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Wow, I haven't managed to write a journal entry in a week. This is probably mostly because the week was undistinguished. But the weekend was pretty cool, so I'll write about that. :-)
( Thursday-Saturday cut for length )
Sunday Russell dragged me ot to breakfast to give me a good foundation for my second day of meetings. This was a great goodness and even though I fretted about the time I took it was a *really* good idea! Then I printed up the registration materials for the pre-Parliament event and headed off to pick up Valerie (a Buddhist who lives in Santa Clara) and head for San Francisco. St. Aidan's is a very nice church in Diamond Heights. I confess I was a bit dismayed that they hadn't mentioned our event to their congregation. *sigh* The youth minister there stayed part of the afternoon but as he had just heard about it he had other plans. Usually when a place hosts us that means we get folks from that group.
We had about 60 attendees and the day went well. Masankho Banda talked about being a refugee from Malawi and we all had interesting conversations about being a refugee and how to help refugees feel welcomed and intergrated into their new communities. In my intra-faith group there was a young man named Matthew who had lived in Ireland and recounted that the Irish Pagan folks were very welcoming of Bosnia refugees and that part of the basis was seeing their Gods as having come to Ireland as refugees. I admit I never thought of if that way! The things the Pagans present thought our tradition brought to the question of refugees and the conditions that create refugees were (a) a sense of interconnectedness of all things, (b) an emphasis on healing, and (c) a concern not just for the people but for the land since the conditions that create refugees - war, natural disaster, etc. - generally harm the ecosystem as well as the people. The interfaith conversation was interesting as everyone brought the ideas from their intrafaith groups to share. Some thoughts from that conversation (a) we all have to leave home, (b) we need to find our deep center/core, (c) we need ways to preserve our traditions, (d) we have to combat the tendency toward stereotypes, objectification and separation, (e) violence makes such an impact on refugees - we need social justice, psychological and spiritual ways to help, (f) we need to create conscious rituals to honor and help people through trauma and into reintegration with community and (g) we need to remember that new community members enrich and renew a community and should be welcomed. We all shared a lovely Pakistani meal and then did an hour of Dances of Universal Peace. I *really* do want to go to those dances in San Jose! First Friday of the month at the SJ Unitarian downtown. Hmm. I put it on my calendar for the first Friday in April... the first one I have free! Eeep!
Then I came home and went directly to bed. A long and tiring but basically satisfying weekend!
( silliness and quizzes )
( Thursday-Saturday cut for length )
Sunday Russell dragged me ot to breakfast to give me a good foundation for my second day of meetings. This was a great goodness and even though I fretted about the time I took it was a *really* good idea! Then I printed up the registration materials for the pre-Parliament event and headed off to pick up Valerie (a Buddhist who lives in Santa Clara) and head for San Francisco. St. Aidan's is a very nice church in Diamond Heights. I confess I was a bit dismayed that they hadn't mentioned our event to their congregation. *sigh* The youth minister there stayed part of the afternoon but as he had just heard about it he had other plans. Usually when a place hosts us that means we get folks from that group.
We had about 60 attendees and the day went well. Masankho Banda talked about being a refugee from Malawi and we all had interesting conversations about being a refugee and how to help refugees feel welcomed and intergrated into their new communities. In my intra-faith group there was a young man named Matthew who had lived in Ireland and recounted that the Irish Pagan folks were very welcoming of Bosnia refugees and that part of the basis was seeing their Gods as having come to Ireland as refugees. I admit I never thought of if that way! The things the Pagans present thought our tradition brought to the question of refugees and the conditions that create refugees were (a) a sense of interconnectedness of all things, (b) an emphasis on healing, and (c) a concern not just for the people but for the land since the conditions that create refugees - war, natural disaster, etc. - generally harm the ecosystem as well as the people. The interfaith conversation was interesting as everyone brought the ideas from their intrafaith groups to share. Some thoughts from that conversation (a) we all have to leave home, (b) we need to find our deep center/core, (c) we need ways to preserve our traditions, (d) we have to combat the tendency toward stereotypes, objectification and separation, (e) violence makes such an impact on refugees - we need social justice, psychological and spiritual ways to help, (f) we need to create conscious rituals to honor and help people through trauma and into reintegration with community and (g) we need to remember that new community members enrich and renew a community and should be welcomed. We all shared a lovely Pakistani meal and then did an hour of Dances of Universal Peace. I *really* do want to go to those dances in San Jose! First Friday of the month at the SJ Unitarian downtown. Hmm. I put it on my calendar for the first Friday in April... the first one I have free! Eeep!
Then I came home and went directly to bed. A long and tiring but basically satisfying weekend!
( silliness and quizzes )
