 Welcome to Abraham, out of one many, an engaging art exhibition brought to you by Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston and curated by Caravan and international arts NGO non-profit that is recognized as a leader in using the arts to further our global quest for a more harmonious future both with each other and with the earth. Interfaith Ministries is Houston's oldest service organization. Dialogue, collaboration and service have been at the heart of our work for over 50 years. Our programs fall into four areas. We are Texas's largest meals on wheels program covering six counties but primarily in Harrison Galveston counties. We're one of the top 10 largest meals on wheels programs in the country. We also have a strong refugee services resettlement program working with Episcopal migration ministries to help resettle refugees into the Houston area. Volunteer Houston connects individuals, groups and companies with nonprofit agencies to transform the greater Houston community for good through volunteerism and interfaith relations and community partnerships fosters understanding, respect and engagement among people of all faiths. Our CP is thrilled to be able to host this exhibit. Please visit www.imgh.org to learn more about us. Between April 20th and May 21st, we hosted Abraham, out of one many, virtual exhibit of 15 paintings by three celebrated artists from the Middle East. We had planned to host these paintings in person in our Brigitte and Bashar Kali Plaza of Respect and Great Hall in April of 2020, but COVID derailed those plans. We were thrilled to work with Caravan to create a virtual gallery experience so that we were able to reschedule the exhibit. A virtual experience allowed for a wide variety of accessible programs including the program you're about to enjoy. We are grateful to the sponsors that made this event possible, especially our lead donors, Joni and David Andrews, Debbie and Floyd Kearns, Marion and Paul Cones, and Carol and Frank Grun. This exhibit came to us through the incredible work of Caravan. Its mission is based on the belief that the arts can be one of the most effective mediums to heal our world and to creatively foster peace, harmony, wholeness and health in all its forms. Caravan originated out of an artistic bridge building initiative in Cairo, Egypt in 2009 that focused on addressing the then growing chasm of discord and misunderstanding between the people's cultures and creeds of the Middle East and the West. The nomadic Caravan theme comes out of the founding vision to encourage and facilitate those from diverse backgrounds and worldviews to journey together through the arts. While Caravan's mission is global in focus, they maintain an ongoing program emphasis on the Middle East due to their founding. We invite you to visit oncaravan.org to learn more about the organization. Let's now turn to our opening event, hosted by Empower, a program of interfaith ministries, interfaith relations and community partnerships department, and unites a diverse group of women in dialogue and action through community events, coffee chats, service projects and large events to empower themselves the next generation in the community. Let's join now as Jessica Kaiser from our Empower leadership introduces the event. I'm really glad to be here and it's so exciting to see all these faces. I want to welcome everyone to the opening program for the Abraham out of one mini, a beautiful stirring inspirational exhibit that features artwork from three talented artists about living harmoniously in today's world. We're in for a treat as we hear from our speaker, the right Reverend Paul Gordon Chandler, somewhere in these pictures, about the exhibit, the artists and what motivated them to create this exhibit depicting harmony, peace and welcoming the stranger. My name is Jessica Kaiser, as Sturdy's already said, and I'm pleased to be one of the exhibit sponsors and to chair the evening, which is being hosted by Empower, which is Interfaith Ministries Women Initiative and a group that we've been really, I've been really pleased to be part of. The exhibit and this reception were supposed to take place last year in the Great Hall against the backdrop of the Brigitte in Bashar, Kalei, Plaza of Respect at Interfaith Ministries. But as we know, COVID changed all of that. But thankfully, Bishop Paul Gordon Chandler and his team at Caravan created this virtual experience of Abraham out of one mini instead. Caravan is an international arts nonprofit founded by Bishop Chandler and is recognized as a leader in using the arts to heal our world and creatively foster peace, harmony and wholeness. Today, we are the first to launch Abraham exhibit virtually. And indeed, we're actually the only one in the state of Texas host. The idea of living harmoniously in Texas in today's world of welcoming the stranger of bringing people together in dialogue are core to both Caravan and Interfaith Ministries. So we're delighted to welcome you tonight to hear from the exhibit's curator learn more about the educational and interactive programs that we have planned during our time with Abraham from today, April 20, all the way until May 21. And then experience exhibit as part of a dose that led to our Reverend Greg Han. Interfaith Ministries has been able to bring this exhibit to Houston and plan amazing programs around the exhibit because of our sponsors, including our lead sponsors, Joni and David Andrews, Marion and Paul Kearns, Debbie and Floyd Kearns, Frank and Carol and many others here tonight. All sponsors are recognized on the website. We dedicate tonight to our sponsors who through their support of the exhibit are supporting Interfaith Ministries. I'm especially excited to empower for hosting tonight, your community events, coffee chats and service projects. We support Interfaith Ministries mission to help feed nearly 5,000 homebound seniors and their pets daily, resettle refugees, promote interfaith dialogue and engage people in volunteerism. Now I'd like to welcome Jay Harper. Thank you so much, Jessica, for your warm and gracious welcoming remarks. Do I get you spotlighted now, Greg? Hello? I'm still looking at Jessica. Here we go. Again, thank you, Jessica. We really appreciate your warm remarks. Hello, everyone. I'm Jay Harper. I'm the board chair of Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston. And as Jessica said, during April and May, this exhibit will unite people in learning, dialogue and experiences through programs planned by our amazing Jodi Bernstein and her exceptional interfaith, I knew I'd get her, and her exceptional interfaith relations and community partnerships team. Among the upcoming programs, faith in our city sessions on Zoastrian and Islamic traditions, dinner dialogue, our third annual Gershenson lecture, and a special one-time-only program with the three artists from their homes all over the world. Make sure you don't miss that one. Docents will lead school groups through the virtual viewings of the exhibit, and we've set aside some dates for our community to view the exhibit as well. The calendar of events is on our website, and we'll also email the calendar to you. Please attend as many of the Abraham programs as you can, not just tonight's opening. The exhibit is the brainchild, as Jessica said, of the right reverend Paul Gordon Chandler, who is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming, which is quite a stretch when you hear the rest of this. Bishop Chandler grew up in Senegal, West Africa, so to get from there to Wyoming is another story probably for another evening, and he's lived around the world in senior leadership roles with faith-based publishing, the arts, ecumenical relief, and development, and the Episcopal Church. An authority on the Middle East and Africa, he is the founding president of Caravan, and his full bio is long and very impressive. I encourage you to look at it later. Since our paths crossed with Bishop Chandler, we have come to know his passion for peace-building, interfaith dialogue, and human kindness, and we would add one more title, friend. On behalf of Martin Kaminsky, president and CEO of Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, Jody Bernstein, vice president for Interfaith Relations and Community Partnerships, our entire board, and Empower, let me welcome our friend, a global peacemaker, and our speaker for tonight, Bishop Paul Gordon Chandler. There we go. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't on mute anymore. There we go. All right. It's wonderful to be with you. Thank you so much for that gracious introduction. On behalf of Caravan, I want to thank all of you for attending this special evening of Abraham out of one mini. It's an artistic initiative, as you'll learn here in a minute, and it's been a real privilege to work with Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston. We've been through the ups and downs through all of this. Of course, initially thinking it would be a physical in-person exhibition. And then, of course, now we have launched, this is our first actually opportunity to launch this exhibition in a virtual way. So, warm welcome to all of you, and thank you for warmly welcoming me as well. Now, I grew up in Senegal, West Africa, a Muslim majority country. I spent the first 18, almost 19 years of my life there. And whenever you need wisdom or counsel, the tradition is to go to an elder, usually someone with gray hair or white hair, in other words, someone with life experience. And in that regard, when you ask for counsel or wisdom, they always respond with a proverb or a parable instead of giving you a direct answer. And one of the proverbs I grew up around in West Africa, and the language of Wolif, which is the West African tribal language there in Senegal, goes like this. So, ame hadetugolo satngemba dutakmuk. And it means this, if you have a monkey for your friend, you'll never get your loincloth stuck in a tree. Now, meaning it's who you know at critical moments in time, that makes all the difference. And there's no question that that's very much what is behind this exhibition on Abraham. I think you would likely all agree that today's climate of increasing prejudice and stereotyping in the West has resulted in what some are calling actually a new tribalism, which often leads to a dehumanizing of the other, whether in worldviews or words or actions. The issue has become all the important now as it's entered the political discourse on both sides of the Atlantic here in the United States and of course in Europe as well. And it's vital that this intensification of misunderstanding and misrepresentation not become the new norm. The Abraham out of one many exhibition is really an artistic response to today's climate of increasing prejudice and stereotyping and discrimination, whether related to color or faith or ethnicity or a variety of diversities in different backgrounds. And like never before, we believe all this needs to be counteracted by creative initiatives that are based on our similarities and what we all hold in common. And more than ever, I think it's essential that creative demonstrations of dialogue be developed. And that's what we're doing here this evening. It's in this context that this timely contemporary art exhibition opening here this evening titled Abraham out of one many is an artistic response more specifically to the recent rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment in the West, reminding us that Muslims Christians and Jews all have the same family heritage through our ancestor Abraham. Abraham has certainly been a figure that has captured the imaginations of artists over the centuries from Caravaggio to Rembrandt to William Blake to James T. So to Mark Shagall in the last century. And of course of writers untold from Philo to Milton to William Faulkner for that matter. And more importantly Abraham or Ibrahim in Arabic or Avraham in Hebrew is the most jointly beloved spiritual figure by all the monotheistic faiths Christians, Muslims, Druze, Jews, Baha'i, and then of course a number of other smaller minorities that exist within the Middle East. The Abrahamic faiths who all see themselves as proud descendants of one whom today we would say is a southern Iraqi. Abraham is without doubt one of the most unifying figures in the midst of today's discord and strife. He's often referred to as the father of us all as our Sarah and Hagar, our mothers. And in each of these three faith traditions whose followers are all referred to as children of Abraham. The figure of Abraham is seen as a model specifically of welcoming the stranger and embracing the other. And in this sense he's a guide for all of us regardless of what cultural religious or non-religious or ethnic background we come from. This timely exhibition's title Abraham out of one many plays off of that well-known Latin motto which is of course on the US presidential seal E pluribus unum out of many one. And it focuses in on what we can all learn from Abraham's story about living together more harmoniously. And for this exhibition as each of these Abrahamic faiths originated from the Middle East, three celebrated Middle Eastern contemporary visual artists from the faith traditions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism were commissioned to produce five paintings each that interpret Abraham's life for us today serving as a guide toward creating cultures of peace and harmony and justice which of course is very apropos right now with all that's going on in our country and healing of course which is all the more needed as we look to the future and doing so all as descendants of a shared heritage. The three artists are Sinan Hussein, an Iraqi artist living in Baghdad. This from a Muslim background he comes from the Shia Muslim tradition. Shai Azulay, a contemporary Jewish artist from Israel. He comes from the Orthodox tradition in his own faith. And Qais al-Sindi who's an Iraqi artist as well of the ancient Qaldian Assyrian Christian tradition that come from what we're called the Nestorians the ancient Nestorian church in the Middle East. All three are award-winning artists and highly regarded international art circles they've sold at Christie's and Sotheby's. And the question is really this that this exhibition attempts to answer. What can Abraham teach us all today toward freeing our world from any sectarian strife? The exhibition highlights five themes related to Abraham's life that have profound implications for how we can live together harmoniously together as one family descendants of a shared heritage. The five themes are living as a pilgrim which are which is actually a theme of course in all three traditions and exemplifies Abraham's worldview and mindset let alone his own geographical journey throughout his life. And by that living as a pilgrim we really mean it's a it's a mindset of continuing to journey not having arrived. So much of our various creeds and that creedal emphasis of our faith gives the sense of having arrived. And yet I think it's much more accurate for all of us to see ourselves as pilgrims we're journeying and when one sees themselves that way they're much more willing to ask others for directions and how and help and how to get there to meet new people even asking those from another tradition for assistance in living our faith tradition most faithfully. So living as a pilgrim second welcoming the stranger and might as in does Abraham embody this sacrificial love compassion the compassionate one is how he's often referred to and then friend of God and by friend of God here we mean that when you're a friend of God you're a friend of everything that God loves all humanity in all of creation the environment etc. And I would encourage you to read through specifically the artist statements as you go through the exhibition that bring very much each of their paintings related to these specific themes to life and also to read about the artist because it gives some real context to the work that you will be seeing. The exhibition premiered its 24 month global tour in Rome at the historic Episcopal church there of St. Paul's within the walls the Pontifical Council for Interfaith dialogue from the Vatican was part of the initial launch as was the world Muslim League as what were a number of key rabbis from the various traditions within Judaism. It was then showcased in Paris France at the American Keith Cathedral this is in 2019 and then for the month of August at that month that year it went to Edinburgh Scotland it was part of the festival French which is actually the largest art festival in the world and it's now actually on tour throughout the United States it opened in Omaha at the Three Faith initiative there then went to Boston on Boston Common and then Jacksonville Florida now of course virtually in Houston and then of course it is still taking its in-person tour as now COVID is subsiding in many parts of our country and so it's physically in Wyoming and it will be here in Wyoming for another month and a half and then it goes to Hartford Connecticut at Hartford Seminary there and in Houston of course it's just being showcased virtually but it's actually very very cutting edge for us because it's the first time that we've done something like this and so we're thrilled that it's happening there with you. As this important exhibition travels it takes with it the fundamental message of intercultural and interreligious harmony seeking really to serve as this common starting point on which to build a society that inherently respects and honors cultural and religious diversity where all live and work together harmoniously to jointly enhance their communities and throughout the tour the art really is a catalyst for the development of an exciting schedule of program and events of course you're going to have a number of them there virtually in Houston that accompany the exhibition at each venue they stimulate discussion dialogue and education promoting further understanding and behind all of this is the belief that art is a universal language that has the ability to dissolve the differences that divide us and we have found that the arts can actually be one of the most effective mediums to enhance understanding to bring about respect to enable sharing certainly the deep in friendship between those of different faiths and cultures as the dynamic former Tunisian minister of culture Latifa lactar says creativity is the greatest way to approach our battle against those people who would destroy even the most elementary principles of life in the vision for caravan who actually curated this exhibition and has put it together caravans a peace building NGO that uses the arts to build sustainable peace around the world using arts and transformational ways it originated in Cairo Egypt in 2009 and actually somewhat quite humorously because this is of course about six years seven years after a lot of the tension that had surfaced again between the Middle East and West and I was sitting with sitting with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar the intellectual and the spiritual heart of Sunni Islam in that's based there in Cairo of course the majority of Muslims around the world are Sunni Muslims and we had another interfaith event and we looked at each other and we saw the same people there that we always see about 100 people and he looked at me and he said what are we going to do and we actually were both quite bored to be very honest with you at the same time seeing the same people and I said well let's take the church that I was serving in at that time let's make it into an art gallery and we did so bringing 20 Christian and 20 Muslim artists at that time together and the idea was that we're journeying together through the arts we're on a caravan and he opened it for us we had several thousand people there at the opening and over the course of about 10 to 12 days we had 10,000 people attend and it really took us back and it allowed us to see how the arts can serve as one of the most effective ways to address all of this now one may ask why art is so effective well obviously there's something transcendent about art it takes one to into that deeper dimension however less obviously we would say one of the secrets of using the arts in peace building especially in the intercultural and the interreligious arena is that it's indirect in its approach to addressing very difficult and challenging issues it's like doing it under the table and as a result those all too often defensive walls that very often do go up do not also artistic initiatives like this one they really become encounter points bringing people together that would normally never come together to gain insights into the other and provide greater understanding as well as to alleviate fears that may exist and within all of this we profoundly believe that artists can lead the way with their embrace of greater tolerance than others artists are naturally change agents and therefore can provide new pathways of understanding that transcends borders and how we see the other certainly the power of creativity counteracts the demonization of the other in time and time again we have seen the words of the 14th century persian sufi poet and mystic hafez to be true art is the conversation art offers an opening for the heart art is at least this knowledge of where we are standing in this wonderland we are partners straddling the universe art helps us put ourselves in the others shoes and in this sense looking through the lens of abraham's life this exhibition has the primary objective of helping us see the other with fresh eyes celebrating the diversity of human expression and also asserting the common priorities that we all seek and treasure our day calls for a whole new kind of movement not a belief or of religious unity but quite simply one that builds on what we hold in common and i think one of the ways to say to understand this is i would say is we need to build on the dark side of the moon and for the sake of an illustration that crescent that when you see a crescent in the sky which of course is the islamic symbol of faith you can see that crescent of course because of the reflection but whenever you see a crescent the majority of the moon is dark and for the sake of an illustration i would say that little crescent that we can see in the sky is what we have different between us as christians muslims and jews and the dark side of the moon that large majority part is what we have in common and the challenge for us as never before i think is to build our relationships with the other christians muslims and jews on the dark side of the moon a la pink floyd if you remember that from years ago they were prophetic though they may have not known it in that context but we're too often blinded by the constant illumination of our differences that crescent part that we can't see all that we have in common as the early 20th century lebanese poet and artist and mystic hallel jabron who profoundly bridged the creeds and cultures of the east and west so beautifully said your neighbor is your other self dwelling behind a wall in understanding all walls fall down and jabron goes on to say these other insightful words i love you when you bow in your mosque kneel in your temple and pray in your church for you and i are children of one religion and it is god's spirit i close with some thoughts from two artists thoughts that are very apropos i believe at this time the first is from linard bernstein the renowned late jewish composer and conductor highlighting the transformative power of art he writes the point is art never stopped a war that was never its function art cannot change events but it can change people it can affect people so that they are changed and then they act in a way that may affect the course of events by the way they believe and the way they think and secondly perhaps no words better resonate really with the spirit of this exhibition that we're going to look at together then the words of that profound dutch artist vincent van Gogh or vincent van Gogh as we say in english vincent van Gogh said the more i think it over the more i feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people and i think very much that's what this exhibition at the end of the day is all about thank you and it's a real privilege to be with you and i look forward to answering any questions that you may have bishops channel thank you i think if we were in person you'd be receiving a standing ovation right now um all of us are grateful for your words of wisdom they were inspiring they were informative and definitely worth the wait um i think that we're gonna have to find a way when covid says it's safe for all of us to meet you in person one day by getting you to houston to speak to us uh in person um we'll work on that um tonight thank you thank you tonight we have three of our friends from the christian jewish and muslim faith traditions susan witchin rabbi david lion and to meet him as soon as each has a question they would like to ask of you and for the rest of our audience tonight is where participating in this brief q&a feel free to write your own questions in the chat box and we'll get to them shortly susan you're up thank you uh bishops channeler first i want to thank you for your wisdom your foresight and your ability to bring these artists work together to foster unity in our diverse world we have been looking forward to this exhibit since last year so here's my question as abraham embodies righteousness justice and obedience to god how do these artists show that by respecting and understanding the similarities and the three religions we can all live harmoniously into the future per abraham's example thank you i think uh some of that question perhaps are it was answered in what i was sharing in many ways um one of the things i would just give you behind the scenes a little bit because it's wonderful to kind of see a an exhibition like this and but behind the scenes it wasn't easy to put together and the reason is largely that we had artists from both the christian and muslim excuse me uh muslim and jewish traditions opt out of participating and it was largely because um oh i i didn't mean i said muslim and jewish i meant muslim and christian and because they were both arab and because of the context of the israeli palestinian situation and how prevalent that is of course in the middle east and so we had a few artists that we were inviting to participate that said yes at first and then they heard they had some of the pressure from peer pressure and then opted out now so what i say all that to simply uh give you some context as to these three individuals have not just painted something that exemplifies i think how their view of how we can live together harmoniously but are living it in that way one in particular sanan hussein coming uh from the shia muslim background has lost friends believe it or not by participating in this exhibition and in his view he basically said well then obviously they weren't the kind of friends that are real friends right in that regard and when the the media in publicity uh was released about the exhibition in rome when it was launched uh and the world muslim league did a a large promotion of it very we were very grateful for that uh sanan really uh was it was very much attacked and not physically but of course verbally uh and through social media um the one the other thing i would say is that they all very much are committed and devout in their own faith traditions so these are not just nominal you know by association and so that's the other thing i would say is which is kind of unique is they all are practicing uh their faith in its profundity thank you so much bishop chandler call on rabbi david lion now to ask the second question thank you reverend chandler for being here and for your own vision and creativity even to prompt such a project and we're grateful that for those who wait some good things do come um in genesis chapter 12 in the Torah god says to abram go forth uh and arrive at a place that i will show you and um in one commentary the rabbis asked the question why didn't god show abram the place immediately why did abram have to wait and one answer they provided was um delayed gratification would make the destination more beloved in abram's eyes and so my question to you is how would you describe for all of us the children of abram the destination we still need to seek and though we've been patient along the way how can creativity hasten our arrival and since you've addressed some of that already i want to also ask what evidence have you seen that you can report that creativity is doing something changing something for us as we anticipate uh what we all desire in the world we live in and share it's a great question that latter part i think is uh that's where the real rubber hits the road and that's where real transformation of course comes about which is our heart in all of this at the end of the day it's not just to have another art show but it's to see lives and world views changed um the first point first question the first aspect of that i would say is i'm not sure we're about arrival we're about the journey and the journey gets sweeter and sweeter as we get closer and closer together and the irony in all of that the paradox is that and us getting closer together we also end up closer to where we also desire to go in our own faith traditions i have personally benefited tremendously uh from my muslim brothers and sisters i spend most of my life as a minority within an islamic majority context and uh so i was even just here last night for example giving a talk at a church here in jackson wyoming and uh began with a bismillah rachmana rachim you know as every surah in the Quran begins uh in the name of god the merciful and the compassionate kind of laying the the foundation for all of our discussions uh as we as we began to meet together um in terms of transformational impact i'll share a story and there are many stories i could share one in this story is one of the more dramatic ones one of our exhibitions was in kairu egypt and we had a delegation of imams come and part of the exhibition was to begin to highlight the renovation of the synagogues the historic synagogues there in egypt of course there are very few jews left in egypt from in the early fifties under nasir many they all left because of pressure and so there's been a movement to want to honor them again in that tradition there and so these imams came because they were curious came all the way from alexandria to kairu they stayed in the art exhibit which was in the church a large historic church there until about one a.m there were the last people out and as i'm talking to them i realize that they've never met a christian priest before now there are ten percent of egypt maybe eight to ten percent are christian coptic egyptian christians but those though the coptic priests tend to very much stick by themselves they don't mingle in that way um and so i was talking to this young imam there very young dynamic imam and we decided let's change this so he started a program called the priest imam exchange program where an imam goes and lives for a weekend with the priest and his family in there in kairu they go to the prayers over the weekend they eat the meals together etc etc and then there's a little debrief time and then a weekend or two later we do the same thing the reverse the priest goes and spends the weekend at the imam's family lives with them has the guest bedroom goes to the friday prayers and etc and then out of that we uh we have a time where we bring them all together and it's been fascinating to see how they've begun to uh in a sense they become ambassadors repeats of course in their own communities but how they've become friends and they also realized they actually have the sense so many things in common they have the same challenges with their teenagers and you know and and issues with their partners and spouses and you know etc etc that we all uh you know in life have to to process and deal with we've had 400 priests and imams go through that program and it's been transformational uh both for us to see and for them to experience thank you so much bishop chanler we have one more question from tamina masud and then after you answer that i'll turn it over to greg and he'll start taking some questions from the chat box so tamina my dear friend please you're up blessing of ramadan upon all of you and your loved ones bishop chanler indeed this is a pleasure and honor and i'm very grateful to interfaith for giving me this opportunity to be here with you it is quite a journey that i see when i go over your your life path from Senegal to Tunisia to UK to Cairo and then now Wyoming it always feels like you've been in a pilgrimage yourself and i hope that you have been able to experience the themes of abrahamic lessons during that pilgrimage of yours and you have been able to build the bridges that you so desire to do so and you leave them strong behind you my question today to you would be from these abrahamic five themes that you mentioned living as a pilgrim welcoming the stranger you know having a sacrificial love practicing compassion and being a friend of god khalilullah which of these themes do you see most visible amongst the three artists that we have here number one and number two do you feel their own traditions have an have an expression into that that appears of art that they present thank you thank you yes i would just say my journey has been very much one of pilgrimage and continues to be and i've always been greatly influenced by that psalm psalm 82 or the zabur uh and right in the middle of that psalm it says blessed are those whose hearts are set on pilgrimage and i believe profoundly in that um and so therefore i'm still journey uh in terms of the the art and the themes here uh i uh there are for example one particular painting i would say speaks most loudly and clearly uh record to each of the themes at least those are my perspectives and i could share those um but the one thing i would say is um and i'll just give you an example uh because we just talked about pilgrimage the one i really am profoundly uh moved by in its simplicity about living as a pilgrimage is shy azule and if you and there at in houston they've selected one of his paintings as the kind of the branding for this there in houston but this is another particular one of his paintings it's where he's standing on a hill there's a just one individual on a hill looking off into the landscape in the distance in the middle of a desert and of course i grew up around the desert i grew up with the tore eggs and you know in the desert there's a sense that of complete vulnerability and i think his work there in that particular theme communicates this very well that you cannot make your way through the desert alone you are dependent on everyone that you encounter and so i i you know for abraham i think of it is not just leaving a geographic uh home place uh homeland going to another foreign place and of course he journeyed to the end of his life and only toward the end did he buy a plot of land in order for sarah to be buried and eventually himself but i think he journeyed in another way and that is he left behind kind of this narrow minded and parochial world worldview so it was not so much a change of geography but really much more profoundly about a journey of in the geography of the heart and now in terms of the art i could go through each one i know we don't have time to do that because i know greg is going to lead us through uh as we go through the exhibition but i would say the one and the biggest surprise that comes is related to san sanan hussein's work which is more fantastical and whimsical and also has images in it uh of the prophet ibrahim abraham abraham and uh so most non-muslims are surprised that he was allowed to do that and i think one of the things that's important about this exhibition is in in the course of the themes that they're emphasizing it's also changing stereotypes that are erroneous of the other and this is contemporary art and it's important to remember that san sanan hussein ashia muslim is one of his favorite patrons is the grand imam of al-asar a sunni muslim so that in itself changes you know the stereotypes that often exist thank you thank you shukha alawi bishop chandler thank you so very much i think all of us learned so much in just the brief time that we've had with you already um before i go on what i'd like to do is just recognize a few people who've been behind the scenes making all of this happen um and these people are my colleagues um brandy ladette greg hon kim abry jet philip sucree woodley and sam hashemi they have for a year and a half two years now been on this journey to bring abraham uh to all of us and now virtually to all of us and they've been super fun to work with and i just want to give them a real shout out these things just don't happen they happen because of their hard work and of course to everyone here tonight thank you for being with us um i want to also just let you know some exciting news is that we're continuing this uh this this message of harmony and peace and unity through the arts through another in power event it's our unity concert it's on june it'll be another virtual experience you'll hear about it in an upcoming email but look for that information and um hopefully you'll join us back for that next artful journey focusing on peace and harmony and um empowerment i'm going to turn it back over to greg and greg you're up ship chandler um thank you so much for those comments um my two favorite arabic words that you mentioned one shukran thank you and the other one is boom taz so boom taz excellent um i want to um i have a question but i want to bracket that one to honor the question from the chat box from fatima ali who is a dear friend of interfaith ministry is one of our bright stars um she is a recent college graduate but when she was in high school she was part of our interfaith youth leadership program called ilead and she asks um where is it do you have any advice for those aspiring to foster interfaith community and understanding through art creativity and dialogue so very broad question so maybe thinking about kind of your best practices based on your experience that you'd like to highlight about your kind of best advice that you give and maybe not a problem we don't have time for a proverb sadly yes no i would just say uh i i would really address in a local context felt needs and uh and look at it creatively and not just and think of the arts in a broad sense music and literature and film and drama and you know all of the creatives and kind of look at it in those ways where you come at that theme of our commonalities or of bettering our world together but through these kind of different channels or different lenses and so but i i have found that it's been without a doubt one of the most effective ways to pursue all of this um in terms of impact and broad out of the interfaith world concept and i think that demographic is really what's challenging when we get into interfaith because often you do see the same types of individuals but when you use culture in the arts you often broaden that thank you uh let me then squeeze in the final question and um bishop chandler i appreciate and understand very much the focus uh because you need a focus but also the importance of focusing on these quote-unquote abrahamic traditions i'm wondering though if uh because we have a significant sick community and hindu community and buddhist and jane and zoroastrians and others um that are in the audience and also here in houston if you have found that the use of art and particularly this exhibit has also created lines of dialogue outside of the abrahamic traditions yeah very much so because this exhibit of course is largely focused on the abrahamic or learning from the abrahamic in a worldview that everyone can benefit from of course but uh yes most of our exhibits are either intercultural or fully interreligious not just abrahamic in that sense so we work a lot with south asian artists for example that come from hindu traditions and our buddhist and shrillanka for example um but yeah i think it's a it's something that works in all faith traditions in some cultures such as hinduism is our very visual cultures and so all the more uh are enhanced in that way you know so thank you i think your your your observation about that not that it's something to be inspired from or learn from um that we need to do the work to see ourselves often in the other or in unfamiliar work is is really uh i think a very important lesson that i think this exhibit can teach us so thank you very much just one comment greg and that is related to some of the theme here the theme of embracing the other so when the exhibition is here in wyoming for example the other here would be our native american sisters and brothers and so the focus very much is to use these themes that we're learning from abraham's life toward looking kindly and generously and in an all-embracing way to them bishop chandler thank you so much thank you jody before i turn to my closing comments do you have anything final that you need to mention before we move into closing words and then i'll we'll take a look at the exhibit no i think uh um we're all excited we're ready to see this wonderful exhibit um thank you everyone um i do have one thing to say they're gonna love greg we've done an exceptional job in uh practicing with a few groups before tonight um and he's uh been very well received and he's done an exceptional job in really guiding groups through this exhibit so i'm grateful to greg for doing this tonight for us thank you jody i closed with our deep appreciation to our friends and tonight speaker bishop paul gordon chandler to caravan to our sponsors and to all our guests tonight our community is stronger because of the strength of shared beliefs but before i officially conclude our formal program and begin the tour of the exhibit i want to draw attention to the time in which we are in it is an important it's important and helpful to recognize that late march and early april just the past uh three weeks has been an astounding convergence of many major holidays and holy days we began with the jewish holiday of Passover march 27th to april fourth the hindu holiday of holly followed quickly after the beginning of Passover on march 29th and was highlighted by a very good article in the houston chronicle holy week began with palm sunday then on march 28th and concluded with easter on april fourth with monday thursday good friday and holy saturday in between helpful to mention though that christians and the orthodox churches won't celebrate easter until may the second so they're still in the midst of of their lint the important sick holiday of visaki was april 13th the muslim fasting month of ramadan began monday night the 12th and so its first full day was tuesday the 13th april 13th with all also the new year for many indians and nepalese something i didn't know so you learn something new every day and the first day of ridvan one of the most important holidays in the baha'i tradition is today april the 20th these holy days many of them ancient in their practices um sorry ancient of their practices remind us that faith is important because these beliefs and practices are both timely and timeless we are connected across time and space with days past but these holy days speak to us here and now our 15 pieces of art also reflect both a timeless and timely quality as well and i want to especially draw attention to the time in which we are in the time right here and right now the time that we can actually do something with and do something about over the past year we have heard calls for justice for healing for forgiveness for accountability for peace and today the country watched the trial of derrick chauvin come to a close or at least a close to this phase as the jury reached a verdict i want to recognize the gravity of the times in which we live on a daily basis abraham's time was his sarah's time and hagar's time were hers their time were theirs this time is ours our sacred scriptures remind us that every day is holy along with the days and the months that are set apart every moment can be holy each common time and space can be sacred as we're about to enter this virtual gallery we are also entering shared space and sacred space and what art art teaches us is the practice of seeing not just seeing with the eyes but seeing with the heart as well so please as we enter drink deeply the themes of this exhibit of welcoming the stranger a friend of god the compassionate living as a pilgrim sacrificial love these are not only abrahamic themes or themes from texts written hundreds if not thousands of years ago these are our themes now let us again see in these themes a crucial message of how we can see each other and how we treat each other and especially how we love one another and now if you'll give me a moment to switch over let us go ahead and enter the virtual gallery of abraham out of one many and we should be in can i get jody a comment in the chat box that you can see the that you that you can see the exhibit all right as we enter the gallery a few reminders in case of fire other emergency there are two exits from the gallery a gray door in the corner of the exhibit hall and the door that we just came through here bathrooms are just outside the main entrance into your left and lost and found is out into your right but levity aside while the in-person art and i would love to see it is wonderful there are a couple of advantages for the virtual gallery especially here in coven face masks are not required temperature checks not required socially distancing is not required you can eat and drink as you please you don't need to check your large bags this exhibit is wheelchair accessible and interestingly each piece of art is wonderful but each piece is about 1.5 feet by 2 feet but here in the virtual gallery we'll be able to zoom to zoom and expand the artwork and knowing get stuck in the back of the crowd and finally as donors and special guests you will have an exclusive benefit and will receive the link to this exhibit so you can revisit it at your leisure we won't make the link to the general available to the general public until the final week of the exhibit as we're making the exhibit available through a host of events and so with that let's again come on over and just learn a little bit about our artists born in 1977 sonan hussein's artistic legacy extends from the heritage of his mesopotamian ancestors to the to its horrifying presence as bishops chandler mentioned he lives of he this is very personal to him soon after graduation from the university of fine arts and bagdad in 2004 he had to leave because of the war and the sectarian violence and he found very refuge in kawait and eventually in the united states he's participated in many highly acclaimed solo and group exhibitions around the world and he again he is our artist from the muslim background in the middleest case all cindy again also born in bagdad on and actually has degrees in fine arts but he actually has degrees in engineering and experience as an architect and so again his his his paintings will be the second one will be the one in the middle and so be mindful of his use of architectural imagery of of buildings as well you'll see that his architectural background affects his artistic background as well and as bishop chandler mentioned cases of an ancient christian heritage out of the again the Nestorian tradition the chaldean christians and he lives in san diego and again shea suley also has two degrees in fine arts and he and you'll see this as well that his scenes radiate warmth and compassion his work range between drawing and painting and they address again two conflicting worlds found in the mind of the of the contemporary painter the classic and then the modern and he has also held numerous solo exhibitions around the world and again he is out of the orthodox jewish tradition so let's go ahead and back out and let's take a look around and you will see in our virtual gallery that the paintings are in groups of three according to our three themes and they are on the perimeter of the gallery so let's go ahead and walk away this in this direction i'm going to turn to our left for our first trio and again this is the theme living as a pilgrim i think one of the things in particular that you'll see as living as a pilgrim and being on the move is that all of them invoke a lot about the imagination because as a pilgrim you're in many ways imagining what your future will be and imagine where you're where you'll be going so we'll back it will come in a little bit here and we'll take a look at the first living as a pilgrim sanan hussein and as i lead this one i always enjoy starting with this one because the question i'll ask is where is your eye drawn to and your eye could be drawn in many different places naturally an art eye is often drawn kind of to this to the center and these the touching gloves tend to really draw the eye in that direction but the eye is also drawn into the upper left hand quadrant as well with the very unique imagery of this glass cube around a face so he says this this painting sanan hussein says takes place in the imagination in this painting i show abraham and sarah thinking about their life and that they're they're interacting they're talking with one another and i can back i can i can come in a little closer here and you can see that their words are jumbled and they're in arabic but they're they're they're thinking about one another he says and you'll see that he likes to use gloves in in in other works that you'll see and that it's that they are intimate as being husband and wife but they also aren't not able to touch which for him is symbolic of they're not able to have a child yet but that child here in the imagination is the is right here in in sarah's in sarah's arm it's a soul it has not been born yet so it's the potential and here on on the top of of ibrahim's head is the kaba the cube that sits at the center of the grand mosque in mecca really the the pilgrimage site within islam oh there's a lot more that we could say uh but we we we don't have a lot of time um with just given a half an hour and i want to make sure that we take a look at all of them moving over we'll take a look oops sorry slide over and we'll take a look in here case al-sindhi living as a pilgrim and again you can see the buildings in the background that are kind of belay his his architectural background and this really tells the story of abraham and he says abraham left his pilgrim pilgrimage from ur of the caldees again very personal for al-sindhi as he's of caldean christian heritage this is where the great ziggurat of ur southern iraq built by urnamu the sumerian king i painted abraham carrying a sheep around his shoulders and we can move in just a little bit more and see that detail around his shoulders as a shepherd leading his people to the land to that god promised him i also depict the ziggurat the the building behind him on his shoulders because he carries his land with him in his heart as he journeys and that is actually a really important theme not only i think to the artist but also to us at interfaith ministries as one of our major service areas is refugee services and we work with refugees from all around the world who i think would very much affiliate and empathize with that that idea of of carrying your home from which you came to the different places that you go and our our refugees before coming to the united states have been resettled if not at least one if at least one if not two places so they have many homes that they carry with them and again take a look you you'll see actually all of these artists use this similar um um kind of color palette along the way bishop chandler mentioned this one as well this is um shea zule living as a pilgrim so much seems to be like a mirage where there is promise but the vision is foggy the only way forward is to simply believe a concept that can that cannot exist only in the mind but beyond it so you can imagine that this pilgrim as he or she is working across the desert um is is has to use his or her imagination to think about what is ahead when the person is so small but the space is so large three themes of living as a pilgrim let's go ahead and back out a little bit and we will turn around to take a look at our next trio with the theme welcoming the stranger and as you can see you can see a similar color palette especially with between hussein's um painting of of um oops of life is of living as a pilgrim and here is welcoming the stranger and we'll zoom on in and take a look again as bishop chandler mentioned that hussein is his the life of the imagination the life of what could be uh and the life of what is all kind of merged through here and he says again blending the contemporary with the historical and a lot of symbolism here that that hussein uses in this painting abraham and sarah are welcoming ishmael into their lives and ishmael in islam is viewed uh is is is outside of islam ishmael is viewed often as very secondary but is very primary within islam and god is sending a blessing down on ishmael's head and you can see behind him that uh that beam of light that's coming down the figures are celebrating and they represent souls angels and souls and they can shape they can take all kind of any shape that they want and you can see one that kind of looks like a half-form person and a dog or some sort of animal with wings hussein likes to use cones as a symbol of a time set apart similar to um how you would use cones to set apart a traffic area or a construction area but he uses the cone as this is a time that is set apart and again you can see the green the the green glove to portray an extremely positive moment and green is an important color in islam moving over we'll take a look here again welcoming the stranger as human beings we're all visitors and others lives all sindi says we visit and disappear and so he has depicted three people but none of them are abraham imagine in many ways that you are abraham welcoming these three these three people these three travelers these three pilgrims one of these visitors told um and then um you can see that there are three small cups that represent equal amounts of of hospitality or generosity but especially notice in the distance we'll get up there a little closer that these three may be on their journey the next day but there's always another person that's coming from the distance that we can welcome and welcoming the stranger again is very important within our within our work at interfaith at interfaith ministries and then finally with welcoming the stranger we'll take a look at shea zule's he's actually got three events going on wanted to create a dynamic sense of the encounter of abraham's historic welcome and three strangers in the desert and so a zule does i think a wonderful job whether it's here in the foreground of perhaps it's explaining or teaching something or here in the in the mid ground a person that is showing these strangers this new land and again these flights of fancy or imagination that we see and again we find some similarities in the way that that a zule likes to construct his people that you'll construct his people that you'll find a commonality as we continue through now going to the third theme of sacrificial love a key story within islam and christianity within christianity within genesis and islam within the koran is the story of a sacrifice or a near sacrifice within judaism and christianity it's called the akedah which means the binding the binding of isek and in the case of islam with the centrality of ishmael it's the near sacrifice of ishmael and while we don't have to talk about sacrificing people in this harrowing story we what we can talk about is the love that ibrahim or abraham or avraham has for god and also that that that he has for his child as well as well as sarah and hegar's love for their children as well that has made so explicit and clear within the sacred texts so again taking a look here starting with husayn's again our theme here is sacrificial love notes that abraham demonstrated sacrificial love throughout his lifetime through from his willingness to make to be ready to make an ultimate sacrifice of god to god to allowing others the best choice of land it is impossible to love deeply without sacrifice again the richness of the colors and the use of again of these imagined into flights of fancy that i think really engage the viewer in so many ways there's so much more that we can say and we'll actually be focusing on this this work of art and one of our in one of our dinner dialogues as well again al-sindhi from the caldean christian heritage one of the main stories in the life of abraham is the sacrifice of isaac so i meditated on the story al-sindhi says i find it difficult to capture abraham's expression and so that's why i don't reveal his eyes in the painting i think you can just see you can see just at the very top through the beard or through a covering that you can see a little detail of his face thus the and the short palm tree here on the left and what symbolizes that everything is small compared to sacrificial love demonstrated by abraham in this great act of selflessness again we can back in we can move in just a little bit and you can see again some of the richness i think it's really important to see that if you could be up close with the paintings live that there's also a three-dimensional quality to them you can see in this one in particular some of the raised contours of the use of paint of the paint so paintings are really important to see that they're just not two-dimensional but three-dimensional as well it's also helpful to see and i'll point that out in one of them that al-sindhi actually incorporates pieces of felt pieces of fabric into his uh into his art as well now really taking a different approach which is shea zule this is sacrificial love as well zule says this i show the patriarch abraham on a flying carpet observing a large circle dance circle dancing is a very much a part of jewish culture for me the circle represents something that connects people from all backgrounds and break down breaks down walls in the circle we become one so moving in here i always like to like to ask where is your eye drawn to that's really in many ways one of the first questions that you should ask yourself when looking at a piece of art is where is your eye drawn to many people say to the green i'm always drawn to this upper left hand quadrant because of the how this hair and again you'll have to forgive me i'm slightly colorblind i think it's green or yellow um holly my wife will have to help me out here but especially upon the the contrast of the dark blue field that one sticks out to me um i think the circle is also a wonderful symbol of sacrificial love because what is it about a circle that's important nobody's first nobody's last and i always imagine here um that the this trio of people here kind of at the top kind of have their act together they're acting in unison they've got their they've got their legs all choreographed and synchronized versus down here in the lower right hand corner it's sort of a mess which is in many ways the definition of community as well i think for me when i take a look at uh azule's use of the circle as sacrificial love i think the message is if we all give just a little bit of what we have to one another we can be like the people in the circle no one has more no one has less no one is first no one is last but everyone is equal and everyone's got to work together for this circle to work sacrificial love let's go ahead and take a look at our next to last trio and i'm just gonna turn here and we'll take a look here these three are about the compassionate and abraham exemplifies compassion for others regardless of who they are and many of these are the the artists in this trio focus particularly on the lack of hospitality that abraham was shown at saddam and gamora and here sanan who's saying he who's saying paints the in what's what's wonderful about art is while once it's done and it's it's on the canvas and it's hung on the wall it's static there's nothing else added but it's really helpful to remember that art is very dynamic and so you can feel the movement right to left of this of this piece of art and hussein says that um abraham is fleeing the inhospitality the evil the grotesqueness the distortion of the people of saddam and gamora but instead of going and cursing them what is he doing as he's turning to the left he's pleading to god to have compassion on them and god is sending a message to abraham through a yellow birdlike form as an islam birds are sometimes used to send messages the yellow of abraham's boots are representative of his defined protection from the evil and after god accepts abraham's compassionate plea for them he will ask abraham to take off his boots and again you can see the cone that is indicative of that this is a sacred moment set apart from us this is in many cases people's favorites this is also the compassionate abraham pleaded again with god to spare the city in this painting abraham's long arms are a sign of compassion they're almost inhumanly long but long enough to encompass the three children and the artist uses the again the three children of the abrahamic traditions but we can imagine them being children of all faiths of all cultures as well i think again this is also an excellent piece of art to to to highlight and to highlight the importance of taking a look at art from a distance before walking in closer because from here you can really see that this piece of art also looks like a mountain and so that strength of the mountain of compassion is also indicative and i was also exemplified here and finally shea zule i i portray abraham who is a seer with a thought bubble and so this is abraham remembering something that happened to him remembering zakor is very important within the jewish tradition of remembering our ancestors of remembering what happened and that's in particularly was is all about what pass overs about which was celebrated just a few weeks ago and it's also important to remember that abraham is not remember he's he's remembering the bad times and he's remembering having to flee but he's not remembering if you take a look at the the the the visage the on his face is he's i think for me that says he's remembering with compassion i don't see anger on his face but he's remembering even in the midst of trying to remember a difficult time when he had to flee in hospitality that he does not need to be inhospitable himself in his memory three paintings that exemplify the compassionate finally i'm going to walk out a little bit and i'm going to turn around a friend of god and again i i i i agree with bishop chandler a hundred percent that how do you know if you're a friend of god is when that you're a friend of others and who's saying has here with a friend of god just this again wonderful kind of very busy and active um imaginative piece he says this is a celebration of life people creatures vegetations and animals come together for a festival god has sent a pink horse because abraham embraces all that god has created people throughout the whole world never stop praising the earth is alive even a cat's face has taken on a dog's face as well to symbolize that sort of transformation that can happen particularly you know between two animals that are considered traditionally as enemies everything is swimming around abraham as he blesses the sacred earth moving next to all sindy a friend of god and this is very very timely as well all sindy says this one of the critical issues in our world today is the struggle to exist in the global economy in this painting i depict abraham at the center of a circular table let me get in a little bit closer here there we go you can see kind of i love again all all sindy provides enough detail in faces so that you can see that they're human but not so much that you can readily identify them as a person of this heritage or a person of that background they're all of us but here in the center we see abraham this friendship leads them to share the one apple that they're about to be given i strongly believe he says that with positive dialogue and well-intentioned conversation the iceberg that represents our differences will be melted away and then finally and this is the one that we have used at interfaith ministries as a in a lot of our collateral in in sharing and advertising the exhibit a friend of god for by shea zule and so if you have your chat box open we've got a little time for this actually um answer this question for me are these people falling into the hands are they being lifted out of the hands are they coming in are they going into the hands are they going out of the hands and again it's the beauty of art as well again i i will echo bishop chandler's words that for the way that that art is so important is because it is transcendent it is imaginative and we need more imagination there's an old saying that um war is a failure of imagination and i think a lot of our conflicts are a failure of imagination that we think that old that that old conflicts can be solved with old ways and all of our all the all faiths give the opportunity have within them the seeds of imagination of creativity to think of new ways of solving these often seemingly intractable problems art is invitational everybody is welcome to this piece of art with their with with their interpretations and what they see art again is subversive again you can talk about important things through art and you don't even know you're talking about them and finally art is transcends boundaries as well that that they are able to move in and out of spaces in ways that a lot of other conversations cannot my painting a zule says is a metaphor of a famous blessing that says when you open your hands to all everything you need comes to you above abraham's hands i have painted floating figures like angels symbolizing god's blessings on those who are generous toward all and so yeah they i i i i think it's a both and falling into the hands as a friend would capture and protect and support but it's also these souls these really us being released into the world um to be hopeful to be free to use again our imagination and creativity much like these artists have in order to inspire and to transform and so we have here a friend of god the compassionate over on that corner um sacrificial love on the far wall welcoming the stranger and on that very first wall living as a pilgrim i hope you've enjoyed being with us on this on this virtual tour we will work on sending this link out to all of you so you can enjoy them one of the kind of special benefits of this opening event but we have a host of events coming up as well with over the next month as well come culminating with the gershenson lecture on may the 20th and with that i can't remember if we have no i think we are done at 7 p.m. and it's 6 58 jody do you have any closing words and i'll also recognize bishop chandler if he's got any closing words as well jody i do not i will always yield the floor to bishop chandler hi there jody thank you uh am i on mute or can you hear me you can hear me we can hear you uh well done greg i think i'm gonna we're gonna hire you to tour the the rest of the the uh the exhibit wherever it goes we can't have it more than 10 percent of his time sorry okay okay thank you uh no i learned a lot too greg so that was wonderful uh two things just about the art one is um greg briefly mentioned there was some material on k-cell cindy's work and it's actually uh they're cut pieces from a cloak of a shepherd in ur where abraham of course originated from and where pope francis was not so long ago focusing on interfaith and i don't know if greg you highlighted that or not i couldn't remember hearing that but i did mention one of the but i will make sure and highlight that because it is one of the neat portions yeah it's a unique that fabric is there with the with the other medium and until uh probably still it smells of sheep so you'll have individuals who are attending the exhibition you'll and you pictures are taken of them with their nose you know of smelling the the cloak uh the second thing i wanted to say is all the art is for sale uh there are a few pieces that have actually sold and then 100 percent of the proceeds goes to uh interfaith peace building so not to the artist so thank you it's been a privilege to be with you thank you bishop chandler thank you again for being uh for for really making this a wonderful opening a great kickoff for the next month of i think a variety of wonderful events with that jody i'm going to go ahead and sign off and say and ask everyone to have a wonderful evening and we'll see you hopefully at the next event thank you everyone be safe thank you thank you bishop chandler thank you