For more information visit http://www.coexistfoundation.net/
Getting Stuck in Clay: An Interfaith Reflection 21 July , 2011
This is my first trip to Europe. I’ve had the chance to rent a bike and tour around the beautiful English countryside that surrounds Madingly, a small town (there is only a few homes, a pub, town hall and a church) right outside of Cambridge, England.
One day when biking I pulled off on a “public bridleway.” This is a new and fascinating phenomenon for me as a person from the United States; these pathways criss-cross through otherwise private fields and property, connecting for the public small towns and roads that can be reached by foot and often by bike. After about 100 yards of bumping down the path, the bike refused to move any further.
Cardinal Tauran calls for interfaith dialogue in Holy Land 20 July , 2011
Pope Benedict XVI’s representative at the Holy Land Conference which took place at Lambeth Palace from 18-19 July has urged the region’s Christians, Jews and Muslims to engage in dialogue to build a shared future.
“History, like religion, teaches us that there is only one future: a shared future,” said Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Holy See’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. “What is important is not to stop but rather to continue our dialogue, our pilgrimage towards the truth, with the conviction that ‘it is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult’”.
Cardinal Tauran also called for local Christians to be extended their fundamental rights in the Holy Land:
“For the local Christians, like for the Jews and the Muslims, Jerusalem is not only a holy city, it is also their home city where they have a right to continue to live and to work. They must be granted and have secured the most fundamental rights: freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, freedom of movement, civic and historical rights, education, hospitals, the possession of their own institutions (seminaries, universities, monasteries, etc.). Of course, all this has to be recognized not only for Christians, but for all the inhabitants of the Holy Land.”
KOREA – VATICAN For Card Tauran, “Korea is an example of religious tolerance” 26 May , 2011
Seoul – South Korea “is a good example of how a nation can live in interfaith peace, an example of important universal values like the family, life and moral teaching for the young. This comes from religious and cultural exchanges,” Card Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak during a courtesy visit to the Blue House, South Korea’s presidential palace.
The prelate is in South Korea with the Mgr Pier Luigi Celata, secretary of the same Pontifical Council. They arrived on Monday and are set to leave tomorrow. They were invited by the local Episcopal Committee for Promoting Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue.
In addition to meeting the South Korean president, they are expected to meet South Korea’s Culture minister and the director of Religious Affairs.
Christians in Middle East foster Inter-Religious Dialogue for Peace 11 May , 2011
Christians in Lebanon and Syria are concerned about what is happening between Christians and Muslims in Egypt and its impact on the region, says a Lebanese Presbyterian educator.
“Stories from Egypt scare us that a focus on religious issues will create enmity between peoples,” says Najla Kassab who works with a church-based education programme serving parishes in Lebanon and Syria.
Kassab believes that violence in Egypt on Saturday – when 12 Christians were killed by Muslims and two churches burned – raises the need for churches to play a role in reconciliation and dialogue in the wake of the revolutions that are sweeping countries in the Middle East.
“We are at a time of questioning how change can happen in our diverse countries in a healthy way,” Kassab says. “Churches can help create opportunities for change through dialogue rather than violence.”
At Interfaith Group, A Rabbi Does The Easter Sermon 14 April , 2011
On the second night of Passover, Rabbi Harold White will lead a traditional seder dinner with matzoh and bitter herbs and all the trimmings.
Five days later, he’ll deliver the sermon on Easter Sunday.
That’s what life looks like inside the Interfaith Family Project (IFFP) in suburban Washington, where Jewish-Christian couples have decided their kids shouldn’t have to choose one faith over the other. Instead, they can do a little of both.
With as many as half of Jews marrying non-Jews, this year’s overlap of Passover and Easter is prompting more than a few families to find new ways to navigate the dueling holidays, much like the annual “December dilemma” pitting Christmas against Hanukkah.
Increasingly, such families are turning toward one another for guidance, creating both formal and informal programs. For families at IFFP, it means hosting regular Sunday morning “gatherings” and bringing White and the Rev. Julia Jarvis on as staff clergy to help guide the
project.
Not surprisingly, an interfaith Easter will look and feel a little different. There will be no talk of the Eucharist, White and Jarvis said. Instead, services will focus on renewal.
Albeu: Harmony, the value of humanity, symposium on interreligious dialogue 28 March , 2011
News from Albania
The value of humanity, symposium on interreligious dialogue has started today in Tirana the symposium on interreligious dialogue “Harmony, the value of humanity. ” The meeting aims to promote religious harmony not only in our country but even beyond, addressing in particular the case of the well known thinker of our time, Fetullah Gulen.
The symposium began with a brief overview on the life and activities of Gulen in promoting inter religious dialogue in the world. READ MORE
Next Year in the White House: A Seder Tradition 24 March , 2011
One evening in April 2008, three low-level staff members from the Obama presidential campaign — a baggage handler, a videographer and an advance man — gathered in the windowless basement of a Pennsylvania hotel for an improvised Passover Seder.
The day had been long, the hour was late, and the young men had not been home in months. So they had cadged some matzo and Manischewitz wine, hoping to create some semblance of the holiday.
Suddenly they heard a familiar voice. “Hey, is this the Seder?” Barack Obama asked, entering the room.
So begins the story of the Obama Seder, now one of the newest, most intimate and least likely of White House traditions. When Passover begins at sunset on Monday evening, Mr. Obama and about 20 others will gather for a ritual that neither the rabbinic sages nor the founding fathers would recognize.
READ MORE
Rochester’s faith community unites for Japan 23 March , 2011
In Rochester, faith communities employ strategies, tradition and teachings to help people cope with natural disaster and tragic loss. One way, perhaps common to all of us, is coming together to comfort and to help.
On Monday, March 21, seven different faith community leaders gathered in at Temple B’rith Kodesh to respond to our brothers and sisters in Japan. Rabbi Laurence Kotok introduced the program. Approximately 100 community members joined in song, a familiar Jewish melody, the words with poignant meaning: “How good it is that brothers and sisters come together and dwell together.”
Then six religious leaders followed, each with a brief reflection on the enfolding situation in Japan, with ways the public can understand what has happened, and ways everyone can help.
“It is not only the tragedy of Japan. It is a tragedy for the whole world,” said Dr. Imam Shafiq, director of the Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue at Nazareth College.
From the Huffington Post: A Muslim, a Christian, a Sikh and a Hindu Walk into a College Dorm Room … and Discover World Peace 23 February , 2011
So the story begins like this. Four students, an Ahmadi Muslim, a Protestant Christian, a Sikh and a Hindu are crammed into a tiny dorm room at Princeton University. Each comes out three days later, having discovered the solution for world peace. Yeah, seriously.
Last weekend, Princeton University hosted the 5th Annual Coming Together Interfaith Conference (CT5), a conference designed to counter a growing threat to our humanity: the gap in interfaith relations. While there were far too many inspirational attendees to mention, adherents from virtually every faith participated. There was Tom the Confuscist, who also happened to be a brilliant stand-up comedian. There was Cameron, the aspiring Christian Minister and Emily, an atheist with a zeal for humanity. There was Muhammad, a Muslim from Wake Forest with an incredible voice for Quranic recitation, and Irteza from Stanford, with a talent for Bengali music. Who can forget David, an Orthodox Jew who passionately sang G-d’s praises during Shabbat, and Connor, who sang about his love for the Pope. Silent but profound was Sunil the Buddhist-Hindu, and due credit to Rahul, a devout Hindu who coordinated an excellent presentation on spirituality in action.
