Religions for Peace - USA October 2005 E-Newsletter

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In This Issue:

From Our Executive Director…

Friends of Peace
Two times a year, we turn to our readers to request financial support for the work of Religions for Peace-USA. We don't hit you over the head with it. It is simple really. The contributions of caring individuals make a noticeable difference in our work.

For example, production of this free monthly e-newsletter about interfaith and peace and justice happenings is just one of the things we provide to inform and inspire, but it takes resources to produce it.

We also:

If you like what you see and read, let us know by offering your support. Click here. If you don't, let us know. We want to hear from you.

A Double Gift
Not ready to give a direct donation? How about purchasing a new interfaith game for your local organization or a friend for the holidays, instead? We will give the profit directly to the Return to the Earth project, repatriating Native American remains.

Religions for Peace-USA is working with the "Enlighten Your World Campaign" through the end of the year. When you purchase the new board game ENLIGHTEN, the spiritual journey that takes players around the world through many of the faith traditions, Enlighten Games Inc. will donate $5 back to Religions for Peace-USA to continue its support of the "Return to the Earth."

Please visit www.enlightengamesinc.com. When ordering be sure to type RFP-USA in field next to your name.

The People Speak: Two New Incentives
Dozens of US religious communities are responding to our offer of grants up to $500 for hosting community dialogues by November 30 on: poverty, hunger, health, environment, WMDs, terrorism, war, and conflict. Won't you join them? Click here.

We have two new incentives. (1) Every community who hosts a dialogue can request blue peace bracelets. The word "peace" is written on the bracelets in the six official languages of the United Nations. It is a visual talking point about peace and The People Speak. (2) Can't think of a speaker? Not your cup of tea? How about showing a movie and following with discussion? See "Off the Shelf" for more information on The Peacekeepers, a new film available for public showings. A provocative discussion starter.

Return to the Earth - A Study Guide
A new study guide to help enable reconciliation between Native and non-Native peoples will be unveiled in late October in Tulsa, Oklahoma at two different Native American gatherings there. Religions for Peace-USA staff and interns helped with the creation of the guide. It is scheduled to be available on the RFP-USA website in November.

Katrina and Beyond
Religions for Peace-USA's member communities have been responding generously to hurricane relief efforts. We have collected some of their websites and efforts, and those of other religious and secular organizations assisting in disaster. Please visit here to learn more. The NCCCUSA is looking for connections within religious communities to identify intermediate housing. Please visit here to help.

North American Religious Youth Assembly on November 1
The World Youth Assembly meets at the VIIIth Assembly of the World Conference of Religions for Peace in Kyoto, Japan during late August of 2006. North American religious communities can identify youth representatives to be potential delegates for the regional pre-Assembly for North America. The pre-Assembly occurs at the Religions for Peace headquarters in New York City on November 1, 2005. Youth delegates must be supported representatives of US religious communities and be between 18-35 years of age, both now and at the time of the World Assembly. Religious community representatives may contact Paul Sherbow at psherbow@religionsforpeace.org or 212-687-2163 for more information.

Fall Interns

Rori Picker is our new Associate for Interfaith Relations. She is currently a junior in the CUNY Honors College at Hunter College, majoring in Religion and Political Science while studying Classical Arabic and Classical Greek, hoping to match these two languages to the proficiency she gained in Hebrew through her Yeshiva education. Through these languages, Rori hopes to delve deeper into the culture of these ancient tongues, and thus gain further insight into the people and faiths that spoke them. Ultimately, Rori hopes to combine all of her studies into a career in interfaith relations.

Andrew Olsen is our new Associate for Interfaith Relations. He is currently in the final year of his Master of Divinity degree at Princeton Theological Seminary. During the course of his theological studies, Andrew has developed a particular interest in working for peace and justice in the world. He is also interested in learning more about interfaith dialogue and cooperation. He says, "Interning for Religions for Peace-USA seemed to be the perfect way to explore these two areas and to have the opportunity to interact with people from a variety of religious perspectives." Andrew will be working on "The People Speak" campaign, and helping to develop proposals for a couple of new projects.

Asya is currently a senior at Hunter College working on her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Religion. Asya learned of RFP-USA from the president of the South African chapter, Ms. Meskin on a plane conversation to New York. Inspired by the conversation and intrigued by the opportunity she joined the organization. Her first project here involved researching and compiling the multi-faith calendar for the website. Through her internship she hopes to expand her understanding of world religions and be introduced to a career in a related field.

Advanced Media Training: Religious Leaders and the Media
Learn the skills you need to shape the future of your faith-based organization, community and culture. Auburn Media is offering a special one-day media training workshop on November 14th led by Callie Crossley, Emmy Award winning director and former producer for ABC New's 20/20. Crossley, a 2002 fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics. This is for a select group of multifaith religious leaders in a day of intimate, intensive media training to craft messages and communicate effectively in the media. The full-day workshop will provide: personalized assistance in developing the tools needed to shape a core message for media presentations; strategies for interview etiquette and effective communication, using video and audio playback; and guidance on how to develop media contacts for you and/or your organization.

You are encouraged to register for the 10am - 4pm as soon as possible. The fee for the workshop is $350. You will receive training materials, a videotape of your performance and lunch. For more information, please contact Kellie Anderson-Picallo at Auburn Media, 212 662-4315.

Bible Literacy Project
The nonprofit Bible Literacy Project, which is based in Fairfax, Virginia, spent six years and two million dollars developing "The Bible and Its Influence." The textbook was recently introduced in ceremonies in Washington D.C.. The $50 book for high school students will soon be supported by a forthcoming teacher's guide. Forty-one contributors from prominent evangelical, mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish traditions as well as secular experts participated in the project. Please visit www.bibleliteracy.org.

Global Priorities Campaign
The Global Priorities Campaign (GPC), an international, interfaith initiative to mobilize religious-based communities to bring about change in national and global budget priorities in favor of eradicating poverty and meeting human needs, will be launched in New York this month.

Global Priorities seeks to bring together people of all faiths and religious traditions to challenge current government spending priorities and join hands in long-term action to shift a portion of investment in human security from the military to the Millennium Development Goals.

The GPC launch will take place on October 17 from 12:30-1:30 pm at UNICEF headquarters. While everyone is invited, for UN security reasons please RSVP to globalpriorities@earthlink.net so that your name may be added to the attendance list. Further information about GPC is available at www.globalpriorities.org.

International Conference on Violence and Christian Spirituality
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, in cooperation with the World Council of Churches and the Boston Theological Institute, will host an international conference on Violence and Christian Spirituality from October 27-29, 2005. Guest speakers and special participants will include Dr. Marc Gopin, Dr. Ioannis Petrou, Dr. Sam Kobia, His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, Dr. John Witte, Jr., Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Clapsis, Rev. Fr. Nicholas Triantafilou, Dr. David Little, Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, Dr. David Hollenbach, Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou, among others. To register or get more info, please visit here or contact Greg Filias at 207-363-4067.

Interreligious Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons
Last month we alerted you to an emerging network focusing on educating, mobilizing, and coordinating thousands of Americans to take action within their own communities to eliminate nuclear weapons.

They invite strategic participation in an upcoming meeting at Harvard Divinity School on the afternoon of October 23. The meeting will be co-hosted by Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Dr. Harvey Cox, & Dr. Randall Forsberg. For more information, please contact Jessica Wilbanks, Network Coordinator, at jwilbanks@fourthfreedom.org, or by calling 202-587-5232.

Interfaith Trip to Israel and Palestine
Six of the council members from Religions for Peace-USA, both Jewish and Christian, participated in a trip of sixteen religious leaders to Israel and Palestine in mid-September. They said "we have demonstrated that Christians and Jews can work together to seek peace even when there is disagreement on specific policies and solutions." "As a result of these days," delegation members said, "we will now be even more effective advocates for a secure, viable and independent Palestinian state alongside an equally secure State of Israel, affirming the historic links that both the Jewish People and the Palestinian People have to the land." For more information, please visit the NCCCUSA or AJC's news release.

New Local Congregation-Level MDG Curriculum
Many local religious communities are looking for ways to respond to the Millennium Development Goals in local congregations. We have been looking for such resources. Levi Bautista of the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church has recently released one of the first such resources for local study groups that we are aware of. We want to know of others beyond this Christian Protestant product. Visit here if you want to check it out.

Nostra Aetate's 40th Anniversary - October 28, 2005
Several events mark watershed moments in the growth of the interfaith movement. In the American context, we point directly to the sweeping changes ushered in by the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, for example, as a significant factor. But no single act by a religious community has had more far reaching impact than the declarations of Nostra Aetate of the Roman Catholic Church during the Second Vatican Council. Speaking of other religions, Nostra Aetate boldly proclaimed, "The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions."

Anniversary events around the country in October and November will take time to reflect on its 40th Anniversary. For example, the Center for Faith and Culture at St. Michael's College in collaboration with the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will celebrate with a conference on November 9-12. For more information, please contact the Center at 802-654-2578.

Rx for Child Survival
In the Month of October 2005, the Rx for Child Survival campaign will collaborate with religious groups of all faiths and denominations to observe a month of Prayer for Child Survival. The month will include a number of simple activities including:

For more information about how to participate, contact the Global Health Council Community and Faith-Based Organization program at pmuchina@globalhealth.org or 202-833-5900, ext. 3231. For more info, please visit here and www.globalhealth.org.

The Role of Religious Institutions in Peacemaking
Franciscans International, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and Washington Theological Union will co-sponsor a conference entitled "The Role of Religious Institutions in Peacemaking" on October 12, 2005 at the Jones Day Law Firm on Louisiana Avenue in Washington, D.C. Special guests include: Senator John Danforth, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Bishop John H. Ricard, Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Policy, and Professor Sulayman Nyang, professor of African Studies at Howard University. Please contact Russ Testa at the Washington Theological Union at 202-541-5245 or cmpl@twu.edu or contact Alison Jones at Franciscans International at 212-490-4624 or jones@fiop.org.

Understanding Islam - Two-Day Seminar in DC
The Peacebuilding and Development Institute of American University is hosting a training on "Understanding Islam," a two-day seminar on the tenets and concepts of Islamic society. This training workshop is meant for professionals, academics, and others traveling or working in Islamic societies, or those interested in learning more about Islam. Seminars include: Basic Tenets of the Faith, Do's and Don'ts in Islamic Society, Political Movements and Islam, Islam and the West, Islam in America, and Women in Islam. There will also be breakout sessions and an optional evening film. Workshops run November 4-5 and will be held at American University. Fees range $250-$400. Please visit here for more information or else contact Brad David at 202-885-6438 or Zack Kassim at 202-885-2018.

US Conference prepares for WCC Assembly
WCC member churches from the US will gather for their pre-Assembly conference in Chicago during October 10-12, 2005. Church leaders and ecumenists will engage in theological reflection on the theme of the WCC Assembly. Plenary sessions will focus on justice concerns and stewardship of the earth. Leading up to the WCC conference a youth event "Shift Your Space - Transform The World" will be held from October 8-10. The gathering will enable seminarians, students and youth delegates to the WCC Assembly to strategize on new ways of engaging with the vision promoted by the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence. For more info, visit here.

Wal-Mart Watch Campaign
A new multifaith Wal-Mart Watch effort has been created with a Campaign week of action set for November 13-18, 2005. The organization says that "Wal-Mart Watch is committed to uncovering the true impact of Wal-Mart business practices on our economy, environment, communities, and culture," and it aims to "make Wal-Mart a more responsible company as activists and elected officials who, together, will demand reform in their hometowns."

The week, entitled "Higher Expectations: A National Week of Action," will be kicked off with the scheduling of premier screenings on Sunday, November 13 of noted filmmaker Robert Greenwald's new film, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices. For more information, please contact Rev. Jarvis Johnson, Director of Interfaith Outreach at 202-557-7440 or jjohnson@walmartwatch.com.

Mr. Andrew Olsen of Religions for Peace - USA interviewed Rev. William Tolbert III, Regional Director of the Religions for Peace Conflict Transformation program in West Africa. Below you will find an excerpt from the interview. To read the interview in its entirety please visit our website.

Q: What are some ways that the IRCs of these nations are working for conflict transformation?

A: The Interreligious Council of Liberia (IRCL) has played a crucial role in the peace process there. It served as one of the principle mediators that led to the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA). The IRCL is currently monitoring adherence to the CPA by all stakeholders, monitoring the disarmament, demobilization, reintegration, and rehabilitation (DDRR) process, and preparing for the upcoming elections on October 11. It is also involved in sensitizing and educating the public on gender mainstreaming, empowerment of youth, as well as tolerance and peaceful coexistence among religious faiths and ethnic groups, in light of the tensions among warring factions that have existed in Liberia.

In Sierra Leone, the IRC is sensitizing the public about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report, which is now in circulation. It is also involved in community-based reconciliation activities, as well as monitoring the Special Court of Sierra Leone, in collaboration with civil society organizations and international community partners, to ensure that those who have committed war crimes are prosecuted justly.

The Interreligious Council of Guinea (IRCG) has been taking a more proactive role in working to prevent the outbreak of violent conflict, given the latent conflict situation there. The IRCG is working with the government, other local stakeholders, and international partners, to promote calm and restraint as a response to situations of tension, rather than resorting to violence.

The National Forum of Religions of Cote d’Ivoire (NFR-CI) remains constructively engaged with local governments and local stakeholders to positively transform the Ivorian situation. They are also involved in community-based reconciliation activities, civic education, and sensitizing the public in preparation for upcoming national elections.

The Ghana Conference of Religions for Peace (GCRP) has not formalized a conflict transformation program at this juncture. Their activities are part of the Hope for African Children Initiative (HACI) benefiting children affected by HIV/AIDS. Religions for Peace is one of the founding partners of HACI, and Ghana currently chairs the country program council. There is an HIV/AIDS Coordinator with GCRP to oversee the council’s involvement in HACI initiatives.

There is acknowledgement that there are linkages (socio-economic, ethnic, religious, and political) that invariably affect all the countries of the region (positively or negatively). Hence, all the IRCs are collaborating at the regional level to address issues of peace, reconciliation, and security throughout West Africa. The West Africa Inter-Religious Coordinating Committee (WA IRCC) has been formed and there is regular capacity building of the religious leaders as well as rotational consultations in the five countries. These exercises have equipped the IRCs to make appropriate national or regional interventions to ensure peaceful and just societal transformation.

Want to read more? click here.

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 Armenian Prelacy of the Eastern US and Canada.

The fundamental mission of the Armenian Prelacy is to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Since Armenia became the first nation to accept Christianity over 1700 years ago, the Church has been the mainstay of national life. As the only Armenian institution with any coherent existence and continuity during long periods of occupation, persecution, and oppression, many duties devolved upon the Church, including cultural, educational, social, and even political. At times only the Church was available to preserve, protect, and perpetuate the culture, customs, and community.

Today, with the existence of an independent Republic of Armenia, the focus of the Church is changing, although the basic mission remains unchanged. It still embraces the religious, the educational, the cultural, and the social in its continuing dedication to the betterment of its people.

In carrying out its duties, the Prelacy has two ancillary organizations, each with its own special area of responsibility: the Armenian Religious Education Council (AREC) and the Armenian National Education Committee (ANEC). Both are youth-oriented and an important part of their objectives is to prepare youth for leadership roles.

The Prelacy office was re-established in New York City in 1958 and since that time the Prelacy churches in America have grown and the Prelacy has been responsible for a continuing program of community-wide activities: religious, educational, cultural, and social.

His Eminence Archbishop Khajag Barsamian serves on the Council of Presidents for Religions for Peace-USA and Dn. Shant Kazanjian, Director of Christian Education for the Armenian Prelacy, serves on the Advisory Board. For more information about the Armenian prelacy please visit their website.

In this section we feature interesting, replicable projects of our member religious communities or thought-provoking publications for our common mission.

The Peacekeepers
The UN Foundation, The Canadian Film Board, and The People Speak invite you to bring the movie The Peacekeepers to your community. The Peacekeepers is a documentary made by the Canadian Film Board about the creation of a UN Peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With unprecedented access to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, The Peacekeepers provides an intimate and dramatic portrait of the struggle to save "a failed state," taking the viewer back and forth between the United Nations headquarters in New York and events on the ground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from summer 2002 until spring 2004. Was the DRC to be the next Rwanda?

For more information on the film, to view a clip, or to order, please click here. It can be rented for $50, and it costs $150 to buy.

UN Peacekeeping is an indispensable tool for our nation given the current U.S. military commitments overseas. It prevents the U.S. from footing the entire bill or taking all of the risks of keeping the peace in unstable regions of the world. These critical missions also ensure that food and medicines are delivered to the intended recipients, and that the groundwork is laid for post-conflict societies to transition to more stable and democratic nations.

Sightings: A Bi-Weekly Commentary on American Religious Life
We are going to guess that you didn't have time to read or notice C. Kirk Hadaway and Penny Long Marler's "How Many Americans Attend Worship Each Week? An Alternative Approach to Measurement" (Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, September 2005). That's okay, neither did we. We still found out that the two scholars estimate there are 331,000 congregations distributed over the United States by tuning into a helpful bi-weekly called Sightings.

This is a great resource that digests and editorializes things on the role of religion in American public life. Sightings covers the latest events, agents, and trends from angles that we think RFP's readers would like to hear. Therefore, we are recommending it. Click here to subscribe to Sightings. Click here to access the Sightings archive. It is a product of The Martin Marty Center of the The Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion at The University of Chicago Divinity School.

Interreligious Engagement Project and Interreligious Insight
Visit www.iep21.org. Several of you have asked about the journal Interreligious Insight. In the US, the main contact for the journal is Jim Kinney. Among other things, Jim runs the Interreligious Engagement Project: A Network for the 21st Century. IEP21, as it is called for short, "works to further the engagement of religious and spiritual communities around the world with each other, with secular agencies, and - most of all - with the critical issues facing the planetary community in the early 21st century."

Youth in Peace Education
Visit here. Patrice Brodeur, a former staff member, current consultant, and long-time friend of Religions for Peace, has been spent much of the past year as a Rockefeller visiting fellow at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame. Among other duties, the Canadian native helped to organize a curriculum aimed at teaching young people how to communicate and build peace with persons of other faith traditions. With a diverse team and support from the United States Institute of Peace (www.usip.org), Patrice and colleague created a new web portal that will: 1) collect existing curricula about religious "others," 2) make available an e-learning global certificate program, 3) map the history of the modern interreligious movement, and 4) develop a network that will both share and use the information on the site. It is called Youth in Peace Education.

When It's All Over But The Shooting...
Visit here. Dirk Ficca, Executive Director for the Council for the Parliament of the World Religions, offered a "dark," but "provocative" keynote speech at the joint meeting of the North American Interfaith Network and the United Religions Initiative's North American region recently. In it he explores the struggle to create a more just, more peaceful, and more sustainable world, and he poses four questions:

Eco-Building?
Okay, we normally recommend books, CDs, projects, or speeches to you. But why not a building? Our Quaker friends in D.C. decided that their building could speak volumes about who they are and what they stand for - namely, a better environment. They designed their new Friends Committee on National Legisislation (FCNL) headquarters with just that in mind. It re-opened in late September.

Welcoming visitors, they say, "We've added features like a green roof, an outdoor garden, geothermal heating and yet managed to keep some of the historic, Civil War-era walls and other features." See the web tour if you want to learn more. Please visit here.

October 10, 2005 marks Columbus Day and November is National Native American and Alaskan Native Heritage Month

How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people.

Seattle (c. 1784-1866), Native American chief of the Dwamish, Suquamish, and allied Indian tribes. Letter, 1854, to President Franklin Pierce in Brother Eagle, Sister Sky: A Message from Chief Seattle (1990).

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