Lenten Program: A Survey of Faiths - by the Rev. Joyce Stickney - - Ebb and Flow / March 2003, the online newsletter of St. Augustine by the Sea Episcopal Church, Santa Monica, California

March, 2003

In This Issue:

Welcoming Churches

We Love Gaby Fund

Nonviolence in a Time of Saber-Rattling

So You Think Your Church is Too Big?

Lenten Program: A Survey of Faiths

Forum With Kelly Hayes-Raitt, Pilgrimage to Iraq

Homepage - St. Augustine by the Sea Episcopal Church, Santa Monica, California

Lenten Program: A Survey of Faiths

by the Rev. Joyce Stickney

This Lenten season we are offering a program which will introduce us to a variety of faith traditions. The junior/senior high Sunday school class has been studying Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and currently Islam, including site visits and conversations with religious leaders. A number of parishioners indicated that they were interested in a similar class. The current global political climate awakens us to the need to be not only sensitive to other world religions but in dialogue and relationship with our Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, and ? sisters and brothers. Beginning Wednesday, March 12th, and running through Wed., April 9th, we will have dinner together, a fellowship time, followed by a presentation from a representative who will share with us about her/his religious tradition (6:30-8:00 PM). There will be time for questions and conversation followed by a prayer led by our guest. This is a great time to bring friends and childcare will be offered for those who sign up in advance. Following are the list of visitors:

March 12: Hinduism: A Program for Self-Transformation: Sudhir Aggarwal, a practicing Hindu, was born in India, grew up in the United States, earning his MBA at Stanford, works in the business world and is very active in the practice of his faith, holding Hindu Sunday school classes in his home and teaching about the Hindu faith.
March 19: Islam: Nasreen Haroon, a noted artist in Santa Monica, has served on a number of Boards; Santa Monica Bay Interfaith Council, Islamic Center of Southern California, Spiritual Care SMUCLA Medical Center, and is a regular panelist on Adelphia Cable for the "God Squad". She worships at the Islamic Center of Southern California.
March 26: Buddhism: Al Albergate was raised Roman Catholic and became a Buddhist 30 years ago and joined the Soka Gakkai International - USA. Al was employed for many years by SGI-USA, participating on the Santa Monica Bay Interfaith Council, LA Buddhist-Catholic Dialogue, Parliament of the World's Religions, Interfaith Communities United For Justice and Peace, etc.
April 2: To be announced
April 9: Judaism: Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels is at Beth Shir Sholom in Santa Monica. He has chaired the Martin Luther King, Jr. Westside Coalition and the Interfaith Holocaust Service and also serves on the boards of the Western Region of the Jewish Federation Council and the Westside Interfaith Council. A graduate of UCLA, Rabbi Comess-Daniels was ordained in 1979 at the Hebrew Union College and is often asked to mentor young rabbinic students.

Please plan to come to any or all of the presentations, but also sign up with a group of other parishioners to host a dinner. This will be a simple dinner put together from start to finish by a group of hosts. The clergy will be hosting dinner on March 12th. Please sign up on the patio or by calling the church to host one of the following Wednesdays. So there are three sign-ups; one for childcare, one for those planning to attend (a head count for dinner), and one for those who will host a dinner.

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