Religions for Peace - USA December 2005 E-Newsletter

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In This Issue:

From Our Executive Director…

The People Speak – Thank You!
The opportunity to receive mini-grants for hosting discussions on the role of the US and of the UN in the world has passed for 2005. Don’t want to miss out next year? Subscribe to information from www.thepeoplespeak.org website or watch for news in this e-newsletter in July and August of 2006 for grants for next fall. Sign up to receive the RFP-USA e-newsletter here.

Through the member contacts of Religions for Peace-USA, over a hundred religious communities across the United States hosted dialogues this fall as part of the People Speak program. Religions for Peace-USA fostered the third highest number of dialogues out of the 31 partners in the program. North of ten thousand dialogues were hosted altogether amongst the partners’ efforts.

Winter Programs: MDGS, Conflict Resolution, and More
Religious Communities and the Millennium Development Goals

Conflict Transformation
“The Third Side: Re-framing Conflict Resolution” takes place on Jan. 17, 2006 at 1:15 p.m. at the Church Center for the United Nations. Dr. Andrea Bartoli, Director of the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University, will be speaking on "The Third Side" in religious conflict and the role of religious actors in the midst of it. This forum is open to the public.

Look for updates on our upcoming programs each month. Programs focus on building community, addressing diversity, and examining the role of the US in the World.

National Multi-religious College Councils Summit: Coming Together 2
Johns Hopkins University Campus Ministries and the JHU Interfaith Council will be hosting students representing college and university multi-religious councils for Coming Together 2. This is a follow-up to the inaugural meeting hosted by Paul Rauschenbush at Princeton last year. Hosted in Baltimore during February 16-19, 2006, Coming Together will be planned and led by students. If you are a student or know of a student affiliated with an interreligious council, please contact either Babak Mostaghimi or JHU Chaplain Sharon M.K. Kugler (410-261-1880). Each university may send at most three delegates to represent their campus. Excluding transportation and hotel accommodations, all conference expenses are covered. Housing will be offered free of charge by Hopkins students opening their homes to participants.

Encountering the Other: Religious Arguments of Tolerance
Guided by the theme of hospitality toward the other, Encountering the Other: Religious Arguments for Tolerance, will be a one-day workshop held on April 24, 2006 at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. This conference principally aims at focusing dialogue among people of the three Abrahamic faith traditions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - but is also open to papers and presenters dealing with encounters with other faith traditions. The deadline for submissions of brief descriptions or abstracts is Dec. 16, 2005, so act today. Visit here to learn more.

New Interfaith Blog
Following successful coverage of on the ground assessments and reporting from Tsunami-affected areas a year ago, Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana has started a new blog dedicated specifically to interfaith issues at www.nccinterfaith.blogspot.com. NCCCUSA is a member body of Religions for Peace-USA.

Women in Religion in the 21st Century
The Interchurch Center is hosting a summit of religious women and women’s organizations during October 17-19, 2006 at 475 Riverside Drive in New York City. Under the banner of “Women in Religion in the 21st Century,” the conference will invite a diverse array of institutions of Manhattan’s “little acropolis” and beyond. Contact Sue Dennis for more information at sdennis@interchurch-center.org.

International Freedom Report 2005
The U.S. Department of State released the seventh Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, which examines the status of religious freedom around the world. The annual report to Congress, released November 8, is mandated by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and seeks to examine barriers to religious freedom in individual countries. The report also notes countries in which conditions have improved and outlines U.S. actions to promote international religious freedom.

The 2005 report re-designates Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam as "Countries of Particular Concern" (CPC) for severe violations of religious freedom. The same countries were listed as CPCs in the 2004 report. The report reviews countries' commitments to religious freedom and examines barriers to the free practice of religion in several countries, including CPCs.

For more information, see International Religious Freedom or here for the full text of the 2005 report.

Human Rights Day and White Band Mobilization
We cannot achieve peace if we do not recognize that “the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.” December 10, 2005 is UN designated day to remember the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For more information visit sites on International Human Rights Day and, for those of you wanting to do something simple and visible, International “White Band” Mobilization Day.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days: Global Security and Nuclear Weapons
Started in 2003, Ecumenical Advocacy Days has been growing every year and promises to be “the largest national gathering of U.S. grassroots progressive religious activists focused on the broad spectrum of international and domestic policies.” In 2006, it takes place during March 10-13, 2006 in Washington, DC under the theme “Challenging Disparity: The Promise of God – The Power of Solidarity.” Over 1,000 participants are anticipated. More information is available at www.advocacydays.org.

2006 Summer Peacebuilding Institute
The Summer Peacebuilding Institute (May 8-June 20, 2006) at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in Harrisonburg, Virginia is now accepting applications. The Summer Peacebuilding Institute is a place to discern the inter-connections between conflict transformation, equitable development, protection of human rights, and sustainable management of the environment. Information on SPI 2006 can now be found here. Act now, because applications for SPI 2006 are due by January 9, 2006. If you have questions, please send an email to spi@emu.edu.

Spiritual Activism Conference: Part II
Building on the successes of a July 2005 conference, the Network of Spiritual Progressive will be hosting a Spiritual Activism Conference on May 17-20, 2006, at All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, D.C.. With a “Spiritual Covenant for America” in hand, the conference aims to to “launch a prophetic spiritual politics agenda to the media and politicians.” Click here to learn more.

New Staff
Nadia Bulkin has been working as an Associate for Research and International Affairs this fall. She is a first-year student at Barnard College of Columbia University, and planning on declaring an early major in Political Science and a minor in Economics. She alleviates the stresses of these disciplines with creative writing. Growing up in Indonesia in an interfaith and interracial family has driven her toward the field of international relations. She says, “In the long term, I hope to work in the U.S. State Department or the U.N. Development Programme in the field of international development, which seems to suspiciously lack women. I believe everyone has the duty to leave the world a better place, and am trying to find my path toward doing my share.”

Faith in Action: Working Towards the Millennium Development Goals
An Action Toolkit for Religious Leaders and Communities

Religions for Peace, with the support of The Millennium Campaign, has developed a toolkit to engage and equip religious leaders and their communities in developing countries around the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This multi-religious resource introduces the MDGs and the key role of faith communities in advocacy and action for the attainment of the goals.

The toolkit presents religious principles and warrants related to the MDGs from a variety faith-traditions and provides concrete steps for action to engage all members of religious communities - including advocating with and monitoring governments, linking to other civil society actors and campaigns, and make use of the media. Also included are replicable "handouts" for use in educational outreach and inter-religious settings.

The Faith in Action: Working Towards the Millennium Development Goals Toolkit is currently undergoing review in Africa and should be available in wide release in Spring 2006.

If you subscribe to this e-newsletter for the US chapter of Religions for Peace – Religions for Peace-USA, then you will receive updates about the availability of this and other important new resources relevant to religious and peace leaders.

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 Sikh Council on Religion and Education (SCORE).

SCORE was founded in 1998 with the mission to promote the positive role of the Sikh religion in the world as well as to encourage public participation in community activism. Based in Washington D.C., SCORE is a faith based, non-partisan, non-profit organization that has represented Sikhs on national as well as international platforms.

The Sikh religion was founded approximately 500 years ago by Guru Nanak. Sikhism is founded on the principles of equality of all people and instills an egalitarian attitude towards all races, religions, and social classes. In accordance to these principles, SCORE advocates on a variety of issues such as civil rights, religious liberty and community involvement.

SCORE undertakes a number of educational activities to increase awareness of the Sikh religion among both Sikh and non-Sikh communities. Some of these actions include conferences, written as well as audio-visual material, and interfaith events that reach out to children and youth. Exemplar of this, from July 24th to July 26th, 2005, young Sikh professionals met at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. for the Sikh Youth Leadership Conference. Over 120 participants from across America and Canada engaged in workshops and panel discussions under the theme “Building Community Through Personal, Professional, and Social Transformation.”

Among other issues addressed by SCORE are interfaith relations and religious freedom. SCORE is continuously working with various international and national groups to increase Sikh participation in interfaith dialogue as well as to enhance the participation of Sikhs in fighting discrimination against them.

A SCORE member representative on Religions for Peace-USA’s Executive Council, Dr. Rajwant Singh is Secretary of The Guru Gobind Singh Foundation and a member of the Board of Directors of North American Interfaith Network. For more information on SCORE and its activities visit them at www.sikhcouncilusa.org or e-mail info@sikhcouncilusa.org.

The FAIRest Holiday Shopping Ideas Yet
Our age of globalization allows for mass-transaction of not only information, but products and labor as well. Many large U.S. corporations have taken advantage of free trade, which yields cheap labor and higher profits, often to the detriment of the third world artisan or procucer. But there are additional businesses that use a more humane and justice-driven approach to trade, such as the growing alliance of the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT).

According to IFAT’s mission, fair trade seeks “to improve the livelihoods and well being of disadvantaged producers”. IFAT organizations, which include Canada-based Ten Thousand Villages, U.S.-based Equal Exchange and SERRV’s A Greater Gift, and India-based MarketPlace, abide by principles such as fair and prompt payment, gender equity, healthy workplaces, and environmentally-conscious production.

Ten Thousand Villages, which markets handicrafts from developing countries to North America, stresses the importance not only of implementing fair working conditions, but of spreading hope, dignity, and joy among artisans. Started in 1946 as a nonprofit program for the Mennonite Central Committee, Ten Thousand Villages has evolved into a unique business supporting forty to fifty thousand artisans and winning Co-op America’s People’s Choice Award for Green Business of the Year.

Equal Exchange specializes in organic coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, and chocolate produced in “democratically-run farmer co-ops” in fourteen developing countries. These small co-ops in turn help their own communities by offering training programs for women, ecotourism, and new classrooms. Equal Exchange also cooperates with faith-based relief groups – for example, Coffee Projects in the Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches.

SERRV (Sales Exchange for Refugee Rehabilitation and Vocation), was begun in 1949 to assist post-war refugees in Europe by selling German cuckoo clocks in Maryland. Since then SERRV has expanded to working with groups in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and in 2004 named their successful handicrafts program A Greater Gift. In addition to handicrafts, SERRV also focuses on development strategy.

MarketPlace: Handwork of India assists women from low-income households with little or no education hold a stable job and provide for themselves and their children, bringing them together in local cooperatives where they either produce fabric or sew and embroider designs onto clothing. All work is done by hand and though not all the women knew embroidery when they began working with MarketPlace, the designs are able to be learned in a day. On all clothing is sewn the MarketPlace motto, “Dignity, Not Charity”.

These organizations have found an innovative way to link consumerism and compassion, and their flourishing in the U.S. indicates the public’s support of fair trade. Their popularity has pressured even the largest corporations, such as McDonald’s and Starbucks, to sell coffee that is certified fair trade.

IFAT has a handy one-stop shop for fair trade purchases searching. Visit here to start making your holiday shopping more meaningful.

Still searching for ideas? Visit Heifer’s “The Most Important Gift Catalog in the World.” Choose a meaningful gift to give a loved one and help children and families around the world receive training and animal gifts that help them become self-reliant.

National JAINA Directory
Can you believe that there is a single book that contains most all of the contacts in the United States for a entire world religious tradition? The Jain Center of Greater Boston has recently published its fifth edition of the “Jain Directory of North America.” The last edition was published in 1996. The new fifth edition lists contact information for every known Jain in the United States, as well as more detailed information about each Jain center and Jain-related business. It is self-published, so please contact the Jain Center of Greater Boston for more information.

Deep Religious Pluralism
Is it possibly to have a theology that can see the truth in other religious traditions and yet not neglect the very real differences amongst religions? You know about the so-called pluralist theologians, such as John Hick, but what if a school of theological thought applied its wares to the questions of pluralism? That is exactly what "Deep Religious Pluralism" attempts to do. It is based on the conviction that the philosophy articulated by Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne encourages not only religious diversity but “deep religious pluralism.”

Contributors include David Ray Griffin, Steve Odin, John Shunji Yokuta, and John Cobb. And a wide cast of process theologians work to outline Jewish, Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, Evangelical Christian, Daoist-Confucian, and Asian Christian versions of “deep religious pluralism.”

Jay McDaniel, author of "Ghandi’s Hope" says, “If peace in the world requires peace among religions, then this anthology is an important step toward such peace."
Published by Westminster John Knox Press (2005). ISBN: 066422914X.

Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith
What do political leaders have to say about faith perspectives on ending hunger? That is what we wanted to know. So we peered into “Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith, which includes diverse political contributors such as Robert Dole, R-Kansas, and George McGovern, D-South Dakota.

The editor and major writer is Donald E. Messer, a theologian on the faculty of Iliff School of Theology in Denver. Designed to foster discussion and action within congregations, this short series of essays presents the scope of the world hunger problem and the best way to fight it in an urgent but nonpartisan manner. Messer introduces the book by laying out the problem—800 million people in the world are hungry—and then calls for people of faith to solve it. Religious communities should find the issues and questions raised challenging.

Published by Augsburg Fortress Publishers (2005). ISBN: 0800637828.

An end of the year gift for you – two quotes! Take your pick.

'The sense of futility is one of the greatest evils of the day ... People say, 'What can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?' They cannot see that we can only lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time; we can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment.” Dorothy Day, Co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement

"Plan as if there were no such thing as prayer. Pray as if there
were no such thing as planning." John Raleigh Mott, a Nobel Peace Laureate who was the first honorary president of the World Council of Churches

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