Questions for Multi-faith Event

Last week I met with the speakers for the upcoming Multi-faith Event: How Good Must I Be? The Consequences of My Choices. The purpose of our meeting was to determine the questions for the event.  When I meet with the speakers before an event I start the meeting by discussing Martin Marty’s observation, “People these days who are civil often lack strong convictions, and people with strong religious convictions often are not very civil. What we need is convicted civility.” My desire at the Multi-faith Events is that the speakers will honestly and with conviction share their beliefs, but with that conviction and honesty is a tone of civility.

As we were discussing the question,  How Good Must I Be? we ourselves practiced convicted civility. It immediately became clear that how a question was asked could possibly make presuppositions that would be incorrect for the faiths represented at the event. As a group we crafted each question in a manner which would allow the speakers to honestly portray the beliefs of their faith.  As a group the desire was to move from the theological to a personal understanding of the concept.We discussed making amends, forgiveness, repentance and guilt. Those topics will be addressed at the event by the speakers after the formal presentations. It was a wonderful meeting and it truly represented multi-faith dialogue.

The questions for the event:

According to your faith what constitutes wrong doing?

According to your faith what are the consequences of our choices?

According to your faith how good must I be? How should I live my life?

The Multi-faith Event: How Good Must I Be? The Consequences of My Choices is Wednesday, April 11^th at 7 p.m. at Canterbury School, 5601 Covington Road, Fort Wayne, IN.

The speakers for the event are:

William Smits, MD, The Asthma and Allergy Center, Baha'i
Kent Eilers, PhD. Assistant Professor of Theology, Huntington University, Evangelical Christian
Preeti Dembla MD, Internal Medicin, Hindu
Mohammed Saad Ghazali, MD, Pediatric Cardiology Associates, P.C, Muslim
Rabbi Javier E. Cattapan, Congregation Achduth Vesholom, Jewish

Hopefully you can attend.

A Multi-faith Event: "How Good Must I Be? The Consequences of My Choices."

The speakers have been finalized for the upcoming Multi-faith Event: "How Good Must I Be? The Consequences of My Choices."  The event will be held at Canterbury Middle School, Fort Wayne, Indiana on Wednesday, April 11th from 7:00-8:30 pm.  The speakers and I will be meeting in the near future to determine the questions which will discussed at the event. Those questions will be posted once they are finalized.

The mission of the Haven Interfaith Parents states: The Haven Interfaith Parents support the mission of Canterbury School and encourage an understanding and appreciation of all beliefs and faiths, with the goal of promoting peace in our community. The speakers at this event will be excellent ambassadors of their faiths and will allow us to learn about other faiths in our community.

The support and encouragement which I have received from Canterbury School and the Fort Wayne community  for the previous events has been amazing and appreciated. This too will be another great event. I hope to see you there.

The speakers are:
William Smits, MD, The Asthma and Allergy Center - Baha'i
Kent Eilers, PhD. Assistant Professor of Theology, Huntington University - Evangelical Christian
Preeti Dembla MD, Internal Medicine - Hindu
Mohammed Saad Ghazali, MD, Pediatric Cardiology Associates, P.C. - Islam
Rabbi Javier E. Cattapan, Congregation Achduth Vesholom - Judaism

It's A Choice

Twice in the past six weeks I have heard three words which profoundly impacted me. Those words are:  It’s A Choice.

At the Interfaith Event: Why Must I Suffer? Robert Rogers told the heart breaking story of losing his entire family during a flash flood in Kansas.  He shared the memory of his deep pain and how those around him would have understood if he had turned to drugs, alcohol or other things to ease his suffering. Instead, Robert said, "You either trust God or you don’t. It’s a choice." Today, Robert’s life is a testimony to his choice. Not only the choice to trust God initially, but the choice to trust God everyday. In his choice to trust God he has given hope and strength to countless others who are suffering. Truly, if Robert can make that choice, I can make that choice.

Later I heard Dalia Eshkenazi speak. Her story has been written by Sandy Tolan in "The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East". Dalia shared that as a Jew, her first choice for peace was opening the door for Bashir, the Arab, whose home she now lived. Dalia shared that her journey of making peace between one Jew and one Arab required a choice. Again, as with Robert Rogers, not just one choice, but a choice needed to be made every step along the way to stay on the path to peace. She shared events where that choice seemed almost impossible to make. Truly, if Dalia can make that choice, I can make that choice.

As a follower of Jesus I am compelled by the mystery of Christmas. The mystery that God would become flesh and know the suffering of humankind. The mystery that God would become a baby and be born in a profoundly humble setting; that he would carry our sins in his death; and be resurrected so that I am free to live. It is in understanding that mystery that I am compelled to heed the words of Jesus. In Matthew 22 Jesus says "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." This Christmas I pray that I will make the choice to love God and to love my neighbor. For truly, it is a choice.

Video of "An Interfaith Event: Why Must I Suffer?"

Once again I would like to thank Dr. Prasad Mantravadi, Arjia Rinpoche, Robert Rogers,  Amani Elhefni, Dr. L. Michael Spath, and Rabbi Mitchell Kornspan for speaking at "An Interfaith Event: Why Must I Suffer?. Lance Clark of LC Media in Fort Wayne filmed the event. As I watched the event I appreciated the willingness of the speakers to let us enter into their lives as they shared their stories of suffering. Using the topic of suffering we were able to learn about other faiths in our community. I also appreciated the honest manner in which the speakers spoke in explaining their faiths. Hopefully as you watch the event you will more fully understand your own faith and also be willing to learn about  others.

Shalom! 

The event has been posted to Youtube in six sections.  

Introduction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chs8MKSbVMY 
 

Sharing of life stories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-6u3vUAOiE

Answering the question, why must I suffer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYnIiCzLKJ4 

From the viewpoint of your faith, what words of hope can we give to those who are suffering?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M7LCLgZE28 

Discussion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIscIO2Tm1Y&feature=related

Conclusion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7rB7apX3mo

Suffering Leads to Understanding

Last night was a powerful experience for me.  Using the topic of suffering as a lens to look at the faiths in our community proved to be a powerful tool of understanding. More so then I could have imagined. We truly did learn much about each other. Each story that we heard was heart breaking but moved us closer to understanding each other.

The purpose of the Interfaith Events is to learn about those in our community who are of different faiths so that we can live at peace together. For truly how can we say we live at peace together if we know very little about each other? In the past I have challenged the speakers and the audience with the words of Martin Marty, a Lutheran theologian, "People these days who are civil often lack strong convictions and people with strong religious convictions often are not very civil. What we need is people with convicted civility."  When I met with the speakers several weeks ago we once again discussed convicted civility. I told each speaker to be convicted about what they would be presenting, so that I could learn, so that the audience could learn. But I also asked them to be civil in how they presented their theologies to the audience. The answers the speakers gave to the second question, “Why Must I Suffer?”  highlighted the differences in our theologies. As the speakers spoke we could clearly identify the differences in our faiths. The speakers were civil, kind and convicted in telling us their beliefs.

It was in the answering of the last question, “From the viewpoint of your faith, how should we response to those who are suffering?” that we once again saw the commonalities among our faiths. Each speaker discussed the importance of just being present when someone is suffering. They also talked about the importance of silence.We heard the common things that meet our heartfelt, human need when we are suffering.

After the event someone made the comment to me that even though we have our own beliefs, an event like this reminds us that we are all people. "And just like me," she said, "we all suffer."  Thank you to the speakers who were convicted in their theologies but who were civil in their presentations. They helped us find our similarities and they helped us identify our differences. Thank you to the audience for being humble listeners. You truly demonstrated the desire to learn and to strengthen our community. Thank you for a great evening!
Photographer for Interfaith Event: Why Must I Suffer? Maria Kirkland, Fort Wayne, IN. She may be reached at mkirkland@canterburyschool.org.

Speakers:

Buddhist: Arjia Rinpoche, Protestant: Dr. L. Michael Spath, Islam: Amani Elhefni

Ramona Fisher - Moderator

Judaism: Rabbi Mitchel Kornspan, Hindu: Dr. Prasad Mantravadi, Catholic: Robert Rogers

Hidden Picture

Five years ago when I started my first interfaith parent group I was also moving into a new classroom at school because of a remodeling project at Canterbury School. In my classroom I wanted to have a piece of artwork that would represent the faith communities at our school. Canterbury School is an independent school and the school is founded on Christian principles. Even though the school has been founded on Christian principles we have many different faiths at our school. With the help of my interfaith parent group and Maria Kirkland, an artist and art teacher at Canterbury School, a piece of artwork was created. A picture of the artwork is on the right side of this blog. The artwork has 9 squares. Each square represents a different religion at our school. The artwork is to represent that we are different in our theologies but we are united in our community. There is a hidden picture in the artwork to represent our common community. Throughout all nine squares there is a dove and an olive branch.  It is difficult to see the dove and the branch in a reproduction. It is a beautiful work of art that is a statement for who we are at Canterbury School.

Since the artwork has been in my room I start each school year by having the students look at the artwork, explaining we are a school based on Christian principles but we have many students of different faiths at our school, and we are different. We talk about symbols and we identify and name each of the symbols on the work of art. Finally, there is the wonderful discovery of the hidden picture. My students love the artwork. They love to see ‘their’ symbol and they love the hidden picture.

It is in communities that the true lessons of the hidden picture are discovered. There are nine squares because we do have different theologies. In a community that practices hospitality one-with-another we feel safe to honestly acknowledge our differences. We are not compromising our own beliefs by acknowledging our differences. But we can not stop there. The squares are obvious. It is the hidden picture that we must strive for. Even though we have different theologies we do live in a common community, we have a common ethic and we need each other to work for the common good. My hope is that some day that picture won’t be hidden.

Why Must I Suffer?

The topic has been chosen and the speakers finalized for the next Interfaith Event. The title of the Interfaith Event is “Why Must I Suffer”. The event will be held November 9^th from 7:00-8:30 pm. There are six speakers for the event. The speakers are:

Arjai Rinpoche, Buddhist Monk

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjia_Rinpoche)

Robert Rogers, Catholic (http://intothedeep.org/)

Dr. Prasad Mantravadi, Hindu, Radiation Oncology Associates, Physician

Amani Elhefni, Muslim, Universal Education Foundation Islamic School,

Principal

L. Michael Spath, Protestant, D.Min., Ph.D.Religious Studies - Department

of Philosophy; Peace and Conflict Studies Indiana University Purdue

University Fort Wayne; Indiana Center for Middle East Peace

Rabbi Mitchell Kornspan, Jewish, B'nai Jacob Congregation

The purpose of the Interfaith Events is to learn about other faiths through a common topic or experience. The topic of suffering, which is a universal experience, is dealt with in all religions. I foresee a thought provoking evening. Hopefully you can attend the event.