News & Notes

On Saturday evening, May 29, 2010, from 7:00 – 9:00 pm, the San Jose Friends’ Meeting (Quakers) will be hosting an interfaith activist from Southern California along with local religious leaders to explore the work of interfaith and the implications of global interreligious cooperation on local communities.

The theme for the gathering will be “Building a Local Interfaith Movement, with a Global Perspective.” Main speaker for the evening is Anthony Manousos of the Santa Monica Friends’ Meeting, who has been active in interfaith work and attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne last December. He will be joined by a panel of local leaders: the Rev. Ellen Grace O’Brian, Founding Minister and Spiritual Director of the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment, San Jose, and member of the Board of Trustees of the Council of the Parliament; Zahra Billoo, Program and Outreach Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an activist attorney committed to social justice and community; and Rabbi Elisheva Salamo of Keddem Congregation, Palo Alto, who taught Jewish culture at Catholic high schools and also attended the Parliament.

Preceding the program will be a vegetarian dinner, from 5:30-7:00. For more information, call Donna at 650.428.0832. The public is warmly welcomed to attend. A flyer for the event is available here.

Location: San Jose Friends’ Meetinghouse, 1041 Morse Street, San Jose (directions). Ample free parking in large lot across the street.

The Parliament of the World’s Religions came to an end today in Melbourne, after six days of dialogue, discussion, learning, and prayers of many traditions.

In his closing address to the assembly, the Dalai Lama challenged them to work to ensure that the Parliament would not simply be a social gathering, but that it would provide the impetus and inspiration to implement acts of love and compassion worldwide. The problems of this world are spiritual problems, he declared, and can never be solved by material means. Beliefs may differ, he said, but the core values of compassion, justice, and love are common to all.

As I prepare to return home from this gathering, I will be packing up many things- piles of notes from sessions I attended (which I will process and share in the weeks to come), books and pamphlets to read and ponder, and two special objects.

One is the plaque that was presented to the Silicon Valley Partner City Group on Saturday evening. It reads, “In recognition of your work in creating a just, peaceful, and sustainable city, we acknowledge the city of San Jose, USA as a Partner City and welcome you into The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions Partner Cities Network.” The members of the Partner City Group will be working on how we can respond to the Dalai Lama’s challenge and find ways to implement new ways of working together with others in our community.

The other object is a stone, on which is painted a pathway, outlined in white dots in the Australian Aboriginal style. It is a gift, given to all the participants, from the Aboriginal community, along with a blessing for the Journey written by Vicki Clark of the Mutthi Mutthi:

As you journey on Our ancient land,
travel gently on Our Mother Earth,
with respect and care.
Hold the Spirit of the Sacred campfire
always in your heart and
may the Spirits of Our Ancestors
always watch over you and keep you safe.

I have always enjoyed visiting aquariums (aquaria?). I am fascinated by the unbelievable diversity of sea life- the different colors, shapes, tricks, and defenses that these creatures manifest. How is it possible that all these things are alive? No matter how many arms or fins or other appendages they may have (or lack), no matter how big or small or non-existent their eyes may be, whether they dart, glide, hunker down, or attach to a rock- “the Lord God made them all.” In them all is that indefinable spark we call “life.” Life that has evolved, adapted, defied or accomodated to the environs in which it finds itself. And always interdependent- linked inextricably to the environment and to each other. Take one away, and the whole suffers.

I was thinking of the aquarium today as I watched people pass by on their way to and from the afternoon workshops. So many colors, variations, rituals, art- some of it familiar, or merely odd, some of it exotic and alien. How is it possible that human beings can find so many ways to honor the sacred?

And how are we, like the life in the sea, inescapably tied to one another? I don’t want to press the image too far- there are creatures like sharks which function as predators on other species- but what is the web of interrelationship that we disregard at our peril? How is respecting another’s faith tradition essential to preserving our own? Crusades, inquisitions, and pogroms have never strengthened faith; they have only diminished the world in which faith dwells. What new way of relating will enable us to live together in ways that benefit us all?

The Parliament has posted a brief video of the opening plenary session on Thursday evening. Other videos will be added.

• Parliament of the World’s Religions (Vimeo)

I was deeply moved twice during the opening program for the Parliament of the World’s Religions. I have already mentioned the sense of being a part of a movement through history.

The other moment came near the end. The choir was singing “Better is Peace,”  which included the phrase “Praise the Lord.” And I became aware that we had been praising the Lord all evening long, praising with the many names by which we call, praising in the many languages of the human family, praising the Lord in names that we have not yet even learned.

What brings these people together? What force can gather such a diverse and varied people from around the world? A shared sense of the world’s aching need for compassion, for justice, for acts of care and and commitment to human beings.

The years of history meet the horizon of future visions. And this is where we gather.

The news about San Jose/Santa Clara County’s new status as a Partner City of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions is beginning to spread.

On Thursday, November 12, 2009, beginning at 8:00 am, there will be a special reception at the Santa Clara County Government Center, 70 West Hedding, San Jose, in the auditorium. Co-sponsored by Supervisor Dave Cortese, the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment, and the Silicon Valley Partner City Group, it will be an opportunity to learn more about the Partner City network, commission the delegation that will be going to Melbourne on behalf of Silicon Valley, and to consider how this new status opens possibilities for richer collaboration among religious communities, governmental programs and local agencies to meet the needs of people in our region.

If you would like to attend the reception, RSVP by 11/09/09 to Rabia Chaudhry at 408-299-5030.

The Partner City Network is a program of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions to create a global network of communities dedicated to building strong and creative relationships among diverse religious traditions.

• San Jose, the First Partner City (Parliament of the World’s Religions website)
• Santa Clara County Receives Global Recognition (Tri-City Voice, Milpitas)
• Parliament of the World’s Religions
• Partner City Network

For the past year or so I have been working with a group from the South Bay Interfaith Steering Committee applying for “Partner City” status with the Parliament of the World’s Religions. We received word yesterday that San Jose and Silicon Valley have been accepted as the inaugural Partner City, joining with “Legacy” partners Chicago, Cape Town, and Barcelona which have each hosted Parliament meetings.

The Parliament of the World’s Religions is the largest interfaith gathering in the world. Held every five years, it is meeting December 3-9, 2009 in Melbourne, Australia.

A delegation of folks from this area will be at this year’s Parliament meeting in Melbourne to accept the recognition of Partner City status, and to lead a workshop describing the experience of  applying for Partner City status.

There are plans for a special gathering with the Santa Clara County Supervisors in November; I’ll keep you posted on developments.

It’s not too late to register for the Parliament!

• Parliament of the World’s Religions

Rev. Dirk Ficca, Executive Director of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, appeared on “The Conversation Hour” in Australia to talk about interreligious activities and the upcoming Parliament gathering in Melbourne. Some interesting conversation with a less than sympathetic host on religious “crazies” and picking from different religious traditions.

He was also interviewed on the TV show “9 am with David and Kim,”  including conversation on the breadth of the Parliament, inclusion of new religious traditions, and the challenges of resistance to organized religion.

• Fostering Hope
  ABC Melbourne
• Rev Dirk Ficca
  9 am with David and Kim
  

Yesterday, several of us from the South Bay attended “Taking It to Melbourne: Preparing for the Parliament of the World’s Religions” at the Presidio Interfaith Center in San Francisco.

The event was an official “Pre-Parliament Event,” and included reflections and slides from Bishop David Ponedel of his experiences at past meetings of the Parliament, a brief video from the interfaith community in Melbourne inviting folks to attend the Parliament in December, and talking about the importance of the gathering.

The core of the afternoon, though, was taken up with reports from local religious leaders of workshops that they had proposed for the December Parliament, ranging from panel discussions on indigenous religions to social justice action as prayer to a project to launch a “prayer wheel” satellite containing scriptures from the world’s religions that would orbit the globe.

We were there to talk about the work we have been doing in applying as a Partner City of the Parliament. For the past year, we have been working steadily to analyze the demographics, relational dynamics, and challenges of Silicon Valley and to explore a vision of interfaith cooperation in our area.

The event was webcast live on the Interfaith Center website, and one of the viewers worldwide was Robert Siegel, Interfaith Spirituality blogger for the San Francisco Examiner. You can read his comments below.

Registration is still open for the Parliament, December 3-9, 2009, in Melbourne Australia.

• Live webcast reveals local proposals for Parliament of Religions
  (Examiner.com)
• Parliament of the World’s Religions

One of the many hats I wear these days is as editor of the Bay Area Interfaith Connection, a monthly e-mail newsletter based at the Interfaith Center at the Presidio. It covers issues of interest in interfaith/ multifaith/ multireligious relations, along with events around the Bay Area.

July’s issue features the new capacity for webcasting at the Interfaith Center, which will make it possible for people around the world to connect to events at ICP, the announcement of “Taking It to Melbourne,” a forum for hearing about the upcoming Parliament of the World’s Religions from some of those who will be participating, and a report from the recent NAIN (North American Interfaith Network) gathering in Kansas City.

Take a look- the current issue of the newsletter is available on the Interfaith Center at the Presidio website; archives of editorials and information from previous issues are also available.  If you’d be interested in receiving BAIC via e-mail, write to paul@interfaith-presidio.org, or to me at calendar@interfaithspace.org.

• Bay Area Interfaith Connect
  Interfaith Center at the Presidio
• BAIC Archives
• Parliament of the World’s Religions
• NAIN