COMMUNITY CONFERENCE ON FAITH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Project Interfaith and the Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center for the Study of Religion and Society present:

A Community Conference on Faith and the Environment:
Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Native American Ways of Approaching Environmental Issues

When: Sunday, March 29, 2009, 1:00-5:00 pm (check-in begins at 12:30 pm)

Location: Harper Center Ballroom at Creighton University, located at 602 North 20th Street
(Free parking is available in the Visitors Lot adjacent to the Harper Center on 20th and California Street)

What: Join us as we explore how different religions and belief systems view the environment and our role in it – especially when it comes to caring for it. Hear from four proactive scholars who are active in environmental issues as they speak on how their beliefs have shaped their attitudes and actions towards the environment. Put your beliefs into action by getting connected with local environmental initiatives at our information fair. Participants also will have the opportunities throughout the conference to dialogue with each other about these issues. Light refreshment will be served.

Featured Speakers:

• Dr. Terry Wimberley: A Christian Perspective

• Dr. Sandra Beth Lubarsky: A Jewish Perspective

• Dr. Safei-Eldin A. Hamed: A Muslim Perspective

• Dr. Rudi Mitchel: A Native American Perspective

Cost: This program is open to the public and offered at no charge, thanks to generous funding from the Kripke Center and the Special Donor-Advised Fund at the Jewish Federation Foundation.

Pre-registration is strongly suggested as space is limited. To register, contact Fran Minear at the Kripke Center at (402) 280-2303 or email fminear@creighton.edu.
To view a map of Creighton’s Harper Center, please click the following link:
http://www2.creighton.edu/harpercenter/parking/index.php

This program is part of Project Interfaith’s 2008-2009 Community Conversation Annual Speaker Series. Please share this with others who may be interested. Thank you!

About Project Interfaith

Project Interfaith serves as a leader and resource on interfaith and religious diversity issues. We work with religious groups, educators, corporations, and all members of the community to promote a deeper understanding of and respect for religious diversity. We offer innovative, community-building programs that educate and engage audiences on issues of faith, religion, identity, and interfaith relations. For more information, visit our blog at http://projectinterfaith.blogspot.com or call (402) 933-4647.

A reflection on one speech and two prayers

When I first heard that Reverend Rick Warren was going to give the opening prayer at the inauguration, I must admit, I was a bit nervous and upset. My first thought was, what is Obama thinking? I thought we were supposed to be bringing the country together, not grinding salt into wounds. But once again Obama shows his genius. His inclusion of two individuals on opposite ends of the religious spectrum (Revered Rick Warren and Revered Joseph Lowery) in his inauguration ceremony models a best practice for our country. We must reach across the lines of political party, religious belief, race, class, sexual orientation, and ethnic group in order to find a solution to the problems facing our nation and world today.

When I turned on the T.V. Tuesday morning, I was curious to see how the prayers were going to sound- would they be inclusive, or would they push a “Christian” message? I also thought, why are there prayers at a government function, anyway? What about the people who choose not to subscribe to a religious belief? But that is for another discussion…

Overall, the words and message of Revered Warren and Revered Lowery were tasteful ,and kept with Obama’s goal of bringing the nation together. Each prayer highlights our need as a community to work together, despite our differences, to be held responsible for our actions and asks for forgiveness for our collective mistakes and selfishness. Below you will find a few quotes from each prayer that I thought were important to remember as we work together to tackle the issues of today:

“Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans. United not by race or religion or by blood, but by our commitment to freedom and justice for all…When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us. And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches and civility in our attitudes—even when we differ.” ~ Reverend Rick Warren, opening inaugural prayer.

“We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. And while we have sown the seeds of greed—the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other. And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance. And as we leave this mountaintop, help us hold on to the spirit of fellowship and oneness of family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.” ~ Reverend Joseph Lowery, benediction inaugural prayer.

To echo Obama’s words, I hope that our nation and community recognize that the patchwork of our heritage is a strength, not a weakness. And that we as a progressive congregation can help hope and virtue flourish even in the winter of our hardship.

Sex and Seminaries: Teaching Justice and Tolerance

Sightings

Sex and Seminaries

By: Martin E. Marty
1/12/2009

Did you know that there is a Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing? Last Thursday, January 8, the Institute, together with Union Theological Seminary in New York, issued a fifty-two page report, which is a call for North American Theological Seminaries to offer more courses and programs to help prepare ministers, rabbis, priests, and other religious professionals to address issues of sexuality better than they now do.

Through the years I have met with leaders and constituents of the Association of Theological Schools; I have some awareness of how many pressures are on them to add teaching personnel, field-work opportunities, and courses to deal with every kind of ethical and cultural issue of the day: pop culture, science-and-theology, war and peace, dealing with technology, and many more. All this at a time when the schools are under serious budgetary constraints. Seasoned leaders are cautioned against curricular faddism and are conscientious about sustaining integrity in biblical, theological, historical, and practical basics. So they tend to wince or groan when asked to do more and offer more for and with future ministers

But the Institute people do make a good case to be taken seriously in this report. Their two-year study finds that more than ninety percent of the thirty-six leading seminaries surveyed do not require full-semester, sexuality-based courses for graduation, and two-thirds do not offer a course in sexuality issues for religious professionals. A generational issue is involved. Mention, for example, the churches' controversy over same-sex marriage, and in most denominations seniors will observe that it's not much of an issue for the younger generations. They've generally approved it and want to move on to issues they consider more urgent. But for the next thirty years ministers will be dealing with church and synagogue issues where it is still the hottest-button kind of issue, and they need to understand the pros and cons.

As I picture it, the Institute's concern that more seminaries deal with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies in a major way will not get a hearing in denominations where there are strictures against positive dealings with church and synagogue members in LGBT camps. Yet it is hard to get around the observation that, overall, sexual issues -- be they biological, theological, or moral – are the most controversial subjects in religion today. For a discussion group on the Trinity or Pelagianism (if you could get one together), you would rent a classroom. For sex and gender debates, you would crowd the field house, because everyone knows that the subject will quicken passions, lead to walk-outs, and give the press much to disseminate.

In this half-century, like it or not, understandings of human sexuality combined with issues of authority – who decides about practices? – concern everybody from Mennonites to Greek Orthodox. Clerical abuse scandals have undercut trust relations in parishes and denominations. The press, understandably, "eats this up," knowing how little anyone knows about how to handle sexual themes and incidents and how hungry elements in the public are for stories about ethical lapses in matters sexual. The Institute's report may not please everyone, but it is an important wake-up call.

For Further Information:

Visit the Institute's website, and request a copy of the report, at www.religiousinstitute.org.

Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, upcoming events, publications, and contact information can be found at www.illuminos.com.

What Is Sightings?

The cliché about polite conversation is that there are two things never to discuss: religion and politics. We at Sightings know better (at least about religion). We seek out and comment on the events, agents, and trends in public life where issues of religion are writ large, in plain view—or just simmering under the surface.

Under the sponsorship of the Martin Marty Center, Sightings reports and comments on the role of religion in public life via e-mail twice a week to a readership of over 5,000. Through the eyes, ears, and keyboards of a diverse group of writers—academics, clergyman, laypeople, and students—Sightings displays the kaleidoscope of religious activity: a reflection of how religious currents are shaping and being shaped in the world. For more information about this publication, please go to: http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/sightings/

Happy New Year

Typically during this time of year we become very pensive, and reflect on the past year and make goals for the next one. If you’re like me, you’ve got lots of New Year’s resolutions and projects you’d like to see done by 2010. (I know I’d like to use my gym pass more…)

With the coming of the New Year and our resolution list in hand, it is important to keep in mind that change is a necessary part of life. It is how we grow as a person and as a community of faith. For First Central, 2009 brings an opportunity for us to reflect on who we are as a congregation and develop some resolutions for our own community. 2009 also brings a change of leadership as we welcome our Interim Senior Minister, Reverend Donald Hammond, who will lead us through this time of change, as we search for our “settled” pastor. (Hooray and Welcome!)

So, as you are thinking about your personal, professional or spiritual aspirations for 2009, I hope you take the time to think about some resolutions and goals for First Central, and how you can help us strengthen our progressive work in the community and in our congregation.

Finally, I thought I’d post some quotes and poems to inspire your resolutions and to remind us all that change is a good thing. Happy New Year!

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret Mead

“Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

"Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day." ~Frances Hesselbein, The Key to Cultural Transformation, Leader to Leader (Spring 1999)

"How carefully was that word chosen! The word that allows yes, the word that makes no possible. The word that puts the free in freedom and takes the obligation out of love. The word that throws a window open after the final door is closed. The word upon which all adventure, all exhilaration all meaning, all honor depends. The word that fires evolution's motor of mud. The word that the cocoon whispers to the caterpillar. The word that molecules recite before bonding. The word that separates that which is dead from that is living. The word no mirror can turn around. In the beginning was the word and the word was CHOICE." ~ Tom Robbins

Old Man in the Window on Christmas Eve

I was given the following poem almost 8 years ago, and have held on to it ever since. For me, it highlights the true meaning of Christmas and the holiday season. I hope you find it an enjoyable read and just as meaningful. Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Old Man in the Window on Christmas Eve
By Ken McCandless

Old man in the window on Christmas Eve
Why do you stare at me?
As I pass beneath your tenement perch
With treasures ladenly

I’ve no time to stop and chat
Or share your loneliness
I must be off to kin and friend
To share some Christmas bliss

Old man in the window on Christmas Eve
I can barely see your face
With its wizened features, gnarled and waned,
Behind the cracked and dirty pane

And beneath that yellow and tattered shade
Your balding crown
With its wisps of white
Halos in the dingy light

Old man in the Window on Christmas Eve
What tales you must know
Of youthful days and wilder ways
When you wore a young man’s soul

Did pretty girls in Pinafores
Giggle at your wit?
And when you passed them on the beach
Did you flex a bit?

Did they curtsy when you bowed
And invited them to dance?
And afterward in the rumble seat
Did you steal a brief romance?

But most important, could you love?
Did you love? Was she beautiful?
Did you share such Christmas Eves
So many years ago?

But she went to sleep last summer
With the lilies blooming high
Now Christmas Eve is spent up there
Watching shoppers scurry by

Old man in the window on Christmas Eve
Why do you haunt me so?
Why am I so troubled
As I pause here in the snow?

Are you a stark prediction
Of what will come to be?
Will I stand where you stand now?
Are you a future me?

Old man in the window on Christmas Eve
I know now what I must know
That the joy in Christmas is in
Reaping for which we sow

That love once given is love returned
And brings the warmest lift
And the peace we share with those in
Need is the greatest Yuletide gift

So with mittened hand I raise a wave
And flash a hardy smile
Your toothless grin and twinkling
Eye have made my gift worthwhile

With lighter steps and peace of soul
I take my final leave
And thank the Babe in Bethlehem
For an old man in the window on Christmas Eve

UCC Mentioned As Only Church To Openly Support Gay Marriage

Newsweek Magazine writer, Lisa Miller, recently details various churches’ position on gay marriage. Here she points out the United Church of Christ’s progressive and often unique stance on the issue:

“Still, very few Jewish or Christian denominations do officially endorse gay marriage, even in the states where it is legal. The practice varies by region, by church or synagogue, even by cleric. More progressive denominations—the United Church of Christ, for example—have agreed to support gay marriage.” (December 6, 2008, Page 4, Newsweek)

To check out the complete article, please follow this link:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/172653/page/1

Living with Our Deepest Differences: Religious Liberty in the Schools, A Community Conversation with First Amendment Center Scholar Dr. Charles Haynes

Religious Liberty in the Public Schools: Two Community Workshops with Dr. Charles Haynes, Senior Scholar at the First Amendment Center and Author of Finding Common Ground: A Guide to Religious Liberty in the Public Schools

Part of Project Interfaith's 2008-2009 Community Conversations Annual Speaker Series

Both workshops will be held on Thursday, December 11, 2008

Workshop 1: Creating Policies, Procedures and Practices for Religious Liberty and Inclusive Schools
A Luncheon Workshop for School Administrators, School Board Members, Curriculum Facilitators, and Educators
11:30 am- 1:00 pm, UNO Thompson Alumni Center
6705 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE 68182
Cost: $30 per person (Lunch and resources included)
**Registration is required as space is limited. For a registration form, email info@projectinterfaithusa.org .**

This workshop will explore the policy issues that schools face in terms of religious diversity and liberty issues and will provide an opportunity for participants to share and discuss some of the needs and concerns that they are seeing in their districts and schools. Dr. Haynes also will highlight some practices and policies with which other districts have found success and will review some of the legal parameters connected to religious liberty and religion in the public schools.


Workshop 2: Religious Liberty in the Public Schools and in the Public Square
A Community Conversation for Educators, Parents, Students, and all Community Members
7:00 pm, UNO Scott Conference Center
6450 Pine Street, Omaha, NE 68106
Cost: This program is offered at no charge thanks to the support of private donors.
This evening workshop is co-sponsored by: UNO College of Education, UNO College of Public Affairs and Community Service, Creighton University Department of Education and KIOS 91.5 FM Omaha Public Radio.
**Registration is required. Email info@projectinterfaithusa.org to register for this evening workshop.**

Dr. Haynes will explore some of the most pressing religious liberty issues facing schools and public institutions and offer suggestions for how schools, public institutions, and communities can be inclusive of religious diversity and honor religious liberty. Dr. Haynes talk will be followed a question and answer session.

About Dr. Charles Haynes
Dr. Charles Haynes is one of the country's leading scholars and experts on religious liberty and religion in American public life. He is best known for his work on First Amendment issues in the public schools. Over the past two decades, he has been the principal organizer and drafter of consensus guidelines on religious liberty in the schools, which has been endorsed by a broad range of religious and educational organizations. Haynes is the author/co-author of six books and his column, Inside the First Amendment, appears in newspapers nationwide. He is the founding board member of the Character Education Partnership and serves on the steering committee of the Campaign for the Mission of Schools and the American Bar Association Advisory Commission on Public Education.

About Project Interfaith
Founded in December 2005, Project Interfaith serves as a leader and resource on interfaith and religious diversity issues. We work with religious and community groups, educators, corporations, and all members of the community to promote a deeper understanding of and respect for religious diversity. We offer innovative, community-building programs that educate and engage audiences on issues of faith, religion, identity, and interfaith relations. For information about our programs, trainings, and services, please visit our website: www.projectinterfaithusa.org or contact us by calling (402) 933-4647 or emailing info@projectinterfaithusa.org.