In This Issue:

1. Executive Director's Updates
   • Successful Practices
   • New Staff
2. We Are All Connected
   • Conflict Transformation: A New Manual for Women of Faith
   • A Timely Call for Disarmament
3. An Introduction to the National Congress of American Indians
4. "A Manual on Interfaith Dialogue" and "One Heart: Universal Wisdom from the World's Scriptures"
5. Food for Thought: Nkosi Johnson
6. Donate to Religions for Peace - USA
7. Subscribe/Unsubscribe

From Our Executive Director…

Successful Practices
What can we learn from one another? One of the most frequent requests that we get in the Religions for Peace-USA's offices is for advice and resources for local interreligious councils in the United States. Budgets are lean, the competition for the public's attention is thick, and no one has the time or money to find out what works and what doesn't work the hard way. You want to know today the most successful programs, projects, and practices of other interreligious councils.

Steve Sprietzer, the NCCJ's Interfaith Coordinator in the diverse Detroit region, has been developing a project called the Children of Abraham Project. What starts with Muslim, Jewish, and Christian high schoolers baking bread together ends up with an interfaith play on the story of Abraham and his two sons and some real community healing. They have taken the act on the road in the Midwest. What is so special about it?

Clark Lobenstine and the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington run a fabulous concert every November that raises funds for their work year-round and is a treat for the community. They just completed their 25th year. How do they do it?

There are dozens more of these projects, programs, and practices that are successful and thriving. Like you, we want to hear about them. We have included many of them in our soon-to-be-released guidebook for the development of interreligious councils, Building for Peace. We want to collect more and share them with you. Let us know at rfpusa@rfpusa.org, if you are willing to share a description of a successful practice in fundraising, programming, or organizing your local interfaith efforts.

New Staff

Religions for Peace - USA welcomes Rabia Ibtasar as a volunteer in our offices. A Muslim hailing from Pakistan, Rabia recently acquired a Masters of Computers and Information Science from the University of Pennslyvania.

She has experience volunteering with hospitals and the SOS International Children's Village. An avid interest in the NGO world and in helping others motivates her. Rabia is currently working on improving our technology capacities and researching materials for several projects.

We also welcome Heather Barber from Religions for Peace-International's offices for a temporary stint with us. Heather helped to facilitate donor relations for them and will be assisting the US chapter's offices in a similar capacity.

Conflict Transformation: A New Manual for Women of Faith

Based on the premise that "women do not choose their plight in war, but they can and must affirm their role in peace-building," the book provides detailed information on the strategic processes for mobilizing faith-based women. In addition to modeling training sessions, the book includes step-by-step instructions on: the process of conflict transformation, the skills for communication and leadership, and the tools for media and advocacy. Interested? This new resource is FREE! Read on....

A Timely Call for Disarmament
The World Conference on Religion and Peace, as it was then called, held its inaugural international assembly in 1970, with appreciable attention given by religious leaders to concerns over nuclear proliferation. At about the same time, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) came into force as "the center-piece in world efforts to both prevent further nuclear proliferation and advance significant nuclear disarmament," as Dr. William Vendley, Secretary General has recently reminded us.

The ending of the Cold War, offered no respite from the concern over nuclear weapons, though it may have deflected the public's attention. And the rise of terrorism has only further obfuscated things. In the spring of next year, the United Nations will host a five-year review of the NPT. Dr. Vendley adds, "Our common future depends in a real way on the outcome of that event."

In preparation for the NPT, Religions for Peace has issued "A Call for Arms Control and Nuclear Disarmament." It synthesizes the relevant Declarations and Reports of the seven past World Assemblies of Religions for Peace. Want to know what the world's religious communities have been willing to say together? Read on....

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 National Congress of American Indians.

Because Religions for Peace – USA is deeply concerned about the lives of Native Americans, recognizes the unique religious/spiritual traditions amongst the nations/tribes, and understands the special responsibility of religious communities to Native peoples, we count a representative coalition of Native Americans along with the coalition of religious communities that are members of the Religions for Peace – USA. The Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians, Ms. Jacqueline Johnson, serves on the Council of Presidents of the US national chapter.

Indian Nations are sovereign governments, recognized in the U.S. Constitution and hundreds of treaties with the U.S. President. Today, tribal governments provide a broad range of governmental services on tribal lands throughout the U.S., including law enforcement, environmental protection, emergency response, education, health care, and basic infrastructure.

The National Congress of American Indians was founded in 1944 and is the oldest and largest tribal government organization in the United States. NCAI serves as a forum for consensus-based policy development among its membership of over 250 tribal governments from every region of the country.

NCAI's mission is to inform the public and the federal government on tribal self-government, treaty rights, and a broad range of federal policy issues affecting tribal governments. NCAI is a cooperating partner in the Return to the Earth project.

In this section we feature interesting, replicable projects of our member religious communities or thought-provoking publications for our common mission. In this issue we highlight two books: "A Manual on Interfaith Dialogue" edited by Ms. Sonia Omulepu and "One Heart: Universal Wisdom from the World's Scriptures" by Bonnie Louise Kuchler.

Though intended "to serve as a resource for Christians interested in building relationships with people of other faiths," the "Manual on Interfaith Dialogue" will be of interest to people of all faith traditions in their interfaith encounters. This 76-page book emanates from the Interfaith Education Initiative of the Episcopal Church at the hand of Ms. Sonia Omulepu. It represents a collaboration of the Episcopal Relief and Development and the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations.

The work compiles in an attractive format resources on the history and rational for interfaith dialogue, methodologies of interfaith dialogue, suggestions and guidelines for interfaith celebrations, and an excellent beginner's bibliography. It is a must-have book for those in the interfaith movement in the U.S.. It can be ordered by contacting Episcopal Parish Services at 800-903-5544 and offering order #60-0416 or visiting www.episcopalparishservices.org.

We at Religions for Peace - USA recognize that there are real differences between people of distinct faiths. In spite of this - or, better, because of this - we seek to find places where they have "widely shared and deeply held" beliefs, so as to provide the grounding for common action. We also recognize that - despite differing world views and barriers of language and time - there are some real principles that are inherent to those traditions that make for the footing of our common pathways.

Bonnie Louise Kuchler's "One Heart: Universal Wisdom from the World's Scriptures" arranges passages from the major religious traditions along key themes and principles with hopes of helping us all discover the common heart of our traditions. It is a wonderful little book for those who find their own faith strengthened and renewed by engagement with other traditions and who would like something to flavor their own practice of meditation, prayer, or dialogue. Readers will perhaps most enjoy the sections interjected throughout on "Spiritual Practices." For example, the section on "Prayer Beads" discusses their use and even provides a chart comparing their use across traditions.

The 272-page book is available for $14.95 in paperback from Marlow and Company (ISBN 1-56924-403-0)