This past Christmas, World Faith India volunteers in Delhi, including a Sikh, a Muslim and a Christian, got together and distributed blankets and sweaters for children attending WF India’s second Rainbow School for slum children. The volunteers distributed 1500 US dollars worth of blankets and sweaters to the children. See these heart-warming images below. The blankets are beautiful!
World Faith founder Frank Frederick’s latest article on the Huffington Post:
As a Christian, I reflected over the years as what it means to “love your neighbor.” When I lived in rural America, outside of Portland, Ore., this seemed like a much easier feet. Our nearest neighbor lived a few hundred yards away. I’d have to walk a mile in any direction to find someone we didn’t know.
Now I live in New York City, and my “neighbor” is someone I don’t know. My city, neighborhood and block are filled people who don’t know me, don’t are to know me, don’t look like me, talk like me, smell like me, think like me, and have no desire to change that fact. This is true to the extent that I haven’t yet caught the names of the couple who are subletting the apartment next time ours. In short, I literally don’t even know my literal neighbors. I find that it’s pretty hard to love people you don’t even know. And sometimes, we all, myself included, use that as an excuse to not even try.
One day, Brendan, a young but rising DJ in New York, was coming home to his Brooklyn apartment when a homeless woman asked him for money. He said, honesty, that he had no money. By the end of the week, she asked two more times, and each no he answered “no.” Finally she frankly replied, “you better not, because every day you say no.” Inserting some rational thinking into an otherwise awkward conversation, he proposed, “I am on my way to a job interview. If I get the job, I will take you out for Chinese food.” This promise yielded a friendship that neither were prepared for — that changed the trajectory of their lives, both forwards toward each other.
Brendan got the job. But their friendship didn’t just end with Chinese food. They built a friendship of mutual support, spending their birthdays, holidays and tough times together, over a period of eight years. When Brendan’s heater broke, she made him a blanket. Two days later when he told her that he had lost his job, she disappeared, returning minutes later, bringing him groceries, and which continued to do throughout the winter. Even with so little, she never hesitated to give back.
Over these years, Jackie moved from the streets and subway stations, into a halfway house, YMCA, and is now moving into an apartment. To celebrate this occasion, Brendan wanted to do something special for Jackie. He went with her to Target, and helped her to pick out everything she’d need for an apartment, starting a registry. Then, he set up a campaign to raise the money to pay for the registry (now closed), along with an awesome video telling their story. While their original goal was to raise $500, the campaign went viral and they’ve raised more than $6,000, and are now looking to use the extra funding to support other women in need.
Brendan isn’t a Christian, and this isn’t about out-Jesusing each other. It’s not even a challenge to only Christians, but everyone who struggles with the desire to be a stakeholder in their community, yet are overwhelmed by the reality of living out that desire.
I met Brendan from my music business days, through our work with Lady Gaga (him as her DJ, me as her manager), long before I got involved in non-profit work. Yet he reminds me that having a dayjob with a mission doesn’t relieve us of the challenge of being loving neighbors, for the few within miles, or the thousands within blocks. Similarly, loving our neighbors, whether next door or at our door step, doesn’t require a change in profession, just a willingness to speak, to listen and to give. May Brendan’s story challenge us this week to step out of comfort zone, and find a new way to honor, serve and love the people around us.
Check out the original posting here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-fredericks/love-your-neighbor-inspiring-story-of-two-friends_b_2127070.html
For more information and to buy tickets visit: http://gycgala2012.charityhappenings.org/
Should humanists focus on building nonreligious communities? Should humanists engage in interfaith work with the religious? And if so, what are the best ways to carry out these projects? Come share your opinion!
On Tuesday, November 15th at 7:00 p.m., join the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard, Park51, and the Center for Inquiry-New York City for a discussion, led by Greg Epstein and Chris Stedman, on communities for the nonreligious and the role of atheists in interfaith work.
Hosted by Park51 and Center for Inquiry NYC, in partnership with a wide swath of NYC-based organizations, this event is open to the public.
Co-sponsors: Harvard Humanist Alumni, GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), New York Society for Ethical Culture, HUUmanists, The Humanist Institute, Ethical Humanist Chaplaincy at Columbia University, Reasonable New York, Faith House Manhattan, World Faith, Groundswell, Auburn Seminary, Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, Bronx Community College Secular Humanist Club.
RSVP HERE. Donations to support the programs are welcome.
Click the picture to view the event flyer at full size.
This fall, World Faith at NYU is in a unique position as an NYU club. Several of our officers have graduated, as have many of our members. Our programming budget has been approved, but we have no traditional programs to serve as a framework for our calendar this semester. The result is a clean slate—and a mixed bag. While our manpower is diminished, we also have the opportunity to redefine our role in the NYU community.
Put simply, most faith-based programs at the university are interfaith in spirit. That is, any student is welcome to attend events sponsored by a religious organization even if they don’t identify with the faith tradition of the organization in question. The problem is that people who might be interested in attending don’t know that! I have been one of those people. Afraid that I wouldn’t be wearing appropriate dress, that I wouldn’t know how to behave respectfully, or that I just plain wouldn’t be welcomed, I chose not to attend. With these folks in mind, I believe that there is a need on campus that we can fill: to highlight and support opportunities for dialogue and service which already exist.
To do that, we hope to co-sponsor the service events of as many faith-based clubs as possible and to make a point of inviting people who might not automatically feel invited. In this way, it is my intention to foster connections between existing organizations instead of creating another of NYU’s stereotypical micro-communities.
If you have questions or suggestions, want to be involved or stay informed about World Faith at NYU, you can contact us by clicking here.
Original Post By Grace Patterson, President of World Faith @ NYU
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – Inspired by a common spiritual conviction that God has called on all Americans to protect the vulnerable and promote the dignity of all individuals living in society, the interfaith coalition is aiming to protect those struggling to overcome poverty in the U.S. and abroad and to exclude programs that protect people in poverty from the budget deficit debates.
More than 25 heads of communion and national religious organizations are spearheading an 18-month faith-based public policy campaign to urge Congress and the Administration to exempt programs that assist at-risk families and children in the U.S. and abroad from budget cuts. The campaign will consist of high-level meetings with policymakers, a Washington fly-in of religious leaders and daily prayer vigils among other actions.
The daily prayer vigils are being held in Washington DC on the front lawn of the United Methodist Building (100 Maryland Avenue, NE, Washington, DC).
Led by a different religious organization each day at 12:30 p.m. EDT, the prayer vigils will continue throughout the White House led budget negotiations. The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) led a prayer vigil on 12 July.
The campaign was announced via a teleconference featuring a number of the country’s leading religious officials.
Memphis Interfaith will host its 5th annual community dinner Sunday, August 7. The theme of this year’s celebration is Serving Thy Neighbor.
The event is a chance for people of all different faiths to get together and celebrate diversity. It is being held in association with the Muslim Society of Memphis. The dinner is set to be part of Ramadan Celebration though the fasting of Ramadan will be broken during the event to participate in the networking and dining with people from all faith groups.
The event will be held at the Great Hall in Germantown. Guests are being asked to bring canned food and other non-perishables to the event.
HARRISONBURG, Va. — What does a bike-powered ice cream maker have to do with peace and justice?
A lot, for the 47 children attending June’s Interfaith Peace Camp, a collaboration of Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Interfaith Engagement and local faith communities.
“At the heart of peacebuilding is relationship building,” notes a statement of the camp’s purpose.
With a theme of “Earth Care-People Care,” campers learned about sustainable living on visits to Jewish, Christian and Muslim places of worship, as well as the New Community Project mini-farm in north Harrisonburg.
The morning at New Community Project immersed children in aspects of sustainability that also proved fun: painting the recycling shed (and each others’ faces), shaking sand and clay on a tarp to prepare for making a cob oven, setting out cucumber plants and picking mulberries for ice-cream topping.
