IARF    U.S. Chapter Newsletter Volume 14 Issue 2                       Summer 2013

 

 
U.S. Chapter Board

Harold French, Chair       Orlanda Brugnola        Betsy Darr    Rebecca Drennan     Sri Kota     Francie Markham    Pat Mohr

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

The 34th World Congress of the IARF . . .
 

has been announced for the campus of the University of Birmingham, UK, from the 24th to 27th of August 2014!

 

Choosing the Location

 From Robert Papini, IARF staff.

By historical tradition the event, which takes place every four years, cycles between our four regions. The April meeting of the IARF Council considered three proposals for a location for the congress within IARF's Europe & Middle East (EME) region. Compelling proposals were put forward by our Israeli member group the Interfaith Encounter Association(for Jerusalem as a site) and our Swiss member group Libref (for Geneva), but in the end most votes went to a last-minute bid by the British Chapter for an event in the multi-faith city of Birmingham, supported by the city's council and a range of interfaith organizations there.
      

 

U of Birmingham

The Congress Site

From the British Chapter newsletter.

Much of the early development of the University of Birmingham was due to endowments and bequests from the well-known Quaker chocolate makers Cadbury and Sons. It is now one of the oldest and most progressive of Britain's 'Red-Brick' universities, with many unique collections and facilities. Symbolic for the city's policy of commitment towards diversity, acceptance, and religious freedom, it is an ideal location for the International Association of Religious Freedom to congregate.
 

Why not take a virtual tour of what the campus has to offer at http://virtualtour.bham.ac.uk before you agree that this is a special place for a special event not to be missed?

Details of Congress events, call for papers, speakers, bookings and fees will be published at www.iarf.net, announced at Friends of IARF on Facebook and in emails from the Hosting Committee.  IARF Congresses are rich occasions for hearing diverse points of view, worshiping with a variety of faith groups and in moving multi-faith worship, and getting to know people of faith from around the world.

 

Birmingham vips from Miwa

At Birmingham City Centre, Victoria Square House, l. to r.,

Derek McAuley of UK Unitarian Assoc., Rev. Yoshinobu 

Miyake, Shaykh Amin Evans, Robert Papini, Jeff Teagle. 

Photo courtesy of Rev. Miyake.

  

The Congress Theme: Challenges for Religious Freedom in the Digital Age 
From the 

Chair of Congress Hosting Committee:

Al-Shaykh Al-Hajj Muhammad Amin Evans, BA (Hons), MA.

The Congress theme fits well with the history and living experience of Birmingham. The perennial but necessary questions "What is Freedom?" and "What is Religion?" figure in the daily religious, social and commercial life of many metropolitan cities and especially so in those as welcoming to cultural diversity as Birmingham. Is digitalisation a new age or another phase of the information age that was ushered into existence by the printing press? 

 

Digital technology and the media changes it has spawned have affected how we communicate and who we communicate with. The authority that status, age and gender once claimed as their right is challenged by the egalitarianism which rules the avatars of the World Wide Web. So too is our confidence in the reliability of what we read and see, which leads us to question how we use digital technology and establish our credentials, and how others interpret what we are or should be trying to say. 

  

Articles Below: 

Chair's Blog  

Board Meeting at GA

2013 Conference with WCF in England

Eboo Patel speaks at GA

Freedom of Religion News???

Closing Poem

  
Chair's Blog
IARF-US at UU General Assembly
 
from Hal French.  

It was a privilege for a number of us to attend the General Assembly in Louisville last month.  We had a booth with other international organizations and hosted a reception, with some 25 persons gathered.  A highlight for us this year was the presence of our international IARF guests, with two of them, Thomas Mathew from India and Rev. Suzuki from Japan, speaking in general sessions.  I had met with each of them in India and Japan the last two years, while taking students from my university, and on each occasion they honored us and gave gifts to each of our students!  So it was a personal privilege to meet with them again.

Th Mathew at GA 2013
Thomas Mathew at IARF reception

In a Board meeting, we encouraged IARF members to attend two events to be held this August and next in England.  The IARF and the World Congress of Faiths is holding a conference on the theme, "Religious Freedom and Responsibility" in Horsham, England, August 20th-23rd this year.  Doris Hunter and I will be making presentations.  And many of us should plan to attend the IARF Congress, to be held in Birmingham the 24th to 27th of 2014. [See more on both events, below. Ed.] The last Congress, which is held every four years, was attended by over 600 people in Kochi, India, in 2010.  

Another action taken in our Board meeting was to support the Fairfield Children's Homes project in Zimbabwe with a donation of $500.  Francie Markham, one of our Board Members, is chair of FOSA, Fairfield Outreach and Sponsors Association, which raises money for Fairfield Children's Homes. This group has sent several container vessels of hospital equipment, school books, food, clothing, and other supplies to the schools, hospitals, and orphanage there.  Thanks, Francie, for alerting us to this opportunity!  It's been a treat (and work!) to be part of a team, including  Rebecca Drennan and husband, and my wife, to join Francie in loading these truck containers  a couple of times!

 

 To learn more or donate, click here.  

JY OB DH hf at GA
Judy Young, Orlanda Brugnola, Hal French, Doris Hunter at GA
 
Board Meets in Louisville

 

   On June 21, During the UUA General Assembly Louisville, Kentucky, four members of our board met, with another attending by phone; they were Hal French, Doris Hunter, Orlanda Brugnola, Judy Young, and Pat Mohr.

   At that time, we had approximately fifty paid members.  Our new treasurer, Pat Mohr (hooray and thank you, Pat!), reported that our chapter balance was $4108.29, before paying $1450 for our expenses at GA.  They voted to support the Zimbabwe project, Fairfield Homes, which Francie Markham chairs in the U.S., in the amount of $500.00  Thank you to Sarah Corbett for great work as treasurer.

   The board made the following decisions relating to future programming:  that we have a similar presence at next year's UUA GA, in Providence, Rhode Island; that we not hold a major event, such as a conference, in the intervening year, so as to strongly encourage our members to attend the next IARF international Congress next August, in Birmingham, England.  Orlanda Brugnola informed us that an alpha version of her multifaith education project should be ready in August.

There is more information about most of these items elsewhere in this newsletter.  More about Orlanda's exciting project is in the previous (Winter/Spring) issue.

 

 


Upcoming Joint IARF & WCF Conference

  

From Rebecca Drennan.
   This August 20-23rd the IARF and the
Horsham church
Horsham Unitarian Chapel
World Congress of Faiths are partnering to present a conference in Horsham, England. The WCF is a seventy-five year old organization that encourages the challenges and enrichments that arise from the interaction of diverse traditions of faith and belief. They publish Interreligious Insighta leading journal on interfaith matters.

   The theme for the conference is: Religious Freedom and Responsibility.  Two members of our board, Council member Doris Hunter and chair Hal French, are among the distinguished speakers. Others are coming from across the globe, including Chris Hudson from Belfast, Dan McKanan from Harvard, Annelies Trelling from the Netherlands, Advocate Rengapashyam from India, Sheikh Amin-Evans from England.  Horsham is twenty-five minutes from Gatwick Airport and one hour from London. If you are interested in attending, check out www.worldfaiths.org.

   The conference will be preceded on August 19 with a WCF lecture in London by Yehuda Stolov of Israel, "Building Peace in the Holy Land--It can be done."  Stolov will also present at the conference.

   The same group who organized this event will also head the team for the IARF Congress to be held in England next summer, 2014.  They consider this summer's a good practice run for next summer's larger conference.

 

A last-minute pitch by the committee: Come to our IARF/WCF Conference in Horsham, England. 20-23 August, and meet IALRW President Dr. Kathy Matsui, Akiko, and Esther Suter. We now have 61 registered, but still have space for you. I think we are going to have a great time!

 

For details, click here.

 

Eboo Patel Gives Ware Lecture at UU GA

  Eboo Patel

Eboo Patel gave the prestigious Ware Lecture at the UU General Assembly in June.  Dr. Patel is founder and President of the Interfaith Youth Core, an international nonprofit building the interfaith youth movement. 

 

 

He opened with April's story, which highlights the importance of language in interfaith cooperation. "For all of April's love for her faith, and all of her instincts to stand in solidarity with others, she did not have the theological language to articulate her position. So she lost" control of an effort to help after an attack on a mosque to those who would use it as an occasion to proselytize the 'devil worshipers.'

 

Noting that UUs confess a lack of articulateness about their faith, he suggests that they have much to say.  He put forward that "you believe that difference is holy. Listen to the words of Unitarian Universalist minister Greta Crosby: 'all of us together, all the eyes of all the creatures, are the eye of God. That is why we need each other, our many ways of seeing, that together we may rejoice, and see clearly, and find the many keys to abundant life.' Not only do you believe this, you act on it." Further, "to call up your own stories, practices, quotations in a range of situations, is absolutely core to effective interfaith leadership. So is having an appreciative knowledge of other traditions."

 

His father taught him a first lesson in interfaith relations:  "Always look for the resonances."  It also calls for recognizing profound differences, and while not giving ground on one's principles, not denying entrance to those who disagree.  "We need exceptional people who are able to hold the tensions here in a way that binds together rather than breaks apart, people who are willing to lead with their chin and take a punch. 

 

"Nurturing positive relations between people with deep disagreements is holy."  He closed by quoting Martin Luther King, "the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption, the end is the creation of the beloved community."

 

For full lecture . . . 

 

Join our US Chapter!
members round the world

Visit our website iarfus.org  and click on the Join U
s bu
tton.
 
Or, send dues to Harold French, Dept. of Religious Studies, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208.
 
It's not too late to renew for 2014.
$30 -- Individual $50 -- Household $10 -- Student
Please add $15 if you wish to receive this newsletter by US mail.


In Closing . . .

blue-eyed girl

Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?

 

I cannot stop asking.

 

If I could taste one sip of an answer,

 

I could break out of this prison for drunks.

 

didn't come here of my own accord and I can't leave that way.

 

Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.

 

Rumi