It has been our dream for a number of years for Interfaith Advocate to become a 501(C)(3) organization. We have been working with the Foundation Group out of Nashville Tennessee for several years and in 2019 put together the structure of what would become this nonprofit foundation and developed our charter with my dear friends Holli Emore with whom I have served for number of years on the board of interfaith partners of South Carolina and for the last several years on the board of Cherry Hill seminary, and Reb Tzipi Radonski whom I met through our service together on the board of the Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort.
 
For a long time what I perceived as the thrust of our work was the videoing I have been doing of events and interviews with individuals in the interfaith movement. This past year given the Covid crisis has all but halted those efforts. Although I did discover in doing the video interviews for Interfaith Partners of South Carolina's Interfaith Harmony Month that it is possible to produce videos in a virtual environment and I will pursue this. After a lot of thought I now see what I am imagining as a major effort of Interfaith Advocate to be interfaith chaplaincy. Most of the large organizations around here, hospitals, nursing homes, jails and prisons which utilize the services of chaplains generally have only representatives from one or two faith traditions, primarily Christian. It is my hope that I will be able to offer chaplaincy services for the under-served faiths in the area, especially Hinduism, Sikhism and Native American spirituality all of which I have spent some time studying and have worked with faith leaders in those traditions.
 
The purpose of this particular report is to share the news that the Internal Revenue Service has finally granted us our 501(C)(3) status! It has been a long time coming and I am grateful to all of you who have supported our work. And those of you who have the ability and are inclined to support our work financially now have the opportunity to do so with tax credits. Thank you.

As those of you know who have followed our work with Interfaith Partners of South Carolina, we have for a number of years partnered with the governor's office in proclaiming January as South Carolina's Interfaith Harmony Month. This year due to the Covid virus we were unable to have the in person meetings and events which have grown ever more popular and diverse over the years and instead developed a number of wonderful virtual meetings and presentations which were very successful. In some ways it was a great blessing and that many events which were local for some and would require a fair amount of travel for others became equally available to all.
 
As a part of my contribution to the events I was able to conduct a couple of video interviews with real powerhouses in the interfaith movement. Dr. Barbara Fields serves as the Executive Director of the Association of Global New Thought which also engages in a lot of interfaith work. Perhaps the most famous aspect of their work is the annual Gandhi/King Season of Peace which takes place each year beginning January 30th and runs 64 days until April 4th.  She was program director for the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions. For more information please visit WWW.AGNT.ORG We had a lovely time, and to watch this nearly one hour interview click on Dr. Fields image
 
The secondary interview was with Dr. Larry Greenfield, Pres. Emeritus of the Parliament of World Religions. Dr. Greenfield has been involved in many interfaith initiatives over the years as well as an ongoing commitment to the Baptist movement with which she has been affiliated for many many years. Our interview also ran nearly to one hour in length and I believe we covered some exciting topics which I'm anxious to share with you. To watch this interview click on Dr. Greenfield's image

This book was chosen by the leader of our nascent book club in IPSC as our first selection. I was so impressed that I chose to write this little review and feature the book among Interfaith Advocate’s recommendations. Many times while reading this book I was reminded of Eboo Patel’s exceptionally useful book Interfaith Leadership: A Primer. Looking back on our blog posts and the books reviewed in the fellow travelers section I was surprised to discover that I had not reviewed that book. I’ll soon make amends for that, though for now I wanted to emphasize Patel’s argument that the bridge building takes place in interfaith work happens most effectively in our one on one interactions with other human beings who among all other factors happen to have a different faith orientation that we do.

Generally we use abstraction to move from the particular to the universal and that can be a powerful technique particularly in realms such as mathematics and science, in the case of interfaith understanding I’m a firm believer that the best way to arrive at a universal understanding is through a whole bunch of particular examples. In fact I do not believe there is such a thing as a typical Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, etc. the best thing one can do to understand the human dimension of Islam for example is to have relationships with individual Muslims. This book demonstrates time and again through wide range of stories how religious differences often become minimal factors in our relations with others and certainly the time-honored tradition of breaking bread with someone or the more practical act of working together on some project will allow us to make the human connections that both minimize the differences in our faith orientation and simultaneously may well demonstrate how we live the central tenets of our faith. The following material comes from the publisher’s website. Clicking on the image of the book cover will take you to the Amazon page where you can peruse the book and purchase if you would like.

“We live in the most religiously diverse society in the history of humankind. Every day, people of different religious beliefs and practices encounter one another in a myriad of settings. How has this new situation of religious diversity impacted the way we understand the religious "other," ourselves, and God? Can we learn to live together with mutual respect, working together for the creation of a more compassionate and just world?
My Neighbor's Faith gathers an array of inspiring and penetrating stories about the interreligious encounters of outstanding community leaders, scholars, public intellectuals, and activists. With wisdom, wit, courage, and humility, these writers--from a range of religious backgrounds--share their personal experience of "border-crossing," and the unforgettable lessons learned from their interreligious encounters.”

Contributors include: Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Phyllis Berman; Mary Boys, Rita Nakashima-Brock, Miguel De La Torre, Irving Greenberg; Ruben Habito, Paul Knitter, Bill J. Leonard, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Brian McLaren, Ji Hyang Padma, Eboo Patel, Judith Plaskow, Paul Raushenbush, Anantand Rambachan, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Jim Wallis, and many more.

Jennifer Howe Peace is assistant professor of interfaith studies at Andover Newton Theological School and co-director of CIRCLE: The Center for Inter-Religious and Communal Leadership Education (a joint venture of Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School).

Rabbi Or Rose is Associate Dean at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College and co-director of CIRCLE.
Gregory Mobley is professor of Christian Bible at Andover Newton Theological School and co-founder of CIRCLE. He is an ordained American Baptist minister.

Since 1990, each of the FBI’s 56 field offices nominates one person or group to receive the “Director’s Award for Community Leadership”. The award, given on behalf of Director Christopher A. Wray, is in recognition of outstanding service to the local community and the enduring contributions to the advancement of justice. IPSC was nominated for this award by Denise Taiste, FBI Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator with the Columbia branch, in recognition of the excellent work of IPSC within South Carolina. Special Agent in Charge, Alphonso “Jody” Norris, presented the 2018 Director’s Community Leadership Award to Interfaith Partners of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, for impacting thousands from communities representing all cultures, religions and backgrounds through their efforts; building relationships of trust; prevention of terrorism; understanding of racial and religious bias, and establishing interfaith groups in various communities across South Carolina.

That presentation convened at the FBI office on Thursday, January 10, 2019. All recipients were invited to FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. on May 3, 2019 to receive the award from FBI Director Christopher Wray. Director’s Community Leadership Award (DCLA) was formally created in 1990 as a way to honor individuals and organizations for their efforts in combating crime, terrorism, drugs, and violence in America. Pictured receiving the award from Director Wray is IPSC’s President and Chair Dr. Adrian Bird. Those members of IPSC that were able to attend the ceremony were:  Amarjit & Amita Singh, Cheryl Glantz Nail, Sarah Kurlowich, Jon Leader, Zulfikar Berk, Holli Emore, and Ethel Crawford.  Adrian said “This award inspires us to keep up the essential work of building relationships of dignity and respect in SC.”

In the ceremony at FBI Headquarters on May 3, 2019, Director Christopher Wray recognized the most recent DCLA recipients. “These leaders, selected by their area FBI field office for their efforts in 2018, have demonstrated outstanding contributions to their local communities through service. The FBI is grateful for the work of each of these individuals and organizations on behalf of their communities.”

This is what the FBI has to say about the DCLA: “It’s a fact: The FBI can only conduct investigations and protect the American people from crime and acts of extremism if it has the support and understanding of the American people. That’s why the special agents in charge of each of our 56 field offices work so closely with their communities and community organizations. What happens when these special agents in charge get such tremendous support from people in their communities that they want to specially recognize them? They nominate them for a They nominate them for a Director’s Community Leadership Award (DCLA). This special award, presented on behalf of the Director of the FBI, was formally created in 1990 as a way to honor individuals and organizations for their efforts in combating crime, terrorism, drugs, and violence in America.”

IPSC was among great company, here is a sampling of the 55 other recipients: Albuquerque - Mescalero Apache Tribe Violence Against Women Program, The Jacksonville Division honored the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida (ICNEF). The Albany Division honored Susan Case DeMari. Through her work with the Jewish Federation Society of Central New York, DeMari has helped prevent and respond to threats targeting the Jewish community. The Buffalo Division honored Emma Buckthal, a passionate advocate for victims of trafficking. The Chicago Division honored Concepcion Rodriguez. For more than a decade, the funeral director, community activist, and gang intervention specialist was in a gang as a teen. Her presentation to teens is based on her firsthand experience of burying more than 200 youths involved in gangs. The Los Angeles Division honored Jodi Wing  an advocate for advancing social change through educational equity. Her Art of Peace Club program teaches children and families critical thinking skills and how to manage emotions and expectations through ethical, interpersonal, and civic engagement. The Louisville Division honored Soha Saiyed, who uses innovative events to raise funds for victims of human trafficking and to shed light on the problem. The Milwaukee Division honors Masood Akhtar. Akhtar is an Indian-born American Muslim activist and wanted to address the current environment of hate, bigotry, and racism. His movement, “We Are Many: United Against Hate,” is dedicated to building an all-inclusive community of people. The Minneapolis Division honors Judith Meisel. A Holocaust survivor, educator, and civil rights activist, Meisel shares her story, strength, and inspiration at high schools, universities, and other community events. “We cannot afford to say, ‘What can I do, I’m only one person?’ One person can do a lot,” Meisel says.”

IPSC was certainly honored to be selected from among many worthy individuals and organizations in South Carolina to receive the Director’s Award for Community Leadership. I personally am proud to work with the many good folks who work in our organization and to serve on IPSC’s Board.

“So that we might be illuminated, to be called to significant action so that what may seem to be a tragedy to some can become a triumph to the rest of the world”.

These were the closing words of Rev. Dr. Kylon Middleton, Pastor, Mt. Zion AME Chapel, Charleston, SC and keynote speaker at Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort’s third annual Mother Emanuel Nine Memorial on June 15th, 2018. His rousing sermon in this interfaith event at the historic Brick Baptist Church, adjacent to Penn Center, honored those nine slain souls, and very personally that of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, his lifelong friend and pastoral colleague. To see his sermon click on the image above. Rev. Middleton went well beyond that though, furthering UICC’s goal of transcending the pain, of not being bound by the past, with a fervent desire to give meaning to the suffering we have sustained in the loss of so many to violence.

UICC was founded by Rev. Jeannine Smalls, Pastor Grace Chapel AME Church, in response to that tragic event in 2015 at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. From the beginning she felt that it was important that this tragedy unite us, transcending the barriers among denominations and between faiths, knowing that our faith communities share a common humanity, a desire for justice and a hunger for peace. Her longtime friend and spiritual brother Rev. Middleton spoke of this very eloquently “We are stronger together because of our faith, we are stronger when we stand as Baptists, and we are stronger when we stand as AME, we are stronger when we stand as Jews, we are stronger when we stand in the Baha’i faith, we are strong when we acknowledge our Unitarian Universalism, we are strong when we’re Islamic, we are strong when we stand up to be Episcopalians, especially in South Carolina in 2018, we are strong when we are Lutheran, we’re strong in our Presbyterianism, we are strong as non-denominationalists, we are strong as Catholics, so we are stronger in our faith together! It is larger than one church, it is larger than one denomination, is larger than one faith, it is about our human community.”

Rev. Smalls in her introduction for Rev. Middleton quoted Martin Luther King “…the most segregated hour in Christian America is 11 AM on a Sunday morning”. The interfaith work of UICC has as a key goal of the change to this “appalling” situation. It is common for events like these to be held on a Friday evening when many people are able to come, and appropriate venues are available. We are deeply grateful to Rev. Dr. Abraham Murray, pastor of the Brick Baptist Church for hosting this important event and for his gracious welcome in his opening remarks. Several of the most dedicated and hardworking members of our organization are members of the Jewish faith and we recognize that it is a hardship, and somewhat insensitive of us to hold these events on their Shabbat. In keeping with who we are and what we are about, it was the first time a Shabbat candle was lit in this august sanctuary. Rabbi TZiPi Radonsky of Watering the Tree Outside the Fence Foundation lit the candle and offered a prayer, closing with a reading from Numbers 6:23-27.

A number of segments of the evening were beautifully woven together with the music of choirs and Emma Stevenson of Rev. Murray’s congregation as soloist. “Aunt Emma” is the aunt of both Rev. Pinckney and Rev. Middleton. Rev. Penny Rahm of Waters Edge United Methodist, had written words reflecting our theme to go with the tune “we shall overcome” which she led a jubilant congregation through. Mostly behind the scenes though absolutely essential to the success of this event was Rev. Shannon Mullen, Pastor of St. John’s Lutheran. There was a slideshow honoring The Mother Emanuel Nine which was shown while one by one individuals in the congregation stood and spoke loudly the name of one of those nine followed by a hallowed chime from Rev. Lori Hlaban, of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Beaufort, as she conducted the remembrance portion. Theresa White of the Pan-African Family Empowerment and Land Preservation Network spoke to us about the history of Juneteenth and related a number of stories from her family history that brought it home to us all. Members of IPSC, Interfaith Partners of South Carolina, traveled down Columbia to attend including Dr. Adrian Bird, Carey Murphy, and Ethel Crawford. Rev. Roy Tripp of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church offered the closing Benediction.  

Our second keynote speaker was Victoria Smalls who currently serves as Commissioner, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and program director for the International African American Museum being built in Charleston South Carolina. Ms. Smalls served a number of years as director of History, Art an Culture programs at Penn Center and also serves everywhere she lives on Baha’i Local Spiritual Assemblies. As Ms. Smalls grew up on St. Helena Island and still had a lot of family living there she was able to offer a unique perspective. Her talk was informative, as she is an historian at heart, inspiring, and she ended with relevant quotes from her Baha’i scriptures. One point in particular that she made is that Penn Center was one of the very few places that Dr. Martin Luther King felt safe, and perhaps the only place where blacks and whites were able to sit down, speak and plan together, during the very segregated 1960s. Many of his most famous speeches were written here and shared with those who accompanied him. At the time of his death plans were in the works to build him a cottage on the marsh on the eastern edge of Penn Center where he could rest and find peace.

Our theme, “We Remember and We Do Not Forget” was suggested by Rabbi TZiPi Radonsky at one of our early planning meetings for this event. She shared with us that in her Jewish faith this phrase “We Remember and We Do Not Forget” is part of her weekly spiritual practice. That it is important to review and remember the blessings and challenges of the past week on the Sabbath and to remind one of the blessings and opportunities to come in the following week. She had a vision that this practice could be extended further back in time and further into the future in the context of this memorial service. One component of the evening was a slideshow where this phrase appeared and was followed by an image reminding us of many of the painful tragedies that somehow unite us. The images included scenes from more than a dozen of the mass shootings of the past few decades, atrocities committed at Jewish concentration camps, numerous slain martyrs to beloved causes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Harvey Milk, and others, slaughters of Native Americans at Wounded Knee, the Cherokee Trail of tears, the Japanese internment camps and most especially the assassinated Mother Emanuel Nine. It ended with these words “We Remember Those We Have Lost To Violence, And We Do Not Forget Our Commitment To Peace”.
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Rev. Smalls has carried the conviction that these tragedies might unite us and give us hope for the future, that our shared understanding and efforts will eventually make such things impossible. Just this morning as I was thinking through all of this in order to write this blog post a friend of mine shared with me this quote from the Talmud “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” People become martyrs when they are assassinated to prevent them from bringing to completion their life work, and though their deaths are a sadness to us they are most clearly a call to complete their labors.

On April 29, 2018 Rev. Ed Kosak and Unity of Charleston hosted a very successful interfaith event, with 15 faith paths represented. The event included a call to Jeffrey Mannaseh in Malawi Africa have a Skype call to the originator of this global event Greg Davis in Columbus Ohio. This event was held simultaneously in Madison, Wisconsin, Concorde, New Hampshire, Rockton, Illinois, Ventura County, California, Boise, Idaho, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Houston, Texas, Ames, Iowa, Grass Valley, California, Columbus, Ohio, Kasese, Uganda, Gulu Town, Uganda, Kashmir, India, Faisalabad, Pakistan as well as in Malawi in Africa. Among the partners in Africa was URI, United Religions Initiative which I believe is the organization that Jeffrey Mannaseh serves in. Click on image to view the video.

The opening speaker was to be Russell Binder, sharing his perspective on Judaism. He was unable to attend and his part was covered by Rev. Ed’s long time interfaith colleague Toreah “Cookie” Washington. Next came Victoria Smalls speaking from her Baha’i faith, she was followed by Dr. Amarjit Singh on Sikhism. Then came an artistic interlude with Dr. Peter Kfoury playing the Oud. Next to speak was Rev. Christian King on Christianity, she was followed by Shaila Shroff speaking on Hinduism, Native American spirituality was addressed by Rev. Catherine Nelson who also played beautifully on her double wooden flute. We were then presented with interpretive dance by Trudy’s School of Dance and coordinated by Erica Capdevila. Dr. Reshma Kahn spoke about Islam, and next was to be sensei Cindy Beach who was unable to attend due to logistical problems. Her time was taken to connect by Skype with the events originator Greg Davis in Ohio. The Quakers, the Religious Society of Friends were represented by Trish Bender and she was followed by another artistic interlude, native flute performed by Cerantha. Speaking for the Mormon faith was Dr. David Goltra and he was followed by Bernadette Victor from the Unitarian Universalist Church in Charleston, and she was followed by a Will Moredock who presented his secular humanist perspective. This was followed by another artistic interlude featuring Greg Guay performing an original piece on classical guitar. Perspectives on paganism were presented by IPSC’s Holli Emore and Clarissa Mickle who were followed by Simran Singh who spoke for the Oneness movement. This was followed by another artistic interlude featuring unity of Charleston’s own Brad Henty and Chris Crosby. Cookie Washington provided closing remarks.

Throughout the event people were informed of interfaith opportunities, locally this included The Coastal Interfaith Community, the Christian Jewish Council, Charleston Area Justice Ministry and the statewide organization IPSC, Interfaith Partners of South Carolina. Rev. Ed also took some time to talk about The Parliament of World Religions and encouraging people to become involved and to attend the upcoming Parliament this November in Toronto. Ed also shared that he and Greg will have a table at the Parliament promoting Religious Freedom: Malice Toward None.
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The Association for Global New Thought (AGNT) has initiated a series of online salons based on various topics. The New Thought on the News salon began in January 2018 and occurs monthly at 5:30 PM Pacific daylight Time. I have found this timely and powerfully engaging.  I have been involved in the New Thought movement for about eight years now and was initially drawn to it by articles written in the local paper by Rev. Justin Epstein, who was the minister at Unity of Hilton Head at that time. Rev. Epstein had deep connections to Hinduism and particularly to the work Paramahansa Yogananda. I had had a long-standing interest in Hinduism. I also had a decades long involvement with interfaith work. After attending his services for a little while it seemed to me that Unity was an ideal faithpath to promote interfaith understanding.

Since my early teens I’ve considered myself an activist, particularly with respect to environmental issues and indigenous rights, and have found it important to keep abreast of the news and issues that most concern me. For much of the time that I have been involved in the New Thought Movement I have encountered resistance to my activist proclivities and my interest in worldly events. A central concept of New Thought is the importance of consciousness in manifesting the world we wish to see. Many long time practitioners of new thought hold that the answer to the problems in the world is through prayer and meditation and that ultimately our task is not to change the world so much as it is to see it rightly. I do agree about the centrality of consciousness in manifested reality, but I also believe that one should stand in their belief and be present as a harbinger of positive alternatives to unsatisfactory circumstances. Only in the last several years have I witnessed stirrings of a different point of view among New Thought adherents. There are now a number of ministries that I am aware of that hold that it is important to remain conscious of what is going on in the world and that when we find ourselves in circumstances where it is appropriate we must stand up and speak out. In fact, last year I attended a marvelous event sponsored by Rev. Darlene Strickland’s Unity of the Blue Ridge with the theme of Our Love Is Power, Standup, Speak Up, Show Up. The choice of Marianne Williamson as a keynote speaker signaled the sincerity of the organizers as change agents.

This New Thought on the News salon is based on the premise that we must attend to the news, to the issues in the world, but that we must interpret them from a New Thought perspective, and not accept the slant that is presented to us by the media, which has a vested interest in exploiting fear and uncertainty in order to sell their products. The moderator of this program is Dr. Barbara Fields who serves as the executive director of AGNT, and who served as program director for the first modern Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1993.

​The inspiration and central reference for this series is a book by Jim Kenney entitled Thriving in the Crosscurrent: Clarity and Hope in a Time of Cultural Sea Change. Mr. Kenney is a longtime friend of Dr. Fields and was global director of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions up to and including the parliament which was held in Barcelona in 2004. There are some preparatory tutorials for this salon based on Mr. Kenney’s book and there are some very useful diagrams provided which clarifies the concepts, click here for links to those materials.

Mr. Kenney presents the central concept of the sea change as having four foundations: interdependence, paradigm shift, cultural evolution, and the emerging global consensus of values. His book is rich with visual intuitions and potent metaphors. Among these, in keeping with the idea of sea change, is the notion of cultural values presenting as waves, and that there are periods of transition, where the wave of old values are descending and the wave of new values are arising, and that, necessarily, this period of transition generates turbulence. One of the key understandings of what we are seeing in the news these days in the strident voices calling for a return to older ways, to fundamentalist values, and the demonization of those involved in the ascendancy of these new values, are the manifestation of this turbulence. A choice metaphor of his is that of the “eddy”, which anyone who has ever spent time in a river is familiar with and uses this apt metaphor for the counter motions observable in the general flow of change. Perhaps the overarching theme of Mr. Kenney’s work is that cultural values are inevitably moving ever upwards and outwards, evolving, as they approach the realities that human culture must face. Although he arrived at this viewpoint independently, he frequently references Steven Pinker’s book The Better Angels of Our Nature which presents a great deal of data supporting this view.

A prime example of this evolution of cultural values is the institution of chattel slavery, which was universally accepted and defended well into the 19th century, it is now generally recognized that slavery is everywhere and always wrong. Another example is patriarchy, which since the 1960s has rapidly diminished in its scope and power. All of which is not to say that these problems have ended, but that they are rapidly moving out of the realm of issues of central concern. Another key point that Mr. Kenney presents is that although this cultural evolution continually trends upward in the history of our shared world, there are times when this evolution is greatly accelerated. He posits, and I agree, that we are living in just such a time.

Regarding the salons themselves, the general format includes an introduction by Dr. Fields of this month’s topic, introductions to guest speakers by cohost Stephen Pope, a recap of the foundational perspectives by Mr. Kenney, followed by presentations and responses by guest speakers and the hosts. The salons are presented via Zoom and those watching the live presentation have the opportunity to chime in and express themselves on the various points presented. Guest speakers have included such luminaries in the New Thought Movement as Dr. David Alexander, Rev. Temple Hayes, Rev. Kevin Ross, Dr. Kenn Gordon thus far; and scheduled for upcoming salons are Dr. David Goldberg, Dr. Roger Teal, and Dr. Michael Beckwith. Click for bios of these and other leaders in AGNT.
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I am deeply grateful for this initiative by the AGNT which is both timely, deeply engaging and very energizing. I wholeheartedly recommend this salon to readers of this post and suggest that they check out the other salons made available by the AGNT. Click to view previous sessions of the New Thought on the News solons.
 

Unity of Hilton Head held its second annual Interfaith Harmony service in alignment with Governor Henry McMaster's proclamation of January as South Carolina's Interfaith Harmony Month. Among the faiths celebrated were Bahá’í, Islam, Judaism, Native American, New Thought, and Taoism. Here below 21 slides each of which have a Time Stamp in upper left hand corner if you would like to quickly navigate to that segment of the video which was made from the audio and these slides. Here's the link to the video: Unity of Hilton Head Interfaith Harmony Service.

Last Sunday January 14th the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Charleston hosted an event in alignment with the observation of January being South Carolina’s Interfaith Harmony Month. The evening featured presentations from different faiths on Angels and Experiences. The event ran from 4 to 6 PM and offered food and drink for all, I especially enjoyed a dish prepared by our hostess Shaila Shroff’s husband Vijay.

Our Hindu hostess selected and introduced the topic. Later on she shared her considerations of the concept of angels from both a Hindu and physicist’s point of view. The first speaker was Dinesh Sarvate who is a trustee of the Temple and Cultural Center and has had priestly duties there as well. Following was Muskan Singh, a Sikh who sang a beautiful song in what I believe was Punjabi, the language in which most portions of the Guru Granth Sahib (one of their sacred texts) was written in. She was followed by her grandfather Gajindav Singh who had a career as an educator in New York. IPSC’s chair Dr. Adrian Bird spoke next, he also serves as Visiting Professor of Christian history at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Charlotte. Howie Comen a long time interfaith activist and a private detective, shared interesting material from both Judaic and Islamic perspectives. Radhika Pande chanted a lovely prayer for us, and finally Herb Silverman spoke from his perspective as an Atheist, he serves on the Mathematics faculty of College of Charleston.
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Adrian and I found the topic interesting in several ways which have resulted in an ongoing email conversation. During his presentation he expressed surprise that in his years of teaching no one had posed a question about angels in his seminary classes. Several of the speakers addressed how we commonly recognize certain kind and caring people as angels. Mr. Silverman shared that he was not expecting to find much agreement with the other speakers and although he disavows supernatural angels he was very comfortable with the notion of natural, human angels. All in all a fascinating and enjoyable evening with a generous and thoughtful group of people. Thank you Shaila.
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