    Or listen on-line here:

  • Buy "Neighbors, Strangers and Everyone Else" a book by Rev John Brian Paprock
  • Jewish-Islamic Dialogue at OPF

    Daniel Spiro (left) and Hytham Younis founded JIDS
    photo by Teresa Paprock 
    Jewish-Islamic Dialogue Session

    Led by the Co-Founders of the Jewish-Islamic Dialogue Society of Washington DC
    - Daniel Spiro - Jewish
    - Hytham Younis - Muslim

    This recording was made of one of the break-out sessions of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship-North America Conference 2010, "Interfaith Dialogue: Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom." It was recorded in the dining hall Saturday, October 2, 2010 at St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, California (by JBP - audio editing by Christo) The quality of this recording is fair-poor due to the recording environment and the cell phone used to record.

    Daniel Spiro made the text of his address available. "Here's an inexact transcript of what I said," he wrote.

    JEWISH-ISLAMIC DIALOGUE SESSION ADDRESS by Daniel Spiro
    http://interfaithsociety.blogspot.com/2010/10/jewish-islamic-dialogue-session-address.html

    "The stranger that stays with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Leviticus 19:33-34

    RSS feed for podcast or download
    http://frjohnbrian.hipcast.com/rss/interfaithsociety.xml
    Or listen on-line here:

  • Buy "Neighbors, Strangers and Everyone Else" a book by Rev John Brian Paprock
  • JEWISH-ISLAMIC DIALOGUE SESSION ADDRESS

    ORTHODOX PEACE FELLOWSHIP CONFERENCE


    JEWISH-ISLAMIC DIALOGUE SESSION ADDRESS
    Daniel Spiro, co-founder of JIDS, dialogues
    with Father Alexander Goussetis at the OPF conference
    photo by Teresa Paprock 

    BY  DANIEL SPIRO
    CO-FOUNDER OF JEWISH-ISLAMIC DIALOGUE SOCIETY
    IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, OCTOBER 2, 2010


    JIDS (Jewish-Islamic Dialogue Society) is led by individuals who share a bond that is very deep and powerful: the same beloved. To the critical mass of JIDS’ leadership, God isn’t just a word, or even a concept. God is reality. It is God to whom we devote our lives, and so much of our love. So when we meet people who come from a different culture but who share that love, we know we have found friends. To some degree, it’s like when someone you don’t know walks up to you and expresses appreciation for something your wife did or your children did. And immediately, you like that person. You appreciate it whenever people praise your beloved. And it is especially gratifying to find another group who not only worships a God but worships God as a unity … as the One and Only, the Eternal, Absolute, who begetteth not, nor is He begotten, and there is none like unto Him.

    Those words sound like they could have been written in a Hebrew holy book. But they are taken directly from the third to last chapter, or “Surah,” of the Qur’an. They illustrate how at the heart of both traditional Judaism and Islam is the same fundamental principle – our strict monotheism. Ironically, though, JIDS started because of a speech I gave at a church of a religious organization that is anything but strictly monotheistic – the Unitarian Universalists, or UUs for short.

    A little while before I met Hytham, and he brought to our common venture the scholarship and passion that was no vital to get JIDS off the ground, I was introduced to another Muslim, Kamal Mustafa, who is not so much a recognized Islamic scholar as a student of all religions. Kamal was in attendance at a UU church when I was talking about my favorite topic, God, and specifically the God of Spinoza, a 17th century philosopher whose conception of the divine many UUs find appealing. After the talk was over, Kamal and I met and became friends. We wondered why so little was going on in our area to bring the Jews and Muslims together. Oh sure, there were plenty of meetings when Jews and Muslims would say to one another “why are we fighting, we should be friends.” But what Kamal and I had in mind were sessions where we would get into the substance of the great questions that both unite and divide our peoples. Kamal and I each said the same things to ourselves: “You guys can teach us about God, because you love God too, and your God is so much like ours, and you’ve developed a whole range of scholarship about how to think about God and how to worship God and how we should treat one another. Why would we not want to open our eyes to what you’re doing? How could we be good Jews if we didn’t understand Islam? Or good Muslims if we didn’t understand Judaism?”

    Kamal, as it turned out, was very connected in many local mosques and he would set up meetings between me and the leaders of those mosques. I had a calling card – a book I wrote that was recently published and that focused on Judaism and Islam. It was a philosophical novel called Moses the Heretic -- the “Moses” was a fictional 20th century rabbi named Moses Levine. Anyway, my book was warmly endorsed by a leading Muslim scholar, Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl, and so when I gave it out to Muslims in the area, they saw me as a friend of Islam who was serious about religious philosophy and the challenge of making peace in the Middle East. And when I gave them my book, they started giving me books – including the Qur’an with commentary. These books were incredibly rich; in fact, they were inspiring. By the time JIDS was ready to begin in earnest, I felt like I at least understood the basic core of Islam, if not many of the details, and had already begun incorporating Islamic teachings into my thinking as a student and a writer of philosophy.

    JIDS’ first monthly dialogue, in February 2009, was about God. So was the second. The first meeting had a very uptight feel. The Muslims who spoke said largely the same things about God, which relative to the Jewish perspective was much more oriented to God’s ability to act supernaturally. I’m sure many Jews said under their breath, “Gee, these guys are all fundamentalists. They don’t think for themselves.” As for the Jews who spoke, the ones on the panel gave tributes to God, but once they stopped talking and we began hearing from Jews in the audience, many of them questioned whether a God even exists. And I’m sure many Muslims said under their breath, “Gee, these guys are a bunch of atheists. Whatever happened to the Jewish God?” It was a tough way to begin. And a number of people who came to the first meeting didn’t come to the second one, but those that did sure got their monies worth.

    You may have heard the old line “Two Jews, Three Opinions.” Well, it’s true. Different Jews think all sorts of things. And at our March 2009 dialogue, which was held at a mosque, a number of Jewish women spoke very disparagingly about the idea that people need to believe in God. So how did the Imam of the mosque respond? By saying that if you are not a Muslim, you’re going to Hell.

    Needless to say, that started more fireworks, and some of the Jews who came to the first two meetings stopped coming. But there were others who could see past the hiccups and who recognized in the Muslim community their true cousins. And so we continued to hold our monthly meetings. The topics for a few months were a little less controversial – Judaism and Islam 101, Jewish and Islamic Festivals and Holidays, and the Prophets, that sort of thing. But by the end of July, we were back to our old tricks of tackling controversial topics: we had a session on War and Peace in the Middle East. In fact, we frequently return to the topic of Israel and Palestine, and both secular and religious claims to that land. You see, this is not a group of people that has the time to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon indoors singing kumbaya. As I said, we wanted to get real and address the topics that matter most to the two communities. To do that requires speaking from the heart as well as the mind, and let the chips fall as they may. It is exactly what you’re not supposed to do if you’re an interfaith organization that plays by the book – at least not in the first six months. So how, you might ask, have we pulled this off? Why are we still meeting?

    First of all, there are a number of us who care very deeply about the organization. We value JIDS because we see in interfaith dialogue the path not only to peace, but enlightenment.

    Our affection for JIDS is such that when the organization itself gets threatened, we do what we have to do to eliminate the threats. And sometimes, that comes at a steep price.

    For example, we have a large local community known as “Ahmadiyyas” who were getting active in JIDS. The Ahmadiyyas call themselves Muslim even though they believe that an East Indian named Ahmad, who died about 100 years ago, was a prophet who God sent to deliver a message of peace. To mainstream Islam, however, Muhammad was God’s final prophet. So Ahmadiyyas are not viewed as Muslims by most members of the faith. And when I proposed to have a session in part on the Ahmadiyya movement, some of the Sunnis threatened to leave the group. Sadly, those of us who wanted to hear more about the Ahmadiyya movement backed down, for everyone realized that if we were to lose the Sunni community, JIDS would never survive.

    Candidly, it made many of us sad when the Ahmadiyyas no longer felt as inclined to participate, but we knew to keep our eyes on the ball, which was to bring Jews and Muslims together generally. If that means we’ve had to shy away from discussing the Ahmadiyya movement, so be it.

    A second thing that has cemented us is that we have interspersed throughout the calendar non-dialogue events. JIDS co-sponsored the world premiere of the movie Out of Cordoba, which will be viewed later today at this conference. We worked together on painting a house in a low-income neighborhood. We worked jointly at the National Capital Area Food Bank. And this summer, we created a social action committee which has planned an event to bring Jewish and Muslim youth together to get to know each other and engage in charitable activities. Some of the youth we expect to participate were the focal points of an amazing event that you can witness on our website, http://www.jids.org/, in which the panel was composed of teenagers and young adults. They spoke insightfully about a range of important issues, and everyone in attendance could tell how much they appreciated the value of interfaith dialogue, and the insanity of bigotry and isolationism. I would encourage each of you to go to that website (www.jids.org) and watch that video. Those young people are inspiring, and they made us all wonder “was is it that happens to older adults that makes us so threatened by opening our hearts and minds to the other?

    A third secret to our success is recognizing the various ways that tie our two communities together. An example is the notion that the words “Jihad” and “Israel” mean more or less the same thing: both refer to a spiritual struggle. In the case of Israel, that was the name Jacob was given in the Torah when he wrestled with an angel of God. And that’s what we Jews are supposed to be: God wrestlers. We are always questioning. That could partially explain why, when I was in law school back in the early 80s, at least 30 percent of my classmates were Jewish. Jews love to fight for justice, and we love to question what is going on and why – and that’s exactly what a good lawyer does.

    That brings up a fourth aspect of our encounters that has cemented this group: we notice and embrace our differences. While Muslims get their name from the idea of “submission,” Israelites get our name from the idea of “wrestling.” So yes, there is a difference in emphasis. But as we have seen, it is also true that Muslims must engage in spiritual wrestling, and as I hope you know, a devout Jew will ultimately submit to God. So while there may be subtle and important differences between what the two communities emphasize, at the end of the day, we are extremely similar.

    That brings me to the fifth basis for our success at JIDS: our core group has become friends. That allows us to say what we really think. We know that our cousins may disagree with our positions, but we have faith that those disagreements won’t make anyone angry – at least not the core group of the organization. We all have each other’s backs.

    And frankly, that the key to the sixth and final reason for our success that I’d like to discuss -- the attitude we bring to our events. Our dialogues are hard-hitting and sometimes contentious, but rarely boring. That’s the way we like it.

    What helped me become enthusiastic about JIDS from the very beginning is that the Muslim leaders I met said that they had no interest in the “I’m OK, you’re OK” pablum that they associate with interfaith dialogue. I started thinking about when my daughters were little and they used to watch Barney, the purple dinosaur, and he would sing these insipid songs about how we need to love each other. It would drive me nuts! I was thrilled to know that JIDS would not become Barney but for adults.

    To be candid: rarely do I feel that my intelligence is insulted quite so much as when I attend certain interfaith events. The points that are made are just so obvious, so basic, that it feels almost patronizing. Like when Muslims go on for minute after minute to explain that they’re not a violent people. I’ve read the Qur’an. I know that Islam preaches peace. So do the other members of JIDS. We know also that Islam preaches the other basic values that commonly go by the name of Judeo-Christian, but really should be known as Abrahamic. (The word Judeo-Christian should be thrown out of the dictionary – there are three faiths of Abraham, not two.)

    Look. I understand why so many interfaith leaders speak on such a basic level. There are a lot of uneducated bigots in the world who need to hear the simple truths about religious diversity. They might need to hear, for example, that Jews don’t have horns or kill babies or hate Jesus or Muhammad. But the great thing about JIDS is that our members are way past all that stuff. When we have a dialogue, we’re ready to hit the ground running and challenge one another’s intelligence. And I think that is a critical reason why people keep coming to our events.

    Of course, we would love to have more people come. So one question you might have is, what has been our biggest limitation in finding more?

    I’ll tell you what has not limited us – we don’t hear a lot of people bad mouthing the organization. In theory, everyone thinks Muslim-Jewish dialogue is a great idea. Or at least they say they do. Most Jews don’t want to admit that they dislike Muslims. They don’t even want to admit that they fear Muslims, even though there’s obviously some element of that going on. So when they hear that I’m so involved in outreach to Muslims, most will say that they wish us all the success in the world.

    But when I ask them to get involved personally, suddenly, I stop hearing quite so much enthusiasm. One problem is that they likely don’t see much of a role for themselves – they haven’t studied the Qur’an so they don’t feel they have much to add to the dialogue. And I suspect that most people don’t viscerally appreciate what a conversation between Jews and Muslims in Irvine, California or Bethesda, Maryland can really contribute to peace in the Gaza Strip or in Tel Aviv. They don’t, for example, understand that only if a Jew or a Christian is involved in interfaith activities can they fully appreciate why many of us feel so strongly that the Cordoba House must be located in Park51, and not in some more marginalized outpost, where it would be much less able to empower Islamic moderates in their efforts to change the status quo.

    And then there’s the biggest obstacle of them all -- the members of our respective communities are busy people. They only have so much time to devote to spiritual activities. And the first priority, for most of us, is prayer, or other activities that are not generally associated with interfaith. Now personally, I love praying with Muslims at mosques, with my yarmulke on. I absolutely love it. And I encourage Christians, Muslims and others to find a good synagogue and pray with Jews there. But let’s face, prayer is not the meat and potatoes of a dialogue society. Dialogue is. And not many people think it’s worth their time on a Sunday afternoon to engage in dialogue with people who see the world largely differently than they do. They’d rather be with their families. Or relax somewhere else. Say what you want about intelligent, substantive interfaith dialogue. It is not the most relaxing activity I can imagine.

    A related issue is that just as most of the rank and file members of our communities don’t want to take the time to engage in interfaith dialogues, you can say the same for the clergy. We all know how important the clergy are to our communities. Unless they fight to bring out their congregations, it is almost impossible to get people to show up in large numbers. So we in the interfaith movement depend largely on buy-in from the clergy. But talk about busy people. The clergy are responsible for doing all sorts of things – crafting talks, providing pastoral care, putting together worship services, working on whatever social action activities they’ve decided to emphasize. With a few exceptions, interfaith dialogue is something they have to fit in on the margins of their schedules – it’s not the meat and potatoes of how they make their living.

    And then there’s another, more subtle, reason why clergy support is so luke warm. Most of the activities planned by clergy are things that they alone can control. And from what I can tell, these are people who like to be in control. After all, it takes a decent-sized ego to choose that career path. And in some cases, the egos are larger than life. So when you put all this together, why should our clergy take the little spare time they have and engage in activities that are inherently difficult to control, where they have to share the pulpit with laypeople, and which do not necessarily support the growth of their own communities? What’s in it for them?

    The answer is very simple. Unless we speak together, we can’t work together. And unless we work together, we can’t make a difference in the world. And if we can’t make a difference in the world, what is the point of being spiritual in the first place? What is the point of calling ourselves men and women of God? To honor God, which I think is the whole point of our faiths, is to be a person who makes a difference in the here and now. That, after all, is the ultimate value of prayer – other than as a vehicle to express our love for our divine beloved – we pray in order to gain the strength, the wisdom, and the compassion to help out. And if that’s important to us, I’d suggest we take the time to engage in interfaith activities.

    In conclusion, whether you are Jewish, Muslim, Christian or subscribe to a world view that doesn’t trace its origins to Abraham, we must continue our efforts to dialogue with one another in ways that are stimulating, challenging and authentic. There is so much wisdom available to us from so many different traditions. No single tradition can even come close to a monopoly. I, for one, would not be the same person had I not been exposed to meditation, read the Vedas, reflected on the Trinitarianism of Paul Tillich, gazed at the Madonnas of Botticelli, or wept at the piety of Muhammad. And I dare say, there is plenty in my own Jewish tradition that every gentile absolutely must embrace if they wish to be as enlightened as is humanly possible. Anyone who avoids the Talmud or the Kaballah, the teachings of theologians like Buber or Heschel, or the philosophy of Maimonides or Spinoza, does so at the price of their own ignorance. At a time when so many young people are turned off to religion precisely because they think that it foments ignorance, let’s make sure that interfaith activities stimulate us intellectually and challenge us emotionally. Let’s make sure that we in the interfaith community come to be known for our courage and our muscle tone, and not just our commitment to peace.

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  • Saturday, October 16, 2010

    Pacifica Institute: The Fethullah Gulen Interfaith Award

    Alex Patico (upper left) and Atillah Kahveci (upper right)
    Some conference participants at lunch
    photos by Teresa Paprock - layout by JBP
    Pacifica Institute: The Fethullah Gulen Interfaith Award
    Bishop Demetrios Honored with Interfaith Award in May 2010

    His Grace Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, received the Niagara Foundation’s Fethulla Gulen Award during the 5th Annual Peace and Dialogue Awards program held on May 4, 2010 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Chicago. The Niagara Foundation (in the Midwest) is a sister organization of the Pacifica Institute (on the West Coast). They are organizations founded by the local Turkish American community with a mission of promoting peace in society and intercultural dialogue.

    The Fethullah Gulen Award is named after the Foundation's and Institute’s honorary president, M. Fethullah Gulen, an accomplished Islamic scholar and preacher from eastern Turkey whose books have been best-sellers in Turkey. Gulen is also a friend of His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

    Alex Patico, OPF-North America Secretary and conference coordinator, read the Bishop's address when receiving the award.

    Attillah Kahveci, President of the Pacifica Foundation in Los Angeles, spoke about the award, the Pacifica Institute, its mission and its founder.

    This recording is made at lunch during the Orthodox Peace Fellowship-North America Conference 2010, "Interfaith Dialogue: Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom." It was recorded in the dining hall Saturday, October 2, 2010 at St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, California (by JBP - audio editing by Christo) The quality of this recording may vary due to the recording environment.

    "The stranger that stays with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Leviticus 19:33-34

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  • Community Dialogue: Some Discussion

    Community Dialogue - Part 3
    Some Discussion
    photo by Teresa Paprock

    After the presentations, Fr John Brian and Jahan Stanizai interacted with the audience of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship - North America Conference 2010, "Interfaith Dialogue: Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom."

    This recording of the Q and A discussion was recorded Saturday, October 2, 2010 at St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, California (by JBP - audio editing by Christo)

    "The stranger that stays with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Leviticus 19:33-34

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  • Community Dialogue: Fr. John Brian's story

    photos by Teresa Paprock - layout by JBP
    Community Dialogue - Part 2
    Fr. John Brian's story

    Fr John Brian is an Orthodox priest, ordained in 1987 and has been involved in ecumenical and interfath activity from the beginning of his priesthood out of a mission necessity. He took a personal leave of absence from active status, during which time he was led to further interfaith activity. This eventually led to the establishment of Interfaith Awareness Week in Wisconsin by Governor proclamation in 1998. And it has been the week of Human Rights Day (December 10) since. His book, "Neighbors, Strangers and Everyone Else" (also Barnes & Noble or Amazon) was published this year and includes interfaith writing, speeches and talks from an Orthodox perspective, including a chapter on one of his personal heroes, Bishop Paulos Mar Gregorios (of blessed memory 1996) .

    This recording is made of his presentation of his story at the Orthodox Peace Fellowship - North America Conference 2010, "Interfaith Dialogue: Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom." It was recorded Saturday, October 2, 2010 at St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, California (by JBP - audio editing by Christo)

    "The stranger that stays with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Leviticus 19:33-34

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  • Community Dialogue: Jahan Stanizai's story

    Community Dialogue - Part 1
    Jahan Stanizai's story

    photo by Teresa Paprock
    Originally from Afghanistan, Ms. Stanizai is currently a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California, holding multiple graduate degrees. She was elected the president of the Culver City Area Interfaith Alliance in 2007, having joined the interfaith community in 2001.

    This recording is made of his presentation of her story at the Orthodox Peace Fellowship - North America Conference 2010, "Interfaith Dialogue: Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom." It was recorded Saturday, October 2, 2010 at St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, California (by JBP - audio editing by Christo)


    "The stranger that stays with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Leviticus 19:33-34

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  • Friday, October 15, 2010

    The Interfaith Conversation

    photos by Teresa Paprock - layout by JBP
    The Interfaith Conversation: A Talk with Ben Johnson, founder of Interfaith Community Institute

    Rev. Dr. Ben Campbell Johnson, Ph.D. is an ordained Prebyterian minister and evangelist, retired, who found himself in dialogue with local Muslims. He is Professor Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary. His book, "Beyond 9/11 - Christians and Muslims Together: An invitation to conversation" was published in 2009. He hopes to help the two faiths enter into meaningful relations with each other. This recording is made of his presentation of his story at the Orthodox Peace Fellowship - North America Conference 2010, "Interfaith Dialogue: Seeking the Peaceable Kingdom."

    Opening Session - Keynote Address was recorded Friday evening, October 1, 2010 at St Paul's Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine, California

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  • Tuesday, October 12, 2010

    Muslims, Christians can tackle conflicts together, says WCC head

    Ecumenical News International News Highlights
    11 October 2010

    Muslims, Christians can tackle conflicts together, says WCC head

    Geneva (ENI). Muslim and Christian leaders need to set up permanent
    structures of relating to each other to head off potential conflicts in a
    world where religion is often seen as having a divisive role, the head of
    the World Council of Churches has said. "The role of religion in emerging
    geo-political contexts is rapidly changing," WCC general secretary the Rev.
    Olav Fykse Tveit said in a speech to a meeting in Albania of the WCC's
    Commission of the Churches on International Affairs. "While religion often
    plays a commendable role as a force for promoting justice, peace and
    reconciliation, in the 21st century its role has been much more divisive,"
    said Tveit, a Norwegian theologian who took up his WCC post in January. [525
    words, ENI-10-0686]

    ENI Online - www.eni.ch

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  • Monday, October 11, 2010

    New Barna Report Examines Diversity of Faith in Various U.S. Cities

    New Barna Report Examines Diversity of Faith in Various U.S. Cities

    October 11, 2010

    Christian Identity
    The cities (measured in the Barna research as media markets) with the highest proportion of residents who describe themselves as Christian are typically in the South, including: Shreveport (98%), Birmingham (96%), Charlotte (96%), Nashville (95%), Greenville, SC / Asheville, NC (94%), New Orleans (94%), Indianapolis (93%), Lexington (93%), Roanoke-Lynchburg (93%), Little Rock (92%), and Memphis (92%).

    The lowest share of self-identified Christians inhabited the following markets: San Francisco (68%), Portland, Oregon (71%), Portland, Maine (72%), Seattle (73%), Sacramento (73%), New York (73%), San Diego (75%), Los Angeles (75%), Boston (76%), Phoenix (78%), Miami (78%), Las Vegas (78%), and Denver (78%). Even in these cities, however, roughly three out of every four residents align with Christianity.

    An interesting difference is the markets that tend toward skepticism about religion in general – including Portland, Maine (19% of the population identify as being atheist or agnostic), Seattle (19%), Portland, Oregon (16%), Sacramento (16%), and Spokane (16%) – as compared to markets that have a high proportion of faiths other than Christianity represented – including New York (12%), San Francisco (11%), West Palm Beach (10%), Baltimore (8%), Denver (8%), Los Angeles (8%), Portland, Oregon (8%), and Miami (8%).
     
     
    Regional Stereotypes
    David Kinnaman, who directed the research project for Barna Group, mentioned that the study “confirmed many spiritual assumptions about various regions of the country. The South hosts many of the nation’s Christians, while the West and Northeast play to more secular stereotypes.

    “However, one of the underlying stories is the remarkably resilient and mainstream nature of Christianity in America.  Nearly three out of four people call themselves Christians, even among the least ‘Christianized’ cities.  Furthermore, a majority of U.S. residents, regardless of location, engage in a church at some level in a typical six-month period. The real differences spiritually between various regions are not so much what they call themselves; the faith gaps are more likely to be issues of belief, practice, politics and spiritual emphasis – how people think about, prioritize and express their faith.”

    [ read more of the study parameters and definitions at http://www.barna.org/faith-spirituality/435-diversity-of-faith-in-various-us-cities ]

     

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  • Tuesday, October 05, 2010

    40 years on, world interfaith peace body petitions for 'arms down'

    Ecumenical News International News Highlights
    4 October 2010


    40 years on, world interfaith peace body petitions for 'arms down'

    Tokyo (ENI). A world interfaith organization marked its 40th anniversary
    with a conference aimed to inspire "mahoroba", the ancient Japanese concept
    of harmony and unity. The Religions for Peace and its youth network were
    also concluding a global petition for "shared security," which calls for a
    reduction in nuclear weapons and the reallocation of the world's military
    spending by 10 percent to help achieve the United Nations Millennium
    Development Goals. The network has collected more than 13.5 million
    signatures, many of them in Japan, which are to be presented to U.N.
    Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the permanent members of the Security
    Council, as well as to world leaders. The Mahoroba Statement was adopted on
    28 September in Japan's ancient capital city of Nara, where the New
    York-based organization, known as Religions for Peace, held its first world
    assembly in 1970. [324 words, ENI-10-0670]


    ENI Online - www.eni.ch

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  • NEXT INTERFAITH AWARENESS WEEK COMMITTEE MEETING

    From: Anne Wynne [mailto:eannewynne@yahoo.com]
    Hello everyone,
     
    For all those interested, the next IAW committee meeting will be Tuesday,October 12th at 6pm at the Perkins on University Ave by Whitney Way.
    All are welcome.
     
    Anne
    Interfaith Awareness Week is the week of December 5-11, 2010 and is designated such by the Governor of Wisconsin, Dane County Executive, Madison Mayor, Middleton Mayor and others. The events and activities are sponsored and co-sponsored by area interfaith, ecumenical, religious and spiritual organizations.  This is the 13th year for Interfaith Awareness week - in the capitol rotunda, look for displays of area religious groups all week and a noon program on Human Rights Day, December 10, 2010  
     

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