Peace on Earth the angels sing to the shepherds in the Christmas story in the Gospel of Luke, and during these days we will hear that refrain again and again, see it on greeting cards, banners, and holiday displays. Christianity, of course, has no corner on peacemaking; nearly every religious tradition values peace. But the desire is not the reality; too often "Peace on Earth" becomes simply a rote phrase. The task of making peace is not an airy wish, it involves patience, hard work, understanding, and meeting one another in the hearts of our respective tradions of compassion and hospitality. That is why we return again and again to the Interfaith Center at the Presidio, seeking to create that safe, sacred space where we can encounter one another and renew that vision of peace on earth.

CHARTER FOR COMPASSION
Internationally renowned religious scholar Karen Armstrong, together with the organizers of the TED Prize, invite you to participate in developing a Charter for Compassion, to be completed in 2009. The project aims to enlist individuals from across the globe, of all faiths, nationalities, languages, and backgrounds, to help draft the Charter. The Charter will be based on the universal principles of compassion and respect, on the "golden rule" at the core of all major religions. Armstrong says, "The chief task of our time is to build a global society where people of all persuasions can live together in peace and harmony. If we do not achieve this, it seems unlikely that we will have a viable world to hand on to the next generation. Instead of being seen as part of the problem, the religions could make a vital contribution to this urgent undertaking." See details and take part at charterforcompassion.org. Use this site to offer language you'd like to see included. Or inspire others by sharing your own story of compassion.

SAFE INTERFAITH SPACE AND PROPOSITION 8
The ballot in the recent election in California included a measure (Propostition 8, banning gay marriage) on which religious communities and individuals profoundly disagree. The Interfaith Center Board took some time to discuss the issue at their Board meeting. Executive Director Paul Chaffee writes of the discussion:

"We learned something, though: that our task as an interfaith community is to create safe environments where we can share our differences about controversial issues without hurting each other, without ‘proselytizing’ our perspectives, and, God willing, come to understand each other and our issues with a new depth and sensitivity. Our foundation is mutual respect, whatever our differences. Our goal is not agreement but understanding. Our approach is inclusive, not judgmental."

To read more of Paul's comments,click here.

MAKE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE
Don't miss the "Taste of the Parliament" day on Saturday, December 13, 2008, from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm at Santa Clara University!

Keynote speakers: Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro and Dr. William Lesher. Find out about interfaith activities in Silicon Valley and get ready for the Parliament of the World's Religions in December of 2009.

Details of the pre-Parliament day are available at www.carrythevision.org; for information about the Melbourne gathering in 2009, see www.cpwr.org. Plan to join with brothers and sisters in the South Bay for this "taste of the Parliament"!

TURN OVER THAT CALENDAR
This is the time of the year when we're thinking about getting that new calendar for 2009. If you don't already do so, consider hanging an Interfaith calendar on your wall, and be reminded throughout the year of the cycles of celebration, commemoration, and spiritual reflection that weave the days of each year together. See several options below.

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Bay Area Interfaith Connect is sent each month to nearly 2,000 subscribers, and is available online at the Interfaith Center at the Presidio website. If you do not receive the monthly updates and would like to do so, simply write to info@interfaith-presidio.org. Please include your name, and, if you are willing, your street address and phone will help us to keep you up to date on interfaith activities.

Andrew Kille

Krista Tippett is the host of "Speaking of Faith," a weekly public radio program in which she talks to a wide range of people about "religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas." Recently, she wrote a book of the same name, describing her own journey of faith and what she has learned over the years about how to speak of faith productively.

Reflecting on her experiences in interreligious dialogue at the Collegeville Institute in Minnesota, she writes, "The first-person approach to religious speech is essentially about humanizing doctrine. It disallows abstractions about God, even as it takes into account of the fact that it is hard, and so intimate, to speak about this aspect of life directly." She goes on to note that Quaker author Parker Palmer sees the soul like a wild animal in our depths that will flee if approached suddenly or questioned harshly. "We have to create quiet, inviting, and trustworthy spaces, Parker says, to keep the insights and presence of soul at the table"(Speaking of Faith, p. 126).

Creating "quiet, inviting, and trustworthy" space—since 1995, that has been the goal of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio. In taking responsibility for the care and support of the Presidio Chapel— a space that already had a long history of interfaith service— ICP sought not merely to encourage interfaith dialogue and understanding, but to hold the space in which such conversations can happen, speaking one-to-one, and humanizing our religious traditions for each other. All our shared work, our hospitality, our programs, and our celebrations is grounded in this fundamental purpose of holding safe space for interfaith encounter. It is in this safe space at the Presidio chapel that theory becomes flesh and blood, dreams become relationships, and the future breaks into the here and now.

PREPARING FOR THE PARLIAMENT
The next gathering of the Parliament of the World's Religions will take place in December of next year in Melbourne, Australia. The theme will be "Make a World of Difference: Healing each other; Healing the Earth." Plans are already underway for that gathering of over 10,000 people from more than 80 countries around the world. In anticipation, several groups in the South Bay are sponsoring a "Taste of the Parliament" day on Saturday, December 13, 2008, from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm at Santa Clara University.

Participants will have the opportunity to hear from keynote speaker Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro, former director of the World YWCA and current director of the Population Program of the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, join in dialogue and appreciative inquiry conversations around issues like "Healing the earth with care and concern," the role of women in local and global healing," "Overcoming poverty and the millennium development goals," and "Social cohesion in communities."

More details of the pre-Parliament day are available at www.carrythevision.org; for information about the Melbourne gathering in 2009, see www.cpwr.org. Plan to join with brothers and sisters in the South Bay for this "taste of the Parliament"!

NAIN CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The 2009 NAIN Connect will take place June 25-28 at Unity Village in Kansas City, Missouri. The theme will be Experiencing the Spirit in Education: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism. The organizers are now looking for workshop proposals that present outstanding examples of interfaith or multifaith education programs. Contact conference co-chair Peter Laurence or go to the NAIN website for more information.

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Bay Area Interfaith Connect is sent each month to nearly 2,000 subscribers, and is available online at the Interfaith Center at the Presidio website. If you do not receive the monthly updates and would like to do so, simply write to info@interfaith-presidio.org. Please include your name, and, if you are willing, your street address and phone will help us to keep you up to date on interfaith activities.

Andrew Kille

The Interfaith Center at the Presidio gathered in the Main Post Chapel for the first time on Sunday, October 1, 1995. We commemorated the passage from military to civilian stewardship of this beautiful interfaith sanctuary. Twenty religious traditions were represented, each participant offering a blessing and then lighting a candle on the altar. Since then, the ICP has come together in the Fall for a "Gathering of Blessings," an annual celebration of our shared work. This year's celebration will take place on Sunday, October 5, with a reception at 4:30 pm and the celebration starting at 5:30. The ceremony will include leaders from the Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim and Wiccan traditions, and will honor the Jewish Community Relations Council as a "Bay Area Multifaith Treasure." Founded in the early 1940's to safeguard the rights of Jews individually and as a community, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of of San Francisco, The Peninsula, Marin, Sonoma, Alameda and Contra Costa Counties is one of 130 such organizations nationwide. JCRC represents 70 synagogues and Jewish organizations, and engages in education and advocacy on a broad spectrum of issues, including anti-Semitism, the separation of church and state, U.S./Israel relations, political extremism, Holocaust remembrance, intra-Jewish relations, oppressed Jewry, discrimination, acts of hate, intolerance or violence, immigration, race, interfaith and inter-group relations, and quality public education. Plan to be with us as we join in this Gathering of Blessings.

BECOME A STAKEHOLDER IN THE INTERFAITH CENTER
Pastors, pundits, and the morning paper have brought “interfaith dialogue” into view for us all. But identifying those with a passion for multireligious bridge-building, bringing them together, and developing influence for them in the public square – that is a brand new set of tasks, and most of us barely know where to start.

In an attempt to give like-minded interfaith activists a chance to be supportive of the Center’s vision and activities, we’ve devised two new ways to become ‘stakeholders,’ supporters who have a voice in this work and share in the credit for keeping it alive and vital. We’re looking for individuals and groups who wish to know about and perhaps be more engaged in interfaith activities.

• Interfaith Center Associates are individuals who wish to be stakeholders in this venture, individuals who share the Center’s vision and wish to counted as supporters.
• Interfaith Center Affiliates are groups, religious or secular, public or private, that also wish to be stakeholders in this venture, groups which share the vision and wish to be listed as a supporter.

We’re particularly interested in anyone looking for a more active role in this community. But we appreciate silent supporters who know about us and give their vote of support. And we welcome members primarily interested in the Center’s ‘home,’ the beautiful sanctuary traditionally called the Main Post Chapel, distinguished by its history and its art.

Interfaith Center Associates and Affiliates will be interviewed to identify their interests, how involved they want to be with the Center, and how best to communicate with them. Being an Associate or Affiliate comes with the understanding that you have a voice in this work, that your suggestions are welcomed and your engagement encouraged.

Annual dues will be on a sliding scale - $20-100 for Associates, $100-1000 for Affiliates. This makes it possible for us to keep the network alive and well. It also helps keep open the doors to the Chapel.

For more information about becoming an Associate or Affiliate, please contact Paul Chaffee, Executive Director, at 415-7756-4635 or at paul@interfaith-presidio.org. A flyer with more information is available on the ICP website (pdf).

Thank you!

CHALLENGING "OBSESSION"
Some communities in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, and elsewhere have recently been flooded with CDs in their newspapers advertising the film Obsession. This three-year old video which purports to tell the "truth" about Islamic radicalism is rather an anti-Muslim propaganda piece, claiming that Muslims are engaged in covert efforts to subvert American culture and comparing Muslims to the Nazis. Everywhere it has appeared, local interfaith groups and individuals have spoken out against the film and the apparent attempt to use fear and misinformation to affect the election in swing states. As yet it has not been distributed in the San Francisco Bay Area, but if you want to know more, Hate Hurts America has set up an informational website at obsessionwithhate.com.

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Bay Area Interfaith Connect is sent each month to nearly 2,000 subscribers, and is available online at the Interfaith Center at the Presidio website. If you do not receive the monthly updates and would like to do so, simply write to info@interfaith-presidio.org. Please include your name, and, if you are willing, your street address and phone will help us to keep you up to date on interfaith activities.

Andrew Kille

The month of September recalls for us the depths and the heights of relationships between religious traditions. Although September 11 certainly did not begin the interfaith movement, it has had an undeniable impact in shaping interreligious dialogue and cooperation over the past seven years. September 21, the United Nations International Day of Peace, has been a focus for much of what is the best in multifaith understanding and cooperation, as people from diverse traditions come together to lift up the vision of a world in which all people are safe and secure to live out their religious and community commitments to one another.

THE GROWTH OF INTERFAITH: BEYOND TOLERANCE
"A cultural shift had taken place," says Gustav Niebuhr, associate professor of religion at Syracuse University and former religion writer for the New York Times. He was comparing the number of congregations that had been involved in interfaith activities in 2005 (7% in a Hartford study) and how that number had tripled (to 22%) a mere five years later. He sees an urgency for more work. "Religion is to the 21st century what ideology was to the 20th," Niebuhr says. His new book Beyond Tolerance highlights the need to build deeper and stronger connections among religious communities. "Tolerance is not enough because there's no educational component to it," says Niebuhr. "Tolerance doesn't bust down stereotype. Tolerance doesn't put a face on faith." You can read more about Niebuhr and his book from the Los Angeles Times, or listen to the special Grace Cathedral Forum moderated by San Francisco Interfaith Council director Mike Pappas.

FAITH BEYOND VOTES:
James A. Donohue, President of the Graduate Theological Union and active supporter of Interreligious cooperation wrote an op-ed for the SFGate on the importance of faith in the public arena. He writes, "If the interfaith forums are just a campaign ploy to gain votes; if issues, even prayers, are reduced to formulas, the politics of polarization will carry the day, and these forums will not make much difference once the election is over. If, however, this interfaith focus helps achieve some understanding among people of different religions and between secularists and people who are religious - if these forums build a foundation for working together on issues on which we find common ground - then religion has a chance to be a powerful catalyst for finding solutions to the political, economic and social problems weighing on Americans' hearts and minds."

Read more . . .

THE IMPORTANCE OF SERVICE
ServiceNation, a national service initiative (www.servicenation.org) is seeking to link community (including faith communities) in service projects to demonstrate the impact that service has— and could have—upon our country and the power of citizens to create large scale change. The Day of Action, September 27, will be a time for thousands of communities around the nation to mobilize and work together to better their neighborhoods, cities, and communities. For more information, see the Day of Action website.

NAIN NEWS
A special late Summer edition of NAINews (North American Interfaith Network) is now online with extensive coverage of the NAINConnect 2008 conference hosted by the Interfaith Center at the Presidio. Included are many photos from the event, such as the one to the left of honored guest Huston Smith and the Young Adult attendees.

NAINews is available in an online edition, and as a downloadable .pdf file. Still available are details on the workshops and discussion groups set up around the key issues presented during the conference.

FRIENDS IN FAITH DIGITAL PROJECT:
Friends in Faith, a group of youth and young adults co-sponsored by the Interfaith Center at the Presidio and the Young Spirit Foundation, is beginning a pilot program this fall, seeking to build interfaith relationships among young people and their communities through digital storytelling. Using tools of multimedia and Appreciative Inquiry, they invite youth to express their religious perspectives and to respect those of others. Interested people are invited to join in a Leadership Meeting, in person or via conference call on September 28th, at 7:00 pm at the Congregational Church of San Mateo 225 Tilton Ave, San Mateo. The project is funded in part by the San Francisco FAITHS Initiative. Take a look at this sample of their work, created at the NAIN Connect. More information here.

GATHERING OF BLESSINGS:
Plan now to attend the Annual ICP Gathering of Blessings on Sunday, October 5, 2008. We will be honoring the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area as a "Bay Area Interfaith Treasure." For decades, through education, community collaboration and advocacy, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area has worked toward a more just society and a strong, vibrant Jewish community, in the United States and in Israel. It has been a model for the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area religious community of how to build friendships across the differences that can separate us.

Clergy and lay leaders from a dozen different faith traditions will participate. The celebration will include stories, prayers, blessings, and music honoring partnerships that provide support to build bridges of peace and service among religions, here at home and around the world. Reception is at 4:30 pm; Ceremony begins at 5:30 pm.

RAMADAN BEGINS September 1st for our Muslim brothers and Sisters. A blessed Ramadan to all!

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Bay Area Interfaith Connect is sent each month to nearly 2,000 subscribers, and is available online at the Interfaith Center at the Presidio website. If you do not receive the monthly updates and would like to do so, simply write to info@interfaith-presidio.org. Please include your name, and, if you are willing, your street address and phone will help us to keep you up to date on interfaith activities.

Andrew Kille

As we bid farewell to the more than 150 people who gathered for NAIN Connect 2008 (see articles below) and take a moment's rest from all the preparations and arrangements that have filled the past several months, we do well to recognize that new tides of interfaith cooperation have been moving worldwide. Even as we welcomed multifaith colleagues from across North America to San Francisco, significant gatherings were taking place elsewhere around the globe.

AUSTRALIA:
Earlier in July, the Community Relations Commission of Sydney, Australia, hosted a multifaith prayer service for Roman Catholic youth who had come to the World Youth Day. Seeking to demonstrate their efforts to build a successful multifaith culture, organizers included prayers led by Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Sikh and Zoroastrian representatives. The event ended with all participants affirming together, “May we work for the day when all of humanity may praise creation in their own way united in love and respect for each other.” Pope Benedict XVI, making his first visit to Australia for World Youth Day, also took time to meet with 20 representatives from Islamic, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist faith communities, calling on them to promote harmonious relations between religious and public life.

more . . .

MECCA & MADRID:
At about the same time, King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia convened an unprecedented multifaith gathering in Madrid, Spain. He had previously met with 500 Muslim scholars in Mecca in June, resulting in an invitation to dialogue titled "The Makkah Appeal for Interfaith Dialogue." Subsequently, the meeting in Madrid included some 250 representatives, not only Jews, Christians, and Muslims— the "People of the Book," but for the first time including leaders of Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and other religious traditions. Together, they issued "The Madrid Declaration," calling on all to reject "the clash of civilizations," to enhance common human values, share a culture of tolerance and dialogue, seek international guidelines for dialogue, and to respect diverse religions and their symbols.

more . . .

YALE UNIVERSITY:
Finally, Yale University's Center for Faith and Culture Reconciliation Program Conference concluded on July 31st. Titled "Loving God and Neighbor in Word and Deed: Implications for Christians and Muslims," it was a continuation of the conversation opened up by the invitation to dialogue issued by Muslim scholars last Fall, "A Common Word Between You and Us." The task, according to Professor Miroslav Volf "how do we take `A Common Word' and make it something for the common good." "Videos of many of the sessions are available online.

more . . .

AT THE PRESIDIO:
Even as ICP staff and board members worked hard to prepare for NAIN Connect, work continues to strengthen and streamline the work of the Board and to ensure the healthy future of the Interfaith Center. Watch for upcoming developments, including a special new series on Joseph Campbell with Robert Walter, Director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation and longtime supporter of ICP.

NAIN CONNECT 2008

North American Interfaith Network
Comes to San Francisco

A glistening San Francisco cast off its summer fog for the first three days of NAINConnect 2008 – Embracing Our Interfaith Future, held July 24-28. When the fog returned on Sunday, old friends and new and a cacophony of happy conversation kept us from noticing. Fromm Hall, a lifelong learning center at the University of San Francisco, was an extraordinary work space. For assemblies and an initial banquet, a lovely tent replaced the intended hall that was suffering emergency construction issues.

Read more . . .

Recognition of Huston Smith

Huston Smith, known worldwide for his lifelong work in promoting religious understanding, was honored at a banquet at St. Mary's Cathedral during NAIN Connect 2008. Jim Wiggins (NAIN), and Henry Baer (ICP) spoke at the tribute, while Kumar Mehta (Ahimsa) wrote a poem.

Read more . . .

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Bay Area Interfaith Connect is sent each month to nearly 2,000 subscribers, and is available online at the Interfaith Center at the Presidio website. If you do not receive the monthly updates and would like to do so, simply write to info@interfaith-presidio.org. Please include your name, and, if you are willing, your street address and phone will help us to keep you up to date on interfaith activities.

Andrew Kille

Once again, Americans show themselves to be a religious people. 88% of us believe in God (71% are absolutely certain; if we include those who are not too sure, the total reaches 92%!). 56% say religion is "very important" in their lives. But these weren't the issues that surprised a lot of people when they read the latest report on Religion in American Life released by the Pew Forum.

Only 24% of interviewees agreed with the statement "My religion is the one, true faith, leading to eternal life." 70% declared instead that "Many religions can lead to eternal life." Those most likely to consider their faith as the only truth were Jehovah's Witnesses (80%), Mormons (57%), and Muslims and Evangelicals (33% and 36%). Most open to other traditions were Hindus (89%), Buddhists (86%), and Jews (82%).

One possible conclusion would be that the more "open" traditions are playing a larger role in our American life. But the numbers of those "minority" religions are still small, representing less than 5% of the total. Rather, it appears that Americans are becoming more conscious of the possibility that they may not be the only ones in the room. Some groups bemoan the loss of the presumed past certainty, but maybe we are seeing the way open to deeper relationships among diverse religious communities.

NAIN CONNECT 2008 IS NEARLY HERE!

Don't miss the opportunity to meet interfaith activists from across North America at NAIN CONNECT 2008 July 24-28 at the University of San Francisco campus. Registration opens on July 24th at 10:30 am. We're expecting this to be a great conference! Embracing an Interfaith Future will include plenary sessions with stimulating speakers and panels and opportunity for dialogue, more than 25 workshops on "Multiface Challenges," "Gifts We Bring," and "Making a Difference," as well as pre-session workshops on "Beyond Theology," "Compassionate Listening," "Spiritual Artz for Kidz," and "The Spiritual Practice of Those Who Lived Here First." DON'T MISS OUT!

Full details and registration can be found at www.nain.org/2008. More notes and information are in the current NAIN newsletter.

MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE AT THE PRESIDIO CHAPEL
We made a wonderful new friend in Andrew Carroll, founder of the Legacy Project and editor of several books of letters from troops in wartime including Grace Under Fire, about the religious faith of servicefolk.

Read more . . .

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Bay Area Interfaith Connect is sent each month to nearly 2,000 subscribers, and is available online at the Interfaith Center at the Presidio website. If you do not receive the monthly updates and would like to do so, simply write to info@interfaith-presidio.org. Please include your name, and, if you are willing, your street address and phone will help us to keep you up to date on interfaith activities.

Andrew Kille

Local folks have a number of special opportunities in conjuction with NAIN Connect 2008, the 20th anniversary gathering of the North American Interfaith Network at the University of San Francisco next month (July 24-28):

FREE WORKSHOPS:
Four pre-session workshops are open to the public at the Fromm Center at USF without charge. They include:

• The Spiritual Practice of Those Who Lived Here First will be presented by Anne Marie Sayers, founder of Indian Canyon, a site dedicated to furthering the wisdom of the California’s indigenous people. After the workshop on Native American spirituality, Anne Marie, the tribal chairperson of the Indian Canyon Nation of Mutsun Ohlone, will lead NAIN’s outdoor opening ceremony at 4:30, and the public is welcome.
  
  
• Beyond Theology is a 10-part series currently being broadcast on PBS stations across the United States. Producer-director Dave Kendall introduces the series and will screen the program devoted to interfaith dialogue. Those involved in the series include Rev. Peter Gomes, Sister Joan Chittister, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Rabbi David Rosen, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Diana Eck, Harvey Cox, Peter Russell, Jacob Needleman, Karen Armstrong, Huston Smith and Dr. James Forbes, Jr.
  
  
• Compassionate Listening: What It Is, How It Works, Why It Matters is about 20 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders from Southeast Pennsylvania who went to the Middle East to learn “Compassionate Listening.” This approach is attends to “heart-based skills for peace building and reconciliation in our families, communities, on the job, and in the world...speaking and listening from the heart, even in the heat of conflict.” Rabbi George Stern tells the story.
  
  
• Spiritual Artz for Kidz is an interfaith outreach project in San Francisco serving children from diverse backgrounds, offering monthly retreat style experiences and summer camps that focus on religious and spiritual diversity, social justice and family traditions. The goal is to support children on their own spiritual journeys through the development of skills such as silence, listening, reflection and sharing. Diana Wheeler will share the vision and how it is playing out.

ONE-DAY SATURDAY PASS:
On Saturday, July 26, those securing one-day passes, for $50, will be welcome to three of approximately 18 workshops, starting at 10:30 am, 1:30 pm, and 3:30 pm. To find a listing of workshops and when they are offered, go to www.nain.org/2008 and click on workshop schedule. Reservations not required. Pay when you come.

SUNDAY NIGHT BANQUET:
A Sunday night banquet will be held July 27, 6:30 pm, at St. Mary’s Cathedral at Geary and Gough. Huston Smith will be honored at the event, co-sponsored by the San Francisco Interfaith Council. Reservations required; contact Corbin Davis at corbin@interfaith-presidio.org or at 510-229-2506.

REGISTER NOW!
Of course, the best opportunity is to come for the full conference! Keynote sessions on "Interfaith Responsibility," "Exemplary Interfaith Projects," and "Making a Difference," twenty-seven workshop opportunities, and time for meeting each other, sharing our religious practices, and dreams for interfaith work into the future. Information and registration are available at the NAIN Connect website: www.nain.org/2008/

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Bay Area Interfaith Connect is sent each month to nearly 2,000 subscribers, and is available online at the Interfaith Center at the Presidio website. If you do not receive the monthly updates and would like to do so, simply write to info@interfaith-presidio.org. Please include your name, and, if you are willing, your street address and phone will help us to keep you up to date on interfaith activities.

Andrew Kille

About the Editor: D. Andrew Kille is director of Interfaith Space in San Jose, working to develop and strengthen interfaith relations throughout the Bay Area. Send your calendar items, comments and suggestions to calendar@interfaith-presidio.org. We try to keep the ICP Update and Calendar as current as we can, but if you want your item included in the monthly newsletter, it needs to be in our hands a week before the end of the month.

NAIN CONNECT 2008, July 24-28, 2008
San Francisco

It's not far off (in time or in space!)— NAIN CONNECT 2008, the annual gathering of the North American Interfaith Network will take place July 24-28 and the Interfaith Center at the Presidio is the host! This is a unique opportunity not only to meet interfaith activists from across the country, but to show off what's been happening in our own communities around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Themes for the Summer conference, to be held at the University of San Francisco, include: "Multifaith Challenges We Face," "Gifts We Bring," and "Making a Difference," and participants will be able to choose from over twenty-eight workshops.

In preparation for the gathering, a website has been created at nain.org/2008/ There you can not only find information about the program and workshops, but you can also participate in interactive discussions of key issues. A third of the workshops described are interactive, so far, inviting your suggestions and insights when you visit the site.

• You can hear how the Topeka interfaith community used a young adult arts competition to reduce local violence. And ask Woody & Judy Troutman how it happened.
• Muse with Susan Cook and Peter Laurence about how we can talk about the big theological issues from across our religious differences.
• Consider with Hal French whether a "just peace" theory (as opposed to a "just war" theory) can be applied to Iraq. He thinks it can!
• Get involved now with this year's service project, creating and distributing solar ovens, which you can read about in the "Greening Our Lives" workshop.

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Andrew Kille

The annual circuit of the sun across the sky, the changing faces of the moon, the coming of the rains or the harvest— these were the sacred markers for our ancestors, the guides by which they set sacred times and outlined the sacred year. For several years, I have edited a calendar of interfaith holidays and observances for the Silicon Valley Conference for Community and Justice. The purpose of the calendar is to enable school administrators, business leaders, and others to have some awareness of religious days that their employees or students might be honoring.

This month, the celebration of Easter displays a fascinating interaction of religious calendars. In the Western Christian tradition, Easter is observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox. The earliest possible day it can be is March 22; this year it falls on March 23. (This will be the earliest any of us will ever see; it will be 95 years before it is again so early!)

Ironically, one reason that the usually solar-based Christian calendar includes a lunar factor is because the Jewish Calendar is lunar-based, and Easter is calculated to occur at Passover time. However, the Jewish Calendar has its own system for correlating the lunar year with the solar year, and so Passover will not take place until a month from now (April 19). The Eastern (Orthodox) Christian tradition will celebrate Easter in April, to align with Passover.

The Interfaith Calendar is available at the SVCCJ website. A beautiful wall calendar of interfaith holidays is available from the Multifaith Action Society in Vancouver.

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The Winter issue of the NAIN newsletter is now online; it includes interesting news about interfatih work regarding hunger as well as information and registration for the upcoming NAIN connect gathering that we are hosting this coming July. Take a look!

Andrew Kille