Interfaith Thanxgiving, Sunday, Nov.19th, 2006, Olympia

Interfaith Thanxgiving, Sunday, Nov.19th, 2006, Olympia - the capitol of the Pluralistic WORLD
Under the leadership of the dynamic, cosmopolitan, youth-oriented Imam Mohammad Joban, almost the whole community of the Islamic Center of Olympia participated in the INTERFAITH gathering. 62 parents showed up because 31 kids sang a wonderful song to give thanks to God.

Interfaith Works sponsors an annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration representing Thurston County's Faith Communities and Celebrating Diversity and Equality. Last year's celebration, "Rejoicing Together in Unity", was at 2:30 - 4:30 PM on Sunday, November 19, 2006, at Lacey Presbyterian Church.


Janice Holz & Roger Tanquist, Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration co-chairs, did a wonderful job. Most faith communities sent a representative to the steering committee meetings that started 4 months in advance to plan this big event. It was very organized, well-put together and attendance was awesome (packed, full-house!)

When you have a minute, Please see :
http://www.interfaith-works.org/

When you have an hour, Please visit our mosque. For directions :

www.islamiccenterofolympia.org



We are truly blessed in Olympia, where we don't just value diversity, but celebrate PLURALISM.
Well, What is PLURALISM ?
The plurality of religious traditions and cultures has come to characterize every part of the world today. But what is pluralism?

Here are four points to begin our thinking discussion: * First, pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity. Diversity can and has meant the creation of religious ghettoes with little traffic between or among them. Today, religious diversity is a given, but pluralism is not a given; it is an achievement. Mere diversity without real encounter and relationship will yield increasing tensions in our societies. * Second, pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference. Tolerance is a necessary public virtue, but it does not require Christians and Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and ardent secularists to know anything about one another. Tolerance is too thin a foundation for a world of religious difference and proximity. It does nothing to remove our ignorance of one another, and leaves in place the stereotype, the half-truth, the fears that underlie old patterns of division and violence. In the world in which we live today, our ignorance of one another will be increasingly costly. * Third, pluralism is not relativism, but the encounter of commitments. The new paradigm of pluralism does not require us to leave our identities and our commitments behind, for pluralism is the encounter of commitments. It means holding our deepest differences, even our religious differences, not in isolation, but in relationship to one another. * Fourth, pluralism is based on dialogue. The language of pluralism is that of dialogue and encounter, give and take, criticism and self-criticism. Dialogue means both speaking and listening, and that process reveals both common understandings and real differences. Dialogue does not mean everyone at the "table" will agree with one another. Pluralism involves the commitment to being at the table -- with one's commitments.


Plz. see http://www.pluralism.org/index.php


Thanx for reading this !

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[IRproductions]

That is a nice message- so, there is hope, huh ?

[ayub359]

Thank you for your kind compliment.

To download the songs, Please go to google and search for "NADEEM'S DOWNLOADS". He has 10,000 MP3 songs ready for download FREE.

[ayub359]

All of America's diversity, old and new, does not add up to pluralism. "Pluralism" and "diversity" are sometimes used as if they were synonyms, but diversity is just plurality, plain and simple — splendid, colorful, perhaps threatening. Pluralism is the engagement that creates a common society from all that plurality. On the same street in Silver Spring, Maryland the Vietnamese Catholic church, the Cambodian Buddhist temple, the Ukranian Orthodox church, the Muslim Community Center,

[ayub359]

Fourth, pluralism is based on dialogue. The language of pluralism is that of dialogue and encounter, give and take, criticism and self-criticism. Dialogue means both speaking and listening, and that process reveals both common understandings and real differences. Dialogue does not mean everyone at the "table" will agree with one another. Pluralism involves the commitment to being at the table -- with one's commitments.

[ayub359]

Third, pluralism is not relativism, but the encounter of commitments. The new paradigm of pluralism does not require us to leave our identities and our commitments behind, for pluralism is the encounter of commitments. It means holding our deepest differences, even our religious differences, not in isolation, but in relationship to one another.

[ayub359]

Second, pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference. Tolerance is a necessary public virtue, but it does not require Christians and Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and ardent secularists to know anything about one another. Tolerance is too thin a foundation for a world of religious difference and proximity. It does nothing to remove our ignorance of one another, and leaves in place the stereotype, the half-truth,

[ayub359]

First, pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity. Diversity can and has meant the creation of religious ghettoes with little traffic between or among them. Today, religious diversity is a given, but pluralism is not a given; it is an achievement. Mere diversity without real encounter and relationship will yield increasing tensions in our societies.