FAITH HOUSE Manhattan

Wild Goose Festival 2011 Bowie & Samir Curate Interfaith Events!

June 23-26, 2011 

   

Shakori Hills, North Carolina

 

Wild Goose Festival  

 

Bowie, Samir, our families, and friends from around the country will be gathering next week in North Carolina for the first annual Wild Goose festival. As of yesterday, over 1200 people had made plans to join us for this collaborative extended weekend of art, music, justice, and spirituality.  

 

If you have not bought your ticket yet, TODAY ONLY buy one and "share one free"! You don't need a special discount code to take advantage of this offer. Go to http://wildgoose.eventbrite.com and you will see this special at checkout.

 

If you are going, please email with your cell phone so we can meet up and mark the following events on your calendar!   

 

2011 Interfaith Guests

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
Paul Knitter
Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture
at Union Theological Seminary

 

Thurs, June 23 @ 4 pm
Opening Ceremony
Niggun lead by Rabbi Or N. Rose

Thurs, June 23 @ 7 pm 
"What Does God Whisper to Christians: Models of Living Passionately in a Pluralist World"
With Paul Knitter & Samir Selmanovic

How do you balance your Christian identity, practice, and experience with inclusion and openness to other faiths?  You don't.  Forget the balance and radicalize instead.  Prof. Paul Knitter, the greatest living theologian of Christian pluralism (and one of the kindest and most amusing Roman Catholic teachers) will lay out our options of living as passionate Christians in a world where conflict, triumphalism, isolation, and indifference have failed us. Samir Selmanovic of Faith House Manhattan will comment with questions, insights, and stories from his experience with Faith House Manhattan and other inter-religious co-laboratories.  

 
Fri, June 24 @ 4 pm
"A Conversation with Islam"
With Abudullah Antepli

Sat, June 25 @ 2 pm
"Walking More Than One Path: Is Religious Multiple Belonging Possible?"
With Paul Knitter

Sat, June 25 @ 3 pm 
"Going Deeper Through Inclusion: Perspectives on Religious Pluralism"
Be prepared to move beyond the superficial and be surprised by the conversation between three leaders in the modern interfaith movement: Imam Abdullah Antepli, Rabbi Or Rose, and Paul Knitter, Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary.  This panel will explore Pluralism, the idea of more than one path to the divine, in the context of the modern quest to be deeply committed to one's own faith in a world of many religious paths. Moderated by Bowie Snodgrass, Executive Director of Faith House Manhattan.

Sat, June 25 @ 5 pm
"Kabbalah Beyond the Headlines"
Rabbi Or N. Rose

Faith House, An Extension of You: Mid-Year Report and Appeal

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

The 9th Annual City Wide Interfaith Teach-In on Approaching the Anniversary of 9/11

Join an open conversation among New Yorkers brought to you by The Dialogue Project, co-sponsored by Faith House, and co-chaired by our very own Samir Selmanovic!

 

Sunday, May 15, 2011, 1:30pm-4:00pm  

 

199 Chambers at West Street-BMCC Richard Harris Terrace (A,C,E,1,2,3 to Chambers or 4,5 to Brooklyn Bridge)  

 

RSVP to [email protected] or 718-768-2175

*$10 suggested contribution

 

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Haroon Moghul and Joshua Stanton with the Peace of Heart Choir

 

Explore with a teacher of a different faith or ethnicity:  

* Community Trauma & Healing * Transforming & Resolving Conflict * Stereotypes * Concepts of the Stranger and Other in our texts and cultures

 

Teachers and Leaders: Imam Shamsi Ali, Rev. Haifa Bint Kadi, Chloe Breyer, Raymond Brock, Lisa Bellan-Boyer, Prof. Brigitte Kahl, T. Kenjitsu Nakagaki, Marcia Kannry, Maryum Khwaja, Sally MacNichol, Rabbi Simkha Weintraub, Rabbi Serge Lippe, Imam Khalil Abdur Rashid, Syed Sayeed, Rori Picker Neiss, Rev. Peter Sabune, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei.

 

Co-sponsors: Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Arab American Association of New York, Bay Ridge Jewish Center, Brooklyn For Peace, Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, Buddhist Council of NY, CAIR New York, Community Church, Congregation Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives, CONNECT Faith, Grace Church, Faith House Manhattan, The House of Peace Inc., The Interfaith Center of New York, The Iqra Mosque, The Islamic Center of New York, JStreet NYC, Muslim Consultative Network, Park 51 Community Center, Park Slope Jewish Center, Pax Christi Metro New York, Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Progressive Muslims Meet Up New York, Rabbis for Human Rights, NA., Religious Freedom USA, Romemu, Union Theological Seminary-Interfaith Caucus, and The Zen Center of New York City.

 

The Dialogue Project promotes encounters among new immigrants, and long time residents of diverse faiths and ethnicities, and with Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish and Muslim New Yorkers. We create face to face engagement where difficult subjects are explored and our personal narratives are shared. We learn how to listen actively and reflect each other's story.

SPECIAL EVENT Enter the Conversation:Karen Armstrong

Wednesday, April 27

Replacing our Living Room

 

Cathedral of  St. John the Divine

1047 Amsterdam Avenue  @ 112th Street

 

Arrive 6:30-6:50 PM  to sit with our group

Text 646 245-7346 to find us

 

Event begins at 7 PM

We will go out to a local establishment after the event to continue the conversation

 

Please RSVP to [email protected]   

So we know how many seats our group will need

 

Free and open to all

 

The Very Rev. Dr. James A. Kowalski, Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, will engage Karen Armstrong in a far-reaching conversation about religion and ethics in the modern world, and why we must place compassion at the heart of public discourse on religion and morality.  There will be an opportunity for others to enter the conversation. 

 

Karen Armstrong, author, scholar, and journalist, is among the world's foremost commentators on religious history and culture. She has written more than 20 books on faith and the major religions, studying what Islam, Judaism and Christianity have in common, and how our faiths shaped world history and drive current events. Her books include the bestselling A History of God and The Battle for God, as well as Buddha, Islam: A Short History, Muhammed: A Prophet for Our Time, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths and most recently Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. In 2008 Dr. Armstrong, recipient of the TED prize, spearheaded the founding of The Charter for Compassion, a document that transcends religious, ideological, and national difference. It proclaims a principle embraced by every faith, and by every moral code.

 

Karen Armstrong is one of the heroes of the modern interfaith movement and endorsed Samir Selmanovic's recent book It's Really All About God, saying "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." 

 

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is a "house of prayer for all people." Faith House partnered with the Cathedral and GreenFaith last year to host SUSTAIN with Bill McKibben.  Bowie Snodgrass is a member of the Congregation of St. Saviour at the Cathedral and her husband, George Mathew, is the Artistic Director of the New Year's Concert for Peace at the Cathedral.  

 

Photo by Satish Kumar

LIVING ROOM Interfaith Love with Rabbi Burt Siegel

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

6 pm Doors, 7 pm Program

Intersections, 274 5th Ave
Btwn 29th and 30th Sts

With Rabbi Burt Siegel

Interfaith romances and mixed marriages used to range from rare to forbidden, but have becoming increasingly accepted and even commonplace in 21st century New York City.  Rabbi Burt Siegel of the Shul of New York will share his reflections and experiences from four decades as a Rabbi working with interfaith couples.  This Living Room will also include a panel discussion with couples in committed interfaith relationships with and the opportunity for full and small group discussions.

We invite you all to bring chocolates or other romantic treats to share after the Living Room, less than one week before the secular American holiday of Valentine's Day.

Rabbi Burt Aaron Siegel is founder and spiritual leader of The Shul of New York. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Rabbi Burt received his Rabbinic Ordination and the award for the highest academic standing, as well as a Masters Degree in Judaic Studies, at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion. He began his Rabbinic Career at the Riverdale Temple, where he was a Rabbi for ten years. He continued his work as a Rabbi at The New Synagogue in New York and was Interim Rabbi at The Village Temple for one year.

In addition to his traditional Rabbinic activities, Rabbi Burt is also a trained psychotherapist. He has worked for a number of years as a therapist and he uses his expertise to counsel many different individuals and groups. He leads meditation, spiritual guidance, and healing meditation groups, including weekly sessions at Gilda's Club, a support community for cancer patients. In addition Rabbi Burt is a certified Kundalini yoga teacher.

RSVPs welcome, but not required, at Eventbrite

SUSTAIN: An Interfaith Evening for the Climate with Bill McKibben

Saturday, September 18

6:30 - 9:30 PM
7:00 Talk by Bill McKibben with Special Musical and Interfaith Guests
8:30 Religious and Environmental Groups  will offer resources and present their work  immediately following the talk, Light refreshments

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street

SUSTAIN will gather ordained and lay leaders from diverse religious traditions, environmental leaders and concerned citizens for reflection, inspiration and a call to action related to climate change. SUSTAIN's centerpiece will be a 45-minute address by world famous author and activist Bill McKibben, who will focus on the relationship between spirituality, climate change, social justice and sustainability. The event will take place at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, one of the world's pre-eminent settings for religiously-based environmental action.

The event's partners - GreenFaith, Faith House, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and 350.org - invite you to join us in making this event successful.  Find out more about sponsorships for organizations and individuals. Please spread the word! 

Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Eaarth, is an American environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming and alternative energy and advocates for more localized economies. In 2010 the Boston Globe called him "probably the nation's leading environmentalist" and Time magazine described him as "the world's best green journalist. In 2009 he led the organization of 350.org , which coordinated what Foreign Policy magazine called "the largest ever global coordinated rally of any kind," with 5,200 simultaneous demonstrations in 181 countries. The magazine named him to its inaugural list of the 100 most important global thinkers, and MSN named him one of the dozen most influential men of 2009.

Find out more on the GreenFaith event webpage or join our Facebook event

Download Flier or Sponsorship Forms

Imam Feisal's Cordoba House Update

Samir Selmanovic and Faith House are both mentioned in the letter below

Dear All,

Assalamu Alaykum - Gods Peace and Blessings be with you!

It has been a whirlwind month, one in which we have worked tirelessly to realize an American Dream which so many others share.

Indeed, the outpouring of support exceeded all of our expectations. We have received endorsements from the Community Board, city officials, and interfaith allies such as Reverend Robert Chase of Intersections, Reverend Chloe Breyer of the Interfaith Center of NY, President Katherine Henderson of Auburn Seminary and Joyce Dubansky of the Tanenbaum Center publicly acknowledged our challenges through their full support of the Cordoba House. We are overwhelmed and our hearts are filled with gratitude for all those = who have voiced their support from our neighborhood, our city, our nation, and from other parts of the world.

The vision to build the Cordoba House has also met with some resistance. Perhaps this was inevitable, but we take every concern seriously. In doing so, we learn from our own mistakes along the way and communicate our convictions.

 Cordoba House will be a home for ALL people who are yearning for understanding and healing, collaboration, and interdependence. Indifference is not an option. We are ever more determined to take this opportunity and responsibility to restore and heal our community in Lower Manhattan. We are creating a new space where fresh stories of cooperation, democracy, and service can be lived out.

Prominent politicians and media outlets have been among those vocal in expressing support for the Cordoba House Project. Mayor Bloomberg heralded its advent when he said the following in his weekly radio address: "What is great about America and particularly New York is we welcome everybody" [Read more] The Economist's article, "Hallowed ground: A row over a planned Muslim Community Center" profiles the protests and highlights the Community Board's and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's tremendous support for Cordoba House. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said: "By voting to support this multi-faith community and cultural center, they sent a clear message that our city is one that promotes diversity and tolerance. " [Read more] Read the Press Release of the Community Board Meeting Approval, here.

A diversity of religious leaders are also taking a stand. Joshua Stanton, who is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, along with Zeeshan Suhail of the World Bank write in the Washington Post: "Global significance aside, just imagine the local impact of Cordoba House: the community centre would provide, in its creators' words, a "cultural nexus" for New Yorkers to come together for education, performances, sports and person-to-person interaction." [Read more]

Julie Clawson wrote a compelling article in Sojourners, which illustrates just one example of the support the project is receiving from Christian Americans. [Read more]. Dr. Samir Selmanovic, author and minister who is a member of the National Council of Churches, stated: Knowing many Muslims through my work in the city and nationally, I am utterly confident Muslim Americans will rise to this moment of history and make the United States an even better country than it is today. [Read more]

The Jewish Forward published an editorial defending Cordoba House: "This is how we respond to bigotry and hatred - by turning instruments of death into the building blocks of community." [Read more]

Here at Cordoba Initiative, we have been flooded with media inquiries. Locally, our story has been covered by Downtown Express, NPR, The Brian Lehrer Show, and The New York Times among many others. Internationally, Imam Feisal, the project's leader and visionary, has appeared on BBC and was interviewed by The Economist. We continue to welcome media engagement as a vital component of our mission. It is an exciting time. Our dedication and hard work - and YOUR support - will pay off. At this vital juncture in our growth, we therefore ask you to make a step and become an integral part of this venture. Here are three ways you can help right now:

1. Our office work is rapidly becoming more demanding in terms of staff, resources, communication, and space. Help us keep the momentum and make a generous donation. [Read More]
2. Ask how you can volunteer at Cordoba Initiative in our various projects and programs such as Cordoba House.
3. Spread the news about Cordoba House and the positive message that Cordoba Initiative embodies. Keep yourself informed through our website at http://www.cordobainitiative.org.

Then tell your family and friends and interconnect via Facebook and the Cordoba Initiative Blog. With gratitude and excitement about the future,

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and The Cordoba Initiative Team

Additionally, we appreciate the support received from the following organizations:

9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrow, The Arab American Family Support Center, Cause New York, Chautauqua Institute, Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, Faith House Manhattan, Friends of the Arava Institute, Interfaith Youth Core, The Interfaith Alliance, Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Lutheran Seafarers and International House, New Seminary, One Spirit, St. Bartholomew's Church, Same Difference Interfaith Alliance, The Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew, The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, The Healing of the Nations Foundation, The Migration Policy Institute, Union Theological Seminary, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, UJA Federation of New York.

Pew Survey says "Americans Mix Multiple Faiths" & Rabbi David Ingber responds on ABC World News

A new Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life Survey was released last Wednesday, saying that "Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths."  35% of Americans attend religious services at more than one place, including 24% who attend religious services of a different faith.  This is a very interesting new Survey, which we encourage you to read and discuss!  Clearly, Faith House is part of larger phenomena!

ABC World News with Charlie Gibson covered the story on Thursday, December 10th, and included Rabbi David Ingber of Romemu in their coverage!  We are overjoyed that Rabbi David and Romemu, who have been part of Faith House this year and are featured in Samir's book It's Really All About God, were invited to speak about the ways that Romemu was founded out of this larger movement in religion today. 

Rabbi David Ingber was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, but abandoned Judaism in his 20s. He studied Taoism, martial arts and yoga as part of what he calls his "spiritual journey." After a decade away from the faith, he felt called back to Judaism.

"When I came back to Judaism, in my early 30s, I brought back my experiences that I had had in my 20s."

Ingber became a rabbi and founded a congregation in New York City called Romemu – its slogan is Judaism for mind, body and spirit. He leads his congregation in yoga and incorporates meditation into his services.

"I do think that it's a level of maturity involved in being so secure in your own root tradition that you can dabble, that you can borrow and that you don't feel that it's in some way sacrificing your own identity," Ingber said.

READ FULL STORY & WATCH 2 1/2 MINUTE CLIP
From ABC World News with Charles Gibson

Serve Together: Interfaith Platform on Humane Immigration Reform ADVOCACY

Did you know Jesus was a refugee? 

The image to the left is a depiction from the Gospel of Matthew (chapter two) where we learn that King Herod feels threatened by the birth of Jesus and wants to kill him.  An angel of God appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him to flee from Herod into Egypt with Jesus and Mary, and to stay there until he is told to return. In this situation, Jesus, Joseph and Mary are all refugees and immigrants.  

As we gather together this Wednesday to think about our connection to the material in light of the life and teachings of Jesus, we will also be thinking about our connection to the people around us, specifically immigrants.  The Serve Together for this month will be an action opportunity focused on immigrants and immigration reform during the Deconstructed Pre-Christmas Rummage Sale.  We will be thinking about the Matthew text, as well as what other religious traditions have to say about immigrants, learning a little bit about the status of immigration reform in America, and, finally, we will be writing and signing postcards to send off to elected officials. 

Many different faith and interfaith organizations have already come together to take a stand on the issue. On Wednesday everyone will have the opportunity to join them in doing so.  Please check out the Interfaith Platform on Humane Immigration Reform for some more information on the issue and the proposals for reform. Copies of the platform will be available at the Rummage Sale. 

Looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday,

Bara
Social Justice Intern

An Urban Laboratory of Interdependence

Dear Friends of Faith House, In times past, strong cities were walled. Our religions developed in similar contexts of defensiveness, isolation and conflict.  The times have changed.  Today, bridges, airports, roads, cell phones and the internet help cities survive and thrive on a connected planet. Religion, one of the most potent forces to mobilize human hearts and communities, has yet to catch up in our newly interdependent world.   The world is hurt not only by the actions of religious extremist minorities but by the religious ignorance and indifference of the majority. Tolerance and appreciation between religions is simply not enough. We all must dig further into our texts, traditions, and practices to  help us experience, understand and actually learn to need one another.   Nothing happens alone.  The promises our religions make - to  love our neighbor, empower the poor, pursue justice, and care for the planet - cannot be fulfilled when our groups act alone. To fulfill the promises of our own religions, we need each other. That's why we have Faith House. This is a unique organization.  Hearts and minds change through experience, community, and sustained action. While most interfaith work happens as dialogue, Faith House provides a space where people can experience "the other" and form long-lasting relationships in a sustained "community of communities."   Faith House is an experiential urban laboratory.  Instead of believing in the self-sufficiency of our religions, we serve the city and the world with fresh ideas and expressions of interdependence, exploring possibilities for passionate belief in a pluralist world, insisting that new practices can be discovered, discussed, developed, and spread.

Stories from Global Victims of Climate Change — And an Interfaith Call to Action

~by Juliet rabia Gentile

Reprinted from GOD'S politics on Sojo.net

What if the soul of the world had an alarm clock and it began ringing … would we wake up and listen? This was the question that came to my heart at the Global Interfaith Gathering and Call to Action to the UN Summit on Climate Change, which I attended with my Sufi friend, Khabir John McGeehan, at Tillman Chapel in the UN Church Center on Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace. As we sat in the chapel that morning and “bore witness” to the harrowing stories of the victims of climate change, this question repeated itself over and over in my mind like a mantra.

The Qur’an states: “Behold, thy Lord declared to the angels: I will create perfect humanity to be My mirror on earth” (Holy Qur’an, 2:30).  Another verse relates that in pre-eternity God offered the Khalifat (viceregency) of the earth to the mountains and the stars, but it was the primordial human being who accepted the responsibility. That’s right folks; the buck stops with us.  We are the ones to blame for the glaciers melting, for the rate at which species are disappearing off the face of the earth never to be seen again, for the poisoning of ancestral lands that have fed generations and wells, which once gave fresh water.

Modern civilizations have lived as if they are the center of the universe. Pre-modern man had no such illusion, hunter-gatherer societies knew that if they hunted a species into extinction they would have to move on in search of more food sources or perish. Subsistence, not domination, was the necessary relationship to the earth, its creatures and gifts. Today we see anything but, with endless consumption of the earth’s resources continuing unabated.  What must God think of his “mirror” upon the earth? Qur’an states that God is All Compassionate and All Merciful, I ask myself, are we being compassionate to those who are suffering from climate change?

The stories that were shared in Tillman Chapel that day were shocking: standing in front of me were real people who lived close to the land and who followed centuries old traditions of protecting and working with the earth, seas, and rivers that in turn, provided their sustenance. What has changed? What has disrupted that fragile balance? Tears flowed down the cheeks of Constance Okollet, a woman from Uganda, as she told her story of how singeing heat caused the seeds that she planted to “just dry up right there in the ground” followed by three months of rain that caused flooding so bad that she and all her relations had to flee the rising waters, leaving their homes and food crops behind. Another woman, Ulamila Kurai Wragg, from the Cook Islands spoke of how five cyclones hit her hometown in three weeks and how rising sea levels have claimed land the her family has tended for generations — bit by bit, day by day.

We all sat silently, bearing witness. Some cried silent tears. As I listened I wondered to myself how many other nameless and faceless men, women, and children are suffering around the world, how many countless numbers are living in fear that one more flood, drought, tsunami or cyclone will obliterate their lives and livelihood forever. How we respond in front of those in need, those suffering and asking for help means everything. It is what reminds us of our common humanity, our sacred pact. It is incumbent upon us to ask ourselves what is at stake. How long are we willing to wait before taking action? In what ways can we be conscientious objectors to further destruction of the earth’s resources? Finally, we must ask ourselves: What will our children say if we do nothing?

In grim reflections, several religious leaders issued “responses” to the victims. Archbishop John Onaiyekan, RC, of Nigeria issued a call to action. He stated that we are all “brothers and sisters in one boat,” calling on the biblical image of Noah’s ark in order to remind us that change is possible, but requires action. Like Noah, we can survive. We can bind together to help each other. Many religious and indigenous elders spoke of the responsibility we must bear as westerners in the forefront of creating the problem, in repairing the world.

In the words of Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu elder, which my dervish brother Khabir John McGeehan wrote in his notebook:

The Earth is our Mother.
With 6 Billion humans, and billions more other children,
we cannot afford to be anthropocentric.
View all creation with the Eye of the Friend.
Instead of Love of power, we need the Power of Love.

To take a Compassionate Action: please join the Oct. 24 International Day of Climate Action, sponsored by www.350.org.  Or incorporate “green” action into your religious gatherings.  At an event I organized this summer at Faith House on “Seeding the Heart, Harvesting Intentions”, after reading stories of seeding and harvest from the Muslim and Jewish traditions, and a seed meditation, we practiced planting seeds and blessing the earth with some “guerrilla gardening” in our neighborhoods!  Everyday, we are God’s “mirror” with responsibility to the earth.