After a quiet spell in my Live Journal, I am resuming updates of my faith journey. As I have done before,this is as much for me to recall some of the details of my activities and experiences in the church as it is to share with others. At this point, I fully expect that there will be few, if anybody, checking into this page to see what I am up to.

If you happen to be one of those persons who happen upon this journal, and find anything of interest, or perhaps have a question, please feel free to contact me with your thoughts.

The primary reason for this first in a new series of blogs is to share the news that I have been nominated by Wascana Presbytery of Saskatchewan Conference of The United Church of Canada for the Office of Moderator of the church.

The Moderator is the elected leader of the United Church and he or she serves for three years, which in church speak is a triennium. The new triennium begins at the rise of the General Council that takes place this August in Ottawa.

This will be the 41st General Council and as a result the court will be electing its 41st Moderator.

Over the years, the church has elected both clergy and lay persons to this leadership role. I am a lay person and there are already another nine persons, mostly clergy I assume, who have been nominated.

In upcoming entries I will share some of the reasons why I put my name in as a nominee, what I hope to achieve in this journey and how the journey is progressing.

But to summarize why I am embarking on this new chapter in my life, it is because I felt called by God to do it. I don't believe the call was to be the Moderator; the call was to present myself to the court so that it can choose its next spiritual leader.

God calls us in various ways to undertake many ministries. In my case, I had been asked by several people as far back as 2009 to consider a nomination. At first I dismissed it as nonsense or as a joke. But it persisted, and then it occurred to me that the call was to be among others and to use this opportunity to share my vision and hopes for the church.

So I invite you to join me over the next few months at least as I share what I am experiencing and thinking about my travel on the road to General Council 41 in Ottawa.

Blessings,

Moses

The State of Arizona a few years ago adopted the slogan "The Golden Rule State." Latterly, the State went a step further and put the slogan on its licence plates.

This is all because of the strong, persistent and delicate lobbying by the Arizona Inter-Faith Movement. There is no question about the strong attachment the interfaith community in this State has to the Golden Rule.

It was also no surprise that when the North American Interfaith Network decided to have its NAIN Connect 2011 in Arizona, that the Golden Rule as going to be a natural theme for the event. There is a lot of passion and excitement here for this age old principle that has been expressed in various forms by many faith groups.

Over the past three days, many speakers have explored this principle. Some of the speakers include North America's foremost exponents, if not authorities such as Jeffery Wattles and Harry Gensler.

If one wanted to know everything you needed to know about this subject, this was a lifetime opportunity to do so, and I had the even better opportunity to become personally acquainted with these philosophers and engaged in personal conversations with them on the subject.

To add to the wisdom I gained from them, I also had the chance to listen to other speakers who shared some other perspectives about the Golden Rule. Among these was a Gardenerian Elder and researcher into the history of neopaganism and a representative of the Covenant of the Goddess (COG).

Frew was clear that his views reflected his role as a witch. He reworded the original title of his presentation from Weaknesses of the Golden Rule to "Am I Not Welcome? The Dark Side of the Golden Rule." It's hard to resist a title like that, and Frew's audience got one of the most profound and insightful workshops of the conference.

Some of the observations Frew made are:

• There is too much focus on similarities. "It's always easier to focus on what we share in common that what is different, but we ignore those differences at our peril."
• It assumes that the Golden Rule is shared by "all" religions but excludes those traditions such as the Covenant of the Goddess that don't share this belief.
• It encourages its followers to project their own beliefs unto others, in some cases used to justify proselytizing.

Frew commented on some of his concerns about the interfaith movement. For example, he said that conservative practitioners of many faiths see the interfaith movement as creating a single, new, syncretistic religion.

There is room in the interfaith movement for those who don't share many of the commonly held views and that there is room for dialogue and even for the development of friendships.

Another workshop leader, Ruth Broyde Sharone, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, talked about interfaith and the Golden Rule "when the rubber hits the road."

She said it is not as important to find the right answer as the value of the journey and the dialogue in search of the answer.

Professor Jeff Wattles gave a follow-up presentation on "Taking the Golden Rule to the Next Level." He said that for the Golden Rule to go to the next level, it will help for critics and advocates to become better informed. There is room for the Golden Rule to be rejected, restated or supplemented.

Wattles cautioned about oversimplifying it and misunderstanding the meaning because of the lack of context. The life in the Golden Rule, the professor said, shows up in the multiplicity of interpretations.

The conference closed Tuesday evening with some final comments from Ambassador Mussie Hailu where he told delegates that dreaming of a better world will not make it happen. Concrete action is needed, he said.

He appealed to delegates again to be agents of change or to be catalysts and for each person to go back with a personal commitment to honor similarities and respect differences.

The closing session also included comments from delegates about what meant the most to them about Connect 2011. Delegates also enjoyed a banquet and music, including songs by a trio of recording artists Renee Morgan Brooks, Zephryn Conte and Sherry Roberson. Songs included "We Are One" and "Living the Golden Rule."

While some delegates have started their return journey to their homes across the U.S. and Canada, some are remaining for a day-long bus excursion to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday.

Thank you for joining me on this special interfaith journey.

Moses

Delegates of a variety of faith traditions at the NAIN Connect Conference in Phoenix, AZ, this week heard from Ambassador Mussie Hailu of Ethiopia that they cannot remain as they are but need to work in harmony and co-operation to address the global crisis of hunger, religious conflict and lack of visionary leadership.

"The global crisis is a problem of all humanity," Hailu said, "and each of us can take practical action to change what we can."

He told the delegates from all parts of North America that the turnabout is through the Golden Rule. Hailu is an Ethiopian peace, interfaith and Golden Rule activist working on the national, regional and international levels on issues of peace, reconciliation, interfaith harmony and disarmament.

"If we want to open a new chapter to peace and social justice, it is high time to promote this principle," Hailu said. "It is the most concise ethical principle in life." If it is followed we would not have the problems in the world.

Hailu suggested that delegates' role in creating world peace could be to first have peace in their families and make that extra effort to practice the Golden Rule every day. He called on delegates to show respect for all living things, "including mother earth."

Action could also be in the form of respect for all forms of life, stewardship of the planet and to "see yourself as a citizen of the world" and value religious freedom.


video clip

Several speakers and panellists on Monday's session explored the Golden Rule in greater depth. Among these was Dr. Harry Gensler, a Jesuit priest and professor of philosopher at John Carroll University, Cleveland, OH. He is a self described "Golden Rule Philosopher."

Gensler said that the Golden Rule can be applied wisely through what he called the "KITA" steps. They are:

1. Know "How would my actions affect others?"
2. Imagine: "What would it be like to have this done to me in the same situation?"
3. Test for consistency: "Am I willing that if I were in the same situation then this be done to me?"
4. Act toward others as you're willing to be treated in the same situation.

Professor Jeffrey Wattles, author of the book "the Golden Rule," addressed some inter-faith challenges in using the Golden Rule. These included how to bring universal values to the forefront in the midst of extremism, and the use of art and film to find creative ways to speak on the alternatives to extremism.

"It is not enough to talk about diversity," Wattles said, "how you embrace diversity is what matters."

He added that it is important to bring the value of pluralism at the youngest age and that this helps sow the seeds of common humanity.

Parts of Monday's events at NAIN Connect 2011 included a visit to a Hindu and Jain united temple, lunch with leaders of the Hindu community, visit to the Latter Day Institute and supper at the institute.

Jain/Hindu Temple, Phoenix, AZ       Jain mandir

Video of Pooja at Hindu Temple.

The NAIN Connect is in its final day today July 26 at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Phoenix, AZ.


 

 

Close to 100 delegates from Canada and the United States are gathered at the Embassy Suites Hotel Phoenix - Tempe for the next three days to share in workshops, community building and learning from guest speakers on the importance and value of inter-faith understanding.

 

 

The next five days are going to be some of the most interesting in my faith journey. Starting Sunday, I will have the privilege of engaging with people from across North America who share a deep interest in inter-faith dialogue and understanding.

The occasion is the annual conference of the North American Inter-Faith Network NAIN), taking place in Phoenix, AZ. This my first opportunity to participate in a NAIN event. But the mere thought of being in a gathering of people of many faiths sharing, learning and teaching about the many commonalities among faith groups seems hard to resist.

My entry to the inter-faith community took place only a couple of years ago. I had never previously explored this fascinating subject because of my already heavy involvement in the life and work of my own faith community.

I had more or less taken for granted that there is much to gain from other spiritual traditions. In my own life, I had been exposed to a variety of faith traditions simply by growing up in a diverse society in Trinidad and Tobago.

In my own heritage there were other faith traditions that influenced my beliefs. As my wife and I started a family of our own, we had the added benefit of drawing upon two different faith traditions.

A couple of years ago, I was invited to be the guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Regina Multi-Faith Forum. Initially, I was unsure of my competence in speaking to an audience who were far more steeped in this subject than I was.

However, I decided to use the occasion to simply talk about what little I knew. That largely meant reflecting on my own life experience with inter-faith understanding.

In my work on communication ethics as a sessional lecturer some years ago, I wanted to explore the importance of global ethics. Is there such a thing? I soon was reminded that there in fact are values and beliefs that many cultures around the world share in common. The most well-known of these is the belief in the principle of caring for each other as expressed by some as the Golden Rule.

This became a central factor in helping me see the value of inter-faith dialogue and understanding. If this belief can bring many diverse people to the same circle, then that opportunity can lead to better understanding and less animosity not just locally but globally. It could be the answer to world peace.

My growing interest in inter-faith dialogue helped me about a year ago to accept an invitation to be the president of the Regina Multi-Faith Forum. And that led further to my decision to attend a global inter-faith event with the theme of the Golden Rule.

I look forward to this historic meeting and invite you to join me as I share my observations and experiences through this journal.

Shalom.

 

 

What was described as a train-the-trainer program this past weekend turned out to be an almost live changing experience. A group of 15 members of the United Church of Canada met last week at a retreat centre in Guelph, ON. to learn about conducting consultations in several locations across Canada.

Our task, or ministry, as we would say in church circles, is to meet with as many members of the United Church as possible at regional consultations to get their views on homophobia, heterosexism and transphobia in the church.

In one of our initial planning meetings, we agreed to explore this question using an ‘intercultural lens.” That means we will recognize that gender identity and sexual orientation are just two of multiple cultural identities in our population at large and within individuals.

With a transformative vision toward becoming an intercultural church, it seemed appropriate to acknowledge that interculturalism embraces characteristics far beyond race and ethnicity and that our entire church is intercultural.

This theme is one of the factors that made the train-the-trainer workshop much more than a lesson on facilitating consultations. Fortunately, we were able to secure the help of a trainer with in-depth knowledge and experience in interculturalism, facilitating and GLBTT issues.

Bringing together the importance and sensitivity of GLBTT issues with the intercultural lens and the chance to learn about the consultation process combined with the intensity of the experiences and stories of the workshop participants, made this a learning event unlike any other that I had ever experienced.

For me, I felt privileged and humbled to be an ally of the GLBTT community and overwhelmed by making new friends among the GLBTT community and to forge a stronger bond with some existing friends.

Throughout the workshop, we were painfully aware that our job is to find out in a fair and reliable manner how our church is addressing homophobia and heterosexism. On the surface, it appears that some things are working well and some clearly are not. Yet we are reminded that this may be the tip of the iceberg and that there are many untold stories that need to be heard.

Although there was active, if not vigorous, participation by those in attendance at the workshop, much of the reason for the success of the event was due the energy, experience and personality of Beth Zemsky, the workshop facilitator.

Beth is a Minneapolis-based consultant with extensive experience in GLBTT and intercultural issues. She is not a member of the Christian faith but shows great inter-faith understanding and sensitivity.

The national consultation on GLBTT issues in the church comes out of a proposal that was passed at the 40^th General Council of the United Church last August in Kelowna. Following the training workshop in Guelph, the planning committee will hold regional consultations from British Columbia to Newfoundland this summer and fall and will present its report to next year’s General Council in Ottawa.

My involvement in faith initiatives has taken me in interesting directions this month. I was pleased to chair the last meeting before summer of the Regina Multi Faith Forum on June 6. In addition to the usual business of the forum, we heard an interesting presentation on the Buddhist faith. This conversation led to other discussions about special faith observances including Pentecost among followers of Christianity.

On June 11, I had the special opportunity to attend and serve as MC at a closing reception for a Provincial Visual Project sponsored by Multi Faith Saskatchewan. This was the first time for this art project among Saskatchewan high schools but it showed an amazing level of artistic talent by students as well as ability to capture interfaith concepts in visual art form.

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of walking with candidates for Designated Lay Ministry with the United Church of Canada at Learning Circle in Calling Lakes Centre, Fort Qu'Appelle. This is an intense and sometimes overwhelming experience to share in the development of people who in some cases after several careers in their lives choose to enter paid accountable ministry.

Having little knowledge and understanding about this stream of ministry before joining the Program Design Team a few months ago, I am convinced that these students and others before them are filling a very essential need in many of our churches, especially in areas where the church is having difficulty filling vacancies for ministers.

The life experience and professional backgrounds of these students are being supplemented by knowledge in a peer setting of essential competencies needed for ministry. I look forward to contributing in any way I can to their preparations.

My earlier commitment to attend a training workshop to prepare facilitators for a national consultation on homophobia and heterosexism in the United Church meant that I had to be with the DLM students for only the first day of the 10-day Learning Circle.

I was able to return to Regina and have a day to get caught up in household responsibilities and packing in order to leave the following morning for the training workshop at Loyola House Retreat in Guelph, Ont.

We started our time together with some get-acquainted exercises led by facilitator Beth Zemsky. In some respects we delved into some of the critical learnings we needed to prepare for the more intense facilitator training over the next two days. Beth combines her exceptional facilitation skills with a vast and deep knowledge of intercultural competencies and sexual issues both in a faith and secular context. This will no doubt be one of the most important educational experiences of my life.

In addition to the planning team, of which I am a member, we have facilitators from British Columbia to New Brunswick.

We are preparing to use our knowledge and skills to conduct regional focus groups across Canada. I will be involved in co-facilitating regional gatherings in Saskatoon and Winnipeg in October 2012. Our report will be prepared for the General Council in August 2012.

I hope I get a chance to share some of the insights from this wonderful experience in another journal entry in the coming days. Thanks for coming along with me on this faith journey.  

“Behold! We Are Many, We Are One,” has drawn delegates from Newfoundland to British Columbia for a weekend of exploration, worship, community building and fun at Vancouver School of Theology, University of British Columbia, May 12 to 15.

The conference’s first keynote speaker, Eric Law used the four gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ genealogy as an example of diversity. Our response is not to reconcile the different versions but to embrace the diversity that Eric said was meant to be there from the very beginning.

Eric Law

Eric’s keynote presentation opened with a skit using him and three volunteers to represent the four writers of the gospels. The skit was a debate among the writers about which one was right. In the end they agreed that it was good to have various interpretations and Eric acknowledged there might have been many more unrecorded versions of Jesus heritage.

Eric led the audience in an exploration of six approaches to diversity: Self Awareness, Difference in Opportunity, Commitment to Pluralism, Theological Reflection, Skills, Models and Theories, Faithful Change, Audio Visual and Electronic Media, Sustainable Missional Ministries.

Self Awareness: We need to acknowledge that diversity exists and that with it comes power and privilege. It is easy to make assumptions about others based on appearances.

Difference as an Opportunity: With diversity comes the opportunity for learning and growth. One way to do that is to learn more about oneself, about others and about God.

Commitment to Pluralism: Acknowledge the fact that there are more than one ways to perform tasks rather than assuming one is right and one is wrong. Making decisions in the face of diversity is difficult but we need to learn how to do it.

Theological Reflection: Take time to ask where is God in all of this and how does God see this?

Skills, Models and Theories: Know what skills you need to do that.

Guide a Community toward Faithful Change: Work to creating a faithful and responsive community and environment.

Audio Visual and Electronic Media: These communication vehicles are here and can be used for interpersonal communication and an inclusive community. Learn about them and use them – you can’t run from them. Use them for justice and empowerment.

Sustainable Missional Ministries: learn how to create sustainable missional ministries.

Eric demonstrated in his presentation an extensive list of the many forms of diversity, e.g. age, gender, physical ability and skin color. These dimensions, he said, have power implications. Society defines power, he said, as the ability to manipulate the environment and the ability to influence others.

Eric engaged in a fascinating exercise with the audience of Power Analysis. He demonstrated the perceptions of power between people based on gender, attire, age, skin color and other factors. Often these assumptions are wrong.

Click here to view video clips.

 

 

In keeping with the previous two intercultural conferences, the Behold! We Ae Many We Are One conference in Vancouver opened Thursday night with a worship service including rousing music and songs of many languages and styles under the leadership of Bruce Harding, Lynda Katsumo and a team of musicians.

The high energy continued on Friday night with a Festival of perforamances from various cultures and nations.

Click here to see some clips of the worship and festival.

When I registered for the first intercultural conference of The United Church of Canada in Toronto three years ago, I signed up for a pre-event on Empire and the Intercultural Church. That was such an eye-opening and provocative workshop, I chose to sign up for the same session for this second national conference this weekend at Vancouver School of Theology at University of British Columbia.

About a week ago, the event organizers announced that the Empire pre-event was cancelled and that registrants could switch to Building Bridges: Toward Understanding the Village. I readily accepted, but did not check into exactly what the session was all about.

Full of anticipation, I took my first walk through the campus buildings to find VST and the workshop room. The next seven hours were among the most thought-provoking of my church life.

The facilitator, Kathi Camilleri, assisted by elder Alberta Billy, led us through an intense, sometimes funny, sometimes painful, presentation.

The gist of the workshop was to demonstrate how First Nations people transitioned from a people with a model society in their “village” to one that was stripped of the essence of their humanity and dignity through government-directed assimilation.

Kathi warned that the morning session would be light and informative, but the afternoon session would be tough. She was right.

In her opening comments, she acknowledged that all people are gifts of the Creator and each day is a gift. The Aboriginal ritual of smudging, she said, helps her see the gift of her hands to do great things, of her ears to hear what she was meant to hear, her mouth to bless the words that she spoke and her head to remember the gifts of her ancestors.

Her role, Kathi said, would be to take the participants back to pre-European context of First Nations people without using shame or blame.

Elder Alberta Billy recalled a conversation she had with the late Chief Dan George when she described the brokenness she saw in the United Church. He told her he couldn’t help because he was Catholic. Amused at his response, she assured him that was not a problem.

Chief Dan George told her how difficult it was to find a perfect tree trunk to build a canoe. So he took two matching trunks and joined them seamlessly into a perfect canoe. All that was left, was to learn to pull (paddle) together. The church, she said, needs to bring together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the same way.

Kathi displayed a variety of symbols that were central to the creation of a village before assimilation. Each symbol told about various aspects of village life.

A rock was placed in the circle as a reminder of the importance of the land to First Nations people. The rock also was one way to tell the weather.

Shells represented their foods. A piece of art symbolized the cultural expressions of the people. A house was used as a reminder of the trees used to build homes. Cedar produced logs and even clothes. A canoe was symbolic of travel. Small models of people represented language as well as stories and relationships.

"Children" of the village sit around symbols

A feather represented how they governed themselves. First Nations were people of one mind, one spirit and one heart and they governed themselves by listening and honoring every voice. The Europeans instead introduced governance by conflict and confrontation.

A symbol for music reminded them of their identity. When they pulled into the village by canoe they could hear their people’s music. Finally, a symbol for ceremonies was placed in the circle to remind them of how they celebrated milestones.

The second part of the exercise was when the facilitator used participants to play the role of children in the village, as well as parents, aunts and uncles, elders and hunters and protectors.

She then depicted assimilation by removing children from the village and showing how Europeans took away the parents' land and culture later returning with minimal rewards like money and alcohol. Villagers were left to fight among themselves.

This was a painful process for participants who began to identity with the pain and humiliation the villagers must have felt.

The facilitator appealed to participants to show respect for all people and to support each other rather than to judge. The challenge, she said, is how to make this happen in society.

This was a powerful presentation that was made even more moving by the participation of Albert Billy, the Aboriginal elder who is remembered by many as the individual who spoke at a General Council meeting of The United Church of Canada 30 years ago in Sudbury and demanded that the church apologize for its treatment of native people.