February kickoff

The first Interfaith Experience event of 2009 will take place on February 27th. Please mark it down on your calendars. Stay tuned for more info.

If you are interested in volunteering and/or becoming an active member of the planning committee, please email Chris at cwang@runnymede.com.

November - Contemporary Paganism

We are pleased to announce that our November speaker is Wiccan High Priestess Judy Harrow. Published author and Chair of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Cherry Hill Seminary, Judy will give an overview of Paganism and the various beliefs and practices of its practitioners today. Her talk is entitled, "Contemporary Paganism: Living an Ancient Faith in the Modern World." Please join us on November 21st at 7pm at the Rubin Museum of Art. We look forward to seeing you at the event.

"Contemporary Paganism: Living an Ancient Faith in the Modern World."

Paganism, Neo-Paganism, Wicca, Witchcraft: these words carry a whiff of weirdness. Are we talking about harmless eccentrics, people in the grip of dangerous delusions, defiant social misfits, or maybe even worse? Actually, Pagans look just like anybody else in the supermarket or on the subway. They have ordinary jobs, homes, and families, and the normal range of other interests. But they base their spiritual practice on some different core assumptions. Modern Paganism is a new religious movement, small but growing fast, that seeks to revive the long-suppressed shamanic, nature-based, polytheistic spiritual traditions of Europe, to live in a modern, urban environment while honoring Mother Earth and Father Sky, and following the Sacred cycle of the Seasons and the phases of the Moon. And, yes, they practice magic.

The Greening of Faith & Why It Matters

We are very pleased to announce that the Reverend Fletcher Harper will be leading our October 24th event. With global warming and climate change an ever increasing concern, Rev. Harper will discuss the role of religion in the environmental sustainability movement from an interfaith perspective.

Fletcher Harper, an Episcopal priest, is Executive Director of GreenFaith, an interfaith environmental coalition based in New Jersey. An award-winning spiritual writer and nationally-recognized preacher on the environment, he has developed a range of innovative programs to make GreenFaith one of the most respected religious-environmental groups in the US. A graduate of Princeton University and Union Theological Seminary, Harper served as a parish priest for ten years and in leadership positions in the Episcopal Church prior to joining GreenFaith.

Founded in 1992, GreenFaith is New Jersey’s interfaith coalition for the environment. GreenFaith inspires, educates and mobilizes people of diverse spiritual backgrounds to deepen their relationship with the sacred in nature and to restore the earth for future generations. At a time when religious conflicts dominate the headlines, GreenFaith unites people of diverse faiths toward the shared value of caring for the earth.

Through religious-environmental education programs, by greening the operation of religious institutions and the homes of their members, and through legislative advocacy and values-based environmental activism, GreenFaith helps religious institutions and people of all faiths put their belief into action for the earth and all its inhabitants.

Fall Kickoff - September 26th - Join Us!

We hope that everyone had an amazing summer as we are very excited for the upcoming fall season of the Interfaith Experience. The first event of the season is this Friday, September 26th at 7pm. Please join Seton Hall professor Peter Savastano as he discusses the African-based religions in the diaspora. Our October event will be held on the 24th with the Reverend Fletcher Harper of GreenFaith, an interfaith coalition for the environment.

"African-Based Religions in the Diaspora: An Exploration of Fluidity, Ambiguity, Relationality and Transformation."

When most people are asked to define religion, their response is often "religion is a set of beliefs", especially in those cultures historically associated with the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). While "belief" plays a role in the African based traditions in the Diaspora (i.e., Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santeria or Lucumi, Brazilian Candomble, and others), it is not dominant. Rather, in the African-based Diasporic traditions the focus is on the dynamics of healing ritual activity not creedal statements and/or doctrinal theological formulations.

In the African based traditions in the Diaspora, there is no Pope (to borrow from a Roman Catholic model), no cannon law, and no formal creed; they are African-based Diasporic traditions resisting institutionalization and centralization. They are dynamic and fluid, constantly expanding and contracting as the need arises. The African-based traditions in the Diaspora absorb and transform what is external to their ritual and symbol system, welcoming the "other" rather than building doctrinal walls to keep out that which is foreign. They are open-ended, rooted in the ritual action of the body, emotions, and intuition. They are innovative, improvisational and have a great capacity for ambiguity, while at the same time having a distinct world view, and a common set of symbols and ritual patterns on which practitioners draw in unique and different ways. These are traditions whose primary focus is on maintaining balanced relationships between the world of the living, the world of the ancestors, the world of the Deities (i.e., the Orisha, the Lwa or the Spirits) and when a practitioner's relationships is out of balance with any of these worlds, re-balancing is sought through divination, trance/possession, and various healing activities.

This lecture will explore the dynamic character of these traditions and the valuable contribution that they make to human spiritual life and to a richer understanding of religion.

Juliet Hollister Awards - September 18th

We are currently planning our events for the fall season and will have some announcements on our speakers very soon. Trust me, we are going to have some amazing guests for the fall.

In the meantime you may be interested in the Temple of Understanding's Juliet Hollister Awards Gala. The event is going to be held at the UN Delegates Dining Room on Sept 18th at 7pm. It will be an incredible evening of music and memorable honorees. Linus Roache, who presented at the Interfaith Experience in May, will be Master of Ceremony. This years honorees are:

Majora Carter will be honored for her work to bring social and environmental justice to poor and disenfranchised communities around the world. She is a leading urban revitalization strategist, the founder of Sustainable South Bronx, and a 2005 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow. Russell Simmons, music industry pioneer, entrepreneur and philanthroper, will be honored for his work to bridge the divide between people of different religions and cultures. Bhai Sahib Dr. Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia is the leader of the largest registered Sikh community in the United Kingdom. He will be honored for his work as an intra- and inter-faith educator and for his dedication to advancing interfaith issues at the United Nations.

In 1996 the Juliet Hollister Award was created to honor the Temple of Understanding's founder, Juliet Hollister, and to acknowledge the work of a religious leader whose work brings interfaith values into the place of worship and secular leaders who promote greater understanding of spiritual values in areas such as the arts, education, media, government, science, law and the environment.

Past awardees include Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, the Very Reverend James Parks Morton, His Holiness Sri Swami Satchidananda, President Nelson Mandela, His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, Maestro Ravi Shankar, Wangari Maathai, Fr. Thomas Berry, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, and Hans Kung.

A pre-purchased ticket to the event is required.

To order tickets or for more information: info@templeofunderstanding.org or call 212-573-9224, ext 22

A special thanks and a Survey

A very special thanks to Linus and to all those that attended our final event of the spring/summer season. Thanks to Linus for his enlightening and entertaining talk, as well as for joining us for dinner and laughs after the event. It was a fabulous way to close out our first full year at the Rubin Museum of Art. We're looking forward to bringing you more great events in the fall and hope that you all have an amazing summer.

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Law and Order star Linus Roache joins us in May

We are pleased to announce that Law and Order's newest star Linus Roache will present at the Interfaith Experience on May 30th at 7pm. Linus will share how his spiritual practice of Evolutionary Enlightenment has impacted his life and career.

"Being in the World but not of the World. "

In this talk the acclaimed British Actor Linus Roache, currently appearing as Law and Order's Chief Executive ADA Michael Cutter, will share how the perspective of Evolutionary Enlightenment is helping him navigate through the seductive world of success, celebrity and the intensity of the entertainment industry. As well as performing for over 24 years on stage, TV and screen, Linus has been a student of Evolutionary Enlightenment for the past 14 years and is now the Managing Director of the New York Center for EnlightenNext. EnlightenNext is a global network dedicated to creating a revolution in Consciousness and Culture and is founded on the vision of Spiritual Teacher Andrew Cohen and his teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment.