CONFERENCE: “HOW CAN WE HELP ?”
~ Interfaith Peacemaking - Our Journey Together ~
.
~ Cosponsored by: ATFA/Rumi Forum, Md./Omega Forum ~
.
 |
| Prof. "Pim" Valkenberg's Keynote |
On Sunday, March 20, 2016 eighty Interfaith participants met at the Sandy Spring Museum in Maryland for our conference on "Interfaith Peacemaking.” Our purpose was to create an aware and nurturant space for people who were already doing Interfaith service work, or for those who had an interest in learning more about or helping with peacemaking and other interfaith healing endeavors..
Prof. “Pim” Valkenberg from the Catholic University School of Theology presented our keynote speech on the topic of “Renewing Islam by Service” based on his recent book on the “Hizmat” movement. This was followed by a Peacemaking panel with 4 panelists sharing from their interfaith peacework and their own spiritual journeys including: work in Haiti, Northern Island, Holland, the Middle East. One panelist, Rev. Kara Scroggins, summed things up rather concisely saying, “Community comes together around something you care about. Having a part in the play. It’s powerful just to show up!”
.
.
The panel was followed by a delicious Turkish dinner provided by ATFA/Rumi Forum with an opportunity for participants to dialogue. The event concluded with a time of Silence and a shared sacred space presenting a communal opportunity to offer prayers for peace or concluding thoughts. The tone of the event was very warm and heartening. Many appreciations to our speaker, panelists and participants. Special thanks to the Executive Director of the Sandy Spring Museum, Allison Weiss for generously offering to host our event.
Endorsed by InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Wash.
EVENT PURPOSE: In these times of religious and secular extremism we search to find a common ground amidst polarizing rhetoric and acts of violence. Come to this afternoon conference to hear the journeys of Interfaith Peacebuilders and to add your stories to our Dialogue. ~
.
.
HOW CAN WE HELP PANEL:
KARA SCROGGINS: Assoc. Pastor - Kara is an associate pastor at Bethesda United Methodist Church. Her earliest experiments with interfaith engagement took the form of community opera productions when she was a child. While teaching math to students in Cape Town, South Africa, Kara felt called to return to community work through the church. After completing a Masters in Divinity at Yale she was appointed to Bethesda UMC in 2013. She regularly leads trips to Haiti to work on a reforestation project and to offer aid to the current refugee crisis on the Haiti-Dominican Republic border. While serving as pastor, she has participated in several dialogue dinners and an ATFA-sponsored journey to Turkey.
MARGARET A. JOHNSON, Ph.D. - Margaret is a sociologist, author, international speaker, and business owner. She consults and advises at the Institute of Islamic and Turkish Studies on developing strong communities and advocating for peace and understanding among all people. She works mostly on peace studies issues including: confronting extremism, dialogue, and religious diversity. She has traveled to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Nigeria, Egypt, Albania, and Turkey to speak on topics of peace building, education, and Islam in the United States; she has recently moderated several panels in the DC area on confronting Islamic extremism..
PETER KOVACH: U.S. Foreign Service, (retired) - Peter is a long time spiritual seeker and peacemaker deeply involved with cross-cultural and interreligious understanding. Peter has a wonderful cross-religious path with depth experiences of Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism and Islam. He has also taught meditation in academic settings and is a founding meditation teacher for the Insight Meditation “Insight on the Inside” prison program. In his diplomatic career at the U.S. State Dept. he served overseas in Pakistan, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Bahrain and Yemen and has been a pioneer in incorporating religious actors, values and civil society into our diplomacy. He was the Director of the Department of State's Office of International Religious Freedom.
MICHAEL DUVALL - Legacy International - Mike currently works at Legacy International to help build mutual understanding and support civil society in the MENA region. He has also worked with peacebuilding organizations in Northern Ireland, Ireland and Washington, D.C. He is a perpetual seeker who personally and academically has explored contemplative traditions and wilderness spirituality, and is a regular attender at Friends Meeting of Washington where he currently clerks the Peace and Social Concerns Committee. He works to create and hold space for learning, growth and dialogue. Mike has a BA in Religious Studies from the College of Wooster and an M.Phil in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation from Trinity College Dublin.
ZAMIN DANTY (Moderator) - Zamin is a longtime student of Interfaith Spirituality and has shared in community with people of numerous faith traditions. He studied with a Sufi Order for over 20 years, and has also intimately participated in Christian, Quaker, and Native American communities. Through the “Omega Forum” Zamin currently facilitates interfaith dialogues and leads sojourns to spiritual, religious and humanitarian communities in the Washington Area. He is a second generation member of a Jewish Holocaust surviving family and has worked as a counselor & therapist with people recovering from addictions and mental illness. He has also served with community-based programs for mentally handicapped adults. .
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
WILHELMUS “PIM” VALKENBERG, Ph.D (Keynote Speaker): Catholic University School of Theology & Religious Studies - Pim has taught courses on World Religions, Phenomenology of Religion, Monotheism and the doctrine of God, Contemporary Christologies, Theologies of Interreligious Dialogue, Theological Hermeneutics in Intercultural and Interreligious Perspective, Mission in Various Religious Traditions, Comparative Mysticism, Christology and Interreligious Dialogue, Medieval Theology, Peace Ethics, and the Mysteries of the Life of Christ in Theology and Music. Dr. Valkenberg’s recent research concentrates on Christian-Muslim dialogue in the context of Abrahamic partnership, both in the present and in the past.
