MIRG
Memphis
Inter-Religious
Group
http://MemphisIRG.org
JULY MEETING: SUNDAY JULY 25, 4-6 PM
We will have a meeting July 25. We are
invited to the home of Dr. Mohammed Moinuddin, M.D., at 625 River
View Road, Memphis,TN 38120. This is off of East Shady Grove, very near
Humphreys Blvd. The main agenda item will be a discussion of
health and diet issues. What can we do, what can the religious
community do, about the epidemic of obesity?
RSVP appreciated, to rsvp@memphisirg.org
We are still open as to August plans -note
that Muslim attendance may be complicated by Ramadan starting
August 11. Invites to tours of a local charity or two, perhaps?
DO MARK ON YOUR
CALENDARS the evening of September 2nd, the major annual interfaith
"IFTAR" dinner put on by the local Muslim community. We also now
have dates for the September "Tear Down the Walls" Concert and the
October Gandhi-King Conference, posted at the bottom of our events page.
We'll circulate an e-mail notice and post here as ideas
arrive. We also invite discussions on our Facebook
page.
If you are not on our mailing list, click
here
or e-mail admin@memphisirg.org
At our June 13 Meeting,
We had excellent discussions, and viewed a
half-hour videotape lecture by Amy-Jill Levine, the Orthodox Jewish
woman who is Professor of New Testemnt at Vanderbilt Divinity School.
Several of her courses are available as audio or video, and we watched
a lecture on "Abraham", discussing how various themes play out in the
relationships between Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, etc.
There was some talk of local charities -
Linda Marks, the Inter-Faith Coordinator for MIFA, joined
us. MIFA and other local groups such as BRIDGES, Church
Health Center, etc., provide important services in Memphis with a
significant interfaith base of support. We want to learn more about
them, and perhaps do some site visits.
We also had some discussion of the problem of evil
and notions of Stan / Hell, and some of the problems they present. (One
source of religion-inspired violence is the feeling that some people
have that someone else might mislead their children in a way that leads
them towards hell. Parents will sometimes act violetly to defend their
children.)
At our May 23rd meeting,
We met for an hour at New Church Memphis and for an hour at Masjid
As-Salam. Turnout was about twenty, with several new people. We had
fascinating discussions about the delivery of social services. As my
notes are too long to put here, they are on the Facebook page for
MemphisIRG. That page is at
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107266139292631
and the discussion of the May 23rd meeting is at
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107266139292631#!/topic.php?uid=107266139292631&topic=77
Discussion of the issues raised would be very welcome, either on that
page or by e-mail.
At our April 11 meeting,
we had a very nice discussion of early Abraham stories. with Nabil
bayakly bringing Koran stories and others providing Jewish Midrashic
commenrtaries and other viewpoints. It was nice to have a remarkably
equal mix of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and a wide range of
discussion.
Watch the events page here or email us to get on our
e-mailing list if you are not.
("about")
About
2006,
a
group of people from Temple Israel, Balmoral
Presbyterian Church, and Masjid
As-Salam in Memphis, Tennessee began to
meet together, just to get to know one another better. Out of
this has grown the Memphis Inter-Religious Group, a group of ordinary
members rather than religious leaders of these houses of worship and
others, seeking to better relationships between faiths.
Visits back and forth and social events have led to increasing
confidence in working together. These contacts have had real
benefits for the community. Following one local dispute, we were able
to get differing groups to work together to bring a satisfactory
resolution. One local leader said, "what could have been a real
catastrophe turned out to be a major success story for interfaith
cooperation."
We have discussed genuinely difficult questons. Could any of us
have imagined, that before a street demonstration protesting the
Israeli bombing and invasion of Gaza, some Muslims would have asked
some Jews, "Can you look at our proposed signs and leaflets, to be sure
that they are anti-Israeli but not anti-Jewish?" While this was
not necessarily a comfortable assignment for the Jews, it was such a
remarkable interaction that we almost wish we could announce it from
the
rooftops.
If you are interested in contacting the organizers or being invited to
meetings, click here. Or telephone
us at 327-9735.
We are presently meeting about once a month, with more rotating of
locations and of who
organizes the programs. We are looking
forward to discussions of the prophets, of how to work for peace,
of
contributions we can make toward interfaith understanding and cative
cooperation in the Memphis area and the world. One suggestion was
that we make an effort to be a visible interfaith presence at selected
events in the Memphis area. See more on the events page.
FACEBOOK: We have a facebook group, MemphisIRG
If you are on Facebook, look for the Group MemphisIRG or go to http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107266139292631
This will allow facefook users to have discussions and to get faster
notice of chanegs posted here.
Some upcoming events- CLICK HERE
A book list - books we have found helpful in
understanding other traditions. What do other groups use in their
Sunday Schools or equivalents? A first draft is here.
A Few Links:
Masjid
As-Salam
Balmoral
Presbyterian Church
Temple Israel
Link to Date/Event
List received from Diversity Memphis (nothing new received
recently)
Some Reference Material (for discussions)
3/2010 A recent article about activist Eboo
Patel
3/2010 A summary of and pointer to A
Common
Word
3/2010 Reading the Old Testament with
Palestinian Eyes. (Remarks by Eunice Ordman on a paper by Frederic
Bush)
See also the material appearing on our Facebook page, MIRG, at
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107266139292631
(page edited 7/1/2010)