Links to 2018 PROGRAMS and REPORTS

Vital Conversations — Program, 2d Wednesdays 1-2:30 pm

What is Islam?2018 March 4 Resurrection Lutheran Church, 9100 Mission Rd

Eliot's Four Quartets 2018 March 13 Tom Brous speaks on his book

Memorial service 180331 for Anand Bhattacharyya, 1932-2018

Meeting Paul Knitter 2018 April 20 

Meeting Stephen Prothero   2018 April 30

Ministry in a Pluralistic World C-RP511 — Vern teaches the graduate course
     Central Baptist Theological Seminary
     glimpses 

Interfaith Council's "Table of Faiths"
     2018 May 8 -- wonderful event -- a historical correction

Congratulating Kansas City Mayor Sly James
      The latest recipient of the Kansas City Tomorrow Alumni Assn 
      "Distinguished Alumni" award 

Vern thanks Senator Claire McCaskill

Celebrating an award-winning film in Hindi

A "Retirement" Observed

Independence Day Essay  "Sacred Citizenship"
     from our Archives: The America before Trump  (2-page PDF)

Margolis Scholarship Essay Contest winner announced.

World Religions Lectures — 2018 Sept 21-22 Fri-Sat 

CRES applauds Indian filmmaker —  2018 Oct 14 Sun 2:35p

Kansas City: A Neighborhood of World Religions
     Day Workshop at Tall Oaks Conference Center -- Oct 24 Wed 8:30-3

Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Dinner -- Nov 11 Sunday 4:30
     with the Vern Barnet Interfaith Service Award

Thanksgiving Benefit Concert for the Jerusalem Farm -- Nov 16 Fri 7:30 
 
 
 

The session began with this "Quiz to Initiate Discussion of Islam"
1. T/F — The three largest faiths in the world are, in order, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.
2. T/F — Well over ten per cent of American Muslims are African-American.
3. T/F — Records show Muslim presence in South Carolina as early as 1790.
4. T/F — Most Christians in the occupied Palestinian areas have been sympathetic to the Muslim population.
5. T/F — Judaism comprises less than one per cent of the world’s population, mostly in the United States, Israel, and France. 
6. T/F — Muslim slaves are buried in New York near the site of the 9/11 attacks.
7. T/F — By 1919, a mosque had been built in Michigan, by 1934 in Iowa, by 1957 in Washington, D.C., and in Kansas City by 1981.
8. T/F — The Muslim Student Association (UMKC’s chapter formed by 1984), with  other groups, led to the founding of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). 
9. T/F — Saudi Arabia, our ally, a Sunni nation, is home to the Wahhabi extremist form of Islam.
10. T/F — Jesus (pbuh) is mentioned more times in the Qur’an than Muhammad (pbuh).
11. T/F — Traditionally Yaser Arafat was welcomed at the Christmas observances in Bethlehem at the Church of the Nativity.
12. T/F — Although the current administration is especially hostile to Iran, with its Shia majority, the US has never interfered with its democracy by overthrowing its government and installing a dictator. 
13. T/F — The US trained a Saudi, Osama bin Laden. 
14. a/b/c — Greater KC has (a) one mosque (b) three mosques (c) more than ten.
15. T/F — The first nation to recognize the independence of the United States of America was a Muslim nation.
16. T/F — The Jackson County Diversity Task force including Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist members, formed after the 9/11 attacks to survey the 5-county area, presented a 77-page report with three pages of recommendations to the community on Sept 10, 2002. 
17. T/F — Muslim lands offered Jews safety when they were expelled after the Christians reconquered Spain. 

Click for answers.

Vern said "Kansas City would not be Kansas City except for Muhammad (PBUH) by pointing our that Giralda Tower on the Country Club Plaza is often used as a symbol to identify Kansas City, with the original full-size minaret still standing in Seville, once the tower from which the Adhan, the Muslim call to prayer was made.       After the session, members of the class hold an enlarged image of a AAA map cover for Kansas City after the talk. They are Bob Dona, his wife Sharon, and the Rev Ted Schroeder, who invited Vern.

Tom Brous spoke at the Retired Clergy Luncheon March 13. T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets” may be the most important religious poem since Dante's Divine Comedy, Brous suggested, and like Dante, even with the Comedy's beauty and power, discovering the depths of its meaning its not easy.
     Now there is a guide through this masterpiece: Why Read Four Quartets? Tom's book encourages readers to “take up, read, and inwardly digest” these sacred  poems. Both for general reader unacquainted with this work and those who already cherish it, the poems are made more accessible. 
     Many critics do not take Eliot’s own spirituality seriously enough to explore it; literary analysis is often emphasized to the exclusion of viewing the poems in a personal or biographical manner. In sharp contrast to these typical studies, this book endeavors to show that the quartets can be read as the story of Eliot’s own mystical journey to the Divine, a journey by which we ourselves can benefit.
     Tom Brous is a retired attorney-at-law and adjunct law professor. He has studied and lectured on Four Quartets for over 30 years.
     The program was arranged through CRES and Vern introduced the author.

Wearing the shawl Anand Bhattacharrya has bestowed on him, Vern spoke about their decades-long friendship at the memorial service at the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center. 

Anand's far-ranging and key contributions to interfaith understanding might be suggested by the fact that he is the “Hindu” in the Donna Ziegenhorn play, The Hindu and the Cowboy. He was tireless in promoting not only the better understanding of his own faith by sharing it in many ways with the larger community, but by supporting efforts to bring faiths together in mutuality and trust. He wrote for The Kansas City Star and often advised me on my column through its weekly appearance for 18 years. An engineer by profession, he was a spiritual scholar, teacher and servant of the divine, a man of integrity and joy. 

Anand was the first Hindu member of the Kansas City Interfaith Council 1989; and he and Dipti offered me, along with so many others, great friendship and all kinds of help. So many memories! — including bhumi puja ground-breaking at the site of what became the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center when he was president, to his being honored by CRES at the annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Sunday Family Ritual Meal in 1999 (image 1) to his participation in the press conference September 11, 2001 (image 2), and the day of observance September 11, 2002 (image 3) , to his welcoming guests from here and abroad at the nation's first Interfaith Academies for professionals and students when the participants visited the Temple in 2007 (image 4) . . . and so many other public and private ways he enriched our lives. 

We honored him at this year’s interfaith Candlemas.

We are blessed in so many ways by knowing Anand, and those who never met him still benefit in ways they may never know from his time with us.

A collection of tributes with many photos of Anand at key points in the interfaith history of Kansas City appear here: cres.org/Anand.htm

A. DISCOVERING PRESUPPOSITIONS ABOUT OTHER FAITHS -- AND OUR OWN
     0. Getting acquainted: Our backgrounds, travel and other experiences, and perspectives as we approach this course. 
     1. What meanings do terms such as belief, dialogue, epiphany, holistic, mission, myth, pilgrimage, religion, ritual, sacred, sacrifice, scripture, secular, spirituality, and worship, have for us and today’s society? 
     2. What attitudes have scholars identified as ways folks approach faith perspectives other than their own?
     3. What does “pluralism” mean? What are its theoretical, practical, and personal meanings? How does it apply to the local community and the “global village”?
     4. Where are we aided and challenged by other traditions? How might our own and other traditions address environmental, personal, and social disorders?

B. LEARNING ABOUT OTHER FAITHS
     1. How do sociological, historical, phenomenological, and other methods of studying religions differ, and how do they help us understand another’s faith? 
     2. What are the basic structures, texts, facts, practices, and variations of other faiths?
     3. How do faiths compare and contrast?
     4. What is more, and what is less, useful for each of us today?

C. ENCOUNTERING FOLKS OF DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
     1. What are the basic styles and purposes of interfaith engagement? What are the significant interfaith organizations and programs affecting the student’s community? 
     2. How do I discover my community’s faith complexion and my opportunities within it? 
     3. What issues with boundaries arise and how can they be negotiated?
     4. What do we learn about ourselves as we learn about others? Can I be committed to my own faith and respectful and open to others? If so or if not, what does that mean for my ministry?
#180514

During the May 14 class (hosted on this occasion locally by HJ's Youth and Community Center, a facility of St Andrew's Episcopal Church) which included two remote students, a reflection appeared on the monitor behind Vern and a student particularly apt with electronics as well as religion, captured Vern making some obscure theological point as if he were holding a light saber for emphasis. Vern denies that he is an incarnation of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but is disappointed that the electonics seemed to obscure his halo which too few can discern in any circumstance, anyhow. Maybe as the technology improves . . . .
#180604Rabbi 

June 4 Rabbi Moti Rieber, head of Kansas Interfaith Action, visited the class to discuss his work. The inset is a quick figure to illustrate the process of gaining support for policy positions, and generated a wonderful controversy. Our guest expemplifies one form of interfaith work, action, which might be contrasted with  interfaith educational programs.

June 11 our guest was Maggie Finefrock, head of The Learning Project and CRES Chief Learning Officer, a veteran of many pilgrimages, including the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, and most recently, a 300-mile pilgrimage observing the  bicentennial of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769-1852)'s Society of the Sacred Heart. She presented two tables of items relating to the practice of pilgrimage, elicted and responded to questions from the class deepening our understanding of what a pilgrimage is and is not, and introduced us to material on the chart she presented.
#180611Doug

Maggie's husband, Dr Doug Bottorff, discussed his own spiritual path, Ananda Marga. The class considered the role of the guru and the importance of faithful practice. 

The Rev David E Nelson, president of The Human Agenda, was guest at the first session of the "Ordinary" term class Vern leads at Central Seminary on ministry in a pluralistic world. David told the story of two boys and their parents from different cultures to illustrate how different responses to the same situation can lead to damaged or healthy outcomes. He then outlined Appreciative Inquiry, and from his sermon (at the nation's first Interfaith Academies sponsored in part by Harvard's Pluralism Project and Religions for Peace-USA), he explained why he has given so much (and received so much) from interfaith engagement and relationships. David's rich career beyond parish ministry includes work with emergency responders, Head Start programs, prison inmates, the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, and the monthly Vital Comversations.

#180508TableOfFaiths

From yearning God conceived and teemed the world
to know and to be known in fullness. . . . 

Previous Kansas City Tomorrow Alum Assn "Distinguished Alumni Award" recipients Vern Barnet (2006) and Jody Ladd Craig (2013) congratulate the newest recipient, Kansas City Mayor Sly James at a luncheon in his honor at the Polsinelli law firm offices on the Plaza 2018 May 22. (Here is a list of all honorees from 1987.)

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#180608McCaskill

Vern thanks Senator Claire McCaskill for her understanding of how religious diversity enriches America in countless ways, following at an event 2018 June 9 at which she spoke eloquently about valuing our variety of faiths.

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Kansas City Human Rights Commissioner Kelly Kendall, filmmaker Mohammed Shaik Hussain Ali, recipient of the "2018 OUT HERE NOW Celebration of Courage Award," Open Circle'sJamie Rich, and CRES's Vern Barnet pose at the Tivoli Theater after the enthusiastic and heart-felt applause following the screening of "Evening Shadows" June 14. The award is presented jointly by the Commission and the Kansas City LGBT Film Festival. This evening was co-hosted by CRES, Open Circle, and The Fairness Project. 

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#Margolies

Vern lectures in Atchison on world religions for students in the Benedictine Sister's Souljourners spiritual formation program leading to spiritual direction ministry at the Sophia Center, 751 South 8th Street, Atchison, Kansas 66002.
Vern describes the three families of faith by telling stories suggesting where these families typically find the sacred; epitomizing texts are studied; Buddhism and Islam given special attention; and the benefits of interfaith exchange celebrated.

After lunch interfaith explorer and Buddhist leader and speaker from the Tibetan tradition, Sergio Moreno, with scope and insight, discussed Buddhism's history and practice, and Kara Hawkins and Stumbling Deer presented an American Indian "case study" in the most beautiful and touching words and music. Vern was asked to conclude the conference, so he asked everyone to join hands and then we lifted them to the sky.

Tall Oaks Conference Center is located at 12778 189th, two miles east of Linwood, KS, about 40 minutes from downtown KC. The conference participants greatly enjoyed the facilities and the hospitality. Martha E Pierce, Center executive director, participated in the workshop, and we are especially grateful for her enthusiasm for interfaith understanding. The Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council was a collaborative partner with this conference at Tall Oaks (a Disciples of Christ church camp). 
     The $75 workshop fee included breakfast, lunch, drinks, and course materials. For more information about this important event, please contact the conference organizer, Kara Hawkins, at 816-509-7984 or email her at karaleehawkins48@gmail.com. Kara is interested in providing such wonderful learning experiences for others.
     While CRES no longer initiates programs, it is delighted to contribute to such efforts in promoting interfaith understanding, especially in providing an overview of the wisdom of the world's spiritual traditions in our overwhelmingly secularistic and fragmented age, to reverse the endangered environment, the violation of personhood,  and the broken community so that we may be restored with nature, the self made whole, community in covenant, and the sacred found afresh.

Award recipient Barbara Criswell is the proprietor of Aquarius Store for Conscious Living, a leader in the Pagan community, active in the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, the Heartland Pagan Alliance, a Mayan Prietess and ceremonialist, and a mentor to spiritual seekers from all paths. 
     The hosting facility this year, St Paul’s Episcopal Church has always had an active outreach ministry to the community and for many years housed the office of the Episcopal Community Services. It hosted the 24th annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Sunday Family Ritual Meal in 2008. The Reverend Deacon Brian England offered greetings from the Church as this year’s event began, introduced by Master of Ceremonies, the Reverend Greg McCoy.
     Not on the program, KC legend Alvin Brooks was discovered in the audience and was called to the lecturn and brightened the occasion with humor and affection.
     In accepting the award, Barbara Criswell spoke movingly about organizing her first protest — as a child — when she was faced with racial injustice. She knew the situation was not right, not fair, and her and her friends’ protest precipitated the needed change.
    The designated charity this year was Hope Haven of Cass County, and Christopher Stibbs, Director of Development, spoke about its history and services. Matching charity donations at the dinner again was the Heartland Alliance of Divine Love, so the total gift this year was $476. 
     The evening featured music by Rachel Marie and Victor Dougherty during dinner and Voices of Gaia at the end of the program. 

     The program included “Interfaith Benedictions of Gratitude” from members of various faith traditions. Participating were Linda Prugh (“uma”) - Vedanta; the Rev Linda Boyce - Pagan; Sheila Sonnenschein - Jewish; Kara Hawkins - American Indian Spirituality; Jag Aggarwal - Hindu; the Rev Marcia Reardon - Alliance of Divine Love; Dennis Hargis - the Baha'i Faith; the Rev Kathleen Bergman - Unity (view obscured); Cindy McDavitt - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Zulfiqar Malik - Islam; Lama Matt Rice - Buddhism. [Not shown: the Rev Mary Gibson McCoy, representing Unitarian Universalist minister, the Rev Kendyl Gibbons, unable to attend at the last minute.]
     Food included “traditional” Thanksgiving fare plus kosher turkey and a vegetarian entree. For a second year the caterer was NourishKC (formerly Episcopal Community Services). NourishKC recently served its one-millionth meal at the Kansas City Community Kitchen. Tickets were $18 adults, $12 students (ages 7-12), younger childen free.

     HISTORY.— The annual dinners were begun by CRES led by Vern Barnet in 1984.  CRES continued to host them for a quarter century at various Kansas City sites through 2009 using a family “seder” liturgical meal participatory format with real food interpreting the American multi-faith experience. Children, their parents, and their friends, took speaking parts in enjoying the meal with a script adapting and updating William Bradford’s History of the Plymouth Plantation. 
     When Vern announced CRES was refocusing its work on teaching, writing, and consulting, and thus concluding the annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Sunday Family Ritual Meal series in the context of many new interfaith organizations now working in the Kansas City area, the Heartland Chapter of the Alliance of Divine Love asked to continue an interfaith Thanksgiving event, and with its 2010 program inaugurated the Vern Barnet Interfaith Service Award with Vern being the first recipient. Vern’s acceptance remarks are recorded here. The ADL’s event is co-sponsored by the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council.
     Past recipients are Sheila Sonnenschein awarded at the Islamic Center of Johnson County (2017), Lama Chuck Stanford (2016), Ed Chasteen, PhD (2015), Pam Peck (2014), the Rev Sam Mann (2013), Barb McAtee (2012), Dr Larry Guillot (2011), and the Rev Vern Barnet, DMn (2010). Congratulations now to Barbara!

Thanks to Mary McCoy for this dining image and the photo of those offering benedictions.

 REPORT
Nov 16 Fri 7:30 pm
Our Lady of Sorrows Church, 2552 Gillham Rd, Kansas City, MO
Thanksgiving Benefit Concert for the Jerusalem Farm 
CRES was pleased to co-sponsor this event with thanks for the Jerusalem Farm folks who 
provide home maintenance labor and other forms of assistance to needy Kansas Citians

WEDDINGS of all kinds click for information We can provide a customized ceremony or direct you to a wedding chapel with low-cost package services (flowers, photographer, etc.)  THANKS to Robert and Shye Reynolds, a CRES fund to assist couples with fees for weddings  has been established, to celebrate their marriage June 19, 2002, on the occasion of their thirteenth anniverary.

FORTHCOMING BOOKS see also  our publications page in progress: KC Star, Many Paths columns and fresh essays: The Three Families of Faith and the Three Crises of Secularism       Many have asked for a compilation of columns Vern wrote for the KC Star, 1994-2012,  and the essays fatured in Many Paths. Here are tentative chapter headings for the selections:       ? The Three Families of Faith ? Faith and the Arts  ? Science and Religion  ? Teachers of the Spirit ? Ritual and Worship ? Religion and Public Policy ? Specific Faiths (Buddhism, Islam, etc) ? Comparative topics (reincarnation, gods, water, prophets, etc) ? How the column began and ended

OTHER  PROGRAMS  and SERVICES If you would like to engage Vern  or another member  of the CRES staff for a speech,  consultation,  or other work with your organization  or personally,  please visit  www.cres.org/work/services.htm or email  vern@cres.org

A Vital Conversation Coffee

Vital Conversations monthly schedule 2nd Wedneday of the month 1-2:30 pm MidContinent Public Library Antioch Branch 6060 N Chestnut Ave, Gladstone, MO 64119 (816) 454-1306

“The purpose of a Vital Conversation is not to win an argument but to win a friend and advance civilization.”—Vern Barnet

     Vital Conversations — A Program of the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, CRES, and Mid Continent Public Library Antioch Branch, 6060 N. Chestnut. Gladstone, MO 64119 The Second Wednesday of each month from 1 to 2:30 pm.
     VC Coffee — the Fourth Wednesday at 8 am at Panera Bread, 311 NE Englewood Rd.

January 10, 2018 The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
     This classic work of American literature has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene. It is “The Big Read” for the greater Kansas City area. It is about the Vietnam War but so much more. It gives the reader an opportunity to think about war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling.

February 14th, 2018 
The New Jim Crow
     Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as “brave and bold,” this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. 
   HipHop artist Miles Megaciph was the special guest. You can download a portion of his contribution to the discussion at this icloud address. Here are other sites of interest:
Miles "Megaciph" Thomas
Watch Nuchi Du Takara on YouTube
www.megaciph.com
https://twitter.com/megaciph
http://facebook.com/megaciph
http://raprehab.com/facts-about-hip-hop-and-prison-for-profit/

#180314_VC_Temp
March 14, 2018 Boxes by Temp Sparkman
     We are what we remember. We all have our own boxes, downloaded from our hard drives. They appear early in life. Some of them are like others’ boxes. Still, what’s in them are uniquely ours. Author Temp (photo left) was with us to assist in discussing his book and our unique individual boxes. He illustrated several of his own boxes, and the group, led by David Nelson, discussed the one or more of the assortment of boxes each of us is familiar with as ways of understanding ourselves (and each other) better.

April 11, 2018 God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism by Jonathan Kirsch.

The last stand of paganism against monotheism is one of the great “what-if’s in history. How would the modern world look today if the worship of many gods had been tolerated instead of persecuted? Breaking a long-lived taboo, this book reveals the dark side of monotheism and the bright side of 
polytheism.

     Igniting a long-overdue dialogue about how the legacy of racial injustice and white supremacy plays out in society at large and Buddhist communities this urgent call to action outlines a new dharma that considers the ways that racism and privilege prevents our collective awakening.
     Our guest, who knows the authors, was the Most Ven Sunyananda Dharma, who offered a different perspective on approaching the privilege and oppressions found thoughout history -- and on working for a more just future-- and suggested that our first responsibility may be becoming better ourselves to see the present more clearly. It was a very lively conversation with many questions and brilliant responses and observations from our guest.
     In the absence of David Nelson, Vern facilitated the 90-minute discussion.

    Many people don't understand why black lives must matter and why the racial divide seems to be taking the country back 50 years. Like the mythical Sankofa bird, the answer to what's missing now lies in what existed before. 
     This book focuses on one block of St. Louis in the mid-20th century, where African American businessmen living the American Dream also created a sense of community for boys in that neighborhood. Lewis and Bette joined the conversation. From the question of "white privilege" to the importance of mentoring, those filling the seats at the table and those beyond, enjoyed the documentation of those who made lives and communities better by hard work and enduring values.
     The many fans who read The Kansas City Star columns Lewis wrote before leaving the paper were delighted to meet him in person and delioghted his strong, clear voice continues throigh his books, his lectures, and his diversity program facilitation. 

July 11, 2018 The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas 
     This searing debut about an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances addresses issues of racism and police violence with intelligence, heart, and unflinching honesty. “As w continues to fight the battle against police brutality and systemic racism in America, The Hate U Give serves as a much-needed literary ramrod.”

September 12, 2018 God: A Human History by Reza Aslan
     In Zealot this author gave us a new and refreshing look at Jesus. In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, he narrates the history of religion as one long and remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving human traits and emotions. This has its benefits and problems which he points out clearly.
     Vern suggested that the book would have been stronger if Aslan showed any awareness of the work iun his area of concern done by Karen Armstrong, Robert Bellah, WC Smith. Stephen Prothero, JZ Smith, Rudolf Otto, Wendy Doniger, Jack Miles, John Esposito, Diana Eck, Robert Wright, and others 

October 10, 2018 Sinners in the Hands of A Loving God by Brian Zahnd
     Brian Zahnd founded Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, more than thirty-five years ago. In this book, he asks important questions like: Is seeing God primarily as wrathful toward sinners true or biblical? He offers a more faithful and life-giving alternative to those who read the Bible and practice Christianity.

November 14, 2018 Celestial Mechanics by William Least Heat-Moon
     The author, who is known for his non-fiction travel adventures, embarks on an exploration into the value of knowledge and rational thinking, the essence of being harmoniously alive, and the very nature of the Cosmos. This fiction novel of haunted love explores the nature of reality, dreams, and leads the reader on a journey toward something vastly different.

December 12, 2018 Convictions: How I Learned What Matters Most by Marcus J. Borg 
     Do Christian beliefs still matter? Do they really change us or the world? Bestselling author Marcus J. Borg reflects on the convictions that he has developed over the course of his life and why they provide a part of hope for those seeking to be faithful Christs in the twenty-first century. He was among the most widely known and influential voices in progressive Christianity. As a fellow of the Jesus Seminar, Borg was a major figure in historical Jesus scholarship.

Selections are subject to change. If you would like to be reminded and have additional information, contact David Nelson at humanagenda@gmail.com or call (816) 453-3835