| Help us find our "pivot" |
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"The Pivot [is] the idea that successful startups change directions
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Your opinions are valued as you are the reason we exist!
In faith,
Bowie Snodgrass, Samir Selmanovic, and the Board of Directors FAITH HOUSE Manhattan |
P.S. ~ Tweet the link http://ht.ly/5Vu7D and/or let us know you took the survey on Twitter [@FaithHouseNOW] & we'll be sure to reply with a tweet of thanks!
Bowie, Samir, and other Faith House participants
have just returned from the
very first Wild Goose Festival!
Read About the Interfaith Events In the News!
"Wild Goose Day 3: mingling of faith traditions"
The National Catholic Reporter
"The Wild Goose Revival for Doubters and Jesus Victims (Like Me)"
The Huffington Post
"Progressive Christians Flock to Wild Goose Festival"
The Associated Baptist Press
2011 Interfaith Guests
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| Our interfaith panel at the festival! |
Imam Abdullah Antepli, Muslim Chaplain at Duke University and Adjunct Faculty of Islamic Studies; Rabbi Or N. Rose, Associate Dean and Director of Interfaith and Social Justice programs at Hebrew College; and Paul Knitter, Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary
2011 Interfaith Events
Faigy joined our team last July as the first Community Development Administrator, was quickly trained, and then helped Samir and the many volunteers who make up the Faith House community keep Faith House running while Bowie was out on maternity leave in September and October!
She recently realized that she would need to take five classes in the fall semester and do a year-long intensive internship in order to graduate on time (keep her in your prayers!), coming to conclusion that she will need to step down from her work with Faith House on August 31.
Faigy has been a powerhouse this past year and has greatly increased our infrastructure, improved our social media presence and communications, organized financial data, coordinated volunteers, and this summer is building a new website!
In addition, she created our Community Database using SalesForce, the Shop in Good Faith portal, and Cafe Press store (where you can buy Faith House t-shirts, mugs and more!). She opened a new Facebook Fanpage, kept our Twitter and MeetUp accounts current, set up our new EventBrite RSVP system, responded to general email inquiries, and suggested Living Room topics and hosts, including Ari Hart and Chris Stedman. We look forward to launching the new Faith House Manhattan website she is working on now!
We are deeply indebted to her and will miss her. You can continue to reach her... or send her a note to say Thanks! through the end of the summer at [email protected]
Faith House is part of a larger movement that is spreading through every continent, every religion, and every home-a movement to learn to live interdependently on our newly small planet, with courage and compassion. It is incredibly easy to retreat from these challenges and slip back into our old ways, to isolate and look out for ourselves alone.
How is your journey towards interdependence progressing? Are you (and your family) practicing the presence of the other in your life? Do you have a growing desire to discover the needs and beauty of your new neighbors, new coworkers, new friends? Are you exposing yourself to their unique ways of seeing, thinking, and loving? Does your heart ache when you notice suffering among them or injustice done to them?
If so, Faith House Manhattan is an extension of your efforts and your love. Don't give up. We are in this together. This summer marks three full years of our hope and our impact! We have grown and diversified and are still committed to our mission:
"We are an experiential inter-religious community that comes together to deepen our personal and communal journeys..."
This has been at the heart of our growth this year. We have been learning the value of a "practice" of experiencing our neighbor's faith in community, attending programs together, deepening friendships across faiths, building trust, always surprised by the infinite varieties of religious life and spirituality, thus making us all better understand, question, and appreciate our own.
Our Kitchen Table team gathers monthly in Samir's apartment around a literal kitchen table to share our "faith stories," soup and salad, reflections on past events and future plans, and dreams of how to better connect with people like you. Members of the Kitchen Table and Board of Directors went on a weekend-long retreat in March, which included Friday night Shabbat, Muslim and Christian text meditations, clean up of the local road, deep conversations, time to simply be together, and a fun talent show. Two members of the Kitchen Table will be starting seminary in the fall and we are excited that you and the Faith House community in New York have been part of their journey!
"...share ritual life and devotional space..."
Our Living Rooms continue to be safe spaces to experience each other's religious observances, ranging from Ash Wednesday with Transmission, an emerging house church; a Tu BeShevat Seder with Yitzhak Buxbaum, celebrating the fruits from the tree of life; and a session on Interfaith Love with Rabbi Burt Siegel, who has been marrying interfaith couples for 40 years!
More than 250 people attended our 3rd Annual Interfaith Seder with Rabbi David Ingber of Romemu at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church. We also launched a new Women's Spirituality Circle led by Jill Minkoff and Ashley Curl. This group had a winter and spring gathering, with a summer one planned for July 9.
"and foster a commitment to social justice and healing the world."
Two of our recent Living Rooms were focused on justice and healing, one around an Ethical Kosher Seal, which struggles to ensure workers' rights and ethical practices in the Kosher food industry, and another called "Uprising: Perspectives and Prayers for Egypt" organized by Frank Fredericks of World Faith with a panel of native Egyptians.
The 10th Anniversary of 9/11 is coming up and we are collaborating with other interfaith groups to prepare for this commemoration that will deeply affect our city. In May, Samir Co-Chaired the 9th Annual City Wide Interfaith Teach-In on Approaching the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.
Next Steps
This June, our final Living Room was be led by Chris Stedman, Interfaith & Community Service Fellow for the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University called "(F)a(i)theist: How One Atheist Learned to Overcome the Religious-Secular Divide, and Why Atheists and the Religious Must Work Together." Soon, Bowie and Samir head to North Carolina, where they are organizing the interfaith track for the first Wild Goose Festival!
This summer, Faigy will be hard at work building a new website for Faith House, while Bowie will be preparing the fall calendar and working on grant proposals.
Nothing good in the world comes without perseverance. Through our birth, growth, and each new season, we come to you with gratitude for your vision, your actions, and your tangible support of this extraordinary co-laboratory we have created with you.
We want to be a powerful extension of your aspirations. Because we want to make an impact, we have cut down on every single expenditure we possibly can and are now operating lean, but strong. As we finish our 3rd year, please help us raise $30,000 by June 30th so we can together continue to participate at the growing edge of the revolution of interdependence that is sweeping over the world. We cannot do it without your help today.
With gratitude for your willingness to make an impact with us,
Samir Selmanovic, Founder
Bowie Snodgrass, Executive Director
P.S. - To make this fundraising effort more fun, we have managed a little something for all contributors! Everyone who gives during the month of June will receive a PDF of our "Food and Faith: The Cookbook!" and all who give $300 or more will receive a copy of a small jewel of a book, 100 Graces: Mealtime Blessings signed by the author and a Faith House supporter, Marcia Kelly.
Click above to give online with a Credit Card
or send a check to "Faith House Manhattan"
P.O. Box 552, New York, NY 10028
... we got more than 30,000 website hits in the past year?
...opened a Faceook Page this year that now has more than 300 fans?
...that we have over 300 Tweets on @FaithHouseNOW?Live Tweets from the 3rd Annual Interfaith Seder on Sunday, April 17th by @SamirSelmanovic with Photos by Sean McGinn. Check out full photo set.
Exploring meaning of freedom at 3rd Faith House Passover Seder at progressive St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic church, more than 200 of us!
To dance or to cry? Jews know music and will keep us tonight in this dilemma of life until we burst into both!
Rabbi David Ingber evokes the meaning of Palm Sunday and affirms Rebbe Jesus as a holy teacher of freedom.
Biblical concept of hope where humans must act to have freedom has been supplanted by passive notion of optimism.
We are born with gift off freedom inside of us. When world oppresses us there is a way back to who we are: 15 Passover steps back to freedom
Time is not cyclical but open. Future is unknown and dependent on human action. Freedom starts with freedom of time.
Close your eyes, imagine you are in total and cold dark. You are going to pieces, there is no hope. You are a slave.
On your lips there is salt from tears of your enslavement. We dip green leaves into salty water recognizing that new shoots of life do come.
Hebrew word for bread is the same word for brokenness. Hasidic masters say that we cannot live without either of them.
We won't be fooled by movements which free only some of us & in which our so-called "freedom" rests upon enslavement or embitterment of others
Slaves just say 'it is what it is.' The most insidious form of slavery is when we stop asking questions.
Questions are beginning of freedom, like 'why are rich getting richer and poor getting poorer,'
Hebrew word Egypt means ‘narrow place.’ In Jewish mystical tradition narrow place of throat is a holder of bondage. Speech brings redemption.
Two women saving baby Moses by subverting the edict is the 1st historical record of civil disobedience. From then on human story shifts from might to right
“God help us dream new paths to freedom so that the next sea-opening is not also a drowning, so that our singing is never again their wailing”
Wow, the whole crowd of Jews, Christians, Muslims is bursting into singing, clapping with raised hands singing Dayenu (Enough)!
Breaking of Matzah bread is like breaking the tablets of the law. No absolute can withstand, all are idols. No religion or system has arrived
Here is a pic, 250 of us singing at the end of Passover Seder on Palm Sunday! Heavenly. yfrog.com/h7yuiylj
Rabbi David finishes with quoting St Augustine, freedom of finding ones rest in who we are made for and with New Testament and Rumi. G'night
Thank you, Zac, for sending this!
In our suburban, mostly white, mostly Christian city in southwestern Indiana, our private high school has longed for opportunities to interact with the rest of the world. We welcome the chance to study different cultures, political systems, and religions in meaningful ways. While we have a handful of Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu students in our school, none of them happened to enroll in our World Religions class this semester. Those enrolled in the class came from highly similar Midwestern Christian backgrounds. So what are a bunch of mostly white, mostly Christian, suburbanites supposed to do to get a better understanding of those different religious faiths?
About a year ago, I learned of a fascinating man named Samir Selmanovic. Pastor Samir is the author of the book: It’s Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian. He is also a founder of Faith House Manhattan, an interfaith community at the growing edge of a movement to do more than just tolerate and respect those of differing faiths. This movement aims to humbly approach the other in an effort to learn and not just to share one’s own beliefs.
With a book subtitle like that, and an obviously unique way of approaching different religions, my interest was piqued. This belief that others have more to teach us than we have to teach them resonated with me. This ended up setting the tone for our class philosophy, and we decided to contact Samir for help.
We wanted to better know what it feels like to walk in the shoes of someone who follows Islam, Judaism, or Hinduism. We literally wanted to share of their soles. We asked Samir if he could help us to locate some shoes from his friends to help us to physically experience this in our classroom.
We would be spending a certain amount of time on each religion in our class, with guest speakers to boot. As a sort of final project for each religion, I wanted each student to prepare a short presentation, imagining what a day in the life of an other might be like. The idea was to experience true empathy for those of differing faiths, and not just detached knowledge about those faiths.
Samir was very warm to the idea. He responded promptly and graciously, ignoring our offer to pay to ship these shoes to us from New York City. He remarked offhandedly that paying to ship the shoes “would be rewarding for the giver to do”. Samir’s philosophies were becoming more captivating with every step. Out of the blue, I received a non-descript, cardboard box from Samir. It happened to be right before our World Religions class, so I brought it in to open in front of the rest of the class. The students were thrilled and intrigued by the shoes, many of them commenting on how “normal” they looked. We were now prepared to put flesh into these shoes and put flesh onto the beliefs we were studying.
As the students gave their presentations, I was struck by how natural it was for them to step into the role of an other. With all of the fervor in the media regarding terrorism by Islamic militants, and the Park 51 project near Ground Zero in New York City, I expected that the students might have a particularly difficult time relating to Islam in an authentic, personal, empathetic manner. Quite the contrary was true. The students all seemed to express an awareness of the hostility towards Islam, and demonstrated how they (their character) relied on God and their community of faith to stand strong. The same was true of Judaism and Hinduism. Each student commented on how many similarities between beliefs there ended up being.
In the end, we felt a sense of a journey’s inauguration because of our experience. While we are not experts in the faiths that millions of our fellow humans live and breathe every day, we are certainly much less ignorant. We are sincerely thankful to Samir and Faith House Manhattan for their munificence. I hope that our small steps together have produced a hunger to taste more of the rich bounty of truth and beauty that seems to be everywhere, in everything, and not just in our Christian tradition.
With warmest regards,
Zac Parsons
By Ben Schnell
I heard about Faith House from the book Its Really All About God by Samir Selmanovic. I had to check it out. There was only two problems. The first was that its a bit of a commute from Portland Maine, where I live, to New York City, just for one evening. The second problem is that I had just sold my car and was getting around on a small Honda Scooter.
But then it hit me, driving on a scooter that only goes 35 miles an hour from Portland Maine to New York city, just for one event that would only last for a couple hours... what an adventure! So I put on long johns, 2 pairs of pants, 3 coats, and set off. I could only go half way in one day, so I couchsurfed in Amherst Massachusetts on the way down, and made it to New York on the second day.
The ride was very cold but the event was very warm. It was a holiday craft event. I met Samir, and many others from different faith backgrounds. Several people shared about the different kinds of crafts their families would do together around the holidays. I learned about Hanukkah, Islamic prayer beads, and Eastern Orthodox Icons. It was informative, but more than that, it was warm and social.
With so much religiously motivated violence in the world today, people getting together in a living room setting to celebrate each other's faith, now thats worth seeing, even if it means a long, chilly commute!
The opening of a chapter I wrote about the first year of Faith House for the recently released book Discovering the Spirit in the City, Edited by Andrew Walker and Aaron Kennedy (Continuum 2010)
Experience Your Neighbor's Faith: Faith House Manhattan
By Bowie Snodgrass
SIDEWALK SALAT
My husband, George, and I were rushing between errands on a Tuesday afternoon in Manhattan. Walking and talking and carrying heavy loads, we turned onto a broad empty street and became present to calm spaciousness. A Halal food cart at the corner had no person standing guard, but coming closer, we noticed a man on the sidewalk. We could only see his bent back. His knees and forehead touched a small blue carpet, he was prostrate in prayer, facing Mecca from Manhattan.
We slowed down and slipped by in silence, aware of prayer in the air and feeling blessed by his practice of faith. In the past, I might have felt awkward or concerned about intruding. Instead, I opened my soul for a minute to remember that “Glory be to God, the Most High” and that people were praying all over the city.
I remember a college professor writing down the Five Pillars of Islam on a blackboard during a Religious Studies class, telling us that one pillar was Salat, the prayers practiced five times a day by observant Muslims. But I never grasped the prayerfulness, the inherent value of religious veneration, of doing Salat until I was invited to try one myself at Faith House.
Our second year began with a Ramadan Iftar, the meal where Muslims break their daily sun-up-to-sun-down fast during the month of Ramadan (another Pillar of Islam). Mujadid, a Sufi dervish, invited everyone to perform Salat. Some watched, but almost fifty people – Mulims, Jews, Christians, agnostics and others – arranged themselves into five rows. Mujadid translated the words that would be chanted in Arabic into English and invited non-Muslims to participate in the body movements. You are welcome, he said, to pray to Jesus or Moses or simply be present to the moment.
That invitation to try Salat, to experience it with my body and offer prayers to God and Jesus alongside my Muslim friends, opened my heart. There was no attempt to convert me to Islam, but I was converted in that instant to the profound beauty and humility of Salat, of submitting before God with my forehead upon the ground, this faith practice of my neighbors.
There is urgency in Faith House’s mission to be: “an experiential inter-religious community that comes together to deepen our personal and communal journeys, share ritual life and devotional space, and foster a commitment to social justice and healing the world.” Samir Selmanovic, who founded Faith House, says we can’t wait for the 2–3 billion Christians and Muslims in the world to become secular to have world peace. Faith House calls us to “dig further into our texts, traditions, and practices to help us experience, understand and actually learn to need one another.”
... with the following sections
TRYING ON TAGLINES
LIVING ROOM
FAITH TIME
GOD IN SPACE
LENT: A CASE STUDY
OUT INTO THE CITY
Religion comes to the news in cycles. Just when we think we are beyond religious intolerance, we witness another conflict, another act of exclusion, another burst of violence, and the pretense is torn away. Next year will have its measure of these disappointments and at times tragedies. They will be inevitable until we realize and take seriously the interdependent nature of our life together and structure our lives accordingly. Faith House exists to fill this need here and now. We want to help people experience and thus know "the other," which is the most potent factor of all.
The year we launched Faith House, 2008, was a year of dreaming. We envisioned individuals and communities in a dynamic relationship with their 'other.' We knew how encountering the vitality and beauty within 'the other' possesses the power to make us aware of our own limits, in a healthy way, as well as enrich our own faith. Dreams have power and an urban laboratory of interdependence was born.
While we dreamed, the economy crashed. So the following year 2009 turned out to be a year of consolidation. Like a child who needs to bump into objects in order to learn to walk, we had our measure of obstacles. We organized and re-organized, we tried this, and that, and the other, and like every community, we had to learn to be patient and forgiving, both to others and to ourselves. And we have not only survived and learned our limits, but have begun to actually walk the talk and develop a network of people who want to participate in our interdependent future.
This year, 2010, was a year of building our capacity. We had to give attention to the nuts and bolts of our dream: effective communication, efficient administration, online presence, database management, and the like. Our main challenge this year has been the fact that this space "in between faiths" is not owned by anyone and therefore has no institutional or systemic support available. Faith exists at this "in between" and we realize that we depend on visionaries like you, people thinking ahead and willing to act and support the future now.
This coming year, 2011, we are ready to make a bigger impact and grow. While staying lean and agile, we want to risk more with the issues we discuss, people we include, and challenges that we put before ourselves. For example, we want to begin offering pastoral care for interfaith families and women's spiritual groups, expand our advocacy for religious freedom, forge vibrant relationships between different communities, and provide more support for causes that combat poverty, war, and environmental degradation. We want to help people celebrate the richness of human diversity through concerts, forums, and our third annual Passover Seder for an inter-religious audience. And we want to do all of this while simultaneously continuing what we do best and what makes the difference: helping people experience 'the other.'
Many people run away or are indifferent to these difficult issues, but the fact that you are reading this letter sets you apart as a person who is willing to face the grim reality, and hope. With your help there is so much that can be done! Can you believe with us?
Another kind of world is not only possible, but is on her way. If you have been curiously following what we do or perhaps cheering us from the sidelines, now is the time to become a part of our extended community and help us make an impact and grow in the coming year. We operate independently of any political party, religious organization, or institution. That's why every bit of support from a person like you is crucial. When you contribute, you can be sure that you have connected real people together and made this world a better place. Thank you for contributing right now.
Sept 22 "LGBT = Let's Get Beyond Tolerance: An ordinary religious community breaks through the barrier to love" with Rev. Stephen Phelps
Oct 13 "Samhain: A Season of Harvest, a Circle of Remembrance" with Temple of the Spiral Path
Oct 27 "Bible, Interrupted: Can the oldest tool for transmission of sacred scriptures serve as a bridge between religions?" with Amichai Lau-Lavie, Founder and Executive Director of Storahtelling
Nov 10 "Interbeing: Experience the Heart of Islam" with Khabir McGeehan, Juliet rabia Gentile and the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order
Dec 8 Creating Sacred Objects (Title and Hosts TBA)
You can also sponsor one of our Living Room gatherings this fall with a donation of $250 or $500 (Living Room sponsorships will also be matched!). See Sponsorship details in sidebar below.
Visit our Donate page for all giving options!
The city is bustling with people this September carrying difficult memories and great hopes. Thank you for contributing and helping us use every ounce of our energy to make a difference in New York City!
Our
Fall 2010 Living Room season will return on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays
of each month, running from September 22 through December 8th, with a
Thanksgiving break on the 4th Wednesday in November.
Photo: Nelson Costa Jr.
Intersections
274 Fifth Ave, between 29th and 30th
September 22
October 13
October 27
November 10
December 8
Doors at 6 PM, Program at 7 PM
All programs free and open to the public. Donations welcome.
A Letter from Samir Selmanovic, Faith House Founder
It was on the first anniversary of 9/11 that I made an announcement to my family and friends: "I will risk more and sooner." I was done with my religion as usual. It dawned on me that religious zealotry cannot be fought with indifference. Extremists feeding on prejudice, legislating exclusion, and resorting to violence cannot be prevailed upon with less passion from people like you and me. Telling them to "cool down" will do nothing at all. We must allow fires greater than theirs to arise. It is our passion for a whole and interdependent world that must rise above their passion for a segregated and zero-sum world. So, when I get intimidated, despondent, or exhausted in this struggle for interdependence, I sing to myself quietly and prayerfully with a chorus of voices all over the world, "We shall overcome."
This risk taking led me to start Faith House Manhattan, along with my wife, daughters, and many of you. Faith House is only a part of a larger movement towards interdependence; there are many visionary individuals and organizations we are learning from. Yet, Faith House is unique. It exists to make sure that people have an opportunity to experience "the other." Inevitably, experience engenders compassion. And compassion is an uncontrollable force. It overturns our ways of thinking, it mobilizes, it changes, it sustains. And that's what Faith House does, unleashes compassion.From our July 8, 2010 Newsletter
We did it! With your support Faith House has been able to envision and create a unique space where people with different religious traditions come together for deeper understanding of the faith, practices, and culture of "the other." Understanding is powerful. It evokes empathy, it motivates us to defend others, it makes people dream, it inspires action. Faith House is about understanding, and understanding affects everything!
With your support, we have been learning from, teaching, and networking with a variety of leaders and communities in the city, around the country, and the world who have been encouraged by the work of Faith House.
Facebook CauseExperiencing my neighbor's faith has inspired me to deepen my own. ~ Russell Chin
As a member of a minority faith, I often feel isolated. Faith House feels like a teacher whose class you never want to miss, a welcoming community. ~ Valerie H.F.Faith House is the only organization I know of that celebrates and shares the tenets of a variety of spiritual paths with all who come through the doors. Their programs educate, stimulate, entertain, and delight. Like a pebble in a pond, they create ever-growing circles of understanding and acceptance in these strife-filled times. ~ Marcia Kelly, Author of Sanctuaries: A Guide to Lodgings in Monasteries, Abbeys, and Retreats and 100 Graces: Mealtime Blessings
Faith House means that people of all faiths have a spiritual home to encounter each other, inspire each other, and join hands to heal the world together. ~ Rabbi Justus N. Baird, Director, Center for Multifaith Education, Auburn Theological Seminary, NY
In the short time since its founding as a creative, courageous experiment in delight for deep differences, Faith House Manhattan has become a respected model for the enterprise of broadening interreligious understanding. ~ Lucinda Mosher, Christian ethicist in the Anglican tradition who works as a consultant, educator, and author on interreligious matters
Faith House is the rare place Rumi writes about:I come to Faith House because it gives me the opportunity to learn and experience the faith and religion of others without feeling like an outsider. ~ Mairim Pina
As someone who has been "multifaith savy" - and even a multifaith professional - I wondered what Faith House would have to offer me. I find that the Living Rooms are aptly named - a place to come and be without pretense or need to defend positions. A place for honest and comfortable learning and sharing of faith. ~ Ula BarrackI come to Faith House to hear and listen to new ideas and meet intelligent people. Faith House has become part of new source or you can say a fountain of knowledge refreshing my old thoughts about my religion and compromising them with other religions ideas. It is very valuable to the city for the volunteering they do and we get to know and learn from each other how to do the good thing for our community. All my love and support. ~ Ali Mansour
Faith House has come at an opportune time in my spiritual journey. I look forward to every event. It gives me a better understanding of different faiths and their practices, which I believe is important in a diverse community. ~ Miguel Angelo ColmenaresFaith House has made me realize that my fear of other religions is totally unfounded, and in fact utterly stupid. ~ Sam McCash
A beloved story from the Christian scriptures teaches that to "love my neighbor" I first must discover who s/he is, beyond easy definitions. Faith House opens a living room where neighbors we would never meet sit and eat, each one teaching, and all hearts open. Thank you to all the staff and planners. ~ Rev. Stephen H. Phelps
A shared hope that in coming together we preserve our unique selves, multiply our possibilities, and by gazing deeply into the Other, nurture the divinity within oneself. ~ Rathi Raja, President of Arsha Vedanta Center of Long Island and the Executive Director of Young Indian Culture Group
Where the world of faith is a house with windows and doors that open, offering sight and access to different beliefs, there Faith House Manhattan offers the light to experience interreligious beauty.~ Fabian Munz
Faith House leaders and their invited guests to the series they organize are experts in the religions they practice. Definitely, they know what they are sharing. The interfaith meetings are a way to cultivate respect, inclusiveness, peace, love and compassion for our neighbors. The mission of Faith House is important in these postmodern times marked by individualism and consumerism because it nurtures our communities with a spirituality that promotes peace and social justice. Faith House gatherings are full of creativity and hospitality is at the center of these sessions. ~ Luz Diaz, Religious Education Office, St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church, NYSelected endorsements are included in our "We Can Do It Together!" appeal
Facebook Cause
Visit our website and eNewsletter archive to check out all we've done.Email Bowie Snodgrass [email protected] with what you've liked best and what you would like to see in our next year.
LEADERSHIP
In March 2009, Bowie Snodgrass
became the Executive Director of Faith House and is now 20 weeks
pregnant with her first child! Her primary focus for this spring and
summer is getting Faith House ready for its third year and her
maternity leave. 
~ ~ ~
Pesach Sameach, Happy Passover to all of my Jewish friends! Your legacy of freedom loving has blessed the entire world.Faith House Manhattan Passover Seder for multi-faith crowd is beginning, with singing of niggun, a wordless song of longing...
... "We give thanks for the liberation of days gone by. And we pray for all who are still bound." ...
... First commandment to Jews was about the moon. Freedom and redemption comes first from reclaiming TIME ...... this is Festival of Freedom, we wash each others hands to give up what we clutch, and then raise them with gratitude ...
... consider where your hands have been last year, what you used them for to gain, letting others wash is an act of trust ...
... Passover is not about passing over but about passing thru, we are blessing bitter herb, a symbol of renewal, new birth ...
... We dip herb into salty water, a symbol of our tears, then we eat it ...
... matzo is unleavened bread, is not puffed up, our soul does not need additives, faith is simple, "unless you are a child ..." ...
... matzo is broken as each of us is broken, Rabbi says "we can see Christ in all places" (so gracious, to mention Christ, made me tear up) …
... In Hebrew Land of Egypt, Mitzraim, means 'constricted place' where regime does not allow you to ask questions, no asking 'Why?'...
… what are other subversive questions we need to air in this constricted place (here, everyone speaks up) ...
... we tend to deny we are captives, we play wise, we play dejected, and we play naive, but we have hard time facing our bondage ...
... story in 7 short chapters: security, otherness, burning, mandate, escape, mourning, liberation ...
... modern days Pharaohs: consumption, prejudice, corporate thugs, resentment, indifference, military self-perpetuation, entitlement, apathy..
... little known: four fifths of Jewish people stayed and died in Egypt, we don't want to make steps to freedom ...
... big part of Passover is grieving for Egyptian people as one's own family, grieving that suffering is a part of our stories of freedom ...
... the thing that scares you the most has a secret of your life and a key, that's why blood went to the doorposts ...... by blessing the bread we bless every thing and every one that gives us sustenance ...
... we are eating bitter and sweeter together between matzo bread, life is a bitter-sweet sandwich ...... Let the freedom ring!
All photos by Carlos Martín
Faith House has been blessed for the last eighteen months by Juliet rabia Gentile's work as a founding staff member and Islamic Co-Leader. Rabia, a Dervish of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order, is a person of spiritual depth who has helped shape Faith House conceptually in its first stages of development, contributing to the Mission, Vision, Principles, website content, as well as the design and "feel" of our Living Room gatherings.
In mid-February, Rabia will begin a traveling sabbatical away from New York, where she will be working on a new book about her journey on the path of Sufism.
Rabia has been a friend, a budding mystic in our midst, and we look forward to her continued participation in the community, including opportunities for her to guest host future Living Rooms. For the next couple months, you can continue to email any messages to [email protected]
Living Room Gatherings Designed by Juliet rabia GentileMessage from Rabia
Dear Friends and Members of the Faith House Community,
When I first joined Faith House Manhattan a year and a half ago it was
like entering a new experiment in religious life. Each one of us had a
vision for Faith House, but that vision had not yet taken form. The
journey that unfolded in the doing, the reaching out, and the effort of
shaping spiritual community in New york City was an invaluable
experience that has enriched my life in myriad ways. Every moment of my
time at Faith House has been precious and has taught me about myself,
it has been a beautiful journey of discovery and learning for me.
It is an honor to know each of you and to have watched you grow and
push yourselves out of your comfort zones to experience the "other." It
is in these places of vulnerability, when we are pushed beyond our
limits, that we experience true generosity of spirit.
I want to thank you for your generosity and your friendship. I look
forward to watching this beautiful community blossom and grows in the
coming years.
May God's light guide you and inspire you in every moment and with every breath!
-Rabia
Read the Spirit is an online home for readers who believe that diverse spiritual connections between people of faith build stronger communities. Their online magazine includes inspirational stories, fresh voices, reviews of books and films—and much more. Click HERE to find out why we in Faith House think David Crumm and Read the Spirit are likely the best online resource for all things inter-religious.
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Some of us call it "The December Dilemma"—because so many of us feel torn each holiday season about how to properly honor our diverse religious traditions without trampling anyone in the process.
It's easy to leap enthusiastically from celebrating religious diversity—to a kind of wholesale consumption. That kind of eclectic approach to spirituality can quickly erode the authenticity of any one tradition.
To which we quickly add with Seinfeld: "Not that there's anything wrong with that!" Come back tomorrow and you'll read what we think is a wonderfully thoughtful essay by a writer who—like millions of Americans right now—is indeed mixing and matching her religious inspirations.That's why we call December a "dilemma." What's a writer to do? How do we weave our way through Jewish, Christian and Muslim holidays, not to mention Kwanzaa and traditions in other religions that tend to vanish in an American landscape that's pushing "all Christmas all the time."
Samir Selmanovic was born into a secular-Muslim family in eastern Europe, then converted to Christianity thanks to a friend he met while serving in the army. Later, he immigrated to the U.S., became the pastor of a small congregation in New York City and eventually founded Faith House Manhattan to explore interreligious relationships. Finally, he began writing about his many adventures.
Samir takes a distinctive approach to religious diversity that we think is helpful in sorting out dilemmas like December in America. In his quest to clarify these issues, Samir uses terms like "urban laboratory," "interdependence" and "strangeness."
In a nutshell: Samir argues that we should not try to homogenize the "strangeness"—or uniqueness—of our distinctive religious backgrounds. Samir agrees with ReadTheSpirit that strong, healthy communities depend, today, on celebrating our diversity. But, Samir also insists that we avoid trying to blend, or even soften the edges, of our unique perspectives on faith—including atheism as one perspective. The key to recognizing our interdependence, he argues, comes from learning the value of defending our neighbor's religious perspective.
SAMIR: Well, that is the door through which I entered the Christian faith. The counter-cultural aspect of Adventism and its emphasis on holistic living attracted me. I also appreciate that some of our practices connect with Eastern traditions. I appreciate that our Sabbath on Saturday is rooted in Judaism. . . .
TO CONTINUE READING THE INTERVIEW: http://www.readthespirit.com/explore/2009/12/581-interview-samir-selmanovic-faith-house-manhattan.html
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Continue reading "An Urban Laboratory of Interdependence " »
Report by Bara Levitt, Faith House Social Justice Intern
Photos by Alvin Poblacion
On October 3, a group of 12 Faith House volunteers gathered in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn as a part of Islamic Relief's National "Day of Dignity" program to serve America’s most needy in 19 cities across America.
So you have a sense of how many wonderful items were
distributed I have included a list here: a full hot meal and
prepackaged groceries, sweatshirts, socks, gloves, knit caps, scarves,
t-shirts, bed sheets, deodorant, flashlights, emergency preparedness kits,
towels soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes. In addition to these great
items, basic medical and dental screenings were also available for those
interested.
We definitely made a difference and were left with much to think about.
What really struck me was the make up and number of the
individuals in attendance to receive the day’s services. The people we
served did not fit any mold! They
were young and old, singles and families, they represented many different
ethnic groups and spoke many different languages, some came with large carts,
while others had small children by the hand and a quite a few were pushing
strollers. There were even a few
children who came by themselves.
There is no way in observing and interacting with a line like this that
I could pretend that there is any mold for what in need looks like.
Living in New York City has had a large role in shaping my
conception of what a person in need looks like. Traveling on the subway,
I am, as I assume many of you can relate, constantly faced with individuals
selling their wares or appealing to their fellow travelers for food or money.
In addition to lived experience, popular culture has also influenced my
understanding of what a person in need looks like and acts like. I have consciously made an effort over
the past few years to shake these stereotypical assumptions, in order to be
better open to and aware of different people in need. The first Serve Together
was an experience that helped me on my way to doing so.
Our Serve Together opportunities this year are set up in
order to give you a taste of the amazing work being done around the city and
the countless social justice issues being tackled by that work. We hope
that you will find an issue you are interested in and passionate about, an
issue you feel you can and want to contribute to, and get involved.
I am here as a Social Justice intern to facilitate these "tastes of social justice", but also to help you become more involved with Social Justice work on a regular basis. Please contact me about ways you can become involved in social justice issue on a regular basis or to suggest a Serve Together opportunity for the future. If you are a member of an organization that is looking for regular volunteers please let me know as well.
I hope you will join us for future Serve Together opportunities. Please mark your calendar for October 25 when from 12:30-3:00 we will be carving pumpkins, visiting and serving snacks to members of one of the Metropolitan Council for Jewish Poverty’s low income senior residences in Manhattan.
Social Justice Intern
[email protected]
All photos on this page by Alvin Poblacion.
Slideshow of three dozen photos from the Day of Dignity
View All Faith House Manhattan Photos by Alvin Poblacion
G'mar Chatimah Tovah
Below is a powerful refection written by a Christian participant on her subway ride home after the gathering and prayers led by Jill Minkoff as part of the event.
AN AWAKENING
~ by Penny Elsley
Last Wednesday night I entered the Faith House Living Room gathering “How to Enter the Holy of Holies: Preparing for Yom Kippur” somewhat asleep to the gift of this moment in my life. As I heard these words – “The bold invitation of these days (leading up to Yom Kippur) is to go inside...to enter the inner life” – I was immediately awoken from my slumber, just like in the ancient days when people were awoken from their slumber by the blowing of the ShofarYOM KIPPUR PRAYERS
I am walking in a space where I do not know what the future holds and I have been too busy “making” something happen to make room to receive the gift of this uncertainty.
We just need to make room. A lot of room. And the “living Room” experience of Faith House Manhattan was my awakening. I realized that in fact the deepest wells of life are dug in the times when we are forced to make room. When we are vulnerable, times when we can only rely on our neighbor, when we do not and cannot know what awaits us around the next corner, these are the moments to be treasured.
In this moment I am anxious and scared and disappointed...yet there is a surprising joy, for there has been a re-connection somewhere within me. Everything is noticeable right now. Maybe its because I need help...not just to find a job or to get a visa, but help finding my way. And so I am receptive, hanging off every word of every conversation...listening for that which resonates with me, with my dreams and my passions...where are the clues?...the signposts?...the hooks on which to hang my coat?
I seek because I need. I thirst because I feel something. I long because I am at the threshold...again. And the gift of all this, the richness of this liminal space, is that we realize in a very concrete way that we cannot survive without the other...and so the gloriousness of this design becomes apparent. The prayers, the encouragement, the wisdom and insights shared...all in the hope of offering me comfort...do indeed comfort... because they create a depth of space for trust, an emptiness for the new to arrive, for faith to be faith.This is a different kind of emptiness, the kind we were created to thrive on. At a time when I am tempted to despair, instead I feel immense gratitude and hope. In the “living room” of Faith House, I was uplifted by companions on the journey. Being emptied and stripped of some of the false self, I have awoken to the promise of this time where there is every possibility and no possibility, coexisting. Perhaps I have arrived at the intended destination?
~ Led by Jill Minkoff at Faith House Living Room, September 23, 2009
from Gates of Repentance, by Joshua Goldman
We have sinned against You, O God, and against each other.Look now to the cities:
Help us to turn, O God;
Help us to find forgiveness.
Continue reading "Yom Kippur at Faith House:
An Awakening & Prayers" »
Religion at its best crosses one's own boundaries with acts
of love, service and blessing for "the other." Faith House
Manhattan exists as a safe space where we can begin to practice some
counter-intuitive ways of living out our faith. After twenty years of my work
in Christian religious circles, I have rarely if ever seen Christians blessing people
on other paths. I always see Christians collecting money for Christians,
Muslims collecting money for Muslims, and Jews collecting money for Jews, or
all of them collecting money for a general need, and so on. But the promise of
our religions is not a mere promise to our adherents but to the world.
That is why I think that giving money across religious
boundaries is one of the most potent way to sabotage the efforts of fundamentalists
of all stripes. For Christians, Jews, and Humanists, this Ramadan is an opportunity not to be missed! So,
this is my appeal to all non-Muslims: Let's
help Rabia and Islamic Involvement at Faith House get a strong footing and
thrive. Let's reach across the boundaries that differentiate our precious
stories and support our Muslim friends in the hard and creative work of making
this city and this country a better place for all of us. Perhaps, helping those
who are not part of our religion is, in the eyes of heavens, the greatest test
of loyalty to God.
Support The Gifts of Islam at Faith House Manhattan.
$50 Support
our online communication and print materials
$100 Provide
an honorarium for a visiting artist or musician
$300 Cover
the expenses for one of our twice-monthly Living Room Gatherings
$500 Contribute
to the Islamic Co-Leader stipend
Other Amount - Any and all contributions welcome!
Please mail your tax-deductible contribution to:
Faith House Manhattan
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Everything that has life, changes.
Religion
has proven its ability to isolate and destroy. Now is the time for religion to prove its ability to
integrate and heal, create and nurture new changes. Each religion needs a context and opportunity to learn to
live in our newly interdependent
world, finding strength within its own mysteries.
Tolerance and appreciation between religions is simply not enough. Change must go deeper. We all must dig further into our texts, traditions, and practices to find resources that can help us experience, understand and need one another. The earth itself demands this. That's why we have Faith House, a place where we can experiment, learn, commit, and act together for the good of the world. Faith House exists so that we can all learn to love and live with those who are different from us. We will discover ways of knowing each other more deeply and serving the world in synergy instead of competition. There are no clear footsteps on this journey we have taken. That's why we have embraced change as a way of life together. We are beginning this second year of Faith House with some courageous steps of change based on what we have learned. So much of what we plan to do is new from our new fall Living Room schedule on a new night, Samir's upcoming book It's Really All About God, our new Social Justice Intern, and a new "look and feel" for this Newsletter and our website (in process!). Please take a minute to read our revised "Mission, Vision, Principles" posted on our website and let us know what you think! Welcome to Faith House Manhattan 2.0! You our friends from New York City and around the world provide the strength, passion, and most of all, the support and love that sustain the heart of our adventure! |
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LIVING ROOM GATHERINGS
Begin again on 9/9/09!  "Twice a month, Faith House hosts Living Room gatherings
where we share holy days, learn new spiritual practices, and address current
cultural and social issues. Each gathering has a specific theme and hands-on,
participatory elements." ~ from Mission, Vision, Principles New Day & Time WEDNESDAY Evenings this Fall Doors @ 6 PM, Program @ 7 PM Same location INTERSECTIONS, 274 Fifth Ave, between 29th and 30th Upcoming Programs September 9 Banquet of Love: A Ramadan Feast with the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Community This year we would like to invite you to a special opportunity to experience a Ramadan Iftar feast (fasting is optional) with the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Community, as well as others. There will be delicious food, prayer, Quranic readings, poetry and music. Special guest on Sitar, Dawoud. Rabia is providing a vegetarian Iftar meal. Beverages, fresh fruit and desserts are most welcome! Please RSVP so we have a sense of how many people are coming. Email [email protected] or sign up on our Facebook Event or Meetup Event online. September 23 Preparing for Yom Kippur with Jill Minkoff, Amichai Lau-Lavie & Storahtelling guests October 14 Spirit & the Creative Imagination October 28 Paul Knitter on themes from his new book "Without Buddha, I Could Not Be a Christian" November 11 Marcia Kannry, from The Dialogue Project, & Sam Aboela from the Progressive Muslim Meetup, lead a session on Israel & Palestine November 25 Interfaith Thanksgiving December 9 TBA December 23 Deconstructed Pre-Christmas Rummage Sale All programs FREE. Donations welcome. |
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NEW BOOK BY SAMIR SELMANOVIC
It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian  Release Date: September 22, 2009Pre-order online or at your local bookstore It's Really All About God is a very personal story and a thrilling exploration of a redeeming, dynamic, and radically different way of treasuring one's own religion while discovering God, goodness, and grace in others and in their traditions. "Samir Selmanovic is asking the right questions at the right time, and refusing the consolations of certainty at a time when strident orthodoxies--atheist as well as religious--are perilously dividing us." -Karen Armstrong, author, A History of God and The Great Transformation "If atheists, agnostics, and non-religious people like myself want to gain understanding and improve the world ...we need to read not only the hard-line voices of ancient religions but also the freshest and wisest voices of modern progressive religion. Samir Selmanovic's is just such a fresh voice." -Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University, and author, Good Without God: What a Billion Non-Religious People Do Believe "Why are thousands not saying what this man is saying? Such obvious truth must be made even more obvious, and this is exactly what Samir Selmanovic is doing for all of us and for the future of humanity. After you read this wise book, you will say, 'Of course!' and 'Thank God!'" -Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico "Samir Selmanovic offers a deeply personal reflection on faith, doubt, and ultimately, spiritual peace. . . . [He tells] a sophisticated and introspective story that simultaneously stirs the heart, challenges the intellect, and inspires the soul." -Daisy Khan, executive director, American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) "In a world in which religious traditions are too often digging their heels into the tired sod of exclusionary self-righteousness, this love song to the God of all Existence is a much longed for work of hope and optimism." -Rabbi Marcia Prager, author, The Path of Blessing: Experiencing the Energy and Abundance of the Divine VIEW AUTHOR'S WEBSITE JOIN FACEBOOK GROUP HEAR AUDIO EXCERPTS OR GO TO (iTunes) FOLLOW SAMIR ON TWITTER |
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Finally, this email and our website have a new "look and feel." But our re-design in still in progress! Please check out www.faithhousemanhattan.org and send us your feedback. We will be completing our re-design this month and would love to hear from you! Email all ideas and feedback to [email protected] Our tremendous thanks to Mairim Pina, who designed the new banner. In Faith, Juliet rabia Gentile, Islamic Co-Leader Samir Selmanovic, Founder and Christian Co-Leader Bara Levitt, Social Justice Intern |
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 We
are an experiential inter-religious community that comes together to
deepen our personal and communal journeys, share ritual life and
devotional space, and foster a commitment to social justice and healing
the world. |
One aspect of the Faith House Vision is "Serving Together: In synergy with other faith-based and interfaith organizations, Faith House provides opportunities to spread awareness and work together to fight poverty, increase environmental justice and sustainability, and promote peacemaking in New York City and around the world."
This summer, we put out a job description for an intern for the 2009-2010 academic year. The primary role of the intern will be to coordinate monthly social justice "Serving Together" opportunities for Faith House. Our intern will also help with administrative tasks, attend staff meetings and participate in Faith House events, including Living Rooms.
We are very pleased to announce that this process of search brought Bara Levitt into our staff team! Below is her photo and bio and we hope you will all get a chance to meet her soon.
BARA LEVITT, SOCIAL JUSTICE INTERN
Bara Slafkes Levitt is a Senior at List College, the Joint Program between Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she is majoring in Sociology and Jewish Women’s Studies. Bara is looking forward to coordinating Social Justice opportunities with the Faith House community this academic year.
Last Spring Bara had a fellowship with the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, where she learned a great deal about issues of hunger in New York City and worked to engage various faith based groups in anti-hunger activism. Bara also volunteered last school year with Alternative Spring Break, working on the ground in the Eighth Ward in New Orleans, and helped coordinate the annual Take Back the Night “Sexual Violence Awarness March” around the Columbia University area.
Faith House Manhattan's online presences (in the plural) have proliferated and blossomed this year! For example, 1800 of you are receiving this newsletter. The
links below will give you an additional information about what is
happening on this island called Manhattan, and provide ways for you to
participate!
www.faithhousemanhattan.org is now 2 ½ years old, with Sabbath Poems, articles going back to January 2007, and even better content in the works. In addition, a new page listing all our Living Room Gatherings includes some titles linking to full outlines of that day's program.
Participate! We
invite you to engage our Living Room ideas online and adapt them for
your local community ... or create new ideas and share them with us.
Please comment on website articles and send Sabbath Poems or ideas for
articles (and authors) to [email protected] 
Three easy ways to find out what's happening at Faith House:
1) Keep up with our community gatherings. Subscribe to the NYC Weekly Update (along with 900 others!). Each week, we send out a colorful email with upcoming Living Room gatherings and other events.
2) Join our Facebook group (currently 123 members) to get invited to all Living Room gatherings, post and view photos and make comments on the Wall.
3) Find out about other wonderful, interfaith events in NYC on a Meetup calendar. Anyone can view these events, or you can join Meetup and our group. You can also send events for the Meetup Calendar to [email protected]. 
Take a peak at Faith House in action. There are 220 photos in our flickr group online.
Participate!
Are you a photographer? If you would like to take photos at one of our
events, please ask a staff member before the event begins, then join
our flickr group and add your pics.
Photo above: Rabia leading Sufi Ceremony of Dhikrullah
Photo left: Jill and young people in a Sukkah they built, by Alvin Poblacion
Below: Postcard designed by Mairim Pina
ONLINE GIVING & OTHER WAYS TO SUPPORT FAITH HOUSE
If
you
are already giving to those who are exploring the boundaries of
your own religion and building bridges with "the other" in our
interdependent world, keep up the good work! They need your support. If
you are not investing into an interdependent future this way, join
those who support Faith House with gifts of $5 to
$200 placed in a basket at a Living Room, people who have made one-time
gifts online from $10 to $1,000, and those who pledge 1%, 2 ½ or 5% of
their annual income. During the recession we have paired down our
budget more than 60% determined to come out alive and well on the other
side!
Here are specific ways to support Faith House through tax-deductible contributions, and two ways to support Faith House online:
1) Our Facebook Cause has 171 members and 11 donors, who have contributed $1,260 to Faith House. Join the cause and invite your friends.
2)
Give directly through our Adventist Metro Ministries (AMM) website. We
are currently in the process of becoming our own 501c3, but are
thankful that AMM has taken us under their umbrella in these early
years of getting started. On the donation page, select "Faith House" for "My gift to go towards."
3)
Support us offline by making an offering at a Living Room in our
baskets or "snail mail" a check for Faith House Manhattan to P.O. Box
552, New York, NY 10028.
4) If you are thinking about making a
significant contribution, please talk to a member of the staff or our
treasurer, Rod Colburn, or consider creating a legacy for Faith House
by providing a tax-advantaged long-term support such as endowements or trusts.
The
Faith House staff is available to get together with you for tea and to
hear your dreams, concerns, or answer your questions. Email us samir@-, bowie@-, rabia@faithhousemanhattan to set up a time or share your thoughts with us in writing.
You can also help us learn what your hopes and prayers are for Faith House by filling out a short questionnaire.
We
believe God cares more about building a loving human community on earth
than about anything else. We hope you will participate in building and
growing Faith House.
In faith,
Bowie Snodgrass & Samir Selmanovic
Faith House Manhattan
~ by Bowie Snodgrass
June 1st will mark Rabia and my one-year anniversaries of working for Faith House. I was originally engaged as Christian Co-Leader for Faith House, and as Samir shared last month, am now completing my third month as Director. This year has been a blessed adventure in functionally developing and actively listening for what God is calling forth for this community.
This time last year, I had not yet met Rabia, our Islamic Co-Leader, or any members of her Sufi order, the Nur Ashki Jerrahi community (www.nurashkijerrahi.org). Two weeks ago, I went to their Thursday night ceremony of Dhikrullah and was amazed to see a dozen people there I had already met at Faith House. These relationships made me feel comfortable participating, as a novice and Christian, in their worship. To use a summer-time analogy, I mostly stayed close to the shore, feeling privileged to watch people I call friends swim out into the ocean!
This Saturday, for our twenty-forth (!) Living Room since our launch last September (see whole list HERE), Rabia and members of her Sufi community will be leading us in an "instructed" Dhikrullah, where we will be invited to learn why they do what they do and to participate, as we feel comfortable. This Living Room will prepare us for participating in the ceremony with the whole Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Community on Thursday, May 28th with Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi. All details are in our NYC Weekly Update.
These events reveal the heart of Faith House: a safe space to experience another person or community's loving relationship with the divine. The more I expand into the breadth of inter-religious discovery, the more deeply God calls me to delve into the treasures of my own tradition. This is true for many of us at Faith House.
What is the Faith House moment that touched your heart most deeply this year? Please share it with us in an email to [email protected] or in a comment on our website.
I would also like to introduce our Summer Intern, Leah Varsano, who will be with us for the months of June, July and August.
May God continue to bless us and lead us,
Bowie Snodgrass
Director, Faith House Manhattan
~ by Juliet rabia Gentile
(This is a continuation of the last week's article. To read Part 1 click HERE.)
Konya is a small industrial town set like a dusty jewel in the crown of Central Anatolia. It is famous and widely visited only due to the fact that it holds the tomb of Mevlana Jelaladdin Rumi. Over the years since Mevlana Rumi’s death on December 17th 1273, a mystical order based upon his teachings called the Mevlevi order grew. The ritual practice called Sema that one associates with Mevlevis or whirling dervishes – think spinning figures in generous white gowns with funny tomb stone shaped hats whirling for hours - developed out of an incident in a marketplace right there in the town square in Konya. Everything that we know about Rumi has been preserved by his students and family members and can be found in the landscape or in the hearts of the people of Konya.
My flight from Istanbul touched down several hours late due to a burgeoning fog that wrapped itself around Konya’s empty streets like an old friend. Soon after my arrival the phone began to ring and plans mounted up. The celebrations in Konya were well under way despite the cold and fog: there was no time to rest!
It is tradition that Sufis gather together from across the globe every year for seventeen days leading up to the Shebi-Arus celebration which culminates on December 17th. This event known as the “wedding night” commemorates the time when Mevlana Rumi went to join his Beloved. The anniversary of his death is celebratory rather than somber. In fact Rumi wrote in one of his poems, “if you harvest the wheat growing over my grave and bake bread with it, it is sure to intoxicate!” So strong was Mevalana Rumi’s love for God that his fragrance still attracts lovers of all walks of life, religions and nationalities, some 800 years after his death, like bees to honey.
My first stop in Konya was the informal headquarters of the trip: Dervish Brothers Center. DBC was the place of beginning and ending of all journeys and adventures and was visited by many dervish sisters despite its name. It was a place to make and break plans, listen to music and poetry, sip endless cups of tea and have intimate discussions extending into the morning. Before long I had lost track of the number of dhikrs, impromptu musical gatherings, meals and endless prayer vigils I had attended. One highlight of historical importance was a Sufi dhikr held at the tomb of Shems i Tabriz (the mystic thought to be responsible for the full flowering of spiritual wisdom in Rumi’s adult life). This beautiful prayer ceremony which somewhat spontaneously coalesced after the afternoon prayer in the Mosque of Shems was well attended and miraculously accepted by the Mosque authorities, a quiet, though great victory for Sufi activity in Turkey.
One of curiosities of traveling to Turkey is that everywhere you go you encounter people and businesses selling Sufism and Sufi paraphernalia (not always authentic) to tourists, even while its practice is illegal under Turkish law. You may ask yourself why, at a time when Islam is weighed down with fundamentalisms of various stripes and colors, would anyone want to suppress an interpretation of Islam based upon the principle of universal love? Well, despite changing public and political opinion in favor of Sufism, its practitioners are still vulnerable to law enforcement, therefore making the beautiful that day a great triumph towards further opening the gates of understanding and tolerance.
Perhaps more than any other lesson this journey to Konya taught me the importance of tolerance and understanding, even when I fell short. When you are in a strange country, speaking a new language the importance of open heartedness and true understanding become crystal clear. You become acutely aware of your utter dependence on the kindness of others and their willingness to cover your faults. It takes truth, sincerity and perseverance to navigate cultural divides and find common ground with the other in often difficult or awkward circumstances.
At home, surrounded by the comfort of “my family, my city, my country” it is easy to become complacent and intolerant. It is harder to extend a hand of guidance, friendship, or love. We think our lives don’t depend on it.
In a rapidly shrinking global world colored by increasing violence and polarization, perhaps now more than ever we are challenged to open, rather than shut down, to question and learn, rather than judge. This realization, which I experienced directly rather than ‘thought about’ was one of the most precious gifts I received from Mevlana Rumi and my journey to Konya. In the shadow of His light I witnessed the power of personal connection. The soul stirring invitation afforded by a warm glance, a smile, a prayer – signals that reach across language, race and religion.
In the airport on the way home we encountered that divine fog once again, hemming us in as we waited for hours in the small Konya airport. In the huddled masses there were various fellow pilgrims from England, Pakistan, South Africa and Iran. As the hours wore on and we shared stories, fruit, tea and tears it became crystal clear that we were all drawn to Konya from our various far-flung destinations for one reason: love.
Despite what shade our skin was, what language we spoke or what lives we were returning to, we were all, in our essential natures, one. In those hours of listening to the stories of my fellow pilgrims, the inner meaning contained in Rumi’s famous verses - the importance of extending the invitation of love to others, despite what we think of them - was revealed. This is true Godliness, this is the invitation Home.
Since July my colleagues at Faith House Manhattan; Samir, Bowie, Jill, Lauralea and I have put much energy and thought into building a brick and mortar Home for people of all traditions or faiths, or of no particular faith at all. In early December, following a successful Faith House Living Room gathering entitled, Holy Journey: Hajj and Eid ul Adha, where we hosted various leaders from the Muslim Community in New York City, I departed to Turkey for both a personal, spiritual journey and a ground-laying expedition for an International Conference of Sufi women.
On the lengthy plane ride it dawned on me: Istanbul is my spiritual Home. Home is a laden word. For some it conjures happy memories and warm feelings while for others, like victims of violence or exile, the word signals profound grief and longing for what once was. Growing up in and around New York City, a place forever in flux and transition, the word has meant many things to me at different times. Over time I learned not to settle into one set notion of home. Therefore this thought came as a surprise. Perhaps all of us have at one point or another felt a longing for a physical home-land and similarly have felt a pull inward, a longing to find a personal sanctuary, a spiritual home to bring peace, balance and rooted-ness to our life.
Being a student of mysticism I have been taught to seek and find this center in the locus of my “heart.” Called qalb in Arabic and gunul in Turkish, the heart I speak of is not the physical heart but your emotional center where your soul resides, where one’s true essential humanity is to be found. The door to this home is always open, the entrance always immediate.
Despite this fact, on this bitterly cold day in early December I was decidedly on an outer journey into space and time. I was set to arrive in Istanbul, Turkey for a few days and then make my way to Konya, in Central Anatolia, for the Shebi-Arus (literally, wedding day) festival in honor of the poet Mevlana Jelaladdin Rumi, known as “Rumi” in the west. This trip was a long anticipated pilgrimage which I had dreamt of for years.
Islamic tradition relates that the Awliya or (Saintly friends of God) never spiritually die and therefore old cities like Istanbul and centers of spiritual learning, like Konya –places where many Awliya lived and died, are potent places to visit. Therefore I always prepare spiritually and mentally to receive whatever teachings these visits have to offer. You could say I use these travels as litmus tests or sign posts for my own spiritual journey. Spiritual pilgrimage in all traditions is like a continual Sabbath, a state in which your mind and heart are at peace and open to receive the treasures placed before you by God. In this state of openness, every person you meet, every place you visit has something to teach you.
When I arrived in Istanbul, the city was windswept and subdued by rain. The streets were virtually empty as people took a much needed rest after a week of Eid ul Adha (feast of sacrifice) celebrations. That first morning I met up with a young dervish (spiritual initiate), Kemal, who is a life-long member of the Halveti-Jerrahi Sufi order (a Sufi order founded in the 17th century in Istanbul). That day Kemal took me around to some of the sights of Istanbul including Topkapi Palace, which holds Holy relics of the Prophet Muhammad and my favorite Tea garden, the ‘Mystic Water Pipe.’ I ask you where else one can sip Turkish ‘cay’ and smoke a ‘narguila’ (a popular water pipe for scented tobacco in flavors ranging from rose to mint) all the while surrounded by floor to ceiling carpets, lamps and stray kittens cozying in warmth? This is perhaps the best way to adjust to a slower pace of life and to take in the ambience of the old world. After a few days of paying my respects and sending salams to the various Sheikhs of different Sufi orders and branches, it was time to prepare for the real adventure. I was soon to depart to that blessed city, Konya that I had long heard about and longed to visit. What I would find there, of course, defied my expectations and proved to be a memorable and life-changing experience.
(for Part 2 click HERE)
 We have opened the doors of the house! Join us as a household member, a visiting neighbor, a distant family member, or a traveler stopping for respite. With our shared talents, time, ideas, and financial contributions, we can make this dream continue and expand. By giving during our "House Warming" phase you are acting as one of our prime movers: the individuals, families, and organizations that are willing to imagine, take a risk, and begin. Prime movers generate, invent, and persevere through the ups and downs of a journey towards accomplishing something that matters. While most people embrace an idea when it is reasonable, safe, and prudent, prime movers are willing to look into the future and live it now, arranging their lives and resources in a way that allows them to create something new. Click HERE to read more about our exciting House Warming Campaign and show your support. In addition, you, your family, or your organization can sponsor a Faith House Living Room! You can sponsor a Living Room in your name, anonymously, or "in honor" / "in memory" of others. You can select a session or date that is meaningful to you and have your contribution acknowledged. We are committed to operating our finances with integrity and accountability making sure that your generosity yields sweet fruit for this world. 10% of all individual donations will be used to build bridges with other organizations that support the mission and vision of Faith House. This is an experiment in creating a thriving inter-dependent community in a way that is scalable, replicable, and improves the lives of people in this city and around the world. In faith and with gratitude for your support, we look forward to your participation and friendship. Faith House Manhattan community  |
Pastor creates interfaith church where `Christians are not in charge’ (By Nicole Neroulias)
Leta
Selmanovic, 10, helps hand out informational cards about Faith House
Manhattan, a weekly interfaith gathering led by her father, Samir
Selmanovic. Religion News Service photo by Nicole Neroulias.
NEW YORK -- A Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist and an atheist walk into a prayer meeting.
Any number of punch lines could follow, but the members of Faith
House Manhattan have serious business in mind: creating a spiritual
community for people from any -- or no -- religious tradition.
The fledgling group of about three dozen regular participants is
overseen by Samir Selmanovic, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor for whom
interfaith ideals come naturally: He describes himself as an "atheist
Muslim" who converted to Christianity during his military service in
the former Yugoslavia.
"I wanted to build a church where Christians are not in charge," he
explained after a Saturday afternoon gathering of Jewish prayers and
Beatles music. "We wanted to include all the people who have a right to
belong and be partners in the discussion, not as outsiders that need to
be converted, but as insiders that we need to be interdependent with."
Similar interfaith centers are on the rise across the country,
according to the Pluralism Project at Harvard University, which
reported a surge in the years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There
are now more than 550 such groups in America, with the largest numbers
in New York, California, Massachusetts and Illinois.
In addition to easing religious tensions and encouraging joint
philanthropic and community activities, Pluralism Project spokeswoman
Kathryn Lohre said, these groups create new roles for women, which has
been the case for Faith House.
TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE BY RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE CLICK HERE.
With more than a year of hard work behind us, we are at the threshold of something entirely new. Thank you for being a part of this adventure.
Please help us spread the word to New Yorkers! Four steps:
What is a Living Room gathering? At this weekly gathering, we all come together to learn from others, share our stories, and organize our community to serve the common good. Together we explore human experience, holy days, spiritual practices, current cultural and societal issues, and the lives of inspirational people from the past and present.
Hello, Shalom, Salaam, and Peace of Christ to all!
Regular Location: Subud Chelsea Center, 230 West 29th Street, (between 7th and 8th Avenues)
Location on Oct 18: Intersections, 274, Fifth Avenue, (between 29th and 30th Street)
The promotional card and this modified digital version was designed by Mairim Pina. The drawing is the original artwork of our Jewish co-leader Jill Minkoff titled Tikkun Olam (Repairing and Healing of the World). Also, notice that the gathering on Oct 18 is at a different location.
Learning to love well.
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