Here are links to some of our partners in the Interfaith movement, as well as some books and magazines. Click on image to the left of the description to visit their websites. Any text in green is a link you can click to open in a new page as well.
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Parliament of the World's Religions
Premier organization of the Global Interfaith Movement. I ran the Metaphysics and Eastern Philosophy sections in a large bookstore in 'in the early 80's and when I ran into a customer from that era, who had just returned from the Parliament of the World's Religions of 1993, he was all fired up! It was contagious, I'd wanted to attend ever since. Then it was in Barcelona, Spain, oh well..., Cape Town, South Africa, even further away, then Melbourne, Australia... a "land down under", quite literally straight through the earth from where I lived, and finally last year in Salt Lake City, Utah where we had lived for decades. I had the money for air fare, a friend paid the fees, and I had friends and family all over the valley with all the meals and beds I needed. It was everything I had hoped for and well beyond. Update: I now serve the Parliament as an Ambassador and look forward to seeing YOU in Toronto in 2018!
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Interfaith Partners of South Carolina
This large and effective organization has it's roots in the 1970's in initiatives to foster dialogue and mutual education between adherents of Christian and Jewish faiths. It has grown and expanded into a very inclusive movement and is currently chaired by a Native American. "South Carolina interfaith leaders have long realized the importance of bringing together people of divergent religious cultures. Interfaith Partners of South Carolina is a statewide organization."
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Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort
I first became involved with this organization after attending the beautiful and moving MOTHER EMANUEL NINE MEMORIAL SERVICE at Grace Chapel AME Beaufort 06/16/16, which was their event. Founded by Rev. Jeannine Smalls, pastor of Grace Chapel AME, this organization has as its primary mission addressing and healing of the racial tensions and violence which still pervade the South and the city of Beaufort. I am Interfaith Partners of South Carolina's representative to this group and I can assure you that many faith leaders of good will and commitment are participating. Now they have a more public presence in the form of a Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort Facebook page. Check there for upcoming developments.
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Cherry Hill Seminary
Cherry Hill Seminary is the leading provider of education and practical training in leadership, ministry, and personal growth in Pagan and Nature-Based spiritualities. We pride ourselves on being an academic and spiritual community, focused on the development of both practical and intuitive skills. We invite you to take a look at our About Us page to learn more about our mission, vision, and values.
AGNT Association for Global New Thought“A UNIFIED NEW THOUGHT MOVEMENT will embody and express the universal power of the sacred in service of a world that works through everyone.”
~ The Association for Global New Thought "Engaged spirituality that inspires the individual life and empowers social uplift is the mission of the Association for Global New Thought. We stand with a Conscious Majority of the worlds' people who know that by connecting, supporting, and mobilizing one another toward the Common Good, we can create a world that works through everyone. Something has been stirring in the collective unconscious of humanity, now finding its way to the surface of society though conscious, awakened beings everywhere. On the leading edge of this awakening is the NEW THOUGHT MOVEMENT." I am a member of Unity of Hilton Head, Unity is one of the New Thought denominations and am pleased to note that our CEO Jim Blake and several other Unity representatives serve on AGNT's Leadership Council. Dr. Barbara Fields serves as Executive Director. Dr. Fields was the Program Director for the first modern Parliament of the World's Religions in 1993. Click the image at left to visit their site. |
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Charter for Compassion"We believe that a compassionate world is a peaceful world. We believe that a compassionate world is possible when every man, woman and child treats others as they wish to be treated--with dignity, equity and respect. We believe that all human beings are born with the capacity for compassion, and that it must be cultivated for human beings to survive and thrive."
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World Prayer and Meditation A site which shares and promotes global Prayer and Meditation events focusing on troubled spots and vulnerable peoples. Visit their site and subscribe to their email to receive notices of the next focus.“This week we pray for our own country and all those suffering from the effects of violence. We see them comforted and supported in all the ways they need. We focus on healing, wholeness, justice, safety, change and love. Our time to pray and meditate together will be this Sunday at 8 pm your local time.”
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Unity of Hilton Head
"Welcome to UNITY of Hilton Head: A Positive Path for Spiritual Living: A loving, joy-filled spiritual community made up of people who embrace the spiritual essence in every person. We respect the universal truths in all religions and each individual's right to choose a spiritual path. At Unity, you'll find a spiritual community to join and support you on your journey."Our VisionLiving love, joy and peace in community.
Our MissionTo deepen our connections with God, self and others. |
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UNITED Church Network
UNITED Church provides opportunities for greater communion with GOD, spiritual growth, and development through fellowship, worship services, classes, programs and mission efforts.
Hillside International Truth Center
Hillside International Truth Center, Inc. is a healing ministry of the whole person: Spirit, Mind, and Body. Hillside is committed to new thinking for healing hearts and transforming lives as demonstrated by Jesus the Christ.” Founded by Dr. Bishop Barbara L. King and now lead by Bishop Dr. Jack L. Bomar. Affectionately known as Dr. Barbara she was awarded the three highest honors in the New Thought movement—The International New Thought Alliance (INTA) Life Achievement Award; the Ernest Holmes Religious Science Award; and Unity’s The Light of God Expressing Award. Following are examples from recent years. In 2001 Dr. Barbara received the highest honor ever bestowed upon a woman when she was enstooled as the first female chief at Assin Nsuta, Ghana, West Africa of the Ashante tribe. Her stool name is Nana Yaa Twumwaa 1. The International College of Bishops assembled and consecrated Dr. Barbara to the sacred office of Bishop on September 26, 2010. She made history as the first New Thought minister to receive that honor.
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Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable
This organization was pivotal in bringing the Parliament of the World's Religions to Salt Lake City in 2015. "Founded In 1999, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games formed an Interfaith Roundtable whose purpose was to fulfill the Olympic Charter requirement to “provide religious support” for athletes and families. Forty-five faith leaders from over 22 faiths joined together as the SLOC Interfaith Roundtable to help welcome the world to Utah." They also sold me my fetching Prayer Stole which may make a featured appearance in the NOTES section.
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Interfaith Market Place
The source for the Banner and Stole which I obtained from Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable when I was at the 2015 Parliament of the World's Religions. Lots of other fine items on offer here as well.
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Interfaith Resources
I discovered Interfaith Resources through a marvelous little Interfaith Prayer Book I was gifted at the 2015 Parliament of World Religions. I have purchased a number of copies for giving and they are very inexpensive, actually less than a greeting card. They have a number of other items that I'm sure will delight!
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Jacob Needleman
"Jacob Needleman is Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University, former Visiting Professor at Duxx Graduate School of Business Leadership in Monterrey, Mexico, and former Director of the Center for the study of New Religions at The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He was educated in philosophy at Harvard, Yale and the University of Freiburg, Germany. He has also served as Research Associate at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, as a Research Fellow at Union Theological Seminary, as Adjunct Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of California Medical School and as guest Professor of Religious Studies at the Sorbonne, Paris (1992)." What is not so well known is that he has studied the Gurdjieff Work intensively since at least the early '70's beginning with the Gurdjieff center of San Francisco.
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Parabola Magazine
I've been reading Parabola since 1979. If you don't know this marvelous resource you can thank me later ;) "The Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition is a not-for-profit organization devoted to the dissemination and exploration of materials relating to the myths, symbols, rituals, and art of the world’s religious and cultural traditions. To this end, the Society is the publisher of Parabola Magazine."
Come to think of it I'll post about a favorite piece from Parabola in the Notes section. And by the way, a parabola is a beautiful mathematical entity with amazing powers! |
And here are links to organizations involved in creating and sustaining Peace:
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Amnesty International
Amnesty International has a long and deep track record of fighting injustice and promoting human rights.
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Veterans for Peace
Thank You For Your Service!
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Here are links to Contemplative Ageing sites:
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Mepkin Abbey's Contemplative Aging Institute
Mepkin Abbey, a Cistercian monastery in South Carolina, provides a serene place of natural beauty and quiet – the perfect setting – to help participants find the contemplative practice best suited for them. During the Contemplative Aging Retreat various contemplative practices are explored as a way to welcome the inner life of self development and spiritual growth as we move into elder-hood.
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Sage-ing International
Sage-ing International is a community of elders and elders-to-be who are ready to explore new ways of aging. Beginning as a networking organization for professionals, we have expanded our focus, reaching out to everyone approaching or in the second half of life. Our vision includes teaching/learning, service and community as three vitally important aspects of the sage-ing journey.
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Age-ing to Sage-ing
"Over two decades ago, beloved and respected rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi felt an uneasiness. He was growing older, and fears about death and infirmity were haunting him. So he decided to embark on mission to get to the bottom of his fears. Through a series of events that included a vision quest in a secluded cabin and studying with Sufi masters, Buddhist teachers and Native-American shamans, Reb Zalman found a way to turn aging into the most meangful and joyous time in his life. "
This book is at the heart of a revolution in our attitudes towards growing old, of what we can still become and do in our beloved communities. The very opposite of "retirement" whether you look at that as endless days of golf or "being put out to pasture". In traditional cultures when a person reaches the age where they are relieved of much of the business of parenting and the burdens of the householder, they are expected to accept the role of Elder in their communities with all the responsibilities and opportunities that affords. The good Rabbi is the author of at least 14 other books. |
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Dr. Lyndall Hare ~ Concierge Gerontologist
Lyndall is a remarkable person with an extraordinary personal history. I met her while attending Mepkin Abbey's Eldering Retreat where she was one of the facilitators. I was deeply impressed with her wisdom, compassion and commitment to serve, particularly in light of the profound struggles she has endured. Dr. Hare is much sought after as a speaker and trainer on aging issues.
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And here are some books that have been important parts of my Journey:
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Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
"In this artful, disquieting, yet surprisingly jubilant memoir, Jesuit priest Boyle recounts his two decades of working with homies in Los Angeles County, which contains 1,100 gangs with nearly 86,000 members. Boyle's Homeboy Industries is the largest gang intervention program in the country, offering job training, tattoo removal, and employment to members of enemy gangs. Effectively straddling the debate regarding where the responsibility for urban violence lies, Boyle both recounts the despair of watching the kids you love cooperate in their own demise and levels the challenge to readers to stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment at how they carry it. From moving vignettes about gangsters breaking into tears or finding themselves worthy of love and affirmation, to moments of spiritual reflection and sidesplittingly funny banter between him and the homies, Boyle creates a convincing and even joyful treatise on the sacredness of every life. Considering that he has buried more than 150 young people from gang-related violence, the joyful tenor of the book remains an astounding literary and spiritual feat."
Copyright © Reed Business Information" Read this book while on a private retreat at Mepkin Abbey, it profoundly moved me, I've reread it and gifted it to others. |
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The Grace in Dying : How We Are Transformed Spiritually as We Die
Amazon.com Review: "Right from the start Kathleen Dowling Singh proclaims: "Dying is safe. You are safe. Your loved one is safe. That is the message of all the words here." True to her promise, Dowling Singh walks us through the final stages of death with complete honesty, yet she manages to quell the ultimate fear of dying. Speaking of the "Nearing Death Experience," Singh has discovered a sequence of phases or qualities that signals when a dying person is entering the final stages of spiritual and psychological transformation. She names them as relaxation, withdrawal, radiance, interiority (a time of going inward), silence, sacred, transcendence, knowing, intensity, and perfection--all of which she explains in great detail. ... One thing is for certain: this is an astonishingly intelligent and engrossing book about consciously surrendering our bodies and our egos to death."
I attended 2 days of lectures from Kathleen Dowling Singh sponsored by Mepkin Abbey and have never in a more profound spiritual presence than hers. I wept for four hours straight in sadness, joy and wonderment. Look for a blog post on this experience in the near future. |
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Rolling Thunder by Doug Boyd
From an Amazon Review: "Rolling Thunder, the subject of this book, is a keeper of tribal secrets-a modern medicine man. After witnessing one of Rolling Thunder's healing rituals at a conference sponsored by the research department of the Menninger Foundation, Doug Boyd decided to open his mind fully to the mysteries of such secret healing powers as might be revealed to him. Boyd's book is an account by a contemporary white man of the inner experience of American Indians, an exploration into what some accept as the "real" world. To the believer or to the skeptic, Boyd's experiences form a penetrating and challenging story of a world that is little known to most Americans."
I first met Doug in Logan, UT in about 1976 though the good graces of Tim and Pam Ballingham at USU. I produced and attended workshops with him and considered a job offer as grants researcher with his Cross Cultural Studies Program which was affiliated with the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, KS where his parents Alyce and Elmer Greene ran the Voluntary Controls Project. But I had too many fine choices at that moment and passed up a great opportunity. |
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In Search of the Miraculous ~ P. D. Ouspensky
"Since its original publication in 1949, In Search of the Miraculous has been hailed as the most valuable and reliable documentation of G. I. Gurdjieff's thoughts and universal view. This historic and influential work is considered by many to be a primer of mystical thought as expressed through the Work, a combination of Eastern philosophies that had for centuries been passed on orally from teacher to student. Gurdjieff's goal, to introduce the Work to the West, attracted many students, among them Ouspensky, an established mathematician, journalist, and, with the publication of In Search of the Miraculous, an eloquent and persuasive proselyte."
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American Veda ~ Phillip Seymour
"From the time of Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman, succeeding generations absorbed India’s “science of consciousness” and wove it into the fabric of our lives. Charismatic teachers like Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda came west in waves, prompting leading intellectuals, artists, and scientists—Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Allen Ginsberg, J. D. Salinger, John Coltrane, Dean Ornish, and Richard Alpert, aka Ram Dass—to adapt and disseminate what they learned from them. The impact is dramatically changing how we view ourselves and our place in the cosmos.
. Goldberg paints a compelling picture of this remarkable East-to-West transmission, showing how it moved from the counterculture into laboratories, libraries, and living rooms. Now physicians and therapists routinely recommend meditation, words like karma and mantra are part of our everyday vocabulary, and Yoga studios are as ubiquitous as Starbucks. Rich in detail and expansive in its scope, American Veda shows how we have come to accept and live by the central teaching of Vedic wisdom: “Truth is One, the wise call it by many names.” |
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Jesus in the Lotus: The Mystical Doorway Between Christianity and Yogic Spirituality ~ Russill Paul
Given to me by a friend who supports my work in and understanding of the Interfaith movement. Paul uses the term 'Interspiritual' which resonates perfectly with my own approach. He also makes clear a distinction between Interspiritual and Syncretism which sees all traditions as equal in the sense that anyone will lead you to the same place. The distinction may be subtle for some but for me the value of one faithpath over another is its suitedness to the temperament and soul leanings of an individual. Yoga has long recognized the need for different techniques and approaches for different individuals. Bhakti yoga or the path of devotion as opposed to Gnani yoga the path of the intellect, the scholar or Hatha yoga the physical yoga that establishes harmony through maximizing the health of the body. Syncretism has it right in the sense that it values Religion in an analogous way to Art, which is the human expression of aesthetic concerns, yet someone who achieves great work in sculpture may have no ability to do so in paint, or for that matter, dance or music. One element of Paul's analysis of what Yogic spirituality has to offer Christianity is the re-establishment of the role of intuition which has been largely supplanted by reason and logic and the theology that they promote.
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Laws of Form ~ G. Spencer Brown
I first read this book as an Electrical Engineering major in the early 70's, where I was particularly interested in computer science, which ultimately is founded on the peculiar logic of Boolean algebra. I never mastered the deeper logical implications of this seminal work but it nevertheless was among the most influential books I've read. From time to time Mr. Brown would divert from the explication of this new Boolean Calculus with an aside:
"Let us consider, for a moment, the world as described by the physicist. It consists of a number of fundamental particles which, if shot through their own space, appear as waves, and are thus... of the same laminated structure as pearls or onions, and other wave forms called electromagnetic which it is convenient, by Occam’s razor, to consider as traveling through space with a standard velocity. All these appear bound by certain natural laws which indicate the form of their relationship. Now the physicist himself, who describes all this, is, in his own account, himself constructed of it. He is, in short, made of a conglomeration of the very particulars he describes, no more, no less, bound together by and obeying such general laws as he himself has managed to find and to record. Thus we cannot escape the fact that the world we know is constructed in order (and thus in such a way as to be able) to see itself. This is indeed amazing." (Jim's emphasis) This was a profound aha moment for me! Having as an Atheist long before rejected any notion of some bearded all father on a celestial throne and having since populated my cosmology with physics and mathematics, I suddenly was struck with a sense of the divine. Really just an intense amplification of what I often felt in the presence of natural beauty when I wandered and wondered through mountains, forests and deserts. While I still did not believe in any specific deity I no longer was comfortable identifying as an Atheist. |
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The Interfaith Prayer BookI was gifted this book at the 2015 Parliament of World Religions and have since found the source and bought many copies for giving. Priced at what is probably below the cost of production, less than a greeting card, it is truly a bargain. Click the picture to go to Interfaith Resources website where you purchase them.
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How To Pray Without Talking to God:This book by Rev. Linda Martella-Whitsett positively floored me when I first studied it in 2012. I had never been comfortable with an anthropomorphic God, much less petitioning one. I had at that point a meditation practice of nearly forty years and had often heard that "Meditation was listening to God, Prayer was Talking to God" which sat well with me as I had nothing to say. At least until someone pointed out to me that expressions of gratitude were prayers!
The following is from the Amazon page: "Unity minister Linda Martella-Whitsett provides a new framework for thinking about prayer that will revolutionize the lives of readers everywhere. The good news here is that you can pray without believing God; that you can have a rich and fulfilling spiritual practice without adhering to a set of creeds or dogmas. She encourages seekers to look within, rather than outside themselves for a God in the sky, for the spark of the divine that is at the core of their being. How to Pray Without Talking to God shows how to develop a true spiritual practice by: re-forming the words of traditional prayers; cultivating a habit of daily prayer and meditation; learning how to pray with others. How To Pray Without Talking To God is filled with the author's stories of her own evolving understanding of God. Each chapter includes a section called "Talk to Yourself" that poses questions for readers to write about or share in a study circle." Rev. Linda Martella-Whitsett now serves as the director of Silent Unity at Unity headquarters. To purchase the book click on the book cover to the left to visit its page on Amazon. |
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Cosmos and Psyche:
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My Neighbor's Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth, and Transformation
by Jennifer Howe Peace, Or Rose, and Gregory Mobley
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. It is a superb selection of stories from people's lives and their interfaith encounters. Click on the cover to visit the Amazon site for a preview of the book. |