World Interfaith Harmony Week is February 1-7. How will you participate? How about some engaging dialogue, learning & interfaith professional development?
We’ve collected some of the best leaders in interfaith work today and are offering them up in a tempting menu of free webinars. It’s like attending a whole conference in little bits each day for a week. And did we mention it was free?
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The El-Hibri Foundation and Religions for Peace USA present:
- Monday, Feb. 3 at 3 pm ET On Best Practices and Models of Interfaith Dialogue with Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer (American University)
- Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 1PM ET The Role of Government in Interfaith with Dr. Ken Bedell (U.S. Department of Education)
- Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 2 PM ET Atheism and Secularist Voices in Interreligious Dialogue with Mr. Chris Stedman (Harvard / Religion News Service)
- Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 3 PM ET Using Media to Advance Understanding of Religious Identity with Ms. Beth Katz (Project Interfaith and RavelUnravel)
- Thursday, Feb. 6 at 1 PM ET The Future of Interfaith in Higher Education with Rabbi Or Rose (Hebrew College) & Dr. Jennifer Howe Peace (Andover Newtown Theological Seminary)
- Thursday, Feb. 6 at 3 PM ET Answering Difficult Questions in Interfaith Dialogue with Rabbi Gerry Serotta (Clergy Beyond Borders) & Imam Yahya Hendi (Georgetown University)
- Friday, Feb. 7 at 3 PM ET What Research and Big Data Can Do for Interfaith with Dr. Patrice Brodeur (Director of Research, KAICIID Dialogue Centre)
Sign up today to get more information about the offerings and login information. An initial overview will be mailed to you and a set of instructions will be emailed to you the day of each event to give the link for the live webinar. Webinars are hosted on Google Hangout and recordings of them are posted on You Tube.
Featured Speakers:
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- Beth Katz is Founder and Executive Director of Project Interfaith. Beth is an adjunct professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where she has taught courses on international conflict resolution for the Political Science department and on religious diversity in the schools for the College of Education. She frequently presents on Project Interfaith’s mission and work at local, national, and international events including at the Istanbul Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, and at the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions. She is a 2011 fellow of the Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship, and holds a Master of Public Policy and a Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan as well as a Bachelor of Science in Education from Creighton University.
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- Chris Stedman is the author of Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious (Beacon Press, November 2012). He is the Assistant Humanist Chaplain and the Values in Action Coordinator for the Humanist Community at Harvard (where he was previously the inaugural Interfaith and Community Service Fellow). He is also the Emeritus Managing Director of State of Formation at the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue and founder of the first blog dedicated to exploring atheist-interfaith engagement, NonProphet Status. Chris received an MA in Religion from Meadville Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago, for which he was awarded the Billings Prize for Most Outstanding Scholastic Achievement.
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- Rabbi Gerald Serotta served as a university chaplain and Hillel Rabbi for 28 years, the last twenty at The George Washington University where he was Chair of the Board of Chaplains. While on Sabbatical from Hillel he held the position of Senior Rabbinic Scholar-in-Residence at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, working on issues of globalization and economic justice from a Jewish perspective. He is the founder as served as Chair of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America frim 2002-2010 and the executive director of Clergy Beyond Borders. He serves as the spiritual leader of Shirat HaNefesh Community in Silver Spring, MD. From 2000-2008, Serotta also served Temple Shalom of Chevy Chase as Associate Rabbi.
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- Imam Yahya Hendi is the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, the first American University to hire a full-time Muslim chaplain. Imam Hendi is also the Imam of the Islamic Society of Frederick, Frederick, MD and is the Muslim Chaplain at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. Imam Hendi is the founder and the Secretary General of Clergy Beyond Borders, and the founder and the president of the newly founded organization, Imams for Universe, Dignity, Human Rights and Dialogue. He also serves as a member of the Islamic Jurisprudence Council of North America. He has served as an adjunct faculty member for Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Science and Osher’s Lifelong Learning Institute of John Hopkins University, Fordham University, and Hartford Seminary. Mr. Hendi’s undergraduate education was in Islamic Studies and his Master’s and PhD education were in comparative religions with interest in Christianity, Judaism, comparative religions and inter-religious dialogue and relations.
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- Mohammed Abu-Nimer, of the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program at American University, serves as Director of the Peacebuilding and Development Institute. He has conducted interreligious conflict resolution training and interfaith dialogue workshops in conflict areas around the world, including Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Northern Ireland, the Philippines (Mindanao), and Sri Lanka. In addition to his articles and publications, Dr. Abu-Nimer is the co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development. Dr. Abu-Nimer also serves as a special advisor to the KAICIID Dialogue Centre.
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- A leading writer and social activist, Or Rose is the founding director of the Center for Global Judaism, which provides educational programming and resources on issues of contemporary Jewish spirituality, Israel-Diaspora relations, religious pluralism and environmental responsibility. In addition to his duties at the center, Rose serves as co-director of the Center for Interreligious and Community Leadership Education, a joint venture of Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School. Prior to taking this position, Rose was associate dean and director of informal education at the Rabbinical School, where he still teaches. He is co-editor of “Jewish Mysticism and the Spiritual Life: Classical Texts, Contemporary Reflections” (Jewish Lights, 2010), and “My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth and Transformation (Orbis, 2012)
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- Jennifer Howe Peace is Assistant Professor of Interfaith Studies and co-director of CIRCLE at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, MA. Author of numerous articles and essays on interfaith cooperation, Dr. Peace co-edited, My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Inter-Religious Encounter, Growth, and Transformation (Orbis 2012). She has been an interfaith organizer and educator since the 1990’s. She serves as one of the publishers of the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue and served as a founding board member of the United Religions Initiative, a founding leader of the Interfaith Youth Core, and a founding member of the Daughters of Abraham book groups.
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- Dr. Patrice Brodeur is currently Director of Research at KAICIID (King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Interreligious Dialogue). With a BA in Religious Studies and an MA in Islamic Studies, both from McGill University, as well as a second Master’s in Comparative Religion and a PhD in Islam & Judaism from Harvard, Dr. Brodeur’s extensive experience stretches back to early beginnings as a teaching assistant at Harvard and Director of the National Conference for Community and Justice Seminarians Interacting Program in New York. He later became Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at Connecticut College. Since 2005, prior to joining KAICIID, Dr. Brodeur served as Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair on Islam, Pluralism & Globalization in the Faculty of Theology and the Sciences of Religions at the University of Montréal.
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- Ken Bedell is a Senior Advisor in the Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships Center at the U.S. Department of Education. The mission of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Education is to promote student achievement by connecting schools and community-based organizations, both secular and faith-based, as we build a culture of educational excellence. To support this work Ken networks with faith and interfaith groups across the country. The center also works as a part of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and Centers at 11 other agencies to more effectively serve Americans in need. Ken’s responsibilities include supporting the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge. Ken is ordained in The United Methodist Church. He led congregations for 16 years in New York, Maryland, and Ohio. As a volunteer with the Mennonite Central Committee he taught high school in Swaziland. In his capacity as executive secretary of the International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges and Universities Ken visited schools and colleges in Argentine, Brazil, Korea, Mozambique, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. His is the author of five books and numerous articles and scholarly papers. His book entitled, “Different Ships—Same Boat,” on ethics was published by the World Association for Christian Communication. After receiving his PhD in sociology he became active in the Religious Research Association where he served on the executive committee. As an early promoter of the use of technology in education and the church, he was the founding president of the Church Computer Users Network in the mid 1980s. He is married to the former Kathryn Hale. They have two grown daughters, Charity Pelletier and Sarah Cook and five grandchildren.