Dear Friends,
ICNY is pleased to welcome Iman Boukadoum as Director of Community Partnerships. Iman comes to us with a legal background having worked at both the ACLU and the Department of Homeland Security’s Civil Rights Division. Her family is from Algeria and you are invited to read an introductory message from her further along in this bulletin. Please introduce yourself to Iman. We are thrilled to have her on board.
As campaign season begins and some politicians exploit religious, ethnic and racial tensions, ICNY has signed onto a letter to the chairs of the RNC and DNC asking for a civil discourse between candidates. Please consider sharing widely via social media and with your networks the letter which is available online here.
Pope Francis Interfaith Service at the 9/11 Memorial Museum
Photo credit: The New York Times
Pictured left to right:
Rabbi Harry Pell, Shaykh T.A. Bashir;
John Vaughn, Linda Sarsour, Fred Williams, The Rev. Chloe Breyer, Peter Guiditis, Mary Fetchet;
Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, Imam Talib Abdur Rashid, Swami Yuktatmananda.
Pope Francis’ visit to the United States was historic in many ways. No visiting Pontiff has presided over as widely diverse interfaith service during their visit. ICNY and other groups worked with the Diocese of Brooklyn to ensure this religious diversity at the Pope’s Interfaith Service at the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Unfortunately, not every tradition in New York was represented, but as a community, we made good progress.
Additionally, attending members of the Sikh community including Dr. Satpal Singh who said a prayer from the podium, were allowed to attend with all of their articles of faith including Kirpans (ceremonial sword), which too often are taken from them for security concerns in government buildings and other public spaces.
Eid al-Adha New York Public School Holiday
Children at Children’s Museum of New York Press Conference
celebrating the first New York Public School Holiday for Eid al-Adha
ICNY was glad to attend a press conference honoring the first Eid al-Adha New York Public School Holiday Closing. This nine year campaign was honored by the Manhattan Borough President and the New York School Chancelor. A mother from the community spoke about her relief not having to decide on whether her children attended school or celebrated the holiday with their family. For more information see http://eidinnyc.org/.
Peace Mapping Programme
On September 21st, the Interfaith Center of New York was honored to host the KAICIID Peace Mapping Programme Civil Society Launch with distinguished guests including Betty Reardon, Founding Director Emeritus of the International Institute on Peace Education, Sylvie Sun, Board Member of Buddhist Global Relief, and Joyce Dubensky, CEO of Tanenbaum.
The Peace Mapping Programme provides innovative tools to better understand organizations engaged internationally in interreligious dialogue. The Programme aims to show how interreligious dialogue contributes to conflict transformation worldwide, whether in preventive peacemaking or postconflict work. Its research-based website shows numerous organizations using or promoting interreligious dialogue around the world, many of which can be important partners in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. The Peace Mapping Programme’s website also provides a public online tool with detailed information on more than 400 organizations involved in interreligious dialogue activities internationally. Special thanks to the KAICIID research team for their incredibly innovative work.
The Interfaith Center of New York Co-Chair Kusumita P. Pedersen has recently been elected for a two-year term to the Committee of Religious NGO’s at the United Nations. ICNY — an NGO affiliated with the United Nations — will be looking for ways to expand the network of faith-based organizations active at the UN and to engage the Sustainable Development Goals or Agenda 2030. The Agenda was just adopted by the Summit that began with the Pope’s address to the UN.
Our “Learning Together Interfaith Youth Fellowships” program concluded last June, and the Op-Ed essays that students wrote are starting to appear in publication. The first essay, called “Parochial Prayer: A Call for Students to Claim Their Power” is by Yardena Gerwin and appears on KidSpirit Online. Later this month an essay on “The Interfaith Living Museum” by Ameenah Drammeh will be featured as our Interfaith Matters blog for October. Ms. Drammeh is the youngest-ever contributor to our blog.
The entire October E-bulletin is available here.
Best Wishes,
Rev. Chloe Breyer
Executive Director
The Interfaith Center of New York
