 |
CAIRS Home > Articles >
September 2006 E-Bulletin
September 1 , 2006
If you would like to be included in the mailing list for this service, please send your e-mail address to the Education Officer, Andrew Sarle.
Edinburgh inter-faith residence and cultural centre moves a step closer
Sir Tom Farmer is funding a bid to buy a derelict city church and turn it into a home for Tibetan Buddhist monks and 'Mother Teresa nuns', the Sisters of Charity. The Kwik-Fit millionaire and prominent Roman Catholic, who is involved with the Edinburgh Interfaith Association, is thought to have offered more than £400,000 to secure the United Presbyterian Church on Blackfriars Street for an "inter-faith residence and cultural centre". Fuller details can be found online at the Edinburgh Evening News.
Vancouver prepares multi-faith centre for 2010 Winter Olympics
Plans have been unveiled for a 25 million Canadian dollar (£11.8 million) multi-faith worship centre for the 2010 Winter Olympic athletes which will, after the games, serve Vancouver for years to come. The Interfaith Spiritual Society of British Columbia, representing Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and other faith communities, has announced plans for the project at the Athletes’ Village site near downtown Vancouver. Construction begins in 2007 and should be completed in 2009.
Faith communities pray for Holy land to become a reality
While nations parse words and actions around a Middle East cease-fire, people of many faiths have been drawing on a new resource to focus prayer on a genuine "holy land" equal to that which birthed three major world religions. As the region was wracked with senseless violence and bloodshed, people of faith quickly turned to Season of Prayer as part of their agenda for waging peace. This website contains prayers for peace from several different faith traditions as well as litanies and meditations that may be suitable for multi-faith or single faith events or for solo use. Read more about it at Ekklesia.
Multiculturalism is to blame for perverting young Muslims
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, writing in “The Telegraph” last month, outlines his views on the potential dangers that are heirs to the multiculturalism of recent years. The Bishop explores the argument that political correctness is to blame for the rise of Muslim radicalism in the article which can be read, along with comments, at the Daily Telegraph.
Bishop's chaplain likens 7/7 bombers to Christian crusaders
An Anglican chaplain has likened the London Tube bombers to Christian crusaders. Canon Philip Gray, chaplain to the Bishop of Blackburn, said the extremists who carried out the 7/7 attacks shared the same "religious passion" as those who took part in the Christian Crusades. Writing in the Blackburn diocesan newsletter, he said a number of Christian figures had committed violent acts. Canon Gray writes, "Behind modern fanatical Islamic terrorism lie many spiritual and religious passions and narratives also found in the Christian tradition." The full text can be read at Ekklesia.
“Last year I was walking down Dumbarton road (in Glasgow) and a wee 12-year-old girl shouted: ‘Are you the Taliban?’”
Kuldip Singh describes the first instances of Sikh worship in Edinburgh as taking place “in a small two-bedroom flat in 1958 ... but everything got bigger and bigger and bigger.” In fact, the Sikh community in Edinburgh has filled its current temple, Guru Nanak Gurdawara Singh Sabha Sikh Temple, in Leith, to the point of bursting. Singh, president of the temple, says that, since he arrived in Scotland from India over 45 years ago, the Indian expatriate community has become “completely part of Scotland. My five children and 10 grandchildren are Scottish-Indian. We eat Indian, wear Indian, talk Indian … but we are Scottish, we celebrate Christmas and Diwali. We have both cultures, both lives.” See the Sunday Herald.
53% of Britons feel threated by Islam
Most people in the UK feel threatened by Islam, a poll claimed today after the Government launched a bid to tackle inter-faith tensions. The YouGov survey for the Daily Telegraph found 53 per cent were concerned about the impact of the religion - not just fundamentalist elements - up 21 per cent from 2001. There had also been a near doubling of the number agreeing that "a large proportion of British Muslims feel no sense of loyalty to this country and are prepared to condone or even carry out acts of terrorism" - a total of 18 per cent backed the statement. More at the Edinburgh Evening News.
Porto Alegre Papers now available on-line
You can read the full text of Rowan Williams’ keynote address and responses to it, the greetings to the WCC Assembly from ‘Guests of Other Faiths’, and Mutirão Contributions including Wesley Ariarajah on ‘New Ecumenism’ and Agneta Ucko on ‘Interfaith Learning and Education’. These articles appear in the June 2006 edition of ‘Current Dialogue’ which can be read in full at the World Council of Churches site.
Who CAIRS?
You may be interested to read my article, published on p. 21 of the latest issue of ‘coracle’, the magazine of the Iona Community, and may also care to read the article by Jan Maasen on page 17, in which Jan describes ways in which she and another new member of the Iona Community engage in interfaith dialogue in Switzerland and the Netherlands. The complete magazine can be downloaded as a pdf from the Iona Community website.
Ex-hostage and US church leader call on Abrahamic faiths for just-peace
Rev Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and president of the Lutheran World Federation and Benjamin Weir, a former US Presbyterian missionary who spent 16 months held hostage in Beirut by the Islamic Jihad group called on Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders in the United States to develop principles for a just peace in the Middle East. Bishop Hanson called on leaders of the three Abrahamic faiths to highlight what they had in common rather than their differences, and particularly to reject the perception that violence can be justified on the basis of the Abrahamic religions. More of the Bishop’s statement can be found at Ekklesia.
Dunblane Conversation
The next Dunblane Conversation on Spirituality and Creation is entitled: In Relation to Being : An Exploration of some Buddhist perspectives on “Creation” with Rawdon Goodier is on Friday 22 September 2006, 4.00-9.00 pm. The Conversation will include plenary presentation by the speaker, group discussion and plenary conversation in two sessions, each of about 1¾ hours. Afternoon tea will be served at 3.45pm and there will be a break for dinner at 6.00pm. A short meditation at 8.45pm will end the proceedings. Elizabeth Templeton will be in the chair.
“All things, earth, trees, wooden posts, bricks, stones become Buddhas once this refuge is taken”. This Conversation, Rawdon Goodier writes, will deal with ‘my own development towards Buddhist Practice – the Buddha’s reservations concerning cosmological/spiritual speculation – the problem of “purpose”- Darwinian perspectives – Buddhist models of the Universe on the foundations of Dependent Origination – Being and Time – Anthropocentrism or Cosmocentrism? What lies outside Dependent Origination? – the problem with dualisms man/nature holy/unholy, etc. – the relation of all this to Buddhist practice’.
Rawdon Goodier is a botanist and ecologist who, after six years working in his field in Zimbabwe, returned to work for the Nature Conservancy, first in North Wales then in Scotland (1969). He first established contact with Zen Buddhist practice in 1976, since when he has been active in Edinburgh in setting up a zen meditation group and later the Portobello Buddhist Priory. Involved in the Edinburgh Interfaith Association and Christian/Buddhist dialogue for several years, he became the first Chairman of the newly created Scottish Interfaith Council from 1998-2001.
For further details and booking forms telephone 01786 823588 or go visit Churches House.
Buddhist Weekend for RE teachers and students
Samye Ling monastery in the Scottish Borders is running a special weekend course for teachers and RE students who are studying Buddhism. It is from 13 -15 October this year. The purpose of the weekend is to give teachers and students a living experience of the topics that they will be teaching in the classroom. It will include presentations on the key topics relevant to the Religious Education syllabus - namely the 3 marks of existence, Mahayana and Theravada approaches and the role of meditation in Buddhism. We will also look at how we can use meditation to reduce stress and find peace within.
Email Choden at tours@samyeling.org or call 013873 73232 ext 32 (mornings) for more information on the weekend. The total cost including accommodation for two nights, meals and course fee is: Single rooms £130, Twin Rooms £115 per person and Dorms £105. For trainee teachers and students we are offering a special concession: £75 total cost for dormitory accommodation and £60 total cost for camping with own tent. For more details visit Samye Ling.
Faith groups unite in cathedral celebration of hope and compassion
A Muslim call to prayer resonated through the downtown Toronto church, blending with the voices of a Christian choir in a multi-faith celebration at the Anglican Cathedral Church of St. James, August 15. The service was a high point in a week of encounters among members of faith-based organizations attending the International AIDS Conference, August 13-18. Representatives of five faith communities: Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and Christian packed the cathedral for an interfaith observance under the theme "Celebrating Hope and Compassion.”
Full story at Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance and Ekklesia.
Some books that may interest you include:
(Full details on our Resources page)
Till Faith Us Do Part: Couples who fall in love across the religious divide, by Rabbi Jonathan A Romain.
Jesus in the World’s Faiths: Leading Thinkers from Five Religions Reflect on His Meaning, edited by Gregory A Barker.
Listening to People of Other Faiths by Claire Disbrey.
Interfaith Dialogue: A Catholic View by Michael Fitzgerald and John Borelli.
Transcendence: Prayer of People of Faith (Revised 2005), edited by Daniel Faivre and Tony McCaffry.
Modern Cosmology and the Quran : From A Scientific Perspective by Dr. Taiseer Zaid Kailani.