Today was an incredibly full day. I got up and 6 and was over to the convention center by 7:00
for morning devotional practices.
I wound up going to a Hindu meditation session led by a woman named Prabha
Duneja, a Vedic scholar and devotee of Lord Krishna and founder of the Geeta
Society. She led us through
a chakra meditation for healing.
She introduced the concept and background of chakra meditation and then
took us through a 35 minute session.
It was completely awesome!
I walked out of there so very centered and relaxed and refreshed that I
was ready for anything. That
turned out to be a good thing!
Our first of two sessions being presented by our collection
of colleges was this morning at 8:30.
Students from Nazareth College and their professors were doing the first
half of the session and then our colleagues at the United Religions Initiative
Young Leaders program led us through the second half of the session which was
very experiential and dialogical.
We were dismayed, however, when we got to our assigned space, which is
not in the convention center but in a contemporary are museum next door. They put us in a very small studio that
comfortably seats about 15-20 people max.
We had 65 people attending and about 10-15 more who tried to come but
did not stay because there was nowhere for them to stand or sit in the
room! We were pretty furious with
the Parliament about this room assignment and I am in the throes of some
strenuous conversations with them about getting a change of venue for Sunday’s
session. The session went
extremely well, notwithstanding the logistical nightmare! The Nazareth students
did very well and the dialogue that URI leaders led us through for the second
half of the session was very rich.
It was intentionally intergenerational, so they made sure that all of
our small groups had young people and at least one of us who are dubbed “young
at heart!” We had conversation
about what qualities we admire in young people who are leaders in interfaith
and about how the younger and older generation of interfaith leaders can best
complement one another and work together on our common mission. I was very impressed with the young
people in my group who had terrific insights and intelligent observations about
the enterprise of interfaith and dialogue among people of different cultures
and religions and how the older and younger generations differ in their
approach to interfaith issues. We
left the session really energized by the interactions, even if we were furious
with the Parliament program folks for the room assignment!
Today my students were able to work with the Sikh community
as volunteers at the Langar. I had hoped to join them, but you had to commit to
the full 3 ½ hours of the Langar and I had some obligations during that time
such that I could not commit to the full time frame. So I had lunch there, but could not volunteer. I did get
pics of my students and Jessica as they did their work with the Sikh community
and I know the students found the experience really meaningful. Just before the
langar begins the Sikh community gathers outside the langar space for a brief
ritual of chanting and praying for the success of the langar and as a way to
bless the food and all those who eat and those who serve. It was impressive to see all the Sikhs
in their white robes gathered together singing and praying as they readied
themselves for their service to the Parliament.
I stopped by the Tibetan mandala and took a picture of it as
they were getting about midway through their first 24 hours on it.
I attended two sessions after that, one on women’s
interpretations of sacred scripture in Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian
traditions and then a session led by officials of the Parliament and leaders of
URI about the future of interfaith.
Then I had to join Dr. Shafiq and Susan Nowak from Nazareth as we were
on a panel talking about the Common Word document. Our session was very well attended, and, to my surprise, the
Q&A session was lively and animated.
In fact, we didn’t get to all the questions in the audience before our
time ran out. And after the
session I had a number of folks coming up to ask more questions of us. So we were quite pleased about the
reception to our material.
After I left the ballroom where we had presented, I was
heading back to the hotel so I could get something quick to eat, but got
delayed by a group of folks in the lobby of the convention center who were
singing and doing circle dances.
The songs were really chants of various Sanskrit prayers, put to modern,
western chant tunes. Drums, violin
and guitar were the accompaniment and there were about 50 folks singing and
dancing. I could not resist
joining the dancing circle, so I enjoyed that for about 15 minutes before
leaving to get dinner. On my way
to the grocery store, I passed a sidewalk café where my Nazareth colleagues
were eating so I joined them for dinner.
After dinner, we returned to the Parliament for the very rousing and
inspirational Emerging Leaders plenary.
The plenary featured a number of young leaders, high school and college
aged young people who are doing amazing work in the world. A young 14 year old girl, Native
American, stole the show. She was
incredibly articulate as she talked about why she works for social justice and
environmental sustainability and she came back at the end of the night and sang
a song about changing the world that was a real show stopper! We all agreed she should run for
President! We were also treated to
a performance by whirling dervishes, but these dervishes were children, not
adults! It was a wonderful
performance. There was also a
performance by a group of young Chinese students on drums that was
dazzling. We also heard from the
sister of the young Muslim dental student and his wife who were killed in
Chapel Hill, North Carolina last February and from children of several of the
Sikhs who were killed in Wisconsin in the Gurdwara shooting in 2012. They are all doing work to end
religiously motivated violence and forge peaceful relationships among people of
diverse religions. Their stories
were heart rending and inspiring.
The evening plenary didn’t end until 9:45 at which point I was about to keel over! On our way out of the plenary hall, a young Sikh woman in spiky high heeled shoes, challenged my students to come with her to a late night food market to buy food and give it to the many homeless people who are living on the streets right here in downtown Salt Lake City. So as I was returning to the hotel, my students were off for their second community service project of the day, this time a rather impromptu event! So all in all, it was a very full day. Truly, this gathering is a unique experience and a foretaste of heaven!
Pics today include my meditation guru, shots of my students
doing their langar service, me at my presentation, and young Ta-Kaiya Blaney
doing her final song at the plenary.
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