Listening Like Your Life Depended On It

The audience's role in creating a successful Multi-Faith Event: How Good Must I Be?   can not be understated. At the event the audience demonstrated a desire to understand and to learn by listening like their life depended on it.

Below are a few notes I have received since the event:

What a magnificent evening of thoughtful exchange you assembled at Canterbury last week. Congratulations on a really significant accomplishment. I wish I could have attended the  Taylor dialogue too.

This is remarkable work; may you continue to provide our community with this most sacred of sacraments: real, honest, meaningful connection.

Another great event. It is comforting & encouraging to see that the similarities of the different faiths far outweigh the differences. Exposed only to news media most would not realize that. Thanks for another outstanding job as moderator.  As a fellow Christian brother you are clearly a shining example of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessings to you.

Our Lord Christ is working through you to help bring peace into this world.  There is no greater work than what you are doing.  I just feel blessed to be a part of it, and I watch in amazement at your accomplishment through His Hand.

The use of lay persons provided a good transition to the normal relationship/dialogue among persons not trained specifically in theology. An evolution from top down to horizontal communication. 

You should know just how impressed I have been with your work on this. You put together a very clearly thought-out and executed event. Your comments leading into the evening last night were stellar and your facilitation of the dialogue was superb; you had a “light touch” (hard to accomplish). Well done Ramona! 

Excellent diversity of faiths. Straight forward presentations of each perspective.

Email from someone who watched the event on youtube:

I've been watching this morning, and I'm just captivated. I will be sure to attend the next event. Your events are like the best of college--the stimulating, fascinating discussion--without the test!

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

Multi-faith Dialogue

Last year while I was at a conference in New Orleans I told about the interfaith work that I have been doing in Fort Wayne. The suggestion was made to change the way I referred to the work from ‘interfaith’ to ‘multi-faith’.  After the conference I began researching the difference in these two words. In my searching I came across an article written by Rick Love of Peace Catalyst International. His thoughts on the difference of these two words resonated with me. He has three key points:

• Multi-faith dialogue is based on common ethics and the common good rather than common theology.

• Multi-faith dialogue expands the conversation to conservatives and fundamentalists.

• It allows for “theological exclusivism” while promoting “social inclusivism.”

When I started my interfaith work I asked a group of Canterbury School parents to join me in this new endeavor. As a follower of Jesus my faith is incredibly important to me. Those I asked to be in the group were people I knew were deeply devoted to their faith. At the interest meeting I discussed my hope for this ‘interfaith’ group. My hope was that the members would be willing to discover what we had in common; they would be willing to listen to each other; they would discuss our differences in a civil manner; and they would do the hard work of being peacemakers. Truly, this is not an easy task. This group met for three years. Through the ground rules the group wrote we were able to find the common ground but also discuss our differences.  Over the three years each person’s faith was deepened and strengthened.  And we became friends.

Understanding the meaning of words is important. During the dialogue with my friends from other faiths I discovered the importance of  knowing the meaning of words so we could truly understand each other. During a discussion we often would use the same word, but the meaning for that word was quite different. Sometimes I took the time to clarify exactly what was meant by a word, but quite honestly, many times I did not. When I failed to have a word clearly defined I knew true understanding had not occurred. It takes time and effort to ensure words are understood correctly. It takes time and effort to be a peacemaker.

Even though I will continue to use the word ‘interfaith’ I will be changing the name of my blog and the events I host to ‘multi-faith’. Words are important and my desire is to accurately reflect the dialogue that is occurring at Canterbury School and in Fort Wayne. For it is through multi-faith dialogue that we are striving to be peacemakers.

Comments on An Interfaith Event: Why Must I Suffer?

Over the past few weeks I have received many emails and notes about An Interfaith Event: Why Must I Suffer?  I am thankful for the convicted civility demonstrated by the speakers and for an audience who was committed to being humble listeners and willing to learn about others. Below are some of the notes which I have received.

Protestant:
Powerful. Highlighted commonality. We all grow when facing life's greatest obstacles.

Muslim:

The selection of the topic and the presenters was excellent and the experience of each of them was a lesson for all of us to be grateful to Almighty God for the little and the great Blessings that He has bestowed upon all of us and for the trials and tribulations of this life. Thank God for the old friends and the new ones. May God provide all of us with the knowledge and understanding to appreciate each other.

Christ-follower:
This was a precious two hours we had together to discuss the pain of suffering, common to all people, that unites us with each other and with God.

Judaism:
It was a wonderful experience to come together and share our theology and humanity.

Muslim:
We all suffer in the same way, we all have the same feeling, pain, and look to the creator to help us through.

Protestant:
Together for a brief time. Going our separate ways. Knowing we share, but not always remembering that.

Muslim:

This was an excellent event.We were totally spellbound.This kind of event makes us appreciate every single moment, every little thing that we are blessed with.The topic and selection of speakers was excellent.We really enjoyed it. No matter what race, religion, color, ethnicity we belong to, we are all human beings and we all feel pain, suffering, happiness in the same way and we all breath the same air. God bless you and all humanity.

Catholic:
Suffering often triggers the questions, "why?". Why me? Why my friend? Why my child? Why anyone? Getting lost in that question can block us from an awareness of how close God is to us during suffering. "Why God?" is rarely answered and distances us from God. "Be with me" is answered and brings us closer to God. It's always answered. Stop asking "why?".

Evangelical:

Thank you for hosting the series of Interfaith Dialogue events at Canterbury and especially this most recent event focusing on suffering.  I was very impressed by how cordial and respectful the group conducted themselves.  I found their comments and perspectives interesting.

Muslim:
A powerful discussion by representatives of various faiths. An eye-opener in regards to commonalities among faiths. Liked it very much.

Christian:
I attended the Interfaith Event on suffering. It was the first Interfaith Event I have attended. I just wanted to say how impressed I am for someone like you to take time out of your busy schedule to put together an event of that nature. I'm a Christian but found a little something from all the guest speakers to be interesting. My favorite two verses in the Bible come from 1 Peter 4:7-8, " The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins." To me this lets us know as Christians how we should live.

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

Spiritual Hospitality

When I began my interfaith journey I never expected that my own faith would be deepened and strengthened. It has come as a complete surprise to me. If I would have known this was going to be the result of making friends with people from other faiths I would have started along time ago. I feel so blessed by my new friends.

Richard Mouw, who is the president of Fuller Theological Seminary and actively involved in interfaith dialogue, writes about spiritual hospitality. It is through spiritual hospitality that my faith has been deepened and strengthened. When showing hospitality I attend to a person’s physical needs, I make room for them in my physical spaces. I prepare food. I provide a bed. I make sure their needs are met. Spiritual hospitality is making room for people in my heart and my mind. Making room for someone does not mean that I change my beliefs. Instead when I make room for someone my life is enriched. I care about them as my friends. I pray for them. I listen to them. I want to know them. My faith is deepened and strengthened.

As we approach the Thanksgiving season I hope that you will demonstrate spiritual hospitality to those in your community. In the Fort Wayne community there are two important interfaith services occurring were hospitality can be demonstrated.

The first is an Interfaith Thanksgiving Service to be held at First Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, November 22, beginning at 7:00 pm.  It is being jointly sponsored by Plymouth Congregational Church UCC, First Presbyterian Church, Trinity Episcopal Church, Trinity English Lutheran Church, Temple Achduth Vesholom, and the Fort Wayne Islamic Center (Masjid al-Quds).  This year's preacher is Imam and Khateeb J. Tamir Rasheed from the Muslim community.

The second is on Sunday, December 4, 6:00 pm, at First Presbyterian Church. Representatives from nine religious traditions in our area (Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Ethical Humanist, Earth Traditions, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Sikh) will gather together to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in an Interfaith Prayer for Human Rights.  Prayers, Scripture, song, dance, and other expressions of faith from the various religious traditions will be shared.  Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, from Jerusalem, founder of The Open House of Ramle, and a main character of Sandy Tolan's internationally-acclaimed “The Lemon Tree”, will be the keynote speaker.  Fellowship will follow with sweets and treats from various cultures.

            Showing spiritual hospitality will enrich your life more than you can imagine. Happy Thanksgiving.

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.

Readings and Prayer for Unity Walk in Fort Wayne, IN

September 25th is the United Nations International Day of Peace. In support of a Day of Peace the Fort Wayne community held a Unity Walk. Several weeks ago I was asked to participate in the walk as the Christian representative. I invited Nathan Baker, a Taylor University student, to participate in the event with me. As a follower of Jesus I thought my words at the Unity Walk should reflect Jesus' teachings. Here are the scriptures that we read and my prayer for the Unity Walk.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan Luke 10:25-37  On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"  He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."  But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"  In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'  "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"  The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." 

The Beatitudes Matthew 5:1-17 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying:  "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.  You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.  Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Dear God, You are our creator and the creator of all. We acknowledge our dependence upon you. You have demonstrated your love for each of us through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection . As Jesus taught us, we are to love you with our  heart, soul, strength and mind. With all of our being we are to love you.  We are also to love each other. One way we demonstrate our love for each other is by such events as this Unity Walk.  We are different in our theologies but we are united in this community, for this is our community, and we are to love one another. We desire to live in a reconciled community and would ask for You to examine each of our hearts as we strive for peace. As Jesus taught, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God. We pray that as we come together as a united community that we would reflect Your love that  you have shown for each of us  by making peace with each other and by helping those who are suffering and who are in need in this community.  We pray this in Jesus name. Amen

http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110920/NEWS01/110929972

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.