Hearing Each Other, Healing the Earth -19 April 2009

"Hearing Each Other,
Healing the Earth."


The InterFaith Conference's Fifth Snowdon Lecture

With Dr. Richard Cizik


Help Us Celebrate Earth Week!


Dr. Richard Cizik is a well known Evangelical Christian leader and has been named as one of the New York Times "One Hundred Most Influential Thinkers and Scientists". Few have done as much as Dr. Cizik to re-shape the thinking of 43-million evangelicals around earth care.
Dr. Cizik's lecture will surely help create new dialogues to build bridges among people of diverse faiths and spiritualities, as well as people of no faith, by focusing on that upon which we all depend-the distressed earth. Through this event Richard Cizik hopes to encourage all people into mindful reflection, and then to move from reflection into urgent action on behalf of the environment.

When:Sunday April 19th, 2009
4:30 pm- 6:00 pm

Where:
Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church3401 Nebraska Avenue NW, Washington DC 20016At New Mexico Avenue- across Nebraska Ave from American University.The nearest Metro stop is Tenleytown/AU. Get on AU shuttle and exit at third stop. Ample free parking at church and across New Mexico Ave. at AU lot.

Tickets:Tickets are $10 Student tickets are FREE

Purchase advance tickets online at www.ifcmw.org
OR email janellef@ifcmw.org
OR send a ticket request to IFC's office:
The Gate House 100 Allison StNW, Washington, DC 20011
Tickets will also be available at the door

Where Zoroastrians and Buddhists Meet - 2nd February 2009

Kushanshahr: Where Zoroastrians
and Buddhists meet
A CISA and Central Asia Initiative Seminar

When: Monday, February 02, 2009 12:00 PM

Where: 10383 Bunche HallLos Angeles, CA 90095


The ancient north-eastern Iranian satrapies of Sogdiana, Bactriana, and Margiana have, until recently, been overlooked in terms of their place in the material and cultural trade that existed between “east” and “west,” “north and “south” from the beginning of the Common Era. These three regions of modern Central Asia were the cradle of Zoroastrianism, and then became the conduit through which Buddhism spread from India to China.

This illustrated presentation will explore the development of Buddhism within the hellenistic-influenced Bactrian setting of the Kushan Empire, and the subsequent contribution of Sogdian Zoroastrian merchants to the dissemination of Buddhist texts and iconography along the Central Asian trading routes into China.

Jenny Rose is a historian of religion, with a particular interest in Zoroastrian Studies. She has an MA in Religious Studies from the University of London, where she studied with the late Prof. Mary Boyce. The focus of her MA thesis was the role of women in the Indian and Iranian Zoroastrian communities. In 1993, Jenny received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. An abbreviated version of her dissertation was published in 2000 under the title The Image of Zoroaster: The Persian Mage Through European Eyes.

Jenny currently teaches classes on the Zoroastrian tradition in the Religious Studies departments at both Stanford University and Claremont Graduate University. She has published many articles relating to Zoroastrianism with a particular focus on the role of women, the use of iconography as visual text, and the historical interaction between the Zoroastrian tradition and other belief systems. Jenny continues to produce educational materials about the Zoroastrian religion for use in British schools, and has just been commissioned to write a new textbook Introduction to Zoroastrianism for use by a new generation of undergraduates and interested others!


For more information please contact Abraham Cherian
cisa@international.ucla.edu



Asia Institute • 11288 Bunche Hall • Los Angeles, CA 90095-1487 Campus Mail Code: 148703 • Tel: (310) 825-0007 • Fax: (310) 206-3555 Email: asia@international.ucla.edu

Electronic Interfaith Calendar

INTERFAITH CALENDAR
Primary sacred times for world religions

http://www.interfaithcalendar.org/2009.htm

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The Golden Rule

GOLDEN RULE VIDEO


Traditions from Ancient Egyptian to Zoroastrian:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ci613QcC5E .
7:53 min

Beyond our Differences -- December 26th on PBS stations

Entropy Films is proud to present

Beyond Our Differences,

a documentary film conceived and directed by Peter Bisanz that explores the positive role of faith in the world today and the fundamental unity of the worlds' religions. What are the fundamental issues facing our world today? Where do world leaders and the biggest thinkers of our time in politics, religion, culture, arts and science weigh in on these issues? How do these leaders apply their own experiences with faith and morality when forming constructive solutions for the world's most distressing and calamitous problems? In what context do faith and religion play principal roles in inspiring our collective peoples toward a more peaceful and compassionate humanity?

www.beyondourdifferences.com
December 26th 2008 on PBS stations.

Check local listings for broadcast.

Osher Life Long Learning Institute

Osher Life-long Learning Institute
A new course: "India: Culture, Traditions, and Gandhi"
has been developed for the members of the Osher Life-long Learning Institute (OLLI) of American University at the Gandhi Memorial Center from March to May 2009. This course will introduce participants to the arts and philosophy of India through lectures and demonstrations.

Gandhi Memorial Center
Phone: 301-320-6871
Fax: 301-229-7576
Email: info@gandhimemorialcenter.org
Web: http://www.gandhimemorialcenter.org/
Address: 4748 Western Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20816, USA

Internship Positions available from the CPWR

Academic year INTERNSHIP POSITIONS now open at

The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions

Join the Council’s team by applying for one of our flexible
volunteer internships during the upcoming academic year.

Keep up with your schoolwork while building your résumé and
getting involved in the worldwide interreligious movement.

Set your own hours each week and work from home or in our downtown Chicago office on
research and outreach projects attuned to your personal and academic interests.

The Council is currently looking for student interns available to volunteer during the school year and/or summer, 2009, on projects related to publicizing our event, as well as researching and reaching out to communities across the globe and helping with office support.

* * *

Inspired by the Parliament of the World’s Religions held during the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the Council was created to cultivate harmony among the world's religious and spiritual communities and to foster their engagement with the world and its guiding institutions in order to achieve a just peaceful and sustainable world. To accomplish this, we connect and initiate dialogue among individuals and communities who are similarly invested in attaining this goal.

The Parliament of the World's Religions is the world's largest global interreligious event. Organized by the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions and hosted by Melbourne, Australia, the 2009 Parliament will bring together over 8,000 people from Australia and around the world, including renowned spiritual, religious and political leaders.

Visit us online and fill out an application at:
http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/
(Click on “Get Involved.”)
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Calling on Youth: Opportunities to Serve - The Faiths Act Fellowship

The Faiths Act Fellowship

Introduction
The Faiths Act Fellowship will bring together thirty young leaders aged between 18-25 drawn from the different faiths from the US, UK, and Canada to embark on a 10 month journey of interfaith service. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation has launched this initiative in conjunction with the Interfaith Youth Core, which aims to build relationships among young people from different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others.

Interfaith Youth Core is the co-ordinating body for the Fellowship programme.

Training begins with a 2-month intensive initiative that includes fieldwork with primary health care partners fighting deaths from malaria in Africa. Fellows will return to their home countries for 8 months to mobilize young people of faith to raise awareness and resources to promote the Millennium Development Goals. They will focus particularly focus on fighting deaths from malaria.

Purpose of the Fellowship
Halting and reversing the spread of malaria is one of today’s most urgent moral challenges. 500 million people contract the disease each year and one million die, the vast majority under 5 years old and in Africa. Yet, malaria is preventable and treatable. And, progress in the fight against deaths from malaria will speed our achievement of 6 of the 8 Millennium Development Goals.
Young people of faith have a particular role to play in this vision. As change-makers for future generations, they are able to establish new forms of inter-faith collaboration by placing a committed concern for the poorest at the heart of a renewed dialogue of life and action. The Faiths Act Fellows will become ambassadors for inter-religious cooperation in the fight against deaths from malaria and the accomplishment of the Millennium Development Goals.
Once in their home countries, galvanising, motivating and organising across faith communities for the MDGs, we hope that the Fellows will reach 1,000 people each. This would mean over the programme, 30,000 across the world will have been touched by the programme and our objective is to spread the work ever wider.

Potential candidates
Candidates must have the potential to become accomplished leaders, and be able to demonstrate a firm commitment to work for justice in their own faith community. They will need to be able to commit a year of their life to this work as MDG ambassador, ten months of which will be hard work, travel, workshops, speaking engagements, presentations in a well-planned project devised by them in conjunction with the IFYC. They will receive a basic stipend, insurance cover and health care provision.
Candidates selected will work in interfaith pairs in their own faith communities based in host organisations in their countries. Inspired by their different religious traditions, they will motivate and equip young people in congregations, schools and university religious student groups to lead their faith communities in spreading awareness of the MDG challenge, raising life-saving funds for the fight against deaths from malaria and promoting a new inter-religious dialogue of life and action.

The programme
The programme will begin with induction first in London lasting two weeks from August 2009, then an educational exposure trip to a malaria hotspot in Africa. Fellows will learn and work in teams in selected African countries, hosted and guided by an organization that is doing excellent primary health care work. In Africa, they will learn about the realities of malaria and the urgency behind the Millennium Development Goals. Both in London and Africa, Fellows will have opportunities to explore the social and cultural life around them and particularly to interact with local faith communities.
On return they will receive further preparatory training in Chicago to equip them to perform effectively in their chosen projects. The rest of the programme will find them working in their local faith communities as interfaith pairs, mobilizing young people of faith to work together in raising awareness of the MDGs and funds for malaria eradication. They will be hosted by a local organization that does related work and will work as a team.

Host organisations
In their home countries, Fellows will be hosted by a local organization whose mission fits closely with this project. Host organizations in the UK include Muslim Aid, World Vision UK, Tzedek, and the Christian-Muslim Forum. We are now seeking host organizations in the US, and Canada. Interested organizations should submit an application (go to www.faithsactfellows.org).
In order to be eligible, the organization’s work must already prioritize interfaith social action or the engagement of faith communities in international development and have the human, physical and technological resources to host and manage two full-time Fellows from late September, 2009 through to late May, 2010.

Where Will Fellows Live?

Fellows will spend their first two months in training and staying in lodging that will be arranged by the programme. Following the training programme, Fellows will return to their home countries and must arrange housing within commuting distance of their host organization.

Fellows will be responsible for finding and paying for their own housing within commuting distance of their host organization. Some Fellows may be placed in their home city and not need to relocate, while others will need to relocate to a new city. As there will only be a few host organizations in each country and we need to ensure a strong fit between the Fellows and their host organizations as well as between the paired Fellows, we cannot guarantee that any Fellow will be able to live in their home city.

Will Fellows Get Paid?

Fellows will receive a modest living allowance, which will vary according to each placement city’s cost of living.

Contact: www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org
+44 [0] 207 647 7880
P.O. Box 60519, London, Wz7JU, United Kingdom
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Desmond Tutu on Climate Change - Justice for the World's Poor

Desmond Tutu on Climate Change:

"If we act on the side of justice, we have the power to turn tides."

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=onSHD4sAuB4
3.24 mins
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