The purpose of a, of a special focus day is where we actually stop teaching the IB, but it’s an opportunity to focus on the actual mission of of this UWC college. So, why interfaith? Identity and especially religious identity has been used and abused throughout history for political ends.
And to understand why the situation is like this in the current modern society it is really important to learn about religion. It´s really an interesting way to learn more about the people around you and the environment I am muslim and I am connected to foreign country and not a good time for
My religion itself because we have a lot of like, conflict areas now in foreign countries about the Islam and about terrorism by relating them together but like, I thought it may be a good thing that I come and maybe I can change something in people. People´s perspective of Islam
I think our work is to help people reclaim the voice of their religion and represent it in the way that it’s meant to be represented. As a force for love, as a force for harmony, as a force for bridge building in the world.
And looking at this kind of issue, the inclusivity of it If you are a member of that faith what do you believe in so to speak, they unite you with other members but, it excludes others and it’s that exclusion which can be exploited With two seminars to try and increase the
Amount of exposure that students could get to face speakers. My religion or my religious life it’s between me and between god, but, the social life and the rest of our life it´s for all of us together. If you believe or not believe, we are together. To built, the whole and the future.
I think Interfaith is so interesting because you learn more about like, the core part of how people perceive the world and how people think. So it’s not just the superficial culture exchange of oh, this is pretty; but, you learn about the meaning behind the objects and I think it really helps to
Understand other people. People who, maybe doesn’t believe in God, and doesn’t believe in any other religion and they just really listen and they have good questions and they really respect the religion and they respect each other and, they were really happy after it. So, this really surprised me.
The Interfaith Chapel is the center for religious and spiritual life on campus for students, faculty and staff. We’ve been doing Interfaith on this campus in this Chapel for forty years and when the Chapel was first built Interfaith was Christian and Jewish and in that forty plus years it’s now a much bigger tent
Thanit was in the beginning. So there’s a lot of diverse stuff going on in here. It’s kind of a hub of activity, religious and spiritual. We currently have ten different religious groups that are affiliated with the chapel. We’ve got Muslim and Jewish
And several Christian and Buddhist and Hindu and we have student groups that are affiliated with the Chapel and a very active one in Interfaith engagement, the Student Association for Interfaith cooperation and they’re the group that pretty much ties together all the other groups and gets them to do
Interfaith programming together. Tonight at the Interfaith Chapel, we are holding an interfaith Thanksgiving banquet with a guest speaker, Chris Stedman, from Yale University. University of Rochester’s Christian Fellowship has been around about twenty seven or twenty eight years at this point. We
Are usually the most diverse ministry on campus and I’d like to say that we have a little slice of heaven here on earth. So what we’re going to do for tonight is hold an informational session for Hajib for a day
Which is an event that’s part of our annual Islam Awareness Week in support of and in solidarity of women on campus who choose to wear the headscarf. Cru has a weekly meeting that meets once a
A week on Thursday night. We want to be a place where we can be real, honest and vulnerable about our lives because we believe a relationship with God is possible through Jesus Christ. We have the Roman Catholic Newman Community and the Protestant Chapel Community. Both of these
Communities have been here on this campus for fifty years. So, the Catholic Newman Community is the largest single denomination on campus. We serve about sixteen hundred Catholics on campus, thirty percent of the population in discovery, faith and reason together. Many people see faith as
Opposed to reason as if it’s an either or option and here on this campus we definitely take this stance that they’re very compatible. PCC is a multi-denominational group of kids from all different Protestant-Christian background, some of them from backgrounds that are not Protestant-Christian who have all come together to worship and
Be at church on campus here. Also like pretty much all faith groups, once you’ve captured the fact that we’re eating, you’ve captured the essential part of our group. We do a lot of food in the chapel. People can get free meals here several nights a
Week with one religious community or another. All religious cultures have special foods and so often they will do things with their something special to a particular tradition that’s being served and others get to sample that and enjoy it to. Having Diwali dinner,
This is a yearly event we usually do around the fall time. It changes every year based on the calendar. We do this usually in Douglas Dining Hall and we’ve been preparing for this ever since the start of school.
Actually, great people, great food. It’s just a good time to celebrate a good event. Happy Hanukah! Happy Hanukah everybody! Tonight, tonight is the first night of Hanukah so there lighting a candle. We brought the lights, the Menorah, which is symbol of freedom.
We are going to have hundreds of students pause in the middle of finals and see what is important to celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah together as a community. I love bringing people of different religious traditions and students of no
Tradition together to find the things that they have in common and the things they value together. It’s important that people, regardless of faith and belief come together and you know take the time to learn about what the other person believes in and I think U of R ‘s
Great for starting that initiative. A production of the University of Rochester. Please visit us online and subscribe to our channel for more videos.
The Interfaith Chapel is the center for religious and spiritual life on campus for students, faculty and staff. We have people who come here who believe a particular thing and are affiliated with particular religious tradition and we also have folks who come here for our activities who have no particular
Religious affiliation. We’ve been doing Interfaith on this campus in this chapel for forty years and when the chapel was first built Interfaith was Christian and Jewish and in that forty-plus years it’s now a much bigger tent than it was in the beginning. We have a sort of two-fold focus here. We’re
Supporting those who feel committed to a particular religious tradition but we also promote Interfaith engagement. We currently have 10 different religious groups that are affiliated with the chapel. We’ve got Muslim and Jewish and several Christian and Buddhist and Hindu and we have student groups that are
Affiliated with the chapel and a very active one in interfaith engagement, The Student Association for Interfaith cooperation and they’re the group that pretty much ties together all the other groups and gets them to do Interfaith programming together. So, tonight we’re hosting an event with Doctor Sevak
Whose a local Interfaith Religious Leaders so I’m greeting people as they come in and just try to gather people who are interested in Interfaith to hear from a local community leader and to
Connect with the campus. In the word Interfaith dialogue is a very new word, in fact. 1989 and I will give you some history. So when you hear this word, what it means to you. Understanding to learn from each other instead of trying to keep face that the other people they’re wrong. I love bringing people of different
Religious traditions and students of no tradition together to find the things they have in common and the things that they value together. University of Rochester Christian Fellowship has been around about twenty seven or twenty eight years at this point. I just like to sing and I love to seek God here. Every
Nation. We are usually the most diverse ministry on campus as far as religious groups or Christian groups that are here but we cover every corner of the earth and it’s a wonderful time because we bring all that together, that melting pot, and I’d like to
Say that we have a little slice of heaven here on earth. So what we’re going to do for tonight is hold an informational session for Hijabi for a Day which is an event that’s a part of our annual Islam Awareness week and allows students opportunity to wear
A head scarf or supportment plan in support of and solidarity of women on campus who choose to wear the headscarf as a part of their faith. Hijab or covering self is one
Of the most obvious and most seen thing about Islam and Muslims. Islam Awareness Week is all about promoting tolerance, respect understanding and that applies beyond religion. That applies to everything, I hope that this is a lee-way for people
To approach each other, talk to each other and understand each other a little bit better Cru has a weekly meeting that meets once a week on Thursday nights. A typical weekly meeting starts with about 15 minutes of socializing then it goes
Into an activity, some kind of game, some kind of get to know you activity. Ohhhh! We want to be a community where students are really caring for one another. A place where we can be real honest and vulnerable about our lives and we want
To be a community where all that’s possible because we believe a relationship with God is possible through Jesus Christ and tonight at the Interfaith Chapel, we are holding a Interfaith Thanksgiving banquet with the guest speaker, Chris Stedman, from Yale University where he is the Executive Director of the Yale Humanist Community.
I am on the SAKE mailing list. I just really like their events and I really like all the, like, religious co-operation of learning about different religions, so yeah! We have the Roman Catholic Newman Community and the Protestant Chapel Community. Both of these communities have been here
On this campus for fifty years. They just hit their fifty year anniversaries last year. So the Catholic Newman Community is the largest single denomination on campus. We service about sixteen hundred Catholics on campus, thirty percent of the population and we sponsor over a hundred
And twenty programs each year that engage in spiritual to social to the academic and discovered faith and reason together. Many people see faith as opposed to reason, as if it’s an either or option and here on a Science campus we definitely take this stance that they’re very compatible. PCC is a multi-denominational
Group of kids from all different Protestant Christian backgrounds. Some of them from backgrounds that are not Protestant Christian who have all come together to worship and be a church on campus here. Also, like pretty much all faith groups, once you’ve captured the fact that we’re eating you capture the
Essential part of our group. Thank you God for giving us food. Thank you God for giving us friends. For the food we eat and the friends we meet, thank you God for giving us food. We do a lot of food in the Chapel. People can get free meals here several
Nights a week with one religious community or another. Food’s important here because obviously students like to eat and actually religious students often have religious restrictions on what they can eat so one thing they learn they start doing interfaith etiquette is learning about each other’s dietary
Restrictions and how to be hospitable to one another. All religious cultures have special foods and so often they will do things were there something special to a particular tradition that’s being served and others get to sample that and enjoy it too.
Having Diwali dinners, this is a yearly event we usually do around the fall time. It changes every year based on the calendar. We do this usually in Douglas Dining Hall and we’ve been preparing for this ever since the start of school.
Actually the light kind of symbolizes the victory of good over evil and that’s why we’re here today, not just food, vegetables or food, vegetables for everyone so we can celebrate the good over evil. Great people. Great food. It’s just a good time to celebrate a good event. Happy Hanukah . Happy Hanukah everybody. Now doughnuts and latkes against the wall. You can line up and enjoy some doughnuts, latkes on both sides. We’re going to eat latkes.
We’re going to have sufganiyan, which are doughnuts and we’re going to have fun. We got the lights, the Menorah, which is symbol of Freedom and we are going to have hundreds of students pause in the middle of finals and see what is important to celebrate the
Holiday of Hanukah together as a community. (Singing) I love bringing people of different religious traditions and students of no tradition together to find the things that they have in common and the things that they value together and engaging in conversation and discovering that they
Can make friends across lines of division that they didn’t think they could make friends. We’re so grateful to be part of that community to get to dialogue and and really work towards Interfaith Collaboration. God created us as we
Are so God didn’t want us to be one single nation so if he had willed, he would have done so but he did not. It’s important that people, regardless of faith and belief come together and you know
Take the time to learn about what the other person believes in and I think UofR’s great for starting that initiative and I’ve had a great experience working with people from the Interfaith Cooperation and hope
To do so again in the future. A production of the University of Rochester. Please visit us on-line and subscribe to our channel for more videos.
Welcome to “Real Truth. Real Quick.” My name is Rick Smith. I’m here with Todd Wagner. How you doing Todd? Hello buddy! Hello friends! Well listen. So this question came to my mind recently. I was watching the one of the interface services for a new president
And it just got me thinking, “How should a Christian responded to interfaith activities and we are, you know, different religions are together?” Yeah. So whenever somebody asks me a question like that I want to say first of all explain interfaith activity. Ok? Everything I do with a non believer
Is an interfaith activity. So Jesus was known as a friend of sinners but he was never known as a companion of sinners. So “A friend speaks the truth at all times, a friend loves somebody for who they are and who they want them to be, and a
Friend is going to spur you on to love and good deeds, and is going to give you an open rebuke,” Proverbs 27 says “as opposed to deceitful kiss.” So everything I do in one sense with non-believers is an interfaith activity. I’ll partner with anybody who wants to
Get involved to advance what is good and just and right and true no matter what the basis for their motivation is. If they want to stand for the dignity of life I don’t care if they’re a Muslim, I don’t care if they’re Mormon, I don’t care if you’re an atheist, but they
Believe in the dignity of human life I’m going to stand with. So if somebody is against human trafficking and child sex slavery and that kind of craziness and they want to do justice and love kindness with me I’ll partner with them all day long. I don’t care if they want to walk humbly
With the Lord as it relates to that good and just cause. I care deeply about whether or not they know the Lord because God takes no delight in the death of the wicked. Ok? And uh or the fool who doesn’t believe that he is the Lord God
But I can separate those two things. I can partner with you towards good and I can talk to you about what is ultimately good. Rick I signed this thing called the Manhattan Declaration but before I did I was talking to my friend Chuck Colson who had
Asked me to be one of the original signers about some of the language we use because it talks about Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical believers or brothers. I feel like there needed to be a clarity and distinction between the fact that we’re not saying that Orthodox and Catholic and
Evangelicals all believe the same thing. We have very different views still on the issue of justification but there are things that we can stand on. So we agree on marriage, we agree on the dignity of human life, we agree on religious liberty, so I gladly stand with
Them and look at the differencse between us are much more nuanced than that we had Mormons and Muslims and others sign that. So it was specific to those but we tried to bring some clarity about people who have Catholic belief, Evangelical belief, and Orthodox belief, we stand together on these things.
Now when you get to just a basic service that we’re trying to co-exist and we should coexist. Alright? “We should do good to all men” Galatian says “but especially to those of the household of faith.” We have to be very careful when we worship God that
Were worshiping the God of the bible. We did a “Real Truth. Real Quick.” on “The Shack” and some people said “When I read the book ‘The Shack’ I felt a lot closer to God.” And I said “Well what God did you feel closer to? God as you rightly understand him or
God as you made him out to be based on reading ‘The Shack’?” And the same thing I would say to other people who go “I want to pray to God.” I always want to know you know what you mean by God. So if I’ve got a friend who’s Arab and uses the Arabic
Word for Lord, which is Allah or God, and he means the God of the scriptures when he uses the word Allah in a prayer probably no problem if I’m talking to an Arab or a person is an American who’s embraced Islam and they use the Arabic word for
God I’ve got to make sure that I don’t think that we’re worshiping and pursuing the same God. And so that’s a completely different God and I don’t want to confuse people. One of the things that we want to make very clear is that Jesus, two different times, says things that appear to be
Contradictory. In Matthew 12 when he’s talking to the Pharisees he says “If you’re not with me you’re against me.” In Luke 9 talking to his disciples he says “Hey if they are not against us they’re for us.” And those are two very different things. What he’s saying the Pharisees is “Hey
Look at me. You’re not about what I’m about. Which is the advancement of how men can be reconciled to God through the Messiah, through the son of god, which is who I am and you’re denying that.” To the disciples Jesus said “Look, if they are not against you there for you. There were
People that were doing the work of casting demons out of people that weren’t a part of that specific little band.” Jesus says “Let them alone. They are not against you.” Ok? So they’re accomplishing good even they want to part of that little band. Paul mentions this in Philippians
Chapter 1. He says “There’s some that preach the gospel out of selfish ambition. There’s others that do it out of love.” He said “I’m just glad to preaching the gospel.” So what I tell people all the time is I’ll lift up Jesus with anybody. I will not encourage you to follow Jesus with
Anybody. I’ve been on some platforms with some guys that have very different understanding about some specifics of the character the Spirit then I do. And one of the things I’d love to say is “Listen, hey we disagree on some issues of some importance here but we agree on these
Other issues”. And you’ve got to be discerning about just because we’re both speaking the same platform that doesn’t mean we agree on all things I’m not endorsing every bit of that person’s worldview. This is even within not just interfaith activities but interdenominational opportunities. And so you’ve got to be discerning. Ecumenicalism,
In the sense that hey there’s a lot of different roads that all go up the same mountain that end in the top. That’s heresy. Ok? And so you must be discerning. I think it always is helpful to provide clarity and if all we did is do things for people
Who agree with us in every jot and tittle, we’re not going to do very many things with very many people. Ok? So stay humble, be clear. Make sure that is best you’re able that you don’t lend the confusion, that you’re endorsing an idea which is unbiblical, which is all
Paths lead to God. And I would have to say that with every opportunity one by one and I’m as specific as clear as I can about who I am when I’m involved in any kind of effort either for social good or certainly for appealing to God.
Let me ask you this question. So let’s say you’re out there in your maybe you work for a company that has an interfaith service. Have you ever been part of an interface service where other not denomination but other faiths are praying and then what do you do
During that time? Do you pray with them? Do you close your eyes and bow your head? What do you do in that situation? Yeah. Listen, men are going to seek God as best they’re able to understand and what I don’t ever want to do is be a part of
Something that is going to compromise who I am or what I believe. And if somebody would ever ask me, “We want you to come. We want you to back off. Who you are?” I’m going to say “Listen I’ll come and be around you but I’m not going to
Not be who I am. You asked me to be a part because I believe that Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life.” And so I I think that’s important. I can’t in any way participate in something that is going to make other people think I don’t
Think that’s a big deal because I’m a servant of Christ and the steward of the mystery of God. And so don’t ask me to come there not be a servant of Christ. So if I’m around places where I haven’t been asked to participate in lead and somebody’s
Praying to a god that I have the scripture, Ill pray for people that are listening. That God would break through that, Ill pray for the folks who are actually praying to a false god. That God would reveal himself to them in a very vivid way. And if I’m ever in a
Position where I prayed after that person it’s going to take extreme discernment and as much clarity as I can when I’m offering prayer to make sure that folks understand who I am and that I don’t do anything to add further to their confusion. It takes a lot of wisdom, a lot of
Discernment. Sometimes you’re thrust into stuff you can’t avoid and you do your best you can. So be discerning and be prayerful at all times. Awesome, Thanks Todd! Alright, well hey. Thank you for checking this episode out and we will see you next week on another episode of “Real Truth. Real Quick.”
We have before us a momentous opportunity To create the world’s first truly interfaith nation We need to build American Medina A city on a hill Made holy By the wideness of its welcome The strength of its bonds Look at it shining The Catholic university where Muslim immigrants
Learn The Jewish hospital where Hindu babies are born They eyes of the world are upon you We need to build A sangha whose chants of lovingkindness Change the climate Bridge divides and bind hearts We need to build The beloved community where we see each other
The Baptist and Mormons who farm fields and fight fires together The witnesses who watch over the whole block We need to build The New Jerusalem Tents for angles to dwell Tabernacles for the tribes Twelve, twelve thousand, twelve million They will not cease to be diverse
They come from across the Earth Seeking the sacredness of knowing one another Every refugee a pilgrim Every stranger a friend Until we are a nation This Interfaith America Pluralist rashtra Diverse democracy Achieving our country Where our hopes are prophecies Where we offer langar to our friends and our
Enemies Where we do not wait for sickness to pray for one another’s health Where we defeat the things we do not love by building the things we do We need to build
His Holiness Dalai Lama speaks about inter-religious harmony or inter-religious dialogue, Making Interfaith Dialogue Work and I think it is very important for us to have this open communication, open dialogue. When I say “dialogue,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to sit down officially, formally and have some kind of a dialogue.
But a human-to-human level dialogue, understanding, friendship, exchange of thoughts, exchange of ideas. And also getting to know each other, getting to know different backgrounds, getting to know them as individuals, I think this is one of the key methods in maintaining stability, harmony and friendship.
In Kalmykia, for example, we have what we call the “Inter-religious Council,” where the Muslims, the Christian Orthodox and Buddhists, the three of them are represented in this religious council. And we have very frequent gatherings. Of course, we have differences, different views on religious traditions,
Different views on political issues, and different views on social issues as well. But nevertheless, if we remained isolated from each other because he or she has a certain belief, spiritually, politically, economically and socially, then there’s no way that we can develop and work together.
So it is important for us to sit down together, have tea, have a basic conversation and exchange these different views. And through these –you would be surprised by it – sincere dialogues and communication, how much we have been able to achieve, it is unbelievable.
And I think, as you mentioned, Kalmykia has no Buddhist neighbors. To the North, East and West it is all Christian Orthodox, to the South we have the Muslims. So, we have been able to maintain stability, harmony, and friendship through this open dialogue between people, between governments, between administrations.
And mainly between the religious leaders or the religious communities. So, I think we have set a good example to the people as well. And as a matter of fact, I think it was about five or six years ago, Kalmykia was praised by the Russian Federation’s President
As being one of the most harmonious communities spiritually. That was a very big statement for us. And a big achievement for us as well.
