Dear Friends,
The beginning of summer comes with some signs of hope for interreligious understanding. As we wrote last week, the Interfaith Center of New York takes inspiration from Pope Francis’ visit to the Holy Land and his invitation to Presidents Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas to join him at the Vatican on June 6th to pray for peace. Pope Francis’ statement that “peace must resolutely be pursued” along with his gesture of imagination and hospitality offers an example of religious peacemaking at its best. Drawing on the time-honored principles of determination in the face of adversity and non-violence in the context of armed conflict, the Pontiff demonstrates shared moral values that are at the heart of the world’s great religious traditions.
Closer to home, ICNY will be celebrating our 12th Annual James Parks Morton Interfaith Award Dinner on June 5th and will be welcoming teachers from around the country who have come to learn about teaching religious diversity. (The Summer Institute, as it is called, is a collaboration between the Interfaith Center, Union Theological Seminary, and the National Endowment for the Humanities).
Enriching public dialogue in her recent Op-Ed in The Huffington Post, ICNY’s Sarah Sayeed discusses the meaning and misuse of the words “Islamic” and “Islamist.” She concludes that “Muslim” is the preferable way to describe terrorists professing that religious tradition. Read more about the Interfaith Center’s response to a controversy on the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in at the 9/11 Museum in our RECENT HIGHLIGHTS section below.
Finally, the death of Maya Angelou offers us the chance for a reflection. Here she speaks of change, inclusion, and responsibility in reading her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration.
Best Wishes,
Rev. Chloe Breyer
Executive Director
The Interfaith Center of New York
To access the full June E-Bulletin, click here.
