Ambassador Ande, right, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions is pleased to announce its newest international Ambassador, Emmanuel Ivorgba Ande.

Mr. Ande is currently the Executive Director of the New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation, which he founded in 2006 to engage local youth in interfaith dialogue. Mr. Ande has also been active with Interfaith Youth Core, facilitating a Global Interfaith Movement Project in Nigeria.

The Council is pleased to welcome Emmanuel to the Ambassador Program, a select opportunity for passionate interfaith leaders around the world.

To learn more about the Ambassador Program, please click here.

From The Chicago Tribune

Since it was founded more than two decades ago, the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago has come to a consensus on issues such as housing and gun control, served as a resource for local law enforcement and brought religious leaders together to do work in the community.

But as the organization celebrates its 25-year anniversary, its leaders say that helping local congregations better address major social issues — such as poverty and violence — is crucial to meeting the challenges of the 21^st century.

“One of the major challenges before us is how do we take what we’re doing at the top level … and get it down to the average person in the pew and on the prayer rug,” said the Rev. Stanley L. Davis, co-executive director of the council, which is made up of some of Chicago’s top religious leaders.

Helping local congregations take action on those issues is one way, said professor William Schweiker, director of the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

“It is important to include congregations in these discussions,” said Schweiker. “It allows religious people a way to voice their concerns beyond the claims of ‘official’ statements.”

…Chicago has been the home of formal interfaith conversations since the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions, a gathering of international religious leaders during the World’s Columbian Exposition. The Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago was founded in 1985 by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who sought to tackle social injustices head on. Its core message to the city was clear: Your leaders of faith, however different, can sit at one table and tackle sensitive issues with respect and candor.

At the time, those religious leaders came from the city’s Christian and Jewish communities, but as Chicago has grown more diverse, so has the council. Today, its members also include Muslims, Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians, Mormons, Sikhs and Baha’is.

…Dirk Ficca, executive director of the Chicago-based Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, said continuing the discussion is what’s important.

“If people can come to the table and have sharp disagreements and really engage, to me that is the healthiest sign of navigating religious diversity,” he said.

Click here to read the entire article.

At Streets 2010: Urban International Festival, the winners of One Chicago, One Nation’s film contest were announced. The grand-prize winner, “1700% Project: Mistaken for Muslim” is a sobering commentary on anti-Muslim hate crimes committed around the country after 9/11. The text, a poem created from filed police reports and citations, is stark: “Awoke to find / A South Asian American, Sikh / Chased by a group of four men yelling, ‘Terrorist’ / Sikh mistaken for Muslim.”

"1700% Project: Mistaken for Muslim"

James Warren at the Chicago News Cooperative, writes:

It’s the five-minute effort of both Anida Yoeu Ali, a Cambodian Muslim performance artist who came to Chicago when she was 5, and Masahiro Sugana, her video producer-husband, who as a teenager came here from Japan. The video features a fictional poet, dancer, angel and prisoner speaking out against anti-Muslim hate crimes by repeating the jarring essence of incidents around the country.

Freeway signs declaring, “Kill All Muslims.” Assaults on South Asian Sikhs, Egyptians, Spaniards and bagel store owners mistaken for Muslims. Citations of nasty incidents in suburban Bridgeview and Collingswood, N.J. A man pushing a stroller past a mosque and yelling, “You Islam mosquitoes should be killed.” There are more.

The “1700%” alludes to a national increase in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes after the Sept. 11 attacks. The video is unsparing and short of uplifting, but effectively unsettling, concluding with spare words across the screen: “Look at what you’ve done … because we refuse to end the violence.”

The videos are the next stage in a Chicago experiment — One Chicago, One Nation — to create greater understanding of a Muslim population estimated as high as 6 million in the United States, with the largest number, perhaps 400,000, in the metro area. The endeavor is backed financially by George F. Russell Jr. of Tacoma, Wash., founder of a billion-dollar investment-services firm best known for the Russell 2000 stock index.

Mr. Russell was moved by the events of Sept. 11 and joined in a worthy effort by the Chicago Community Trust, San Francisco-based Link TV and two other Chicago groups, the Interfaith Youth Core and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network. Mayor Richard M. Daley was at Saturday’s announcement by the groups of 100 “community ambassadors” to lead gatherings in various forums and help oversee $200,000 from Mr. Russell to spur interfaith cooperation.

Click here to watch the winning films.

Click here to read the full article.

This week we have seen some significant steps taken to strengthen the relationships among the diverse religious communities of Silicon Valley.

For the past several months, two Faiths Act Fellows, Tim Brauhn and Hafsa Arain, have been stationed in San Jose to help build a network of students interested in cooperative efforts of service to address global poverty. Sponsored by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Interfaith Youth Core, Tim and Hafsa have been working with students up and down the Peninsula to join together in working to eradicate malaria.

As their term of service comes to an end, they have sponsored meetings in San Francisco earlier this month and again this last Monday, May 10, in San Jose, to report on their efforts and to lay a groundwork for continuing after they go. In the time they have been in this area, they have held fourteen gatherings, have gathered a “Hub” team of 25 people, and have built groups at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, UC Berkeley, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, and Stanford.

Also this week, over forty people representing a wide range of religious and community organizations met at the South Bay Islamic Association center in San Jose and resolved to take the necessary steps toward building a multifaith organization that would enable the religious communities of the South Bay to take a more visible and active role in service to the wider community, engagement with governmental and educational institutions, and stronger relationships with one another in building a peaceable environment for all.

The new organization would take on the functions of Silicon Valley’s status as a member of the Partner City Network of the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Click here to read the full article

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Dirk Ficca, Executive Director, Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions
Eboo Patel, Executive Director, Interfaith Youth Core
Afeefa Syeed, Senior Culture and Development Advisor, Asia and Middle East Bureaus, U.S. Agency for International Development
Moderated by Rachel Bronson, Vice President for Programs and Studies, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs

June 4, 2010 marks the first anniversary of President Obama’s speech at Cairo University, during which he outlined a path toward “a new beginning” with Muslim communities around the world. During his speech the President recognized the importance of engaging not only with governments but with economically and politically influential sectors of societies, including Muslim communities. It follows that the next steps will include a strategy to engage religious communities of all faiths in addressing pressing foreign policy challenges, and to build the institutional capacity to support it. The Chicago Council is particularly interested in the Administration’s follow-up to the Cairo speech given our recent task force report, Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy, which outlines specific policy recommendations towards such a strategy. Join us for an important conversation that will serve as both a one-year anniversary review of President Obama’s speech in Cairo and the Chicago presentation of The Chicago Council’s task force report.

Dirk Ficca serves as executive director of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. Ficca worked closely with the religious and spiritual communities of the Chicago metropolitan area to plan and organize the 1993 Parliament event in Chicago. Ficca is an ordained Presbyterian minister and prior to joining the Council served for eleven years as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Benton Harbor, Michigan. He teaches at DePaul University, the Lutheran School of Theology, and Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Eboo Patel is the founder and executive director of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based institution building the global interfaith youth movement. He is author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. He is a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and is a board member at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and served as a member of the Chicago Council task force that produced Engaging Religious Communities Abroad. He holds a doctorate from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship.

Afeefa Syeed is senior advisor at the USAID Middle East and Asia Bureaus. Syeed designs and implements initiatives and training to address issues of engaging traditional and religious leaders and institutions, radicalization, madrassah enhancement, mainstreaming gender, and other emerging programs in the Middle East and Asia. Her work has also included advising the White House, NSC, DOS, and DHS on the same issues. She has consulted with the UN Democracy Fund, World Bank, the U.S. State Department Office for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Department of Human Rights and Labor, and various in-country and international organizations.

The panel will be moderated by Rachel Bronson, Vice President for Programs and Studies, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs

The Chicago Club
81 East Van Buren Street
Chicago, IL 60605
Business attire is required.

5:30 p.m. Registration and reception
6:00 p.m. Presentation and discussion
7:15 p.m. Adjournment

Individuals $10
President’s Circle, Corporate Members, and Student Members complimentary

Register Now

This short film features the Council’s executive director, Rev. Dirk Ficca, and was recently awarded a Bronze Remi Award from WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. Darfur: Raging Genocide Continues was made in collaboration with Interfaith Youth Core, Amnesty International, the UNA and directed by Fr. Armando Ibanez of Flashpoint Media. Congratulations to Fr. Armando and team for this honor.

Join us on April 14 for Critical Encounters Book Salon at Columbia College in partnership with the Project on Civic Reflection, Interfaith Youth Core and the Illinois Humanities Council for a discussion featuring “Hearing the Call Across Traditions: Readings on Faith & Service” to explore how the act of service to others is informed by spirituality and religion.

Adam Davis from the Project on Civic Reflection will lead the discussion featuring essays, poetry, and sacred texts on the topic of commitment to service. A limited number of copies will be available from the Center for Teaching Excellence, and essays for discussion will also be provided at the event.

For more information on Critical Encounters visit: http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters/index.php

In September 2009 the Rev. Dirk Ficca, executive director of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR) sat down for a video interview with Erin Williams of the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC).  In addition to providing images and context for the organization over the last century, the conversation touched on the fruits of our Barcelona event, the promise of Melbourne and Dirk’s original encounter with the interreligious movement.

The interview is hosted on our YouTube account in two installments.

For Part One, click here.

For Part Two, click here.

Eboo Patel is a member of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Faith Advisory Council and is executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core.  He is also a longtime friend of the Parliament of Religions, with his involvement dating back to the 1993 Parliament in Chicago.  Mr. Patel was recently honored as one of America’s Best Leaders by the U.S. News and World Report.  To read more, click here.