Whew! Catching up...

 Well, my goodness, it’s nearly the end of March and I realize that I Have not posted in this space since the beginning of February. Generally speaking I like to make an individual post for many of the things that I’ll talk about here in what is a kind of “catch up” post. My work at Interfaith Advocate is primarily in video recording of the events that were wonderful for the group that was able to attend them, yet would be of value to a much larger audience, as well as interviews with individuals making contributions to the interfaith movement. My work also includes board service with UICC (Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort), IPSC (Interfaith Partners of South Carolina), Cherry Hill Seminary and of course my responsibilities as an ambassador for the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Unfortunately I sometimes find myself neglecting the “Notes on the Path” section of this website. Therefore in this short post I’d like to talk about five of the events which I attended and videoed since I last posted here.

It was a great privilege and source of joy to be invited To the Beaufort Ministerial Alliance’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. banquet in January where my friend and colleague the Rev. Jeannine Smalls was keynote speaker. Not only was her message powerful, there was great symbolism in Rev. Smalls being invited as she is the first woman to give this important keynote. Rev. Smalls is the founder of UICC and lead pastor of Grace Church AME. I should mention that UICC is now in the process of creating a more formal structure with bylaws and such and this is where much of my energy in my service to UICC goes. If you’d like to see the video here’s the link.

My friend Rev. Ed Kosak of Unity of Charleston hosted a presentation on Native American Spirituality in early February which featured Cat Nelson, who serves as the Native American spirituality representative on the IPSC  board. Cat was assisted by the Promise Keepers drumming group. Here’s a link to that video.

One of my colleagues in UICC is Teresa White, founder and CEO of The Pan-African Family Empowerment & Land Preservation Network, Inc. and in mid-February she organized a presentation at the St. Helena library entitled STAND4LAND Ministers, Elected Officials & Community Leaders Workshop. This presentation was designed to instruct ministers and other community leaders in the details and nuances of preventing folks from losing their lands to tax sales. There were representatives from each of the county departments involved in these processes. Sad to say that here in the Lowcountry many Gullah-Geechee folk lose their lands this way. Here’s a link to that video.

In early March I returned to Unity of Charleston for their celebration of International New Thought Day which this year focused on the topic of Healing. There were representatives from four branches of new thought and you can see that video with this link.

Last week a marvelous event was held at UNITED Church in Beaufort entitled “Inspiring What Is Possible” Bishop Jack Bomar, lead pastor at UNITED became very involved with the impoverished youth in the towns north west corner after a shooting incident right on the edge of the church’s property. His sense to build strong alliances with the mayor Billy Keyserling, the police department, and a number of community organizations and activists. Have a program that now serves over 140 children. The “Inspiring What Is Possible” event was an outgrowth of all of this. I am still working on the edit of the video and will post a full account when I complete it.
 
Finally, just earlier this week I traveled up to Columbia for an IPSC board retreat with both visioning and strategic planning components. This was facilitated by my friend, and colleague Rabbi TZiPi Radonsky, who also serves as Interfaith Advocate’s treasurer. 11 members of our board were able to attend and we were all deeply enriched and inspired by the sharing as well as refocused on our purpose and direction with new sets of tasks to accomplish our objectives and ultimate goals. I have never served on a more committed and delightful board and am deeply grateful for the human connections that come with this service.