Religions for Peace - USA March 2006 E-Newsletter

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In This Issue:

From Our Executive Director…

Our 2nd Anniversary of Interfaith and Peace E-news!

We are committed to bringing you the latest peace-focused and interfaith-related resources, guides, and events. This issue marks our second anniversary of this effort. Celebrate with us – send this e-mail to a friend to tell them about this resource. Hats off to Religions for Peace-USA’s dedicated e-newsletter coordinator, Ms. Kinza Ghaznavi!

Religions for Peace-USA helped to sponsor a panel of women religious leaders speaking on the tensions between political aspirations and religious traditions during the Commission on the Status of Women. From left to right, they are: Rabbi Melinda Zalma (Jewish), Ms. Sarah Sayeed (Muslim), Ms. Margaret Obaga (Christian), Ms. Tenaz H. Dubash (Zoroastrian), and organizing host Rev. Kathleen Stone, CCUN Chaplain.

Ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Religions for Peace-USA interns and staff in cooperation with the US Fund for UNICEF and other partners has been supporting the ratification of UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Our efforts have including organizing and mobilizing religious community support and the creation of materials to assist in overcoming the concerns that may come from faith corners.

May 18-20th there will be a National Summit at American University in Washington D.C. called “The Convention on the Rights of the Child: Mobilizing Communities for Ratification.”

In too many countries, children's lives are plagued by armed conflict, child labor, sexual exploitation and other human rights violations. And, to varying degrees, at least some children in all nations face homelessness, violence, poverty and other issues that dramatically affect their lives. The CRC is an important step in addressing these issues. Only Somalia and the United States have not ratified it.

The Summit will provide a major opportunity for supporters of the CRC to assemble in order to become stronger in their commitment to US ratification. Religions for Peace-USA will be sponsoring a panel at the event to help educate participants on the mobilization of religious community support. For more information, please visit our website at: www.childrightscampaign.org.

Millennium Development Goal Maps and Guides
Okay, okay, we hear you. A lot of you really like the FREE MDG maps we pointed to in last month’s issue. “How can I get more than one?” “These things are beautiful!” We are listening. Here is some more ditty on the maps. Visit the World Bank’s site to learn even more about ordering them in quantities.

One more thing. Our colleagues at the National Council of Churches have released a new study guide: Eradicating Poverty: A Christian Study Guide on the Millennium Development Goals, which tackles these and other pressing issues.

National Days of Interfaith Youth Service – April 22-23
Did you know that April 23-29 is National Volunteer Week? It's time to organize! The Interfaith Youth Core's newly refurbished website is chocked full of resources for young people interersted in organizing interfaith service events in their neck of the woods. A quick start toolkit, DVD, distance training, and much more are available as resources.

URJ Releases “Just Congregations”
The Union for Reform Judaism has released a new social action program to foster faith-based community organizing across the country. “Social Action has always been one of the hallmarks of the Reform Movement. Our congregations are, in so many ways, the hands of God – feeding hungry people, providing shelter, improving their communities in so many ways,” said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism. “Now, with the expertise the Jewish FundS for Justice has developed in this field, we will be able to help our congregations learn and develop a creative new methodology for congregational advocacy and have a far broader impact,” he said.

The Just Congregations program will provide training and support for a corps of congregations to serve as role models to the Movement in Faith-Based Community Organizing (FBCO), which fosters relationships among and between members of diverse religious congregations. Faith-based community organizations leverage the membership, relationships and leadership of congregations to build power and become a potent force for social justice. Across the country, FBCOs have won local battles for quality education, health care access, living wages, and other issues of social and economic justice. To learn more, please visit: www.urj.org/justcongregations.

NAIN “Points” the Way and Offers Youth Scholarships
Two bits of news from the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) for you. First, thanks to Bettina Gray, the North American Interfaith Network has developed a PowerPoint to describe what NAIN is and does. If you are interested, please click this link. Help others learn about NAIN.

Also, youth and young adults interested in attending the 2006 NAIN Connect in Vancouver, Canada are encouraged to check out www.nain.org by mid-March to pick up an application for scholarship assistance to attend the annual meeting. Applications are due in early April.

Host Your Own Festival of Faiths
The very popular Festival of Faiths hosted by the Louisville Cathedral Heritage Foundation and championed by Religions for Peace Trustee Christy Lee Brown has recently published an online handbook for organizing your own festival. Check it out here.

Scouting Badges for Interfaith Learning? - Open Houses of Faith
We are not making this stuff up. Thanks to our friend Mike Goggin at the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, we learned that the Girl Scouts have a program called Open Houses of Faith. Participating Girl Scouts can earn a patch or a religious emblem by visiting different houses of worship. They are encouraged to take their families along with them. If you want to learn more, please visit here.

Muslims in the United States: A USIP Report
The United States Institute for Peace has just released a new report on US Muslim organizations and diversity entitled "The Diversity of Muslims in the United States: Views as Americans." A brief summary is available here, including a link to download the full report. New USIP staff member, Qamar-ul Huda, compiled and authored the report.

25 by 25: Renewable Energy - Biofuels
You heard what the President said. Americans are addicted to oil. Our colleagues at the UN Foundation are working on a new, tangible energy approach. They challenge Americans to envision that “by 2025, America's working lands will provide 25 percent of the total energy consumed in the United States while continuing to produce abundant, safe and affordable food, feed, fiber and fuel." Why are we telling you about this initiative? It has been underway for better than a year and will have a public launch at the Mayflower Hotel in D.C. during March 7-9, but it will have more public phases in the coming months, including efforts to engage US religious community awareness. We will keep you posted.

Caux Scholars Program: Summer Peacebuilding Training
Running July 15 - August 15, 2006, the Caux Scholars Program focuses on the moral and spiritual dimensions of peacebuilding and the relationship between individual transformation and change in the world. It offers students an opportunity to explore the role individuals can play in bringing healing and in building a future where peace, justice, and individual freedom flourish. The course includes: case studies, simulations, interactive learning, lectures, and a field trip to Geneva to visit the UN and other non-governmental organizations.

The application deadline is March 15, 2006 and it is open to third- or fourth-year university or graduate students, or recent graduates. For more information, visit Caux Scholars.

CAIR offers “Explore the Life of Muhammed”
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) launched a major educational effort called "Explore the Life of Muhammad" as a positive response to the worldwide controversy over caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The year-long initiative will begin by offering people of all faiths a free book or DVD about the life and legacy of the Prophet Muhammad. Visitors to CAIR's campaign website, www.cair.com/Muhammad, will be able to choose either a DVD of the PBS documentary "Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet" or the book "Muhammad" by Yahiya Emerick. The website will also feature a 13-minute online clip from the DVD and excerpts from the book.

Summer Peacebuilding and Development Institute
American University is offering its Summer Peacebuilding and Development Institute during June 19-July 8. The Summer Professional Training Program provides trainings to foreign aid workers, government officials, conflict resolution practitioners, and others working in conflict zones to compliment their daily field work. Three workshops are offered each week for three weeks. Click here for more information.

World's Religions after September 11th
Right on the heels of the VIIIth World Assembly of Religions for Peace, a Global Congress called World’s Religions after September 11th will be held September 11- 15 2006, in Montreal, Canada. First reported to you by us last July, organizers are now expecting an attendance of over 2000 participants worldwide from various academic & spiritual traditions.

A Golden Opporunity: Interfaith Art Contest
The Scarboro Missions in Toronto is holding an international student art contest. Students are challenged to create artwork about the Golden Rule and the global family as a path to peace. Two winners will be selected for a $250 prize award for each. Participants are grouped in two age categories – grades 3-6 and grades 7-12. To pick up the rules of the contest see Scarboro Missions Golden Rule Contest.

New Interns
Evelyn Lu (pictured left) is a new intern focusing on the development of resources on the MDGs. Evelyn is a sophomore at Columbia University. She will be graduating in May of 2008 with BAs in Economics, Mathematics, and Political Science. Her area of focus is sustainable development in third-world countries. She is of Methodist background, but considers herself a non-denominational Christian.

Jennifer Choi is a Major in Political Science and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. Having come from a background where religion was portrayed negatively, Jennifer is very excited to be working in an environment that truly believes that cooperation and understanding between religions can exist. She says, "on a technical level, Religions for Peace USA has several opportunities for research, writing, and learning about how a NGO is run, and it is in a warm and comfortable setting. However, the greatest opportunity lies within the exposure I receive from learning about all different religions."

Special Gandhi Celebration in September
You probably already know that you are in the middle of the Season for Nonviolence which runs January 30 - April 4. It is a national 64-day educational, media, and grassroots campaign dedicated to demonstrating that nonviolence is a powerful way to heal, transform, and empower our lives and our communities. Inspired by the 50th and 30th memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this international event honors their vision for an empowered, nonviolent world. See, for example, the Season of Nonviolence website.

But did you know that in September there is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the idea of non-violent civil disobedience (satyagraha) in Gandhi's thinking? It marks a unique opportunity to re-highlight this concept. Special celebrations are being planned. Stay tuned here for more information.

National Workshop on Christian Unity
The more than four decade old National Workshop on Christian Unity meets May 8-11 in San Jose, California. The agenda, while largely Christian, includes workshops on “Interreligious Dialogue – A Pastoral Perspective” and “Presbyterian Jewish Dialogue re: Divestment.” For more information, please visit the NWCU.

Religions for Peace North American Interreligous Youth Network

The Working Committee of the Religions for Peace North American Interreligious Youth Network is developing plans for the World Youth Assembly during August 21-25, just prior to the VIIIth World Assembly of Religions for Peace. The Co-Chairs of the Network are Ms. Naomi Greenspan and Mr. Mohamed Sheibani.

Naomi Greenspan currently works on interreligious affairs at the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism in Washington DC. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis ’05 where she studied Psychology and Jewish, Islamic, & Near Eastern Studies. She was involved in the Jewish community throughout her college experience as well as participated in various social justice organizations and a Muslim-Jewish dialogue group.

Mohamed Sheibani is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Ottawa in Canada. He is President of the Muslims Students Association of the US and Canada. He has been involved on the National level for the last three years holding various positions in the Muslim Students Association. He has also been active on the local level, as President of the Muslim Youth of Ottawa, vice president of the Management Student Council at the University of Ottawa, as well as various other community organizations.

If you are young person between 18-35 years of age and may be designated as a representative of your religious community, please consider communicating your contact information to them. To reach either of them, you can write to them at NAIYN.

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 Jewish Reconstructionist Federation.

The Jewish Reconstructionist movement got its start in 1935 with Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan's book "Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction in Jewish American Life" and the publication of Reconstructionist magazine. The Federation was established in 1955 as the synagogue arm of the Reconstructionist movement, and since then, the liberal movement has experienced growth and expansion in America, claiming as many as 70,000 members in 2003.

Jewish Reconstructionist congregations are generally autonomous and democratic, with voluntary membership, while their teachings are open and inclusive, and leaders are elected. Rabbi Kaplan believed in a more fluid Jewish civilization that would be able to accommodate the changing needs of American Jews. Jewish Reconstructionism today sees itself as a bridge between "old" and "new" Judaism, as well as between traditional Jews and those who have been marginalized from mainstream Jewish communities. Judaism is also seen, following the legacy of Rabbi Kaplan, as more than a religion, but as a culture and community – a religious civilization.

The JRF participates in outreach and community-building, and provides contemporary Jewish books, music, and publications. Congregants are encouraged to discover their own joy in Judaism while simultaneously participating actively in the community.

The JRF also encourages social activism and participates as a community in global initiatives, such as their ongoing humanitarian Call to Action in Darfur, Sudan, and their membership in the Jewish Coalition for Asia Earthquake Relief. The JRF also has an established Resolution on the Environment which urges support of government regulations that reduce toxic emissions as well as conservation efforts for endangered species and habitats. The JRF is a member of various humanitarian organizations, such as the Jewish Coalition Responding to HIV/AIDS in Africa and MAZON, which allocates Jewish donations to the best hunger relief organizations in America.

Rabbi Amy Small of the JRF serves on Religions for Peace-USA's Executive Council, and President Dan Cederbaum is on RFP-USA's Council of Presidents. For more information see www.jrf.org.

Long-Term Volunteer Profile: Dorothy Savage

Dorothy Savage comes to her Religions for Peace-USA volunteering with twenty-seven years of experience in ecumenical work with the National Council of Churches (NCCCUSA), where she was Director of Education and Leadership at the time of her retirement in 1998. Dorothy has worn a number of different hats at Religions for Peace-USA, from helping to lead conferences to occasionally stuffing envelopes.

Growing up Catholic in Pennsylvania, Dorothy remembers having little interaction with Protestants or people of other faiths. It was not until she moved to New York City, became a nun, and began to work with the NCCCUSA that Dorothy became aware of the many commonalities between Christian denominations. Captivated by the experience of centering prayer within her convent community, she found an even broader connection between the meditative practices of Buddhism and those long practiced by Catholic mystics. “The more I come to understand other religious traditions,” Dorothy explained, “the more my own faith identity is deepened.”

Dorothy sees inter-religious dialogue as essential in our world of rapidly expanding cultural and economic exchanges, which often lead to conflict as people feel threatened by these encounters. Fortunately, inter-religious movements increasingly abound in this environment, making necessary steps toward dialogue and cooperation. Among these varied groups, Dorothy feels that Religions for Peace-USA makes a unique contribution in its insistence upon inter-religious dialogue between institutions and governing bodies of different traditions, rather than merely between individuals.

Dorothy is sustained in her work by her continued belief in its vital importance. "I feel I understand the presence of God, and Christians’ witness to it, more clearly in dialogue with people of other religions," she said. She recalls the first time she encountered Hindus, with their common salutation, "The God in me greets the God in you." "That was my first glimpse, my 'Ah-ha' moment. Then I knew what I needed to do."

Religions for Peace-USA thanks Dorothy for her abundant generosity as a volunteer.

Allophilia?: When Tolerance Is Not Enough
As a leader, how do you get beyond just “tolerance” and yet keep group identities fostered and intact? How about a two-page quick read that teaches a new framework for effective intergroup leadership? Todd Pitinsky an assistant professor of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government and a core faculty member at the Center for Public Leadership has an answer. He offers a short paper on “allophilia” and emergent models of global leadership which will appear as a chapter in a book published this fall by the International Leadership Association. It is worth a read for anyone trying to get people of different faiths accepting of one another. See Allophilia.

Blog, Blog, Blog
Religions for Peace-USA is planning a blog launch this Spring and will be introducing podcasts in conjuction with some of its upcoming programs. Stay tuned. In the meantime, we wanted share with you a little sampling of the interfaith blogs, we found along the way:

• Ames Iowa’s Interfaith Council Blog
• Alaska Interfaith Peace Blog
• National Council of Churches' Interfaith Blog
• United Religions Initiative related Blog

Taking Religious Pluralism Seriously: Spiritual Politics on America’s Sacred Ground by Barbara A. McGraw and Jo Renee Formicola (Editors)

Dr. Diana Eck - Advisor to Religions for Peace, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, and Director, The Pluralism Project, says this book "shows us a way to reach across boundaries of difference, while remaining rooted in fundamental and common principles. There could be no more important work today." Colleagues Barbara A. McGraw, an Associate Professor of Law and Ethics at Saint Mary’s College of California, and Jo Renee Formicola, a Professor of Political Science at Seton Hall University co-wrote and edited "Taking Religious Pluralism Seriously."

The clash between the religious right and the secular left undermines any serious debate about the role of religion in American public life. Such strident cultural rhetoric often ignores the positive contributions of America’s many religions. By contrast, this volume celebrates America’s religious diversity, demonstrating that religious pluralism is actually one of democracy’s basic building blocks. "Taking Religious Pluralism Seriously" expands on Barbara A. McGraw's framework for understanding religious participation in public life as a two-tiered public forum, consisting of the civic public forum and the conscientious public forum. The chapters explore how diverse religious communities and traditions, including newer and marginalized religions, can make a meaningful contribution to American society and politics. It makes an interesting compliment to Prof. Eck’s "A New Religious America."

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American Anthropologist

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