Who Knows the Real God?
An exciting journey begins this week and all are invited to come along! During the months of May and June we have the opportunity to explore a variety of religious traditions. We live in a time and in a country where it is more and more important for people of different faiths to understand and respect one another. Each Sunday morning at 9:30 AM from May 4 to June 15, all are invited to come to the chapel to attend a forum. On two of the Sundays, discussion will be led by members of First Baptist Church, and on the other five Sundays we will welcome guests speakers, practitioners from other faith communities. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the beliefs of others while coming to an even greater understanding of your own convictions.
Exploring Religious Connections
Each Sunday morning, all are welcome to a Forum and Discussion with a Practitioner of a Different Faith (9:30 - 10:30 am in the Chapel) and then to stay for Worship at 11:00 am.
Sunday, May 4th - Dr. James Gubbins, Professor of World Religions at Salem State College, will join Rev. Beth Loughhead in leading an opening discussion about the varied and rich religious traditions in the world and in our community. This will be an introduction to the series that will follow, and it will look at some of the issues that surround conversation between practitioners of different faiths, as well as taking up the question what is pluralism?
Sunday, May 11th - Judaism: Joining us will be Rich Dinkin. Rich is a life-long resident of Beverly and has chaired the Beverly Planning Board for over 20 years. He is also the Assistant Director of Mass Health Publications.
Sunday, May 18th - Bahá'í Faith: Likely not as well known as the other religious traditions we are exploring in this series, the central theme of the Bahá'í Faith is that humanity is one single race and that the day has come for its unification,
breaking down traditional barriers of race, class, creed, and nation. The youngest of the world’s independent religions, it is practiced by over six million people worldwide and an estimated 150,000 in this
country. Most American adherents of Bahá'í actually come from other religious traditions, and our guests — Steve Hemingway and others from local Salem Bahá'í Associations — will be sharing some of the reasons why the Bahá'í Faith has become their tradition and spiritual practice.
Sunday, May 25th - Presentation and discussion of a recorded lecture by Dr. Diana Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University and a member of the Faculty of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. Dr. Eck is also the Director of the Pluralism Project.
Sunday, June 1st - Hinduism:
Join us as we welcome our guests Lisa Marchand and her fiancé Acyuta, who will share with us about their faith. They are members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and are affiliated with the Ashram in Boston.
Sunday, June 8th - Islam: Join us as we welcome our guest
speaker Lizzie Dern, the Outreach Center Coordinator for the Muslim American Society of Boston.
Sunday, June 15th - Buddhism
Promote Religious Tolerance!
Members of the Youth Fellowships will be in the narthex each Sunday selling wonderful bumper stickers promoting the idea of religious tolerance and the need for peace. All the money raised will go to support the youth programs of the church (which are attended from youth all over our community and from different churches and religious traditions), and these fun and funky stickers bring an important message you can help spread when you put one on your car, on a water bottle, a notebook, a bulletin board at the office... anywhere! Please look for them and help support our youth fellowship programs!