State of Formation is calling all nominations! Photo from SoF

Greetings,

State of Formation is pleased to announce it is accepting applications for Contributing Scholars!

State of Formation is a community conversation between young leaders in formation. Together, a cohort of seminarians, rabbinical students, graduate students and the like – the future religious and moral leaders of tomorrow – will work to redefine the ethical discourse today, particularly as it is used to refract current events and personal experiences. This initiative is supported by a partnership between the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR), Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue (JIRD), Hebrew College, and Andover Newton Theological School.

Over the past two years, emerging religious and ethical leaders from around the country and the world have engaged each other and readers by sharing their stories and views on State of Formation. Conversations once dominated by established leaders are now readily embraced by the up-and-comers, and accessible to contributors from many different moral, faith, political, economic, and social backgrounds.

Contributing Scholars to State of Formation will be able to take advantage of the numerous benefits to participating in the State of Formation Contributing Scholars Fellowship. In addition to being recognized as a Contributing Scholar by JIRD and CPWR, they may be eligible for travel grants and may have their work featured in articles on additional platforms like CPWR’s website, PeaceNext, The Huffington Post, Interfaith Youth Core, Pluralism Project, Interfaith Observer, and Tikkun.

Nominees should be currently enrolled in a seminary, rabbinical school, graduate program, or another institution for theological or philosophical formation — or up to three years out of their graduate program in a professional setting. (On rare occasions, exceptions will be made to these guidelines in order to increase the diversity of the writers.)  Contributors should be able to commit to post monthly on the forum while showing respect others from different traditions.

Does this describe you or an emerging leader you know? Please take a moment to fill out our brief nomination form. Nominations for the fall are due September 30, 2012 and will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Sincerely,
Honna Eichler, Managing Director of State of Formation at the Journal for Inter-Religious Dialogue.

Fred Luter, newly elected leader of the Southern Baptist Convention.

by Kathy Finn
from Reuters

The largest U.S. Protestant denomination chose its first black president on Tuesday, an historic election for the predominately white religious group as it seeks to better reflect the diversity of the country and its membership.

Fred Luter, a New Orleans pastor and civic leader, ran unopposed for the top post in the 167-year-old Southern Baptist Convention, which counts a growing number of minorities among its 16 million members.

His election to a one-year term was met by thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the thousands of Southern Baptists attending the convention’s annual meeting in New Orleans.

Click here to read the full article

Former Prime Minister of Britain and founder of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, Tony Blair. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation promotes respect and understanding between the major religions and makes the case for faith as a force for good in the modern world. Faith is vitally important to hundreds of millions of people. But religious faith can also be used to divide. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is a response to these opportunities and challenges. Photo from Wikimedia Commons

by Tony Blair
from the Huffington Post

The Alpha Leadership conference taking place today in London is a reminder that despite all the negative news about religion, a different face of faith is visible and real the world over. The Alpha course on leadership, which was begun under Nicky Gumbel of the Holy Trinity Church in London, has been taken by 18 million people world-wide and is all about spreading a gospel of compassion and service to others. A similar message is given out from the remarkable Rick Warren’s church in Southern California where his congregation now numbers in excess of 100,000 people and his global reach extends to every nation on earth.

But such work is not confined to the Christian religion. There are extraordinary Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist organisations that do great work and show selfless sacrifice in some of the poorest and most forgotten parts of the world. 40% of the healthcare in Africa is delivered by Faith groups, notably the Catholic Church.

When we began the Tony Blair Faith Foundation four years ago, there was a lot of scepticism as to whether there really was any interest in inter-faith understanding. Weren’t religion and religious people bound to be introspective and uninterested in the faith of others? Today we are active in 20 countries, thousands of people take part in our programmes and we have volunteers in over 140 nations. The truth is that the numbers of people who have Faith is growing, such growth is not at all limited to the developing world and it is simply impossible to comprehend politics in certain parts of the world – e.g. the Middle East – without comprehending the importance of Faith.

Click here to read the full article

Exploratory Conversations about Women, Spirituality and Leadership

Calling all women of faith and spirit! You know there is something important about this moment in human history. You know it from your rich experiences in the world — from a place of deep wisdom within.  Your unique pattern of knowing is part of a larger pattern of feminine wisdom which may have the potential to powerfully animate the spiritual leadership of women in service of humanity. We are excited about the possibilities that lie before us  and are deeply curious to learn more about the pattern of women’s spiritual leadership in at this moment in time.

We, the organizers of Women of Faith and Spirit, attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions in December 2009 and in our explorations to date have observed:

• While there are currently many initiatives focusing on women’s leadership, most do not emphasize the spiritual needs and issues unique to women and that may indeed represent some of the most significant barriers to activating their authentic leadership.
• While there are many diverse initiatives and networks for spiritual women, there exists in this moment a powerful opportunity to build a larger field of collaboration, passion and action by building bridges of understanding to connect these diverse networks in a web of spiritual presence.

You are invited to join us for a series of four ‘Exploratory Conversations’ hosted as conference calls from April through July 2010. Focusing on a series of questions, this inquiry will allow us to explore together the pattern of women’s spiritual leadership.

May 20 ~ Thursday                5 – 6 p.m. Pacific/ 8 -9 p.m. Eastern
Topic: What is the special contribution of women to spiritual leadership?

June 17 ~ Thursday                 5 – 6 p.m. Pacific/ 8 – 9 p.m. Eastern
Topic: How might we animate women to claim their voices/roles as spiritual leaders?

July 15 ~ Thursday                  5 – 6 p.m. Pacific/ 8 – 9 p.m. Eastern
Topic: What is waiting to be birthed in the community of women and spirit?

Simply RSVP to any one of us by email and indicate your interest in any or all upcoming conversations. We will send you the conference call information once we hear from you.

We would be happy to answer any questions you might have and look forward to an exciting year of listening to the wisdom of the women of faith and spirit.

In gratitude,

Kathe Schaaf  – Women’s Spirit Council at:   katheschaaf@cox.net

Kay Lindahl – The Listening Center at:  thelisteningcenter@yahoo.com

Guo Cheen -Compassionate Action Network:  thecompassionnetwork@gmail.com

Click here for more information