I am happy to update that an interview on the Israeli 2nd Channel, done (in Hebrew) on 20 July with Dr. Ohr Margalit who leads IEA project “God’s Holy Mountain” – is finally available on-line: http://reshet.ynet.co.il/Shows/Haolam_Haboker/videomarklist,169902/
Yours, Yehuda
May this new year be one in which people of all faith work together for peace, the relief of poverty and the protection of the environment
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The latest edition of Wisdom , the newsletter of the Elijah Institue is now available admin@elijah-interfaith.org
Co-Sponsored by F.C.P..D. & Sri Ramanuja Mission Trust H. H Swamy
Prasanna Vengadachariar Chathurvedi
Dear Fellow Pilgrims,
We hope that you are all keeping fine. So this is the second note that we are sending you regarding our WFIRC 2010 ASSEMBLY, to be held at the Franciscan Centre: Assisi Shanthi Kendra, Karukutty, Kerala, India, from December 9th to 12th, 2010. Our main concern is: “Religion and the Marginalized” taking up the concerns as: Environment, the Poor victims of injustice, Women, Youth and Children. Once again cordial Welcome. Now we want to bring to your attention some of the details:
- By Air You can fly to the Cochin Airport and the Centre is just 8 Kilometers far
from the Airport. You may hire a Taxi from there and tell “Assisi Shanthi
Kendra, Karukutty”.
- By Train The nearest Railway Station is at Angamaly. But not all trains stop there,
except the following: Rapthi Sagar Exp (2512 S.F), Barauni Exp (2522 S.F), Ahilyanagari Exp (6326), Mumbai Exp (6382), Chennai Exp (6024), Bangalore Exp (6525), Chennai Mail (2624 S.F), Trichy Exp (6866).
* All other Trains stop at Aluva.
* On the 8th of December someone of us will come and help you to hire the Taxi at the Station. Please inform us when and where you are getting down. We are unable to do such services on the 9th onwards due to the Meeting.
- By Bus Get down at Angamaly and hire a Taxi to “Assisi Shanthi Kendra,
Karukutty”.
December 8th
10.00 a.m. onwards: Arrival and Registration, at the Venue
December 9th
10. 00 a.m. Inauguration (the details shall be made known to you later)
12. 30 p.m. Lunch
02.30.p.m. I Plenary Input Session (Panel) on “Religion and the Tribals, Outcastes, Dalits in our Society”. Presentation and Clarifications.
04.00 . Tea Break
04.30 . WORKSHOP on the Input Session
05.30 p.m. Free Time
07. 00 p.m. Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 p.m. Dinner
08. 45 p.m. Cultural Programs.
December 10th
07. 00 a.m Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 a.m Breakfast
09. 00 a.m. II Plenary Input Session; Religion and the Marginalized:
Women & Children
11. 00 a.m Workshop
12. 30 a.m Lunch
02. 30 p.m YOUTH MEET: Challenges faced by the youth and their
responses
04. 30 p.m Conolidated Report
07. 00 p.m. Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 p.m. Dinner
08. 45 p.m. Cultural Programs.
December 11th
07. 00 a.m Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 a.m Breakfast
09. 00 a.m. III Plenary Input Session; Religion and the Environment
11. 00 a.m Workshop on the input Session
12. 30 a.m Lunch
02. 30 p.m Report from Dialogue Groups on ongoing Dialogue
04. 30 p.m Report from Groups
07. 00 p.m. Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 p.m. Dinner
08. 45 p.m. Cultural Programs.
December 12.
07. 00 a.m Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 a.m Breakfast
09. 00 a.m. IV Plenary Input Session; Discussion on Emerging Findings.
12. 00 p.m Valedictory Session:
01. 00 p.m Lunch
The registration fee is Rs 750 per head. We are sorry to inform you that this year we may not be able to give any reduction in the registration fee. You may pay it on your arrival at the venue.
Panelists for the input-sessions and public sessions are selected from among the registered participants. Panelists will kindly keep to the time limit of 7 minutes. An early registration will be of help in selection the panelists. Do inform us about your participation.
As we are running short of time we have created a unified e-mail ID, so that all of you can contact us immediately. Our new ID is wfirc2010@yahoo.in We will be happy if you can reply to us in this e-mail ID. You can also send us letters by post.
We shall hold the General Body Meet of WFIRC during this our Assembly at a convenient time.
Minimum one full day participation is expected from all the participants.
Assisi Shanthi Kendra
Karukutty – 683576
Ernakulam Dt., Kerala
Mob: 09447172778
Thanking you ahead for your co-operation,
Your fellow pilgrims,
Fr. Albert Nambiaparambil CMI
Secretary General, WFIRC
Mob. 09446131173
E.Mail:<upasanadr@dataone.in>
Justice P. K Shamsuddin,
President, WFIRC
Mob. 09446572993
Prof.N.R.Menon,
Treasurer ,WFIRC,
Mob.9349763534
Fr. Robi Kannanchira CMI
Secretary, WFIRC
Mob. 9447824575
Co-Sponsored by F.C.P..D. & Sri Ramanuja Mission Trust H. H Swamy
Prasanna Vengadachariar Chathurvedi
Dear Fellow Pilgrims,
We hope that you are all keeping fine. So this is the second note that we are sending you regarding our WFIRC 2010 ASSEMBLY, to be held at the Franciscan Centre: Assisi Shanthi Kendra, Karukutty, Kerala, India, from December 9th to 12th, 2010. Our main concern is: “Religion and the Marginalized” taking up the concerns as: Environment, the Poor victims of injustice, Women, Youth and Children. Once again cordial Welcome. Now we want to bring to your attention some of the details:
- By Air You can fly to the Cochin Airport and the Centre is just 8 Kilometers far
from the Airport. You may hire a Taxi from there and tell “Assisi Shanthi
Kendra, Karukutty”.
- By Train The nearest Railway Station is at Angamaly. But not all trains stop there,
except the following: Rapthi Sagar Exp (2512 S.F), Barauni Exp (2522 S.F), Ahilyanagari Exp (6326), Mumbai Exp (6382), Chennai Exp (6024), Bangalore Exp (6525), Chennai Mail (2624 S.F), Trichy Exp (6866).
* All other Trains stop at Aluva.
* On the 8th of December someone of us will come and help you to hire the Taxi at the Station. Please inform us when and where you are getting down. We are unable to do such services on the 9th onwards due to the Meeting.
- By Bus Get down at Angamaly and hire a Taxi to “Assisi Shanthi Kendra,
Karukutty”.
December 8th
10.00 a.m. onwards: Arrival and Registration, at the Venue
December 9th
10. 00 a.m. Inauguration (the details shall be made known to you later)
12. 30 p.m. Lunch
02.30.p.m. I Plenary Input Session (Panel) on “Religion and the Tribals, Outcastes, Dalits in our Society”. Presentation and Clarifications.
04.00 . Tea Break
04.30 . WORKSHOP on the Input Session
05.30 p.m. Free Time
07. 00 p.m. Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 p.m. Dinner
08. 45 p.m. Cultural Programs.
December 10th
07. 00 a.m Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 a.m Breakfast
09. 00 a.m. II Plenary Input Session; Religion and the Marginalized:
Women & Children
11. 00 a.m Workshop
12. 30 a.m Lunch
02. 30 p.m YOUTH MEET: Challenges faced by the youth and their
responses
04. 30 p.m Conolidated Report
07. 00 p.m. Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 p.m. Dinner
08. 45 p.m. Cultural Programs.
December 11th
07. 00 a.m Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 a.m Breakfast
09. 00 a.m. III Plenary Input Session; Religion and the Environment
11. 00 a.m Workshop on the input Session
12. 30 a.m Lunch
02. 30 p.m Report from Dialogue Groups on ongoing Dialogue
04. 30 p.m Report from Groups
07. 00 p.m. Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 p.m. Dinner
08. 45 p.m. Cultural Programs.
December 12.
07. 00 a.m Sandhya Prayer and Meditation
08. 00 a.m Breakfast
09. 00 a.m. IV Plenary Input Session; Discussion on Emerging Findings.
12. 00 p.m Valedictory Session:
01. 00 p.m Lunch
The registration fee is Rs 750 per head. We are sorry to inform you that this year we may not be able to give any reduction in the registration fee. You may pay it on your arrival at the venue.
Panelists for the input-sessions and public sessions are selected from among the registered participants. Panelists will kindly keep to the time limit of 7 minutes. An early registration will be of help in selection the panelists. Do inform us about your participation.
As we are running short of time we have created a unified e-mail ID, so that all of you can contact us immediately. Our new ID is wfirc2010@yahoo.in We will be happy if you can reply to us in this e-mail ID. You can also send us letters by post.
We shall hold the General Body Meet of WFIRC during this our Assembly at a convenient time.
Minimum one full day participation is expected from all the participants.
Assisi Shanthi Kendra
Karukutty – 683576
Ernakulam Dt., Kerala
Mob: 09447172778
Thanking you ahead for your co-operation,
Your fellow pilgrims,
Fr. Albert Nambiaparambil CMI
Secretary General, WFIRC
Mob. 09446131173
E.Mail:<upasanadr@dataone.in>
Justice P. K Shamsuddin,
President, WFIRC
Mob. 09446572993
Prof.N.R.Menon,
Treasurer ,WFIRC,
Mob.9349763534
Fr. Robi Kannanchira CMI
Secretary, WFIRC
Mob. 9447824575
A Look at Christianity, Through a Buddhist Lens
Five decades ago, Paul F. Knitter, then a novice studying to become a Roman Catholic priest, would be in the seminary chapel at 5:30 every morning, trying to stay awake and spend time in meditation before Mass.
Last Wednesday, at the same hour, he was sitting on his Zen cushion meditating in the Claremont Avenue apartment he occupies as the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
A few hours later he was talking about his pointedly titled new book, “Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian” (Oneworld). The book is the outcome of decades of encounters with Buddhism — and of struggles with his own faith.
Born in 1939, Mr. Knitter began his path to the Catholic priesthood at age 13, studied theology in Rome during the years of the Second Vatican Council, was ordained in 1966, completed a doctorate in Germany and began a long and influential career as a scholar addressing questions of the relationship between Christianity and other world religions.
He received permission to leave the priesthood in 1975, taught for many years at Xavier University in Cincinnati and after his retirement was invited to Union Theological.
“Am I still a Christian?” he asks in his new book. It is a question posed over the years by others, including some unhappy officials in the Vatican. But the question, he writes, is also “one I have felt in my own mind and heart.”
“Has my dialogue with Buddhism made me a Buddhist Christian?” he writes. “Or a Christian Buddhist? Am I a Christian who has understood his own identity more deeply with the help of Buddhism? Or have I become a Buddhist who still retains a stock of Christian leftovers.”
The struggles Mr. Knitter is writing about are not the familiar ones about sexual ethics, the role of women or the failures of church leaders.
His focus here is on what he calls “the big stuff”: What does it really mean for Christians to profess belief in an almighty “God the Father” personally active in the world, or in Jesus, “his only-begotten Son” who saved humanity through his death and bodily resurrection, or in eternal life, heaven and hell?
However much he tried, Mr. Knitter found that certain longstanding Christian formulations of faith “just didn’t make sense”: God as a person separate from creation and intervening in it as an external agent; individualized life after death for all and eternal punishment for some; Jesus as God’s “only Son” and the only savior of humankind; prayers that ask God to favor some people over others.
Mr. Knitter’s response, based on his long interaction with Buddhist teachers, was to “pass over” to Buddhism’s approach to each of these problems and then “pass back” to Christian tradition to see if he could retrieve or re-imagine aspects of it with this “Buddhist flashlight.”
He was not asserting, as some people have, that religions like Christianity and Buddhism are merely superficially different expressions of one underlying faith.
On the contrary, he insists they differ profoundly. Yet “Buddhism has helped me take another and deeper look at what I believe as a Christian,” he writes. “Many of the words that I had repeated or read throughout my life started to glow with new meaning.”
Those new meanings will unsettle many Christians, as Mr. Knitter recognizes, even as they address difficulties felt by many others. This will vary, of course, from issue to issue. Mr. Knitter’s translation of Buddhist meditation into a call for a Christian “sacrament of silence” may be readily welcomed. His search for a “non-dualistic” understanding of God and the world may be only leading him through Buddhism back to Thomas Aquinas.
“Perhaps I could have come onto these insights without Buddhism,” he said Wednesday. Yet even in those cases he often expresses these insights in language that will be debated, like God as “InterBeing” or “Connecting Spirit.”
When his comparison between “Jesus the Christ and Gautama the Buddha” leads him to conclude that both are “unique” saviors but not sole or final ones, he is treading, as he well knows, in a theological minefield.
One can predict that this book will receive instant condemnation from people who feel their duty is to protect Christian doctrine from wandering off course.
One can also predict that those condemnations will, in turn, make others hesitant to voice more nuanced, thoughtful criticism out of fear of piling on.
Mr. Knitter and his book deserve better. It is easy to draw up a list of substantial criticisms. For one thing, Mr. Knitter’s Christianity comes laden with all the impurities of popular piety and workaday theology while his Buddhism seems to be that of the best and the brightest.
Some readers may detect the reflex of the lifelong recovering cleric in his recoiling from whatever might appear to be patriarchal or excluding. And most important are questions about the nature and use of religious language for pointing to a mystery that can never be captured in human words.
Yet serious critics, no matter how major their differences, will not be able to ignore the enormous, almost disarming honesty of this book. Mr. Knitter admits his painful puzzlements and conducts his search for answers out in the open. He does not hide behind academic abstraction but writes clearly and personally and leaves himself open to correction.
Although he argues for a kind of religious “double-belonging,” he does not hesitate to ask whether this is ultimately a kind of promiscuity — or, as one of his students put it, “spiritual sleeping around.”
Mr. Knitter doesn’t believe so. But he has written his book in part to see whether fellow Christians agree.
Will his “double-belonging” resonate sufficiently within his own faith community that he can continue to consider himself a Buddhist Christian? Or if not, as he explained this week, will he feel obliged to recognize himself as a Christian Buddhist?
One need not have a stake in that outcome to find “Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian” a compelling example of religious inquiry.
From the New York Times October 10, 2009
Beliefs
Scarboro Missions is proud to announce the publication of what we believe to be the most comprehensive Golden Rule curriculum ever produced in history. Using the logic of circles, rules, moral modeling and the Golden Rule, this curriculum unit inspires and supports young people to become global citizens rooted in the Golden Rule.The students’ learning experience is enriched through drama, art, music, group reflection, journaling and rap. The curriculum can be used in public schools, religious schools and youth organizations. This curriculum unit boasts a wealth of resources, websites, and Internet Links relevant to the subject matter.
Titled “A Rule Made of Gold” and geared to an international audience, the curriculum is also available in Word and pdf format.
This project, which has been in the works for eight years, was authored by my brother, Gregory, and a team of teachers from across Ontario.
To view or download the new curriculum free of charge, go to http://www.scarboromissions.ca/Golden_rule/made_of_gold.php
(NEW YORK, 4 October 2010) —Young leaders from the world’s great religious
traditions convened in New York on 4 October to deliver a petition signed by
more than 20 million people from 140 countries to H.E. Mr. Sergio de Queiroz
Duarte, United Nations Secretary-General’s High Representative for
Disarmament. The petition calls on all governments to officially pledge to
cut their military budgets by 10% and re-allocate those funds toward
development.
To read the full text please visit
http://www.rfp-europe.eu/index.cfm?id=315496
Archives Last updated: September 22, 2010 21:00 [IST] Home News Videos Astrology Lifestyle Entertainment Women Automotive Sports Business Travel RealEstate Directory Home » District News, Ernakulam, Featured, Kerala Today, Latest News, Local News, News, News videos, Week’s top news » Change font size Rate it Dalai Lama inaugurates IARF congress at Kochi
Kochi, Saturday, September 04, 2010: Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama inaugurated the World Congress of the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) at the Renewal Centre here on Saturday. The Dalai Lama interacted with participants of the congress after the inaugural session.
Dalai Lama was presented the Albert Schweitzer Award. Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamigalu, Head of Suttur Math, Mysore, delivered the benedictory address. Swami Agnivesh, president, Arya Samaj; Swami Jitatmananda of Ramakrishna Mission; Sheikh Ali, former Vice-Chancellor of Goa and Mangalore universities; and Steven Leeper, president of Hiroshima Foundation, Japan; will be among the dignitaries who will lead discussions on subsequent days.
