Behind the Scenes

Ben Clark, Brian Farr, Alan Bachman, Jan Saeed, Elaine Emmi

Many members of the Salt Lake City Interfaith Roundtable and their friends worked for months of detailed planning and preparation to host NAINConnect 2010.  Committee members included Wendy Stovall [registration], Ivan Cendese, Brian Farr [presenter and host, new NAIN Board member], Alan Bachman [musician, host, Roundtable Chair], Andalin Bachman [music and video], Benjamin Clark [conference program and tech support], Linda Hilton [Roundtable Treasurer], Gary Poll, Leela Baggett, Elaine Emmi [Roindtable Secretary], Rahz Saeed, Jan Saeed {NAIN Board], Nahzaneen Aqhdassi, Samantha Meland, and Katie Danner.

Thank you seems inadequate.

Celebrations and Connections

NAINConnect 2010 was NOT all work and no play.  In addition to the opening event at the Salt Lake Buddhist Church, we enjoyed several meals together.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral hosted a sumptuous continental breakfast and a wonderful dinner catered by Bombay House.  Breakfast tickets on Tuesday could be used either at the Nauvoo Café or Hagermann’s Bake House.

LDS Luncheon Banquet

Tuesday lunch was a banquet hosted at the LDS Church Headquarters on the 26^th Floor.  The view was spectacular.

Evening Gala

Our final gala event was at the Jewish Community Center.  Again, the balcony view was captivating.  Middle Eastern food was delicious. The music of a half Jewish-half Arab band with the Interfaith Roundtable’s President Alan Bachman and his wife and friends.  The music had most attendees dancing and clapping.

Tuesday Afternoon Workshops

Many Faiths – One Family

Connecting: The power of genetics and genealogy in bringing people together. David Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer, Family Search.  This was a most appropriate inclusion from the genealogy capital of the world.  Mr. Rencher gave a fast-moving and fascinating glimpse into DNA genealogy which proves that we are indeed one family.  By the 50^th generation back, we are all connected to Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad through common DNA.

After this introductory presentation, there were two sets of breakouts on the topic of Working Together for the Common Good.

WISDOM

• Five Women, Five Journeys: How Different Are We? Women’s Interfaith Solutions for Dialogue and Outreach in MetroDetroit (WISDOM) Gail Katz, President and Co-Founder; Patricia Harris, Co-Founder; Paula Drewek, President-elect.  Three leaders from WISDOM told the story of how they formed and wrote their book.  They then demonstrated how they present their program.  http://www.interfaithwisdom.org/ http://www.readthespirit.com/friendship-and-faith-book/
• Refugee Resettlement Program of Interfaith Works, Dr. Jim Wiggins, Interfaith Works of Central New York. http://interfaithworkscny.org/blog/  There are 11 million refugees worldwide and InterFaith Works is currently working with refugees from Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Refugee Services: Great Projects That Cross Lines of Religion and Culture. Amy Wylie, Volunteer Coordinator, Utah Refugee Services Office.  http://refugee.utah.gov/about/index.html
• Awaken the Dreamer – Be the Change. Derek LaCroix and Maureen Jack-LaCroix, Multifaith Action Society (MAS) of Vancouver, B.C. The intended result of this session is to activate environmental change through personal and social awareness, while providing a connecting point for faith-centers and the broader community to develop common goals and collaboration.  http://www.multifaithaction.org/

Building a Global Family, photo Tomiko Nojima

• Our Challenges; How to Build a Global Family, Rev. Paul Chaffee, Director of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio www.interfaith-presidio.org, Mrs. Prabha Duneja, Hindu teacher and chair of the Women’s Interfaith Circle of Service (WICS) of  the United Religions Initiative (URI) http://www.uri.org/cooperation_circles/detail/womensinterfaithcircleofservice , Pastor Kevin Thompson,  Regional Director of Universal Peace Federation UPF http://us.upf.org/ . This panel will be joined by NAIN Scholarship recipient Peter Frank Womack. Mr. Womack has a BA degree in Economics, an MBA in Entrepreneurial Studies, and a JD in International Governance and is the Founder and Executive Director of Interfaith Settlement Foundation, an interfaith organization dedicated to the establishment of a municipality specifically predicated upon interreligious cooperation.
• Can Faith-based Work Really Make a Difference? Getting Beyond the Quick Fix. Benefit from lessons learned from 41 years of tackling some of the most systemic problems facing a city. Rabbi George Stern, Executive Director of the Neighborhood Interfaith Movement, and Eric Wilden, Assistant Director.  http://www.nimphilly.org/   Rabbi Sterns and Eric spoke of their successfully diverse staff.  A beautiful mural has enhanced their visibility.  Their services include older adult programs, long-term care resources, childcare and youth programs.
• Respectful Contestation of Irreconcilable Differences, Dr. Randall Paul, Founder and Exec.Director of the Foundation for Inter-religious Diplomacy.  http://www.fidweb.org/home

Ralph Singh

 

• Changing the Narrative: Using Stories From Our Traditions and Music to Build a More Compassionate, Engaged, Pluralistic Society. Ralph Singh, Director of Publications and Public Relations for Gobind Sadan Institute and Society for Interfaith Understanding http://www.gobindsadan.org/usa-website/usa-home.html , will share progress of his project “Nurturing an Ideal Citizen of the State of Virtue” using the audio CD “Stories to Light Our Way, Journey to the World of Good” and study guides. He will be joined by NAIN Scholarship recipient

Judy Wight & Skyler Oberst

 

• Teaching Children and Youth Respect for Others. Rosemary Baron, Interfaith Chaplain, Former Middle School Principal, co-developer of The 3 R’s Project.(Rights, Respect, Responsibility) http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/socialstudies/teachers/pdf/3R.pdf ; Jacqueline Thompson, REACH (Respecting Ethnic And Cultural Heritage) coordinator for the Davis School District http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw8/eptw8h.html ; Judy Wight, The Ulster Project http://www.ulsterprojectutah.com/joomla/ Northern Irish teens from Omagh arrived in Utah on Tuesday June 29, 2010 and along with their US host teens engaged in activites and service projects; Skyler Oberst, NAIN Scholarship recipient. (Skyler is a student at Eastern Washington University working on a double major in philosophy and anthropology, founder of Compassionate Interfaith Society and recipient of one of EWU’s prestigious Student Excellence Awards.) http://www.ewu.edu/x62902.xml?printer_friendly=1

Hi-Tech Media: Implications for NAIN Organizations

Media Presenters

Judy Trautman, NAIN Communications Chair and Editor of NAINews. Judy will lead this session and will report on highlights from the recent Religious Communications Congress. She currently also serves as co-chair of the MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio.   Judy shared some of the changes happening in media – the impending demise of print media, the shift to handheld devices, the emphasis on interactive, short, and visual communications, the virtual faith online and phone app phenomena.  She advises a plan to include multiple and flexiple approaches, in order to stay current and relevant. There is a values issue in that many of the new technologies appeal to the affluent.  She urges filling the needed role to reflect, evaluate, and tell good stories.  But if no one hears a story, is it still a story?

R C Congress 2010 Implications  PowerPoint of the presentation.

Sumitra Srinivasan, NAIN Scholarship recipient, board member of the MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Toledo.  Sumitra’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of journalism, international/intercultural communication, new technologies, faith-based learning, and multimedia communication.  Sumitra focused her presentation on Facebook and its successful use by non-profits.  She also showed some websites prepared by students.  She showed how vocabulary is affected by media changes – we tweet and facebook – new verbs.  She mentioned a youtube video that shows the religious buildings in the Virtual Reality portal called Second Life.  You may see it here.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huQtY79xsNY

Alisa Roadcup, NAIN Scholarship recipient and Communications Director, the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. Alisa led the Council’s most successful marketing campaign ever for the 2009 Parliament and holds a BA in Humanities and an MA in Religious Studies.  Alisa showcased PeaceNext http://www.peacenext.org/ as a best practices example of a successful social networking site.  The launch at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in December 2009 was a true spiritual experience.  It now has aver 2500 members and about 80 groups.  The launch was aided by sharing of advice from the Interfaith Youth Core whose Bridge-Builders http://bridge-builders.ning.com/ site is also very successful.

Practical Application

Practical Application Panel

Brian Farr, Rotary Utah District Chair for Conflict Resolution and Peace, Immediate Past Chair of the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable, President of the Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy.  Brian states that interfaith can be an agent towards peace, a condition that allows the full flowering of the human spirit.  Interfaith does this by countering the roots of violence, selfishness and greed, and inoculating against fear by increasing understanding.  Peace-building is community building, which rests not in the hands of government, but in the people.  It is a battle for the hearts and minds of people. Melissa Nozell, NAIN Scholarship recipient. Melissa is a summer intern at the Pluralism Project at Harvard University and has a BA, Honors, in Religion and Asian Studies from Colgate University. The main focus of her academic interest is on positive interactions between Hindus and Muslims in South Asia.  Melissa gained some of her insights from travelling in India.  She says that religion both brings people together and divides them.  She cites the fact that in India people celebrate each other’s holidays as a positive example.  A negative aspect of religion in India is the demonization of mental illness; but religious leaders are combatting this issue.  She commented on the Harvard Pluralism Project’s case studies initiative.  She also states that intrafaith work is needed also.  We need to take the concept of interfaith home to our communities of faith. John Kesler, J.D.  Founder and Executive Director of Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community. John’s interest in addressing the growing problem of divisiveness and incivility in society resulted in the timely document and initiative “A Call to Civility”.   John discussed a program in the Public Schools, a curriculum of the three Rs – rights, responsibility, and respect.  It has been integrated in the schools for ten years.  Now they are challenging adults to behave this way.  They are addressing bodies of government to adopt community ground rules for successful engagement and civility.  [With such appalling examples of incivility in our government and public arenas, this strikes me as a very important initiative for all of us to undertake.]

Young Adult Scholars Panel

Young Adult Scholars Panel

NAIN received over 30 applications for young adult scholarships this year.  We extended our budget to offer schoalrships to 12 exceptional candidates.  One was stranded in India.  The remaining 11 were integral parts of the Connect programming.  Six participated in a panel.  Others took part in other presentations.

• Erin Bilir, high school senior at Colorado Academy, published journalist, award-winning playwright, and president and founder of ETHOS (Ethics, Theology, Humanity, Oneness, and Society) a student interfaith club. Erin is a member of Colorado Friends of the Harvard Women’s Studies in Religion program and researcher for the Pluralism Project.  She is investigating online spirituality.
• Kaitlin Hasseler, Program Specialist, Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital where she develops programs and curriculum relating to youth empowerment, gender equity, and interfaith and religious topics. Kaitlin is a participant in the Washington Interfaith Network and a graduate of Ithaca College with a degree in Journalism and double minors in Religious Studies and in Politics.  She is very involved in helping Girls Scouts develop inner reflection and a sense of shared humanity.
• Michelle Jackson, is the Tannenbaum Inter-religious Fellow at Vassar College and advisor to the Interreligious Student Council where she creates and implements campus-wide programming. Michelle has a B.A. degree in the Study of Religion from UCLA and a Masters of Divinity from the Harvard Divinity School.  Michelle challenged us to the reality that interfaith needs to be more racially diverse and to reach out to conservatives.
• Hillary Kaell, doctoral candidate in American Studies at Harvard University specializing in the history and practice of North American Christianity. Hillary has taught undergraduate courses in interfaith conflict, worked on the Pluralism Project’s World Religions Project in Boston, and is a paid consultant for the PBS series Religion in America.  Hillary suggests a way to participate in interfaith when living in a homogeneous society is to use Internet resources, such as pen pals.  She indicates that media imposed narrative arcs, with a neat beginning-middle- end, do not reflect reality and can lead to quoting out of context.
• Dawinder Sidhu, author and civil rights attorney with an interest in the aftermath effect of 9/11 on religious communities. “Dave” has a BA in Philosophy from the U. of Penn., an MA in Government from Johns Hopkins, and a JD from the George Washington University Law School. He has held fellowship and/or research posts at Harvard, Stanford, and Georgetown.  His post 9/11 self-imposed role of protecting his father, who looks the traditional Sikh and therefor was in danger, led him to study law and engage in civil rights and justice.  He criticizes just talking about belief systems without action towards a just society.
• Wm. Andrew Schwartz, a Ph.D. student in Philosophy of Religion and Theology at Claremont Graduate University. He is a licensed minister in the Church of the Nazarene and holds BA degrees in Religion and Missions from Northwest Nazarene University and an MA in Theological Studies from Nazarene Theological Seminary.  Andrew comes from an interfaith family.  His father is Jewish and his mother Christian.  His study abroad program in the Middle East raised awareness.