Sunday, December 23, 2007

In God's Name: The Thoughts of a Dozen Spiritual Leaders

"People of all faiths and homelands are divided into reasonable and unreasonable people. All that I wish and pray to God for is that the reasonable people would outnumber the fools."
Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, Sunni Moslem spiritual leader

Tonight, the CBS television network will be broadcasting a special program entitled In God's Name, exploring complex questions through the intimate thoughts and beliefs of 12 of the world’s most influential spiritual leaders, including Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. In Albuquerque, the program will air from 8:00-10:00 p.m. on Channel 13.
"These diverse and powerful voices offer provocative, compelling and enlightening perspectives on myriad issues in our post-9/11 world, including the rise of terrorism, fanaticism, intolerance and war" a CBS news release said.
* Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and head of the Russian Orthodox Church
* Amma (Sri Mata Amritanandamayi), a Hindu spiritual leader
* Pope Benedict XVI, head of the Roman Catholic Church

* The Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists

* Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a prominent Shiite Muslim leader
* Bishop Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and President of the Lutheran World Federation
* Michihisa Kitashirakawa, Jingu Daiguji (High Priest) of the Shinto Grand Ise Shrine
* Yona Metzger, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
* Dr. Frank Page, President of the Southern Baptist Convention
* Imam Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar and a prominent Sunni Muslim leader
* Joginder Singh Vedanti, Jathedar Sri Akal Takht, the Sikhs’ highest authority

* Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Church of England

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Hats Off to Another former New Mexico Bread member

The latest edition of the Bread for the World newsletter offers a tribute to another former member of our community, Barbara Kingston. Barbara was active with St. Bernadette Catholic Community in Albuquerque.

This is the second time this year that the Bread newsletter has recognized Bread members who at one time lived in Albuquerque! (If you recall, an earlier issue
contained a tribute to Titus and Charlotte Scholl).

Barbara was a member of Shrine Parish of St. Bernadette in Albuquerque, where she worked to introduce issues that were important to Bread. Her work bore some fruit. Last year, St. Bernadette was one of four Catholic parishes in Albuquerque to have some form of letter-writing activity around the 2007 Farm Bill. Even though it wasn't a full Offering of Letters, many members of the peace and justice committee, under the leadership of Susan Tomita and Marilyn Novak, took time to learn about The 2007 Farm Bill and to write letters to Rep. Heather Wilson and Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici.

(Incidentally, the three other Catholic parishes that organized Offerings of Letters were Aquinas Newman Center, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church and St. Anne Catholic Church).

Here's an excerpt from the December issue of the Bread for the World newsletter:

Several years ago, Bread for the World member Barbara Kingston had a generous idea: when she sold her home in New Mexico, she gave 10 percent of the gains she realized to Bread for the World. This year, when she sold that home and moved to North Carolina, Ms. Kingston again donated 10 percent of her earnings from the sale to help Bread for the World in our work on behalf of hungry and poor people.
Way to go Barbara!
We miss you in our community. But our loss was North Carolina's gain.

(The image above is Bread for the World's new logo)