Religions for Peace - USA April 2006 E-Newsletter
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In This Issue:
- Executive Director's Updates
- Resources!
- The Peacekeepers: Movie Event Kits for Local Discussion Groups
- Groundbreaking! – Repatriation and Reconciliation
- Return to the Earth Study Guide Now Available!
- Op-Ed Blog on Return to the Earth
- Japanese Drummers for Peace
- Muslim Interfaith Efforts Reach New Heights
- Faith Communicators Forum 2006
- Cover The Uninsured Week - May 1-7
- New Network of Interfaith Capacity Builders
- Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide on April 30
- Ecumenical and Interreligious Movements: A Catholic Perspective
- Conference on Spiritual Activism – May 17-20
- Centenary of Satyagraha: A Fall Anniversary for Non-Violence
- We
Are All Connected
- Alliance of Civilizations
- The Tripartite Forum on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace
- An Introduction to:
- The United Church of Christ
- Off
the Shelf
- Faith in the Neighborhood: Understanding America’s Religious Diversity
- Teaching Theology and Religion
- Sing Shalom!
- Interfaith Today - Podcasting
- 1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe
- Food for Thought: Mother Teresa
- Donate to Religions for Peace - USA
- Subscribe/Unsubscribe
Resources!
We have been working on resources for you for months, and many of them
are coming to fruition. Keep watching right here, as we announce them!
More next month!
In April, we have an interreligious study guide that will aid in reconciliation between Native and non-Native peoples and a movie event kit on The Peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It gets better, both are free!
The
Peacekeepers: Movie Event Kits for Local Discussion Groups
Interested in discussing peace and security in your community? In partnership
with the Stanley Foundation, Religions for Peace-USA is offering a free
movie and discussion kit to local religious communities, interfaith
councils, and campus ministries. Religions for Peace-USA and the Stanley
Foundation are both interested in promoting just, multilateral, and
lasting solutions to international relations issues.
The Peacekeepers kit includes: a movie detailing peacekeeping operations in the Congo, a poster to advertise the event, a discussion guide, supporting CDs, and directions for event organizers to access relevant web resources. It is an easy-to-do discussion event in a box! All you need to do is add an audience and stir. To make it simple, the kits include to/from postage and handling.
Interested? Send your complete contact information and the date of your proposed event to peacekeepers@rfpusa.org before June 30, 2006, and we will send you a kit. You must allow for up to two weeks delivery time.
Cheyenne peace leaders face the four courners - NE, SE, SW, NW –
to bless the ground of the burial site and to give thanks for the building
of the educational center.
Groundbreaking! – Repatriation and Reconciliation
 Dr. Sherry Hutt, Manager of the National Park Service’s Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Office, speaks in front of a burial box, as Cheyenne Peace Chief and RFP-USA leader Lawrence Hart listens, along with a crowd of more than 200 guests. |
Religions for Peace-USA is pleased to announce the groundbreaking and inauguration of the burial site for Native American remains for the Return to the Earth project.
The site was dedicated on Saturday, April 1, 2006 in Clinton, Oklahoma. Over 200 representatives from faith, Native, and government organizations were in attendance. Religious communities have unique skills to do processes of reconciliation and forgiveness, and all Americans have a unique responsibility to Native Americans to bring truth, dignity, and reconciliation to damaged relationships.
The Return to the Earth project is a model program, which allows for the respectful return of culturally unidentifiable Native American remains to a regional coalition of Native American tribes in the Southern Central Plains region. The Return to the Earth is a three phase, multi-year project which enjoys the cooperation of the National Park Service, the National Congress of the American Indian.
Return
to the Earth Study Guide Now Available!
Coupled with the groundbreaking ceremony mentioned above, the Mennonite Central Committee and Religions for Peace-USA are releasing the colorful “Return to the Earth Project: A Study Guide.” It is intended to be used by study groups in religious communities to help non-Natives reconcile in their relationships with Native Americans. Hard copies are presently available by individual request. Please write to us at rte@rfpusa.org. The PDF version is available at rfpusa.org/returntotheearth, where you can find out more about this project.
Op-Ed
Blog on Return to the Earth
To
learn more about the Return to the Earth project, visit Executive Director
Bud Heckman’s Op-Ed piece on the project on Religions for Peace-USA’s
new trial blog.
Japanese
Drummers for Peace
More
than 30 drummers from the Nomugi Open Community School in Japan performed
an electrifying concert for Peace on Friday, March 31, 2006 at the Church
Center for the United Nations. The fun spilled out onto the city street
and on UN Plaza. Hosted by Religions for Peace-USA and the Chaplain’s
Office at the CCUN, the group of young people from a school for children
with “troubled backgrounds” was bringing attention to Article
9 of the Japanese Constitution which calls for Japan to renounce war
and seek peaceful resolution to differences.
Muslim
Interfaith Efforts Reach New Heights
With
little fanfare, Muslim leaders and organizations, who have long been
engaged in interfaith relations, are taking more deliberate institutional
steps into interfaith work. Take note of a few recent examples. First,
the announcement last month from the Islamic Society of North America
that Secretary General Sayyid M. Syeed would take a new role as the
first Director of their new ISNA Office of Interfaith and Community
Relations in Washington D.C.. Second, the National Interfaith Cable
Coalition, which does business as “Faith and Values Media,”
announced that it has opened its membership to groups and individuals
from the Islamic tradition. Previously, membership had been limited
to groups and individuals related to the Jewish or Christian traditions.
Inner-Attainment TV, Inc., headquartered in Annandale, Virginia, was
welcomed as its first member from the Islamic tradition.
Faith
Communicators Forum 2006
Faith and Values Media has announced the dates of Monday, October 23
to Thursday, October 26, 2006 for the Faith Communicators Forum 2006.
The FCF 2006 will be in St. Louis. Watch here for more details or tune
back into faithcommunicatorsforum.info,
when more details are available.
Cover
The Uninsured Week- May 1-7
46 MILLION Americans are currently without health insurance. You can
speak up! National Cover The Uninsured Week comes May 1–7, 2006.
We are encouraging faith communities across the country to join the
largest movement on behalf of uninsured Americans by becoming a national
supporter of Cover the Uninsured Week 2006. Get Involved! Share word
with fellow faith leaders and communities about plans for Cover the
Uninsured Week 2006. Please visit CoverTheUninsured.org
to find new information, resources, and free materials to order and
download. For even more information, contact Cover the Uninsured Week
at (202) 572-2928 or at info@covertheuninsured.org.
New
Network of Interfaith Capacity Builders
The Faith-Based Capacity Builders (FBCB) is a new network of independent
technical assistance providers who seek to connect to the interfaith
community. The FBCB is an affinity group of the Alliance for Nonprofit
Management, the premier professional membership organization for nonprofit
capacity builders in North America. The FBCB is composed of approximately
100 consultants and technical assistance professionals based in 24 states
and Canadian provinces providing a full range of services, such as:
board and staff development, fundraising, information systems, legal,
financial, marketing, planning, advocacy, and evaluation.
The FBCB website provides a member list, representative services, a download-able brochure and more at allianceonline.org/faith_based.page. The Group is actively seeking dialogue with faith-based organizations that desire to improve their community impact through exploring new programs, improving contract/grant performance and integrating into wider community service systems. The FBCB outreach coordinator, Steve Klass, welcomes more detailed inquiries and suggestions at sklass2@comcast.net.
Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide on April 30
The Save Darfur Coalition is calling for action and participation in
the Rally to Stop Genocide in Washington, DC on April 30th, 2006.
The Rally to Stop Genocide will feature leading voices in the effort to stop the genocide in Darfur, including a broad spectrum of prominent faith leaders, political figures, human rights activists, celebrities, survivors of the Holocaust and genocides in Cambodia, Kosovo, Srebrenica, Rwanda, South Sudan and Darfur.
Follow the links to sign up to participate in the Rally to Stop Genocide, or to get the latest Rally Fact Sheet.
Also, you may wish to consider joining for one of two Congressional Lobby Days, April 28 and May 1, 2006. Click here for more information.
Ecumenical
and Interreligious Movements: A Catholic Perspective
The Centro Pro Unione, a ministry of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement,
and the Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute are offering
an annual summer course on an introduction to the ecumenical and interreligious
movements from a Roman Catholic perspective. It runs from June 26 to
July 14 at the Centro in Rome. For more information, please see prounione.urbe.it.
Conference
on Spiritual Activism – May 17-20
Tikkun.org is sponsoring a Conference on Spiritual Activism in Washington
DC on May 17-20, 2006. Gathering is intended “to re-unite a progressive
religious/spiritual force in American life." It will include a
Pray-in for Peace and Withdrawal of American Troops from Iraq in front
of the White House on May 18. The central focus of the conference will
be the presentation to Congress on May 18th of a progressive Spiritual
Covenant with America which describes how the New Bottom Line would
play out in concrete terms in American politics.
To register for the conference or for more information go to spiritualprogressives.org Or call (510) 644-1200 or email kathryn@tikkun.org.
Centenary
of Satyagraha: A Fall Anniversary for Non-Violence
Satyagraha, the crux of Gandhi's non-violence movement, was conceived
in 1906 in South Africa in response to a new legislation that attempted
to impose laws on Indians. Plan ahead – the 100th Anniversary
comes this fall! Satya, of Satyagraha, means "truth,"
and agraha means Force. This "Force" is born of truth
and love for non-violence. Gandhi, who was a very spiritual being, practiced
Satyagraha in a very spiritual manner.
Satyagraha is an effective, constructive, and positive method of standing up against oppression, and has been used throughout the world by several leaders, including the great Martin Luther King Jr.. Today, Satyagraha is considered the most effective way to deal with conflicts in all spheres, including the home, local, or even international relations. It can be applied to issues of religious, racial, socio-economic, and gender conflicts. However, practicing non-violence in an effective manner is much easier said than done. One way of lessening the difficulty is popularizing the movement. The centenary, which occurs on September 11, would be a great opportunity to popularize, as well as celebrate, Satyagraha.
We have been getting a lot of questions about new and re-emerging interfaith efforts at the United Nations. Religions for Peace-USA Executive Director Bud Heckman is also the Treasurer of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, under whose auspices one of those efforts is underway. Instead of the regular Religions for Peace around-the-world news, here we will brief you on two of these efforts getting more attention.
Alliance
of Civilizations
The United Nation’s initiative entitled the “Alliance of
Civilizations” is the more prominent of those currently afoot.
The initiative was announced by the U.N. on July 14, 2005. Originally
proposed by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain and
co-sponsored by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. The initiative
was preceded by the on-going “Dialogue
Among Civilizations,” adopted by the U.N. in 2001. This is
one of seven different interfaith/peace framed resolutions by the Security
Council in the past few years. It was based upon the former president
of Iran Mohammad Khatami’s like-titled response to the Clash
of Civilizations, the controversial theory by Samuel P. Huntington.
The “Alliance of Civilizations” seeks to combat extremism and polarization of the religious communities and promote communal harmony. However, the focus seems to be primarily on dealing with the current tensions between the Christian and Islamic civilizations. According to the official press release: due to the “events of recent years” there is a “lack of mutual understanding between Islamic and Western societies” creating an “environment that has been exploited and exacerbated by extremists of all societies.” Many turned to the Alliance in the wake of the recent Danish cartoon crisis, and it was then that it gained increased notoriety.
The Alliance will conduct a series of meetings between the members of its appointed High-Level Group and discuss how to best deal with combating the influence that extremism is having on the world. The Alliance is comprised of member state nations of the U.N., however among the members of High-Level Group are selected representatives of various faiths. There are 20 members of the Group who represent religious communities from North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South and East Asia.
There has been some criticism of the membership body, particularly concerning the imbalance of the world’s major religions reflected in its numbers. This list can be accessed here. What the Alliance’s focus, goals, and methods of implementation is still to be determined. For more information visit: unaoc.org.
The
Tripartite Forum on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace
The Tripartite Forum on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace was officially
launched on March 24, 2006 at a special luncheon. It was germinated
out of a conference on Interfaith Cooperation last June. Representatives
from fifty governments and five UN organizations were present at the
launch together with the Committee of
Religious NGOs at the UN.
 Dr. William Vendley, Secretary General of Religions for Peace International, was a featured speaker for civil society at the launch of the Tripartite Forum. |
The Forum is a tripartite partnership of governments, concerned United Nations offices/agencies and civil society organizations duly accredited with the United Nations. The Forum explores practical measures, utilizing interfaith dialogue and cooperation, to promote respect and advance understanding between diverse peoples, their cultures and religions, thus fostering tolerance and friendship among them.
With the terms of reference set, the three parts – governments, UN agencies, and the religious NGOs - are moving forward by imagining programs and projects. A High Level ministerial meeting will follow in May.
The Committee of Religious NGOs is hosting an open membership consultation meeting on Tuesday, April 18, from 10:30am to 12pm, at the Church Center for the United Nations to seek input.
With
over 50 member religious communities and over 90 members on its three
councils, Religions for Peace-USA, wishes to occasionally spotlight
individual members or communities. This issue features the United
Church of Christ.
The
United Church of Christ was born out of the union of the Evangelical
and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches, which
themselves were the unifications in Christian American history, beginning
with the joining of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Pilgrim communities
in the seventeenth century. The original United Church of Christ included
congregants descended from Swiss, German, Hungarian, and English immigrants
who settled in New England, Pennsylvania, and Missouri, among other
places.
Given this diversity in history, it is no wonder that the United Church of Christ today welcomes members from all Christian denominations, including Roman Catholics, and all walks of life, most notably gay and lesbian members who were turned away from their own churches. Today’s congregants trace their heritage back not just to Europe, but to every continent.
The UCC’s diversity also explains its storied role in historic social justice movements. Its belief that racism is a sin led to its participation in abolition efforts in early American history, and to its current initiative to end negative stereotyping of Native Americans. From Medicare to world peace, the UCC tirelessly advocates by way of the Justice and Witness Ministries.
Since one of the UCC’s central tenets is a calling toward seeking “justice and liberation for all”, it is only natural for the UCC to expand beyond American borders. The UCC’s Global Ministries provides numerous ways for members to get involved globally, ranging from missionary work to humanitarian relief.
The President of the UCC is Reverend John Thomas, who serves on the Council of Presidents at Religions for Peace-USA.
In this section we feature interesting, replicable projects of our member religious communities or thought-provoking publications for our common mission.
Faith in the Neighborhood: Understanding America’s Religious
Diversity
Faith in the Neighborhood is a new series which, by interweaving interviews
and personal stories with lessons in vocabulary and concepts, explores
questions raised by the religious diversity of America’s neighborhoods.
Two volumes of six that are planned by author Lucinda Mosher are currently
available:
Belonging (ISBN 1-59627-010-0) explores how these religions conceive of community, and how they acknowledge life’s stages: welcoming babies, rites of passage for adolescents, initiation, and conversion.
Praying:
Rituals of Faith (ISBN 1-59627-016-0)focuses on public, family,
and personal worship—how people of various religions take part
in rituals, celebrate festivals and holidays, go on pilgrimage, and
say their prayers.
To order, go to churchpublishing.org, or call 1-800-242-1918.
Lucinda Mosher holds a Th.D. from the General Theological Seminary (NYC). A consultant and educator on interreligious matters, she chairs the Diocese of New York Episcopal-Muslim Relations Committee, and teaches the annual Worldviews Seminar at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Lucinda is available for lectures and workshops. Contact her at lucindamosher@earthlink.net.
Teaching
Theology and Religion
The April edition of this popular journal from Blackwell Publishing
is worth a peak. It focuses on preparing religious leaders from a variety
of different traditions – an interesting interfaith study. Learn
more at Teaching
Theology and Religion and see the table of contents and abstracts.
Sing
Shalom!
The Shalom Center is offering a special new CD with artists such as
Pete Seeger, Peter Yarrow, and Debbie Friedman. Sing Shalom! is a gathering
of 20 songs and stories by different singers and teachers, all focused
on peace, justice, and healing of the earth.
To get your copy, write to: The Shalom Center, 6711 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia
PA 19119 and enclose $19.95 ($18.00 plus $1.95 postage & handling.)
Include your name, address, and e-mail.
Interfaith
Today - Podcasting
Rowan Fairgrove has begun a podcast (an internet radio show) called
"Interfaith Today" to showcase the stories of the Interfaith
Movement. Rowan is trying to give attention to wonderful, life-affirming
work being done in the interfaith context which is under-reported by
the mainstream media. Available since January, the monthly podcast offers
stories of hope and cooperation.
Show notes with links and information on what is contained in a particular
episode can be found at interfaithtoday.org.
The podcast itself is available by direct download at interfaithtoday.libsyn.com
or via iTunes.
1000
PeaceWomen Across the Globe
This new work by Scalo Press has an interesting premise – what
if 1000 women were nominated from around the world for the Nobel Peace
Prize? Well, for one thing, their stories would make a hard bound book
very weighty. It is 3 inches thick! When Religions for Peace-USA staffers
checked it out, we found that we became mesmerized by the different
stories, journeys, and achievements of these diverse women and could
not put it down. Wow! See 1000peacewomen.org
for more information.
