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Weekly Update
October 26, 2009
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Greetings!
In the next two weeks, we're diving into the cross currents of Buddhism, Christianity, religious multiple-belonging (and multiple-practicing), ways Westerners have found "refuge" in Buddhism and Buddhists have found "refuge" in the West.
This Wednesday's Living Room "Walking More Than One Path: Is Religious Multiple Belonging Possible?" will be hosted by Professor Paul Knitter, a leading theologian of religious
pluralism and interreligious dialogue, and author of Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian. Robert Kennedy, Jesuit Priest and Zen Roshi, will then lead us in a sitting meditation.
As a follow-up to this Living Room, on Wednesday November 4th we are showing the film REFUGE, followed by a Q&A with the director, at the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order's Dergah in Tribeca. This film explores the cultural dynamics of East and West as told by the Dalai Lama, other Buddhist masters, film directors and artists.
We look forward to seeing you at these autumn events!
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LIVING ROOM
Walking More Than One Path:
Is Religious Multiple-Belonging Possible?
 Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009
6 pm Doors,7 pm Program
Intersections, 274 5th Ave
Btwn 29th and 30th Sts
With Prof Paul Knitter, Author of Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian
& Roshi Kennedy, S.J.
A young Roman Catholic priest experiences Vatican II in Rome, leaves the priesthood, gets married and becomes a leading scholar on religious pluralism... then later in life finds that his wife's Buddhism leads him down a path that saves his Christian identity during a crisis of faith. What's your story? Many religious people today have found that other paths inform and strengthen their primary path or have converted from one path to another or are still searching for a single path where they feel they "belong."
Esteemed scholar, wise and compassionate soul, and Faith House Advisory Council member, Paul Knitter will talk with us about what "multiple belonging" (or "multiple practicing") means, share his own story, lead us in community sharing, before we experience an extended period of meditative silence in the Buddhist tradition.
Robert Kennedy, S.J., Roshi, a Jesuit priest and Zen
teacher in the White Plum liniage, plans to join us on Wednesday and to lead the sitting meditation at the Living Room. What an honor! This will promises to be an amazing
Living Room.
In addition, Faith House extends a warm welcome to members of Knitter's Union Theological Seminary class on "Dealing with Diversity: Preparing Religious Leaders for a Multi-Religious World" who will be attending Living Rooms in October and November as part of their course requirements.
Paul F. Knitter, the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a leading theologian of religious pluralism and interreligious dialogue. Knitter is author of more than a dozen books, most recently, Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian. Knitter's journey into interfaith dialogue began in 1964 when he was a seminarian in Rome and experienced the Second Vatican Council firsthand, at a time when the Roman Catholic Church declared its new attitude towards other religions.
Photo by Marcus Braybrooke: Paul Knitter, Maha Ghosananda, Irfan Khan and members of the Peace Council in the village of Acteal, from interfaithstudies.org
RSVPs welcome, but not required, on our Facebook Event or Meetup Event online.
Please bring vegetarian snacks to share
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SPECIAL EVENT
REFUGE Film, Q&A with the Director
 Wednesday, Nov 4, 2009
6:30 pm Doors, 7 pm Film,
Followed by Q&A with the film director, John Halpern
$10 Donation
Dergah al-Farah in Tribeca
245 West Broadway Ave
Btwn Walker and White Sts
Subways: 1 to Franklin St or A, C,
D, N, Q, R, W to Canal
Since the beginning of the 20th Century, Westerners have been
traveling to the East in search of spiritual wisdom. By the 1950's
Eastern meditation masters were coming to the West and establishing
meditation centers here. This film is the story of those journeys, East
and West, towards refuge.
Halpern's REFUGE engages the audience in the cultural dynamics of East and West, and in the mutual explorations of Buddhism and western mind on the part of its main characters. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, film directors Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, composer, Philip Glass, writer, Melissa Matheson, film director and abbot, Dzongzar Rinpoche and others, tell the story. www.refugefilm.com
Director, John Halpern, will join us for Q&A after the movie
John's next film from MDS Productions will be "KASHMIR~The River" exploring the human capacity for peace in the face of politics and oppression in Kashmir.
The Dergha will provide a samovar with tea, please bring vegetarian snacks to share (e.g. fruit, nuts cheese, popcorn).
RSVPs welcome, but not required, on our Facebook Event or Meetup Event online.
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In Faith,
Juliet rabia Gentile, Islamic Co-Leader
Samir Selmanovic, Founder and Christian Co-Leader
Bara Levitt, Social Justice Intern
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Featured Article from Faith House Website
Stories from
Global Victims of Climate Change - And an Interfaith Call to Action
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by Juliet rabia Gentile
on GOD'S politics blog
What if the soul of the world had an alarm clock and it began
ringing ... would we wake up and listen? This was the question that came
to my heart at the Global Interfaith Gathering and Call to Action to
the UN Summit on Climate Change, which I attended with my Sufi friend,
Khabir John McGeehan, at Tillman Chapel in the UN Church Center on
Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace...
Click to go to this post
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Featured Article from
Faith House Website
A Profile Video and a Book Review - "It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian" by Samir Selmanovic
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Watch the YouTube Video. Read the latest review. "Samir Selmanovic is asking the right questions at the right time, and refusing the consolations of certainty at a time when strident orthodoxies--atheist as well as religious--are perilously dividing us."
- KAREN ARMSTRONG, author, A History of God and The Case for God
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In the Media
"Atheism 3.0 finds a little more room for religion" USA Today
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"On the flip side, atheists too, can be a
"blessing" for believers, said Samir Selmanovic, co-founder and
co-leader of New York's interreligious Faith House Manhattan and author
of It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian. Atheists are 'God's whistle-blowers,' who keep
believers honest and focused on the here-and-now, Selmanovic said.
'Atheism at its best grabs us by the collar and throws us to the
ground, demanding to see lives well lived, forcing us to dig deeper and
live up to the best of our own religions,' he writes." Click to read full article
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