Religions for Peace - USA August 2005 E-Newsletter

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In This Issue:

From Our Executive Director…

The People Speak 2005 - Dozens of $500 Mini-Grants Now Available

We have oodles of simple-to-get mini-grants available right now for any organization interested in fostering dialogue in their community about the role of the US in the world. Dialogues must take place between September 1 and November 30, 2005, but can be on any of a range of topics: poverty, hunger, and health; the environment; WMDs and terrorism; and war and conflict. Let's get people of faith talking! Funds can pay for a speaker, advertising, donuts, or other things that make for a successful event. Visit the Religions for Peace-USA website to get started. Got a question about these mini-grants? Please drop us line at thepeoplespeak@rfpusa.org.

Universal Peace Day - Friday, August 5, 2005

Events are happening all over the country to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A large series of events is being planned by the New York Buddhist Church and Universal Peace Day Committee in coordination with other organizations. Special performances by Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) and Pete Seeger are expected amidst the observations, which include a peace service, silent peace walk, candlelight vigil, hibakusha testimonial, thousands of orgami cranes, and photo exhibit. For more information, please visit www.universalpeaceday.com, write univpeaceday@aol.com, or call 212-678-0305.

Multifaith Calendar's 20th Anniversary Edition

The Multifaith Action Society is celebrating the 20th Annniversary of its beautifully rich and detailed multifaith calendar. It is an essential resource in interfaith planning. The Multifaith Calendar combines background information on the major world faiths and the identification of all the holy days and cultural festivals each month. To learn more or order yours today, please visit the Multifaith Action Society's website for the Multifaith Calendar.

New Shared Multifaith Calendar Online

The Multifaith Action Society's Calendar is the gold standard in interfaith planning. We highly recommend it. See above article. Religions for Peace-USA has been working with other friends in the interfaith movement to launch an online calendar with abbreviated multifaith content, social justice and UN holidays, and other special events.

A beta version prototype is now available. We are going to make it available to you, even as we work with our partners to alter the design and content to best meet your needs. A formal launch will happen this fall after beta-phase feedback.

Kingian Nonviolence Leadership Seminar

The Institute for Human Rights and Responsibilities (IHRR) is offering leadership seminar/workshops based on the nonviolent conflict reconciliation tactics of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. The next two in the series will be held in Columbus, OH, August 29- September 1 and November 30 - December 3, 2005. Note that prior to August 1 and November 1 respectively, the early registration fee for the four-day events, including continental breakfasts, lunches, and all materials is only $275. The seminars are held at the beautiful retreat setting at New Covenant Church of the Brethren in NW Columbus, Ohio. Registration forms are at www.KingianNonviolence.info or call 740-965-5118.

New Leaders for JAINA and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Religions for Peace-USA offers its congratulations to Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins and Mr. Kirit Daftary. Succeeding Wm. Chris Hobgood, Rev. Dr. Watkins was elected General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) at the 2005 General Assembly. She is the first woman to ever hold the post. Mr. Daftary was elected the President of JAINA (The Federation of Jain Associations in North America) at their July assembly in San Francisco. A resident of Waco, Texas, he replaces Mr. Anop Vora of Rochester, New York.

New "Alliance of Civilizations"

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced in mid-July a new initiative, co-sponsored by Spain and Turkey, which aims to overcome hostile perceptions between Islamic and Western societies. The progam is intended "to respond to the need for a committed effort by the international community - both at the institutional and civil society levels - to bridge divides and overcome prejudice, misconceptions, misperceptions, and polarization which potentially threaten world peace," Mr. Annan's spokesman said in a statement at UN Headquarters in New York.

Mr. Annan is bringing together a high-level group of eminent persons to guide the initiative. The group is expected to present a report with recommendations and a practical plan of action in late 2006.

"Call for Justice" Weekend

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee is inviting people of faith to join them in Washington D.C. during September 24-26 for a "Call for Justice Weekend." Focused on an effort to "help end U.S. involvement in torture," the weekend of workshops and activities aims to educate the public and government leadership "about the grim realities of current U.S. practices." For more information, please visit www.uusc.org/stoptorture, call 800-388-3920, or e-mail stoptorture@uusc.org.

International Day of Peace - Wednesday, September 21

Just a gentle reminder that the International Day of Peace is coming up - September 21, 2005. For resources and links for events for people of all ages, visit www.idpvigil.com or www.internationaldayofpeace.org.

World Council of Churches' 9th Assembly

The 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches will take place during February 14-23, 2006 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of over 340 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, and united and other churches in over 100 countries representing more than 550 million Christians. For more information, visit the Assembly website.

Buying Qur'ans for Peace: Part II

Do you remember the Qur'an 55 event that the Interfaith Peace Network of Western NY had which was mentioned in our last newsletter? In response to recent incidents featured in the press, local leaders as an act of public witness purchased copies of the Qur'an. The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) has challenged at least 55 other groups to run similar events in their locales. If you want more information or would like to borrow their 4' by 10' banner, please contact e-mail address (IPNWNY@aol.com) or website.

Peace Boat

Peace Boat is a Japan-based international non-governmental and non-profit organization that works to promote peace, human rights, equal and sustainable development and respect for the environment.

Peace Boat seeks to create awareness and action based on effecting positive social and political change in the world. It carries out its main activities through a chartered passenger ship that travels the world on peace voyages. The ship, which just left New York's harbor, creates a neutral, mobile space and enables people to engage across borders in dialogue and mutual cooperation at sea, and in the ports that it visits. Follow its voyage at this website.

Think Outside the Bomb: A National Youth Conference

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is hosting a first-of-its-kind National Youth Conference on nuclear organizing called "Think Outside the Bomb" from August 15-21, 2005. Bringing together young leaders, disarmament experts, educators, and activists to the University of California, Santa Barbara, the event promises a variety of training and empowerment activities. Visit www.wagingpeace.org/youth for more information.

Summer Staff
Kimberly Ann Vassilatos holds a certificate in Peace Studies and has recently graduated High School and is planning on attending Siena College. Working at RFP-USA has intensified her desire to pursue a career in peace and justice studies. "I have been shown that fear and inaction are two paths that only widen the rift between people. By keeping an open heart and mind, one can find the courage and inspiration to speak out against injustice and—most importantly—take the necessary steps toward creating Peace," says Kimberly.

Karla Perez, our Associate for Research and Administration, is going to be a junior at the Bronx High School of Science. Her next step is to finish high school and go on to college where she plans on majoring in International Relations.

Farva H. Bilgrami, another recent high school graduate, is going to be attending Boston University in the fall to pursue a track in peace and justice studies. Having grown up in Pakistan where there is a predominantly Muslim society Farva was rarely exposed to other faiths and religions. However, after moving to New York, three years ago, and attending the United Nations International School where her peers represented all parts of the globe, she learned there was so much more out there. "Working at RFP-USA allowed me to further broaden my perspective and understanding of religions other than my own. The atmosphere at RFP-USA is very encouraging and congenial. Interning here was truly a unique experience. I am really glad I was able to spend my summer before college working at such an organization." says Farva.

The Summit of Asian Religious Youth Leaders 2005 held in Ambon, Indonesia entitled "Religious Youth for Peace: Confronting Violence and Advancing Shared Security".

68 religious youth leaders from 14 Asian countries, representing Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, and other communities, met in Ambon, Indonesia on 4-6 July 2005 to develop pan-Asian strategies to mobilize religious youth to confront violence and advance shared security in Asia.

The Summit was held at the very site of a tragic Christian-Muslim violence that started in 1999 and divided the people of Maluku. Witnessing the consequences and continuing fear resulting from the misuse of religion to divide its peoples, Asian religious youth leaders renewed their commitment to multi-religious cooperation for peace in Asia, and formed the first-ever regional multi-religious youth network, "Asian Inter-religious Youth Network (AIYN)." A home destroyed in Ambon, Indonesia due to the violence of the Christian-Muslim conflict.

The Summit included interactive panel discussions and working groups which analyzed country specific cases of conflict, and identified the root causes of violence. The causes were then discussed in greater detail, particularly their role in radicalizing youth to violent expression. The second day of the Summit, religious youth identified their specific assets (spiritual, moral, and social) which give them leverage in confronting the trend towards violence and advancing shared security. Visits were made to a local church, a mosque, and a border village between segregated Christian and Muslim communities, where a youth camp was launched to promote and exhibit inter-religious solidarity. During the three day gathering, local Indonesian youths performed dances and sang songs, bringing together youths from segregated Muslim and Christian communities.

Taking into consideration the unique assets of religious youth, the added value of multi-religious cooperation, as well as the unique Asian perspectives, the participants committed themselves to the building of multi-religious instruments for religious youth leaders in Asia to work collaboratively in resolving conflict, building peace and advancing sustainable development. Public Reading of the Joint Statement

In particular, the plan is to:

The group launched an Asian Inter-religious Youth Network, AIYN, which adopted a draft plan of action and established a program sub-committee. The sub-committee, consisting of five members of the Asian Inter-religious Youth Network, will work to develop multi-religious pilot projects in the fields of conflict resolution, peace-building and sustainable development with due consideration to religious youth's unique assets in advocacy, education and confidence building. The gathering concluded with the adoption of the religious youth leaders' statement and draft plan of action which was representatively read out loud in a mosque in Ambon during the closing ceremony on July 6th.

The Asian Religious Youth Summit was a unique opportunity for Indonesian inter-faith communities to advance their mission in reconciliation and peacebuilding. The one minute TV commercial about the Summit was aired in Ambon, which helped advance local peacemakers' efforts for reconciliation. Also, Religions for Peace local partners including the Jogyakarta based Institute for Interfaith Dialogue in Indonesia based in, and the Maluku Interfaith Institution for Humanitarian based in Ambon, brought together participants from conflict areas in Indonesia such as Aceh Darussalam, Papua, the Central Sulawesi town of Poso, and Maluku.

This Summit served as a regional preparatory meeting for the Religions for Peace World Youth Assembly to be held in Hiroshima and Kyoto, Japan in August 2006. The World Youth Assembly will be followed by the Religions for Peace VIIIth World Assembly, which will bring together approximately 500 senior religious leaders from six continents to advance multi-religious collaboration for peace and sustainable development.

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 Buddha's Light International Association.

Initially formed on February 3, 1991 in response to the needs of local Buddhist practitioners, the BLIA gradually gained recognition worldwide. Subsequently, "Buddha's Light International Association" was officially inaugurated in Los Angeles, California on May 16, 1992, during which a new chapter in Buddhist history emerged.

"BLIA is not the organization of a certain sect, temple, or person. It is an organization that belongs to all the Buddhists in the world," says their spokesperson. People who subscribe to the guiding principles of BLIA are welcome as "Buddha's Light Friends." Currently, over 100 BLIA chapters have been established worldwide. For example, there are chapters in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Macao, Thailand, India, Brazil, Argentina, Africa, etc.

BLIA works closely with members of other Buddhist temples, colleges, scholastic organizations, lay practitioners associations, and meditation groups. The primary objective of BLIA is to serve the multitude and help others to instill the virtue of compassion.

The BLIA states its mission as four distinct points:

1. to propagate Buddhism with a global outlook;
2. to live daily with a humanistic nature;
3. to benefit the multitude with a compassionate mind; and,
4. to distinguish between the truth and heresies with right knowledge and understanding.

Members of BLIA strive to emulate the bodhisattvas' spirit to help actualize the motto of BLIA:

"May kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity pervade all dharma realms; May all beings from heaven and earth benefit from our blessings and friendship; May our ethical practice of Ch'an and Pure Land help us to realize equality and patience; May we undertake the greatest vows with humility and gratitude."

For more information contact BLIA at info@blia.org or visit them on the web.

In this section we feature interesting, replicable projects of our member religious communities or thought-provoking publications for our common mission. You can order any of these books from Amazon with one click. A portion of the proceeds will benefit RFP-USA.

What Can One Person Do? Faith to Heal a Broken World

Attention on the Millennium Development Goals is heating up, especially with the ONE campaign and as September and October approaches at the United Nations. What makes them tangible for everyday people and what can any one person feel like they can actually do? "What Can One Person Do? Faith to Heal a Broken World," which attempts to answer that question, will be released in paperback during October by Church Publishing. Edited by Sabina Alkire and Edmund Newell, it features articles by a number of vibrant forces of faith today, like Rev. Chloe Breyer, Episcopalian clergy and activist in South Harlem and head of the Summer of Prayer and Advocacy for the MDGs. ISBN: 0898694981.

Faith Quilts Project

We are interested in different and unique ways to bring people of faith together to learn about each other's faiths. Why not quilting? A Massachusetts-based group is doing just that. The Faith Quilts Project brings together quiltmakers and faith communities to create collaborative works of art that express central aspects of each faith tradition's religious and cultural heritage and convey that richness of faith to the broader community. Interfaith groups wishing to creatively express their commonalities and their differences in a visual medium will make some of the quilts. Faith communities hoping to deepen self-understanding within their own tradition will make others.

The Faith Quilts Project will eventually create a resource package which will include a how-to booklet on collaborative quilt making, the Faith Quilts Project video, a field-tested format for dialogue facilitation and completed Faith Quilts available for short-term loan.

If you would like to be involved as a collaborative quilt maker, or if you are a member of a faith community that would like to make a quilt, please call Mary Downes at (781) 545-5707, or email the Faith Quilts Project. For more information, visit the Faith Quilts Project website.

Women of the Book: A Jerusalem Collage

The Religions for Peace chapter in Israel known as the Interreligious Coordinating Council of Israel (ICCI) has released a new book. This attractive new book is the creation of ICCI's Jerusalem Women's Dialogue Group, a group of Israeli and Palestinian Jerusalemites, Jews, Christians and Muslims, who have met for over three years. The collages that form the basis for the book were created in May 2003, when the group met for a special one-day retreat. The book includes honest reflections by the participants about their dialogue experiences and about some of the dilemmas raised by living in a situation of ongoing conflict. Read together, the pages make a fascinating mosaic about the interwoven lives and identities of a group of Jerusalem women, committed to sharing their future.

For details of interactive workshops based on the book, please contact Sarah Bernstein at programs@icci.org.il. The text is in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. It is available outside of Israel for $25/copy by contacting iccijeru@icci.org.il or faxing (011) 972-2-563-4148.

A Man Who Became Pope: The Heroic True Story of John Paul II

Our friends at Faith and Values Media will be airing a special biographical movie on the Hallmark Channel entitled "A Man Who Became Pope: The Heroic True Story of John Paul II." It is scheduled to premiere on Monday, August 15 at 8 p.m. ET and show again on Sunday, August 21 at 9 a.m. ET. Both run for 4 hours. Please check your local listings.

After Terror

In "After Terror", dizzying array of academics, politicians, diplomats, and religious leaders, respond in fascinatingly diverse ways to the impact of 9/11 and global conflict. They agree on one point, according to editors Akbar Ahmed and Brian Forst, academic colleagues at American University, "they all see viable alternative scenarios to a clash of civilizations for the twenty-first century." Each of the 28 essays is brief - just a few pages - but comes from a position of offering hope amidst very sober realities. It is available via Polity Press (2005).

The History of Prayer in America: One Nation of Under God

On November 1 there will be a release of "One Nation Under God", the first major effort to document an inclusive, multifaith history of prayer in America. Officially launching a national tour at the Interfaith Conference of Washington's Interfaith Concert at the Washington Cathedral on November 8, author James Moore is interested in hosting an event in your city as part of the tour. You may contact him at jpmoorejr@1nug.com. To learn more, visit www.1nug.com. A PBS special on theme of the work will appear in 2006/7 and a corresponding series of musical recordings will be released in November entitled "The Many Voices of One Nation Under God" (PBA Music Publishing).

Three Faiths; One God; Judaism, Christianity, Islam

Three Faiths; One God is a documentary that will serve as a powerful educational and dialogue outreach tool for facilitating dialogue for interfaith and intrafaith groups. Produced and directed by Jerry Krell, creator of the popular Jews and Christians: Our Journey Together, this program will premier on Connecticut PBS on September 11, 2005 and come to a PBS Station near you beginning in October. The institutional rate of DVD or VHS, including the study guide and public performance rights, is $99.95, plus $4.95 for shipping. The home video is $29.95, plus shipping of $4.95. 30% of proceeds go to local interfaith work if you order by first contacting ifc@ifcmw.org and offer your contact information, mentioning "Three Faiths; One God" in the e-mail.

"What has kept the world safe from the bomb since 1945 has not been deterrence, in the sense of fear of specific weapons, so much as it's been memory. The memory of what happened at Hiroshima." - U.S. novelist and journalist John Hersey

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