"Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
MnMN Seeking Summer 2023 Intern for Interfaith Mapping Project!
The Minnesota Multifaith Network seeks interns to assist staff and volunteers of MnMN with the following tasks:
Gather information about multifaith groups in Minnesota. Information to be gathered includes nature and purpose of the group, leadership and contact information for leaders, activity.
Update and refine MnMN’s website map of multifaith groups, organizational partners and individual members.
Extend invitations to religious leaders, faith communities and organizations to join MnMN.
Gather information about individual participants in various traditions who have an interest in interfaith relations. Help find ways for them to take action in their own faith communities, organizations, interfaith groups or with MnMN. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Jen Kilps.
Thinking Religiously Together
Wednesday, June 14, 7:00 – 8:00pm, Online
"Perception is so important. If we can do away with misconceptions about other faiths, we can move forward together. Living in the now is essential to being who we are and how we interact with one another. We need to meet people where they are – when they are – and how they need us to meet them."
All are invited to participate in this monthly convening. Each gathering of “Thinking Religiously Together” will last one hour and feature a presentation from a lay person, faith leader or scholar on a preselected topic typically concerning a particular question or faith tradition.
Presentations are followed by small group discussions and open discussion around the questions - What did you learn today? What new questions do you have?
MnMN Organizational Partners and Individual Members are welcome to submit events and news for inclusion in our newsletter. To make a submission, please email us. Submissions for the next newsletter are due Friday, June 16. If you are not yet an Organizational Partner or Individual Member, we encourage you to join us!
Midwest Town Hall: The End-of-Life Options Movement’s Midwest Moment
Thursday, June 8, 5:00 - 6:00 pm, Online
Please join Compassion & Choices President and CEO Kim Callinan for an update on the end-of-life care options movement in the Midwest and across the country.
In 2020 and 2022, Kim Callinan joined Midwest volunteers for an update on Compassion & Choices' response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the positioning of our movement across the country and in the Midwest.
Join Kim to learn the latest on our national movement and the work in the Midwest to expand and protect end-of-life care options and navigate end-of-life care and planning, including our organizational priorities in the coming years.
Saturday, June 10, 6:00 - 9:00 pm, 3533 Lexington Ave, Arden Hills, MN 55126
The event will include a performance by Br. Ali, the hip hop artist, a display of Tracks in the Snow - a look at diversity in the Muslim community-, tours, and chatting and getting to know one another.
Faith leaders on Earth – a multi-faith panel
Tuesday, June 13, 7:00 - 8:15 pm, Online
Join our faith leader panel as they introduce us to the jewels of their tradition’s teachings on care for the earth. Panelists: Dr. Prasad Bastodkar, Hindu Society of Minnesota; Payton Hoegh, Episcopal Los Angeles and Center for Spirituality in Nature; Rabbi Ricky Kamil Temple Israel, Minneapolis and Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative; Rev. Onryu Laura Kennedy, Buddhist priest / teacher; Lóre Stevens, First Universalist Church, Minneapolis
It is common knowledge that many faith traditions offer wisdom about humans’ relationship with the earth, but what are the specifics? For example, what does Hinduism teach, and how might that be different from Jewish wisdom? How does Buddhism guide its followers about nature? Is Christian teaching about the earth different from its cultural U.S. practice? Join us for a rich time of sharing, discussion, and insight.
Friday, June 16, 4:00 - 8:00 pm, Carondelet Center, 1890 Randolph Ave. St. Paul, MN 55105
Join us for Wisdom Ways’ 2nd Annual Summer Solstice Celebration! We’ll be celebrating with food, community, music, and fun activities! It’ll be held outside at the Carondelet Center.
This event is FREE, and folks are invited to come and go throughout the event.
Saturday, July 15, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm, Hindu Temple of Minnesota, 10530 Temple Drive, Maple Grove, MN 55311
Join us for a celebration of Indian culture and heritage at the Hindu Temple of MN! Our Cultural Heritage Day is sure to be a blast, with tons of fun activities, traditional dances, beautiful music, and more. Save the date and come immerse yourself in the rich traditions of India! ????
Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy in Religiously Diverse Societies
Tuesday, October 17, 12:00 - 1:15 pm, Online
The recent open-access volume Complexities of Spiritual Care in Plural Societies: Education, Praxis and Concepts (De Gruyter, 2022) contributes to an emerging field that could be referred to as "plural spiritual care and chaplaincy," by innovatively bringing together contributions from a broad range of contexts and religious traditions. Including empirical work and conceptual explorations, the volume helps to fill the gap between practices and developments related to plural spiritual care and chaplaincy in the scholarly discourse, and their application for practitioners serving religiously diverse populations in health and chaplaincy settings. In this webinar, editor Anne Hege Grung will introduce the book and project, contributor Nazila Isgandarova will discuss female voices in Islamic spiritual care, and contributor Su Yon Pak will explore Buddhist chaplaincy education at a Protestant seminary. Time will be allowed for discussion and questions. Free and open to the public.
Shehla Mushtaq, Vice Chair of the MnMN Network Council was featured in a fantastic story on DesiStoriesAshaUSA! "Shehla believes in, and promotes the power of ‘Connecting’ and ‘Serving’ at the most fundamental level…as a thinking and feeling human being. This is illustrated in the interconnected paths of her life story featured [at this link]: The Poet, Citizen of Humanity and Business Person."
On May 20, MnMN and many other interfaith and community organizations gathered to celebrate International Day of Living Together in Peace in Lakeville. Read a write-up of the event here!
Pew Research Center has found a growing number of countries around the world in which anti-Jewish harassment has occurred, and the overwhelming majority of U.S. Jews said in our 2020 survey that there was “a lot” of (45%) or “some” (47%) antisemitism in the United States. Three-quarters of Jewish Americans said at the time that there was more antisemitism compared with five years prior, just over half (53%) said they felt less safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. than they did five years before, and 34% said they had heard someone repeat at least one of three antisemitic tropes in their presence in the previous year. Jews who usually wear something in public that is recognizably Jewish (such as a kippa or head covering) were especially likely to report encountering antisemitism firsthand.
Emerging Leaders Multifaith Action Council (ELMAC) has announced its first leadership cohort! Ameera Khan, Elizabeth Kulus, Jack Hurbanis, Khin Oo, and Ryan Avenido have all generously agreed to help lead the future of multifaith work in Minnesota and beyond. These young people will help to craft and lead the members of ELMAC as we determine our mission, vision, and goals and work to execute those goals within the wider community.
Being a part of ELMAC means being a part of a community that advocates for change and advises communities on how to execute those changes. If you are interested in participating in this community, please fill out this form. Please also feel free to share this form with anyone religious, spiritual, or of no faith who may be interested in participating in ELMAC’s development and execution.
Interfaith Photovoice is sponsoring a photo contest for the August 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religion convening in Chicago. You are invited to submit images in response to the following prompt: What do you hope for? Entries will be accepted 15 May – 30 June.
More Events
Join Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign for Using the Social Change Map to Counter Anti-Muslim Discrimination, Thursday, June 15, 12:00 - 1:30 pm, Online. What are your values when it comes to advancing social change and where do you fit in in the larger social change ecosystem? Each of us can contribute to our social change ecosystems by clarifying our shared values and mapping our roles. This workshop, facilitated by Deepa Iyer, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at Building Movement Project, is designed for those at every stage of their individual and organizational journeys towards justice, equity and solidarity. It introduces an ecosystems framework that includes ten roles that many of us play in service of our social change values. We will apply this framework to the work of countering anti-Muslim discrimination.
Join the St. Cloud community for a Juneteenth Celebration, Friday, June 16, 3:00 – 9:00 pm, Lake George in St. Cloud
.png)
