June 2017 - Interfaith Vitality

Know Your Neighbor Summer Campaign Launched – How Do You Meditate? Let Us Count the Ways… – Interfaith Relationship Survey to Help Improve Counseling Therapies

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Building and Assessing a Culture of Interfaith Learning

8 Principles of Interfaith Relations from President Obama

Out of Many, One

Interviewing Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith

Egyptian Copts Refuse to Respond to Killings with Hatred

For Portland Stabbing Victims, Love Prevails

The Interfaith Observer

July 12, 2017

Interfaith News

July 2017 - Interfaith News Roundup

The Interfaith Observer

July 12, 2017

Interfaith News

Coping with Religious Oppression –Progressive Religion Making Progress – More News You May Have Missed

The Interfaith Observer

June 14, 2017

Journal 2017, May 2017

May 2017 - Interfaith Living

The Interfaith Observer

June 14, 2017

Journal 2017, May 2017

Interfaith Living

May, 15 2017

Featured

Toronto to Host the 7th Parliament of the World's Religions

Press Release

Toronto – acclaimed the most diverse city in the world and home to six million Canadians – has been chosen as the host city of the 7th Parliament of the World’s Religions, to be convened in November 1-7, 2018. The selection of Toronto was made by the Board of Trustees of the governing organization at its April 2017 meeting.

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An Excerpt from "The Hundred-Year Walk – An Armenian Odyssey"

by Dawn Anahid MacKeen

The following is a chapter from MacKeen’s book recounting how she finally meets the descendants of Sheikh Hammud al-Aekleh, whose family welcomed in her grandfather, saving his life. Some members of the family that greeted her in 2007 today are Syrian refugees themselves.

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TIO is on YouTube! (and a few other things)

by Megan Weiss

TIO is now on YouTube! What is on our channel? Since the launch of TIO’s new website in September 2016, each issue has included “feature videos” which are included in one of that month’s articles or seemed important to share with TIO readers.

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Interfaith Living

Featured

Reassessing the Role of the "Senses"

by Donald Miller

We often make the mistake of identifying religious vitality with assent to particular beliefs. In this process, we forget that intellectual assent to beliefs is merely one element of religious experience. I was reminded of this fact recently when I observed the Procession of Santa Ana in Antigua, Guatemala.

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Listening as Peacebuilding

by Ana Patel

Last year, while facilitating an experiential peacebuilding workshop, I invited the participants to try a listening exercise. Simple idea – simple activity. Participants were asked to divide into pairs, one listener and one speaker. The listeners were asked to spend three minutes listening to the speaker on climate change – keep eye contact, make encouraging gestures and sounds, but don’t interrupt. Then switch.

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What do Clothes Tell Us?

by Marcus Braybrooke

The vicar of the parish where I was a curate always wore a cassock. He said it was “the only classless garment.” He did not wish to be identified with either the wealthy or poorer members of the parish. I had not at the time realised how quickly people form an opinion of you by what you wear.

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Living Life as an Interfaith Family

by Vicki Garlock

I often tell people that I have the easiest interfaith job in the world because I work with kids. It’s easy to assume that kids are too young to wonder about life’s “big questions,” but my experience suggests the opposite. Kids frequently have lots of thoughts about how the world came to be, about the nature of the Divine, and about how one might begin to understand and connect with the Great Mystery.

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True Grit: A Profile of Marium Mohuiddin

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

You can understand the power of one individual to make a difference when you meet 39 year-old Marium Mohuiddin – feisty, independent, and articulate – proud to be a Muslim and not afraid to take on the big issues of our times.

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Interfaith is Political. Interfaith is Personal.

by Bud Heckman

My first memories of interfaith encounters were innocent and rather comical. I grew up in a bubble – an almost exclusively white, Christian, rural/suburban region of Ohio. Everyone that I knew went to church, or so it seemed.

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Katy Perry's Not the Only One Who Wants to Live in a Convent

by Megan Sweas

I moved into a convent 10 years ago this summer. My roommates were not Catholic sisters, but other recent college graduates, who sometimes acted a little too much as if we were still living in a college dorm. But most of our time was dedicated to service of our community.

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Peacemaking with "the Other"

by Paul Chaffee

What does living life as an ‘interfaith activist’ mean? Millions have joined the cause in recent months, so we can well ask ourselves: What do interfaith activists share in common within our own communities and in the world? A quick, simplistic answer might be that all of us are striving towards peacemaking with ‘the other.’

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Featured

Generosity of Spirit and Interfaith Living

by Paul Chaffee

So, what does it mean to live well in an interfaith culture? This issue of TIO suggests that making peace with ‘the other’ is a daily task for all interfaith activists.

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Featured

Interfaith News Roundup - May 2017

News You May Not Have Heard – Resisting the Trump Administration – Pope Francis, Continued

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AGAINST RACISM
Valarie Kaur's plea to her country in the times of Donald J. Trump

BUILDING PEACE IN DIFFICULT TIMES
Learning from global activists

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

8 Principles of Interfaith Relations from President Obama

Out of Many, One

Interviewing Mirabai Starr a Second Time

International URI Members Attend Interfaith Mangrove Planting

The Interfaith Observer

June 12, 2017

Interfaith News

Interfaith News Roundup - June 2017

The Interfaith Observer

June 12, 2017

Interfaith News

Tourists, Billboards, and 'Just War' Theory – Improving the World

The Interfaith Observer

May 14, 2017

April 2017, Journal 2017

April 2017 - The Interfaith Journey

The Interfaith Observer

May 14, 2017

April 2017, Journal 2017

The Interfaith Journey

April 15, 2017

Featured

Bahá’u’lláh – Founder of the Bahá’í Faith

by Marcus Braybrook

At this turbulent time, we need to hold on to Bahá’u’lláh’s message of hope. Voiced some 150 years ago, it deserves a high place among those who will influence the future story of the human spirit. In his teachings, Bahá’u’lláh anticipated many of the creative developments of the twentieth century.

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REPORT: Religion Communicators Convention Dives Deep

by Paul Chaffee

A largely unknown treasure for interfaith activists is the convention held each year by the Religion Communicators Council (RCC). Founded in 1929, the RCC has given annual awards to religious communicators and to secular communicators working on religious subjects since 1949.

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The Art of Interfaith Cooperation and the Science of Data

by Bud Heckman

There is something to be said for following your gut. But sometimes those instincts are nothing more than following your own biases and perspective on the world. They reinforce frames that don’t necessarily challenge or change anything.

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What if Animals Believe in God?

by Andrew Aghapour

Chimpanzees believe in God. This news, widely reported last year, is only a slight exaggeration. Using hidden cameras, scientists have indeed captured footage of chimpanzee behavior that resembles religious ritual.

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The Interfaith Journey

Featured

How the World Came to Be (for Kids)

by Vicki Garlock

The oldest, most common myth in human history is the creation story. These tales – hundreds of them from around the world, help transmit cosmological truths from generation to generation, regardless of whether they are taken literally or symbolically.

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An Unexpected Vocation

by Kevin Singer

I remember like it was yesterday; cracking open an old Baptist hymnal to the first hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (Robinson and Wyeth, 1759). “Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace” the first verse begins. The final refrain ends in resounding fashion: “Take my heart Lord, take a seal it, seal it for thy courts above.”

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Stepping Stones on My Interfaith Journey

by Megan Weiss

My first step into the interfaith world was an experience I had during a global issues class in high school. My teacher projected an image of a man wearing a turban holding a gun, violence ensuing in the background, and then asked a question: “Is this a terrorist or a man protecting his family?”

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A Trail of Thorns

by Jim Burklo

Each spring break, I lead a group of University of Southern California students down to “baja Arizona” for a week to experience the humanitarian realities along the U.S. side of the border with Mexico. We meet with progressive Christian activists.

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Bill and Jean Lesher's Lifetime Interfaith Partnership

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

In the past 30 years of grassroots labor, I’ve occasionally encountered couples as devoted to interfaith activism as they are to one another. Such is the case of Jean and William Lesher, two people who live, breathe, and exemplify what it means to be in partnership and to share a lifelong commitment to the interfaith movement.

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Where We've Been – Where We're Going

by Katherine Marshall

Exploring the interfaith landscape drives home the dynamism and complexity of the array of formal organizations, initiatives, and largely unstructured efforts that fall under a loose interfaith rubric. They come in all sizes and shapes and touch on virtually every area of human endeavor.

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Featured

Paying Attention to Your Interfaith Journey

by Paul Chaffee

Let’s stop to remember that each of us journeys with a unique personal faith and interfaith perspective. We’re shaped by who we know – crucial events – major influences – our own unique history – our decisions

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Featured

Interfaith News Roundup - April 2017

Global Glimpses – Since Trump's Election – An Interfaith Treat

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Women and Children Stepping Up at Charter for Compassion

I AM – Exhibit of 31 Middle Eastern Women Artists

MAORI CREATION STORY IN SAND ART
Told by indigenous New Zealand sand artist Marcus Winter

AMERICAN MUSLIMS: FACT VS. FICTION
Refuting the distortion of Muslim realities in America

NEWTOWN
Having hope when it seems all is lost

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Interfaith Partnerships and Emerging Muslim-Jewish Alliances

A Statement to the Global Interfaith Community on the Exclusionary Actions of the American Government

Interviewing Mirabai Starr a Second Time

Victor Kazanjian in the Huffington Post

News from URI Great Lakes Africa

The Interfaith Observer

May 12, 2017

May 2017

Interfaith News Roundup - May 2017

The Interfaith Observer

May 12, 2017

May 2017

News You May Not Have Heard – Resisting the Trump Administration – Pope Francis, Continued

The Interfaith Observer

April 14, 2017

Journal 2017, March 2017

March 2017 - Interfaith Women Collaborating

The Interfaith Observer

April 14, 2017

Journal 2017, March 2017

Interfaith Women Collaborating

March 15, 2017

Featured

Interfaith Activism – A Giant Awakening

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

We are witnessing an awakening in the interfaith movement across the United States unlike anything we have seen since Civil Rights marches 50 years ago. This awakening seems to have surfaced as a direct result of the presidential election and in response to new policies and measures initiated by President Trump in his first 30 days in office.

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Religious Leaders Agree to Resistance Agenda

by Bud Heckman

It is an understatement to say that America is in a very tense political situation. The rabble rousing of the political cycle and unpredicted election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States have brought to the forefront very difficult public discussions and challenging situations.

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TIO's Library - Formatted, Catalogued, and Ready for "Check-out"

by Megan Weiss

I have always loved libraries. I worked at my hometown library for six years and at one point dreamed of becoming a librarian myself. Now this dream has come true, although in an unexpected way, since never once did I think I would be building a library from the bottom up!

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In Memory of Father Albert Nambiaparambil CMI

by Marcus Braybrooke

Father Albert Nambiaparambil, “the prophet of religious harmony,” as The Malayala Manorama, Kerala’s leading newspaper, called him, died on February 6 after a brief illness. He was 86. Albert made an important contribution to interfaith fellowship in Kochi (or Cochin), where he lived for many years...

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Interfaith Women Collaborating

Featured

Teaching the Divine Feminine

by Vicki Garlock

The recent celebration of Purim – one of the most entertaining holy days in Jewish culture – provides an opportunity to reflect on the ever-present, but somewhat elusive nature of the divine feminine. Queen Esther, the heroine of Purim, is never described in terms of divinity, but her role in the miraculous deliverance of her people...

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About International Women's Day (March 8)

From internationalwomensday.com

International Women’s Day (IWD) has been observed since in the early 1900s – a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. International Women’s Day is a collective day of global celebration and a call for gender parity.

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Finding Power in Ribbons

A TIO Report

The United Nations is perhaps the most diverse ‘community’ in the world, and yet in its early years it was adverse to anything ‘religious.’ Wasn’t their territory – until Robert Muller (1923-2010), Assistant Secretary-General of the UN for 40 years, slowly brought his interfaith-friendly influence to bear in this family. He is credited with helping the United Nations and its global representatives grow past their religious phobia.

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Women Transforming the Globe

From Women's Earth Alliance and United Religions Initiative

URI and WEA come together at a critical time – when efforts to build bridges across nations, learn from each other, and activate people power are needed more than ever. Our partnership enables both organizations to reach deeper and wider, catalyzing a global ripple effect that begins in our communities. The time is now.

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The Challenge of Teaching Religious Diversity in America

by Kristen Looney

As protesters fill the streets across the country, clog airports, and march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, many other Americans – on both sides of the partisan divide – take to social media denouncing President Trump’s recent executive order on immigration and refugee policy as un-American. Religious leaders, civic leaders, and elected officials are calling for a reversal of the “Muslim ban"...

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Featured

A Sea of Change and a Silver Lining

by Paul Chaffee

From the halls of the White House to community discussion groups, for the past eight years the United States has been generally open and supportive of interfaith dialogue.

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Featured

Interfaith News Roundup - March 2017

Demographics – Underreported Interfaith Stories – From the Heart

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May 8-9: Religion & Citizenship at Canada's 150th

Free Online Interfaith Courses at Harvard

Full Peacemaking Scholarship Offering at Hartford Seminary

THE RIBBON STARTS HERE
from The Ribbon International

WORLD RELIGIONS THROUGH THEIR SCRIPTURES
from Harvard University

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

A Statement to the Global Interfaith Community on the Exclusionary Actions of the American Government

Interviewing Varun Soni

Victor Kazanjian in the Huffington Post

The Interfaith Observer

April 13, 2017

Interfaith News

Interfaith News Roundup - April 2017

The Interfaith Observer

April 13, 2017

Interfaith News

Global Glimpses – Since Trump's Election – An Interfaith Treat

The Interfaith Observer

March 14, 2017

Journal 2017, February 2017

February 2017 - Rethinking Food & Faith

The Interfaith Observer

March 14, 2017

Journal 2017, February 2017

Rethinking Food & Faith

February 15, 2017

Featured

Sailing Through a Storm

by Ameena Naqvi

The waves crashed softly against the boat, pushing it towards the shore. My grandfather stepped off the boat and tied the rope to the dock. That day my grandfather was going to teach me how to sail. He described sailing as flying over water. It was like freedom to him, to set sail into the wide blue sea and leave his responsibilities on shore. However, I did not see the appeal of sailing as he did.

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All I Have Is a Voice

by Marcus Braybrooke

The row over reading verses of the Qur’an in a Cathedral in Scotland has, I gather, reached across the Atlantic. Certainly the Cathedral has had a lot of abusive online messages from the U.S.A. During an Epiphany service at the Cathedral a Muslim law student was invited to read the Qur’anic account of the birth of Jesus, which also says, as Muslims believe, that Jesus was a prophet but not divine.

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When Did "Interreligious Dialogue" Begin?

by Thomas Albert Howard

It is hard to find today a major city that does not have an “interfaith” or “interreligious” council or a university that does not sponsor some sort of “dialogue” among world religions. But when and where did “interreligious dialogue” begin? Most scholars would point to Chicago in 1893 when the first “Parliament of the World’s Religions” met in conjunction with the World’s Columbian Exposition of the same year. But most things in history have antecedents.

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The Chaplaincy Institute: Pioneering Interfaith Ministry

by John R. Mabry

Andrea paused at the doorway to the hospital room to gather her thoughts. Her last patient had been a Sunni Muslim grandmother who was scared of what her tests might say. This next patient is an atheist who may or may not want to talk to her. After that, she has a Jewish person, and a Seventh Day Adventist. While that kind of rapid-paced paradigm-shifting might cause vertigo in some chaplains, it’s all par for the course for Andrea and others...

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Rethinking Food & Faith

Featured

If There is No Bread, There is No Torah

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

In the adage “If there is no bread, there is no Torah,” Judaism recognizes that one needs to feed the body before you can feed the soul, because deep learning cannot occur on an empty stomach. The Jewish tradition also recognizes the power of food to enhance the body’s availability to be spiritually nourished.

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The Underside of the Food Chain

by Vicki Garlock

Potlucks. Catered events. Happy hours. Home-cooked family dinners. Farm-to-table menus. Carry-out eateries. Fine dining establishments. Many of us enjoy a cornucopia of food options on a regular basis. We can also testify to the social nature of eating with others. I am reminded of a conversation with a friend when discussing her first silent Zen retreat. “It’s was really amazing, but I found mealtimes difficult.

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Interfaith Perspectives on Food and Fasting

from the Center of Christian-Muslim Relations of Sydney

“Similar to fasting and abstinence, communal meals play an important seasonal role in the life of the Melkite, that is Greek-Catholic, Church. As a practicing Melkite, my church community often celebrates together with meals on the church grounds, particularly on feast days ...

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Sustainable Food and Faith

by Janet McGarry

The Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative (ISFC) is a nonprofit organization working in California’s Sonoma and Marin Counties. It gathers clergy and lay-people for monthly roundtable discussions about food and faith. In June 2014, members of Lutheran, Quaker, Congregational, Methodist, Seventh Day Adventist, Episcopal, and Catholic congregations met at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Rosa, California to learn how their congregations could buy food directly from farmers...

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Hunger Fighter Retires from Interfaith Food Shuttle

from the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle

(Raleigh, N.C.) After more than 27 years as a trailblazer in hunger relief and food system change, Jill Staton Bullard is leaving the organization she co-founded in 1989. Bullard, co-founder and Emeritus CEO of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, announced in a June 16th all-staff meeting that it was time to retire from day-to-day work at IFFS...

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The Slow Food Movement – Revaluing What We Eat

by Paul Chaffee

For those who would love to find some middle ground between the strictures of a vegetarian or vegan diet, on one hand, and the sometime travesties of big agriculture, GMOs (genetically modified organisms), packaged food, and fast food, on the other, the slow food movement may be a satisfying alternative in reflecting on and choosing what you eat and how you eat.

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The Unlikely Vegetarian

by Charles P. Gibbs

It seems unlikely that someone who co-founded Tulsa Beef and Feed, a motorcycle “gang,” would become a vegetarian. And, yet, I did; and I did. Here’s the story of an unlikely vegetarian. I was born and raised in the great southwest of the United States – born in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment; and mostly raised in Oklahoma, the Sooner State, puzzlingly named after...

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The Ten Commandments of Food

a TIO Report

Religions East and West, conservative and progressive, ancient and new, almost always express their concern for the disinherited, particularly for the hungry. As an ancient Hebrew proverb says, “Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.” (Proverbs 28:27) Yet despite the injunction and an abundance of food grown on Earth each year, the hunger statistics today are staggering.

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Featured

Food, Glorious Food (for those who have it)

by Paul Chaffee

The wonders of ethnic cuisines from around the world and their connections to a community’s religious life make ‘food and faith’ a ripe topic for extended interfaith reflection. But reflecting on food can be troubling.

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Featured

Interfaith News Roundup - February 2017

Responding to Donald Trump – Shifts in Religious Influence – Continuing Good News

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Religion Communicators Convention in Chicago March 30-April 1, 2017

NAIN Goes to San Diego This Summer

William Vendley Explores “Visions of Peace 2017”

from Religions for Peace

UNIVERSAL SEDER
Coming together as a community to celebrate Passover

INDIGENOUS TERRA MADRE
Celebrating culture and working toward a sustainable future

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

A Statement to the Global Interfaith Community on the Exclusionary Actions of the American Government

Interviewing Dena Merriam

Victor Kazanjian in the Huffington Post

The Interfaith Observer

March 14, 2017

Interfaith News, March 2017

Interfaith News Roundup - March 2017

The Interfaith Observer

March 14, 2017

Interfaith News, March 2017

Demographics – Underreported Interfaith Stories – From the Heart

The Interfaith Observer

February 14, 2017

Journal 2017, January 2017

January 2017 - Empowering Yourself, Empowering the 'Other'

The Interfaith Observer

February 14, 2017

Journal 2017, January 2017

Empowering Yourself, Empowering the 'Other'

January 15, 2017

Featured

Huston Smith – The Passing of a Giant in Our Midst

by Paul Chaffee

If Swami Vivekananda’s clarion voice at the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions introduced us to the challenge of living happily in an interfaith world, it was Huston Smith’s voice in The Religions of Man (1958) which taught us what that meant.

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Stuck on the Spiritual Spectrum

by Philip Goldberg

A dispute at a small evangelical college; the death of a Supreme Court Justice; the presidential election campaign – these and other recent events remind me, yet again, that our religious attitudes and spiritual orientations are almost infinitely diverse. Not only are there vast differences among adherents of every tradition, but also diversity within the diversity within the diversity.

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Interfaith's Role in Empowerment

by Vicki Garlock

Empowerment comes in a dizzying array of forms. It might involve building a water well, playing in a rock band, practicing martial arts, or owning a scooter. But what happens when one person’s empowerment triggers another’s moral outrage?

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They Found Faith in Interfaith Lives

by Lucy Gellman

Sitting in a drafty, castle-like Presbyterian church on Easter Sunday with my partner’s family, I could feel anxiety bubbling up with each hymn I didn’t know. Around us, the white walls of his church stretched out toward the ceiling like long, sinister fingers. The organ struck a round note. A light wind pressed at the side door, rattling its heavy handles.

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Ethics in the Swamp: the Rot of Corruption

by Katherine Marshall

Corruption is a live topic today. Since 2005, international anti-corruption day has been “celebrated” on December 9, in hopes that a visible day marking the topic can raise awareness about corruption and bolster a sense that something can be done to combat and prevent it.

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Michael Servetus – the Martyred Interfaith Prophet

by Marcus Braybrooke

Michael Servetus, who wrote for Jews and Muslims as well as Christians, has been called by Jerome Friedman, “a prophet of interfaith dialogue.” He was a man of prodigious intellect, a scientist and a free-thinking theologian

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Religious Pluralism is God's Will

by Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Most college students have at one time or another asked, ‘If there is only one God why are there so many religions?’ This is a good question that I as a Rabbi have often been asked.This is my answer. The Qur’an declares that Allah could have made all of us monotheists, a single religious community, but didn’t in order to test our commitment to the religion that each of us have been given by God.

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REPORT: Youth Organize "Words Matter (Stop Hate)" Conference

from URI-Europe

The conference Words Matter (Stop Hate) was held on Friday, November 18, 2016, at City College in Coventry, UK. This conference was initiated for a reason; following the UK EU referendum to leave the EU, there has been an increase in hate speech and crime. Especially amongst young people, there has been an increase of online hate speech and an increase of tension in and between communities, thus harming the region’s harmony and prosperity.

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"Policing in Today's Multi-Faith New York"

by Henry Goldschmidt

Imagine you’re an officer in the New York City Police Department. It’s Friday night, and you’re working on a block that’s closed for police activity. A young woman wearing a long, modest skirt and full-sleeved blouse says she lives on the block and needs to get past the police line. You ask for identification to check her address, and she tells you bluntly, “I can’t carry ID on Shabbos – it’s against the Torah.” Is she for real, or maybe up to something?

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Ruminations on Em-Powerment

by Frederica Helmiere

After my second child was born, I found myself yearning for a hearty dose of vocational discernment. Perhaps it was the presence of this new little life in our home that compelled me to reassess my own life’s calling, or perhaps it was a general growing dissatisfaction with my work that I could no longer ignore.

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A Muslim Reminds Americans of their Birthright

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

Who could have predicted that a Muslim immigrant, Khizr Kahn, known by family and friends as a gentle, soft-spoken man, would make history on the fourth and final night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention or that he would become one of the most sought-after speakers in the country – especially on the Interfaith circuit?

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On Dinner Parties and Self-worth

by Noorjehan Asim

The moment I sat down at the dinner table, a little voice in my head began to scream. My instincts told me to run, but my body ignored them. I remained glued to the posh furniture that lined the hallway. Dining with Mr. Richard Olson, the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, was bound to be harrowing for any 15-year-old looking to make a lasting impression.

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Featured

Empowerment for Goodness Sake

by Paul Chaffee

Empowerment is a tricky word, wrapping itself around a particularly complex word – power. For half a century empowerment has been popular cultural theme, particularly in management circles, albeit not without controversy.

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Featured

Interfaith News Roundup - January 2017

More from Standing Rock – Good News and Bad – Preparing for a New American Government

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Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality to Open in May

POLICING IN TODAY'S MULTI-FAITH NEW YORK
Religious Diversity Training Video for NYPD Officers

STANDING ROCK INTERFAITH PRAYER CEREMONY
United Religions Initiative

Interfaith Films that Make a Difference

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Interviewing Marianne Williamson

A URI Perspective on the U.S. Presidential Election

The Interfaith Observer

February 9, 2017

Interfaith News, February 2017

Interfaith News Roundup - February 2017

The Interfaith Observer

February 9, 2017

Interfaith News, February 2017

Responding to Donald Trump – Shifts in Religious Influence – Continuing Good News

The Interfaith Observer

January 14, 2017

December 2016, Journal 2016

December 2016 - In Pursuit of Wisdom

The Interfaith Observer

January 14, 2017

December 2016, Journal 2016

In Pursuit of Wisdom

December 15, 2016

Featured

Fostering Wisdom in Children (and the Rest of Us)

by Vicki Garlock

Some decades ago a friend of mine, a college senior way back then, was attending a conference at a large, distinguished university of “pre-faculty” students, collegians who hoped to pursue a higher-education vocation in the next few years. The three-day gathering culminated in a large banquet, some final comments on the benefits of professordom from several university presidents, and a question & answer session.

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The Interfaith Legacy of Guru Nanak

by Marcus Braybrooke

An overwhelming sense of the Glory and Oneness of God made Guru Nanak (1469-1539), the founder of Sikhism, impatient with religious divisions, doctrines, and rituals. This sense of the Oneness of God is for me at the very heart of the interfaith journey. There are many practical reasons why interfaith cooperation is vital and as many attempts to find a theological or philosophical justification for it.

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Joseph Prabhu's Anatomy of Wisdom

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

“Wisdom includes action as well as knowledge,” maintains Joseph Prabhu, a professor of philosophy and religion for four decades, a passionate interfaith activist, and Mother Teresa’s first altar boy in India. “Action brings insight into dynamic motion,” Prabhu explains, “and insight without thoughtful action, to my mind, is seriously incomplete.”

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Praying our Way towards Justice at Standing Rock

by Frederica Helmiere

Oceti Sakowin Camp is a place of juxtapositions and marvels. Tribal leaders ceremonially sing and drum near the sacred fire while helicopters chop and drones buzz overhead. Ten thousand peaceful and prayerful water protectors abut a militarized police force of extractive corporation-protectors.

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Walking Together in Jerusalem

by Henry Ralph Carse

In the shadow of the ancient walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, on a sunny day in April, I am leading a small group of prophets down a pathway into the Kidron Valley, and then up the slopes of the Mount of Olives. I call them “prophets,” but these women and men in their twenties are not in old-fashioned robes or unkempt beards, nor roaring dire warnings about the end of time.

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Yom Kippur on the Train to St. Petersburg

by Bettina Gray

On October 12th of this year, I was on a train between Moscow and Saint Petersburg traveling with members of the Slavyanka Russian Chorus on a concert tour of Russia.That particular morning a number of us were standing in the aisles or sitting on the arms of train seats, rocking between concert locations. We were saying the Ashamnu prayer, the prayer of confession and atonement for Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in the Jewish calendar.

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Personal Perspectives on Spiritual Wisdom

Featured

Interspiritual Perspectives on Wisdom

by Dr. Ed Bastian

Generally speaking, the word wisdom often connotes a holistic knowingness harvested from the totality of one’s life experience, including knowledge gained through intellectual conceptualization and empirical observation. From a spiritual perspective however, Wisdom (note the capital “W”) is generally said to be the result of a transcendent insight that surpasses, informs, and then guides our everyday thoughts, perceptions, and mental projections of reality.

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A Very Shory Course in Wisdom

by Cynthia Bourgeault

1. Wisdom is not a philosophy or a curriculum, but a way of knowing. It’s not about knowing more but knowing deeper, knowing with more of yourself involved. 2. Wisdom is three-centered knowing: it engages mind, emotions, and body in a single, integral act of perception.

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Chochmah – the Blueprint of Creation

by Rabbi Rami Shapiro

Wisdom, Chochmah in Hebrew, is the first of God’s manifestations and the means by which creation happens. I am the deep grain of creation, the subtle current of life. God fashioned me before all things; I am the blueprint of creation. I was there from the beginning, from before there was a beginning. I am independent of time and space, earth and sky.

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The Ground of All Knowing

by Swami Atmarupananda

An infant opens its eyes and ears to the world, and perceives an ocean of sensation. Gradually it learns to distinguish patterns – mother, father, its own hands, its feet. The ocean of sensation begins to make sense as patterns emerge. An ocean of indeterminate sensation gives way to understanding: the beginnings of knowledge.

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Wisdom – An Ongoing Conversation with Divine Reality

by Shaikha Camille Adams Helminski

The Prophet Muhammad said, “Wisdom is like the truly faithful one’s stray camel; he (she) will recognize it when he (she) finds it.” Within the Way of Islam and the mystical path of Sufism, wisdom is received through the Qur’an (revelation of the “Book of God” conveyed through the heart of the Prophet Muhammad) and the example of how the Prophet, himself, lived, as well as through the “Book of Nature."

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The Faceted Gem of Wisdom

by Shaikh Kabir Helminski

The Generous Source of our being has brought us to this world and has given us intelligence, insight, compassion, and the possibility to discern: the subjective perspective from the objective, appearances from reality, beginnings from endings, the transient from the enduring.

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Prajñā – the Buddhist Path of Wisdom

by Dr. Ed Bastian

Shariputra, any noble son or noble daughter who so wishes to engage in the practice of the profound perfection of wisdom should clearly see this way: they should see perfectly that even the five aggregates are empty of intrinsic existence. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form; emptiness is not other than form, form too is not other than emptiness. Likewise, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness are all empty.

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The Beginning of Wisdom Is...

by Paul Chaffee

Do you know anyone you truly would call “wise”? What about that particular person leads you to deem her or him a wise person?

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Interfaith News Roundup - December 2016

Global Warming, Pilgrims and Progress – Standing Rock and Global Indigenous Rights – Stop the Hate Movement Accelerates

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Interfaith Films that Make a Difference

RUTH BROYDE SHARONE
Speaking Out Against Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, & Minority Discrimination

THREE FAITHS, ONE GOD: JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM
Interfaith Documentary

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Andrew Harvey - The Making of a Modern Mystic

A URI Perspective on the U.S. Presidential Election

The Interfaith Observer

January 10, 2017

January 2017, Interfaith News

Interfaith News Roundup - January 2017

The Interfaith Observer

January 10, 2017

January 2017, Interfaith News

More from Standing Rock – Good News and Bad – Preparing for a New American Government

The Interfaith Observer

December 15, 2016

November 2016, Journal 2016

November 2016 - Post Election Tonic

The Interfaith Observer

December 15, 2016

November 2016, Journal 2016

Post Election Tonic

November 15, 2016

Featured

Aśoka: Honour All Religions

by Marcus Braybrooke

“One should listen to and respect the religions of other people.” These words that Aśoka had engraved on rocks across his vast empire more than 2,000 years ago still need to be heard today. King Aśoka, the third monarch of the Indian Mauryan dynasty, was largely forgotten until early in the 19th century when a large number of edicts, inscribed on rocks and pillars, were discovered.

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Listening to Jesus' Words in a New Kind of Way

by David Parks-Ramage

What woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully till she finds it? (Luke 15:8) Meditation is a choice to become intimate with your own life. In meditation, we are quiet and alert, open and available to what is happening now.

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I Belong, Therefore I Am

by Jim Burklow

Religion can do a body good. And that’s not just a promise of good-pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die. There’s science behind the assertion that religion can benefit your physical and emotional health on this side of the Pearly Gates.

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Review: Women, Religion, and Peacebuilding

by Kathe Schaaf and Kay Lindhal

We have been captivated by the subtitle of the anthology Women, Religion and, Peacebuilding, edited by Susan Hayward and Katherine Marshall – Illuminating the Unseen. So much about the contributions of women to our culture and history has been invisible – both unrecorded and unacknowledged.

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Burkini Bans, Muslim 'Hygiene,' and the History of the Holocaust

by Anya Cordell

There are a lot of issues associated with swimsuits; ask any woman. But the newest is hysteria over what some Muslim women are wearing; too much fabric, beyond that required to barely cover genitals, buttocks, and bits of breasts. Teeny bikinis on women, (and speedos for men), are fine. On some beaches in the world, nudity is fine.

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Interfaith Options for Christians at Advent

by Vicki Garlock

For Christians, another Advent season will soon be upon us. As one of the quintessential periods in the liturgical calendar, it might seem like the wrong time to be thinking about interfaith efforts. It’s a feeling further heightened by the encroachment of numerous secular obligations. Who has time for “the other” right now?

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Changing the World Through Social Media

by Sari Heidenreich

“But people just use it to post pictures of their breakfast.” That’s a complaint I’ve heard over and over again about social media – that it has made us self-absorbed and selfish, that it has made us feel we have to create a picture-perfect life and put it on display for the world to see.But when we’re talking about interfaith organizing, social media is so much more.

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Why We Create an "Us" and "Them" and How We Might Stop

by Bud Heckman

A leader of a well-known nonprofit made a highly unusual public admission. So out of character, in fact, that there was a long awkward pause in the packed meeting room after she said it. A knowing gasp. Her organization works in 30 countries helping people overcome differences of various stripes. So what did she admit?

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Dr. Mehnaz Afridi: Defying All Stereotypes

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

In an age when Muslim-Jewish tensions are unusually high, when prominent Muslim leaders publicly deny that the Holocaust happened, and when UNESCO recently voted to declare that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is historically sacred only to Muslims, not Jews or Christians – it’s hard to imagine that a Muslim would have been selected to head a Holocaust center.

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Featured

Nov 15, 2016

An New Kind of Interfaith World

Nov 15, 2016

Editorial by Paul Chaffee

Last month’s TIO editorial suggested that the United States of America was at a critical interfaith juncture. Since then the choice has been made.

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Nov 15, 2016

Featured

Interfaith News Roundup - November 2016

Standing Rock, Evangelical Divide, and Pope Francis – News-notes from Around the World

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Getting the Word Out

From TIO

Chrisitan Jewish Peacemakers Project Developing

From Hartford Seminary

Essential Guidelines for Interfaith Higher Education

From Dr. Nathan Kollar

MUSLIMS AND THE HOLOCAUST
Dr. Mehnaz Afridi

INTRODUCING #TANGIBLEHOPE
See TIO's profile of Tangible Hope here

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Interview with Mirabai Starr

Interaction – Peacebuilding and Youth

The Interfaith Observer

November 29, 2016

December 2016, Interfaith News

Interfaith News Roundup - December 2016

The Interfaith Observer

November 29, 2016

December 2016, Interfaith News

Global Warming, Pilgrims and Progress – Standing Rock and Global Indigenous Rights – Stop the Hate Movement Accelerates

The Interfaith Observer

November 15, 2016

Journal 2016, October 2016

October 2016 - Ancient Mentors, Emerging Leadership

The Interfaith Observer

November 15, 2016

Journal 2016, October 2016

Ancient Mentors, Emerging Leadership

October 15, 2016

Featured

Monotheistic Mystic, or a Megalomaniac?

by Marcus Braybrooke

Should the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten be seen as an ancient forbearer of the interfaith movement? In one of his prayers he said of God, “You are the Lord of all, who takes care of all,” and he said “God created every person equal to each other.” He is, however, still today as in his own time, a controversial figure.

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The Remarkable Interfaith Significance of Alexander the Great

by Henry Karlson

Interfaith dialogue is a constant element of any religious faith. Such dialogue, however, tends not to be on the level of the dogmatic teachings of the different faiths but on practical matters, such as questions concerning the morality or immorality of particular actions or on the way communities as a whole understand shared historical experiences.

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A Report from The Tabernacle Experience

by Jonathan Homrighausen

I stood in front of the Ark of the Covenant, holding my incense while I gazed on the golden wings of the cherubim. No, I am not starring in a remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was inside The Tabernacle Experience, an interactive re-enactment of the Tabernacle which the Israelites built in the desert on their journey from Egypt to Canaan.

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Koans, Parables, and the Realm of God

by David Parks-Ramage

Christian Koan Groups rely on a spiritual tool discovered in China through the development of Ch’an Buddhism. Koans are dialogs between Ch’an masters and their students, found helpful in leading students to a perception of life as it is rather than as it is imagined, hoped or wished to be. An example of a koan is Zhaozhou’s Dog:

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Beating a Message of Peace in Uganda

by Vicki Garlock

In a country often known for unspeakable violence and political strife, Buyondo Micheal offers a beacon of hope to those desperately seeking peace. As founder of Faiths Together Uganda (FTU), Micheal uses dance, music, and art to unify and delight. Inspired by global interfaith initiatives, he provides the funding and the energy for events that cross religious, cultural, and tribal divides.

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Skillsets to Overcome Religious Bigotry

by Ariella Amit

As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed a few years ago, I came across a post encouraging Los Angeles youth to apply for membership on an Interfaith Council. I followed the link to the website reluctantly and began reading about the goals of the council. By the end of my interfaith research, I realized that being a privileged, white Jew living in Los Angeles, I have little exposure to different religions at all.

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Obama's Final Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

Eboo Patel’s question rang out in Elstad Auditorium on the final day of the Sixth Annual President’s Interfaith Community Service Campus Challenge, held this year in September at Gallaudet University in Washington DC. Founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, and one of the principal architects of the Campus Challenge, Patel posed that key question to some 600 participants: students, professors, university presidents and interfaith activists

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Review: The INTRAfaith Conversation (2016) by Susan Strouse

by Kay Lindahl

As a Christian who has been engaged in the interfaith movement for over 25 years, I found myself intrigued by The INTRAfaith Conversation: How Do Christians Talk Among Ourselves About INTERfaith Matters? (2016). Susan Strouse’s book explores the importance of intrafaith conversations as a path to deeper and more meaningful interfaith conversations.

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Shadowing the China G20 Summit: An Interreligious Gathering

by Katherine Marshall

World leaders meeting in Hangzhou, China may be unaware that a few days earlier a shadow group of religious scholars met in Beijing. Their agenda was geared to the G20 and their meeting reflected a determined effort by Chinese scholars and counterparts from across the world to continue a tradition of gathering in parallel with the global encounters of national leaders

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Following the Path of Transformation

by Weston Pew

On my path over this past year my work for The Sacred Door Trail has taken me to the melting glaciers of Greenland where gigantic ice walls fall into rivers every 20 minutes, shaking ground and bone as a warning call of the coming rising seas.

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Featured

Oct 14, 2016

The United States at an Interfaith Crossroads

Oct 14, 2016

Editorial by Paul Chaffee

This month’s TIO is being posted 25 days before one of the momentous elections in the history of the United States. From an interfaith point of view, the implications are huge.

Oct 14, 2016

Featured

Interfaith News Roundup - October 2016

September Was a Month of Celebrations and Blessings – Responding to the Refugee Crisis – Making a Difference through Collaboration – Religion and Society

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#TangibleHope Amplyfing Stories of Hope around the World

From URI

"Principles and Guidelines for Interfaith Dialogue" Available

From Scarboro Missions

COLOUR IN FAITH
Embracing Yellow for Peace in Kiberia

BEATING DRUMS FOR PEACE
from Faiths Together Uganda

TIO'S SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Interview with Rabbi Rami Shapiro

URI's Multiregion