IARF    U.S. Chapter Newsletter Volume 13 Issue 3                        Autumn 2012

 

 
U.S. Chapter Board

Harold French, Chair      Orlanda Brugnola      Sarah Corbett     

Betsy Darr    Rebecca Drennan   Sri Kota     Francie Markham     Judy Young

 

 Liaisons

Doris Hunter- to the Council     Sue Nichols- to the U.N.

Judy HIghfill- to the IALRW 

 

 Advisors

Koichi Barrish, WA     John Berthrong, MA     Eric Cherry, MA

Budd Friend-Jones, IL  Abhi Janamanchi, FL     Roy Kaplan, FL 

Richard Kellaway, MA  Kay Lindahl, CA     Gale Maynard, MA

Nyla McCulloch, MA  Peter Richardson, MA, William Schulz, MA Robert Traer, CA

 

Website:  IARFUS.org

Two Ways to Help:
 IARF Library for Pakistan, Hurricane Sandy
 

from Hal French.  Rev. Dr. Jefferson Tasleen Ghauri, Founding President of IARF Pakistan, has requested of our chapter that we support a new library there, dedicated to the Rev. Takahiro Miwa. Rev. Miwa, IARF Council member and Head Priest at the Hiyoshi Shinto shrine in Shiga, Japan, visited Pakistan in September. The idea of the Miwa Library, as it will be known, is to promote peace and harmony in Pakistan through gathering books and CDs/DVDs in English depicting the great religions of the world.

We've already started to assemble some things here at the University of South Carolina, and will ship them in a few weeks. Rather than to ask you to send books here (shipping costs would deplete our Chapter treasury!), we urge you to consider sending books from where you are to

  • IARF Pakistan, P.O. Box #30 Sargodha-Pakistan 40100.

Robert Papini, the IARF administrator, has endorsed this project. Thanks very much for considering this request from our friends in Pakistan.

 

Rev. Miwa arriving at IARF Peace Day in Pakistan

 

Also, our hearts go out to the people in New York, New Jersey and other areas so seriously affected by the ravages of hurricane Sandy.  If you have not already responded, we ask that you participate in relieving the terrible distress that persons there are experiencing.  The Red Cross is, of course, one such agency that will channel your contributions.  The New York Times suggests

  • Team Rubicon
  • Red Hook Initiative
  • Robin Hood Foundation
  • American Red Cross
  • Habitat for Humanity

While the UUA is not now channeling funds, Eric Cherry relays a message from them, a part of which says, "We encourage Unitarian Universalists to consider how they can best support the recovery efforts."  Please advise us of any collective initiatives that you may be taking.

 

 
Board Members' Conference Call

 

A number of chapter board members, liaisons, and an advisor held a conference call meeting in September. For the UUA General Assembly next June, in Louisville KY, we decided to have an IARF-US exhibit booth and hold a reception for any interested attendees and foreign members and guests, as is customary. We will investigate sponsoring a side visit to the Gethsemane Abbey, where Thomas Merton lived. Budd Friend-Jones provided information on the active interfaith scene in Louisville.

 

Betsy Darr was encouraged to continue planning with Joyce Gilbert a West Coast pilgrimage (tour) to IARF member groups for next October. The location of the 2014 IARF Congress has not yet been announced, but Doris Hunter will inform us as soon as it is.

 

Treasurer Sarah Corbett reported that we have a balance of $3645.76 in our primary account, plus the Dieter-Gehrmann funds. We have a paid membership of 87 persons currently. Website: Sri Kota proposed an upgrade to our website.  He will detail the improved services and the cost.

 

Hal French told of plans to be in New York September 27-29, and hoped to meet with Orlanda Brugnola to discuss her D.Min project at New York Theological Seminary, which will eventuate in an online interfaith program, and Sue Nichols to learn about her work at the UN. Hal proposed the name of Rebecca Drennan of Columbia to fill the vacant position of Board Secretary; she got to know the IARF at our Hilton Head Conference. [ed.]

Rebecca Drennan
Rebecca Drennan
 
 Our New Secretary

 

from Rebecca Drennan  When the announcement of last Spring's conference in Hilton Head came across my desk, I was intrigued and pleased that a group like IARF existed and was meeting in what I felt was my own new back yard. After twenty years in the San Francisco Bay Area my husband and I recently moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where we have children and grandchildren.

          For twenty-five years as a therapist and interfaith pastor, I have been working in the field of Conflict Resolution and Human Rights with people who are passionate about non-violent ways to bring about change for the greater good. I am pleased to be a member of IARF-US and have recently been asked to serve on the board as secretary. I have accepted and am hoping to contribute to the fine work that is being done by the association. By ourselves, none of us can solve all the world's challenges, but each of us can say "yes" to the small opportunities that present themselves. I'm grateful for this particular chance to offer my skills. 

 

WELCOME, REBECCA!

 
IARF in Canada
We are delighted to catch up with our neighboring Canadian chapter, and to learn that the Rev. Jeffrey Brown is currently the chair.
He can be found as: Unitarian Universalist Chaplain
University of Toronto Multi-Faith Centre
569 Spadina Avenue Suite 309
Toronto ON M5T 2J7
 

Join our US Chapter!
Visit our website iarfus.org (click below) and click on the Join Us button.
Or, send dues to Harold French, Dept. of Religious Studies, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208. Annual dues (due at the beginning of each calendar year):
$30 -- Individual $50 -- Household $10 -- Student
Please add $15 if you wish to receive this newsletter by US mail.

Send your comments, information, or photos to the editor, addresses given below.

Young Adult Conference in India

 India Youth Conference 2012

The young-adult arm of the IARF, the Religious Freedom Youth Network, held a five-day educational meeting in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India in September. Gathered from twelve states of India and beyond, 85 young adults attended. One each came from Tanzania and Tibet. They included adherents of six major faiths.

 

With the theme of "Discover the Treasures of PEACE and HARMONY," its objective was "to support the college-going youth in forums that encourage leadership, emphasize self-help models of learning, and promote peace that will catalyze long-term sustainable action from the grassroots level."  Rev. Yukari Miwa of Japan presented, and Rev. Jeffrey Teagle of Great Britain, secretary-treasurer of IARF, sent an inspiring message. It was mostly self-funded. Head of the organizing committee, Br. Albert Xaviour, a brother of the Sacred Heart, gathered donations from 21 religious bodies in South India, while the attendees raised $900 (48,000 rupees) to fund the conference.
 

A conference to be proud of!

 

Follow the link to see Br. Xaviour's full colorful report, replete with photos and YouTube links.  Note that only some of the videos are public--try several!

 

Tisha's full story with photos Tsubaki Shrine--Japan 
At Tsubaki Shrine, Japan

 
From the newsletter of Meadville Lombard Theological School comes this fascinating story of Tisha Moore's sojourn last June.  Tisha was ML's recent Tsubaki Scholar.
 
Sometimes we notice a pull--and it suddenly feels necessary to go on a pilgrimage.  Perhaps there is a wistful longing for kindly strangers, distant lands or remote villages-places that promise to expand our perceptions and to help us encounter the world anew.  We know there is something we need to learn and we seize the opportunity to find out what this is.  Religious pilgrimages are always designed to take us to the edge-figuratively, and often literally.  This is how I found myself traveling to Japan, alone with just a backpack.  I was traveling to my edge.  I had no travel companions, no ability to speak the language, and no idea what might transpire.
This summer, I was blessed to spend two weeks at the Tsubaki Grand Shrine in Suzuka, Japan.  This is one of Japan's oldest shrines and it has been in the care of the Yamamoto family for 97 generations. . .
 

  

 
UN Report

[I found this item in the newsletter of the UU-UNO of interest, since the princial mission of the IARF is to support the human right to religious freedom. ed.]

 

UN High Level Meeting on Religious Tolerance.

On the margins of the UN General Assembly, the Foreign Ministers of Italy and Jordan hosted a high level meeting on religious tolerance which included the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and foreign ministers from 10 other countries, ambassadors, parliamentarians and representatives of civil society.  The meeting dealt with the thorny questions of how to protect religious freedom without letting religions themselves become oppressive of individual liberty.  The anti-Muslim video and its effects on the Middle East were very much on everyone's mind.  Both violence for any reason and religious provocation were condemned. 

The UU-UNO continues to work at the highest levels of the United Nations to promote our values and principles.  

 

 

More from the UU-UNO on LGBT rights, RKK . . .

ALSO related to the United Nations, in the Human Rights First newsetter, in what may be a controversial statement, Elisa Massimo writes:

At Human Rights First, we've been working for several years to combat laws that limit speech in the name of protecting religion.  Our March report, Blasphemy Laws Exposed: The Consequences of Criminalizing "Defamation of Religions," documented how these laws are often used, as the President said yesterday, "to silence critics or oppress minorities." Working with Shehrbano Taseer whose father was murdered because of his opposition to these laws, we beat back a UN resolution last year that would have endorsed them.  But now, the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) is renewing its call for such a code.
 
An American Sikh Gurdwara
An American Sikh gurdwara
 
Sadness and Rededication

On August 5, we all got a shocking and tagic reminder of the need to protect the human right to freedom of belief when a man with ties to white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups opened fire at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, a Sikh gurdwara located in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. He shot several people at the temple, killing six, wounding one officer; then he fatally shot himself in the head.

 

President Barack Obama called the Sikh community "a part of our broader American family" and offered his condolences. Obama called for "soul searching" on how to reduce violence. We mourn the losses and the grave insult to our Sikh compatriots, and pledge ourselves to promote religious acceptance and respect among all.

 
Tree-lined path 
And Finally . . .

Rebecca Drennan sent us a poem by Terry L.Chapman.

 

 


 

 
The Gathering of the Tribes

 

Deep in the forest of inquiry

separate tribes gathered around

camp fires in familiar circles of wisdom.

 

Lighting a torch from the fires,

each elder spoke

with one voice:

 

"And this our life exempt from public haunt

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

stories in stones and good in everything."

 

It is now time to reach out

beyond our tribe to join

this flame with allies who share our vision

 

that those dwelling in the shadow

lands beyond the great divides

may find that for which they long.

 

Let us take this bright torch

of intention and join with

our sisters and brothers

 

whose fires burn

so hot with love

that dark fear is cast out

 

and the whole world

becomes

a little brighter.