Reports from ICP Executive Director Linda Crawford, who is attending the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) gathering in Canada, July 19-22.
Wed., July 22, 2015


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Restoring Spirit Through Sacred Listening
This was our final half-day. We had made many friends and were energized by the conference.


On the first day of the conference, we had been introduced to a mandala that had been set up in the Chapel. Guided by a follower of Tibetan Buddhism, we were all encouraged to participate in painting sand onto a pattern (see photos below). On this, the last day, we assembled in the Chapel for the final ceremony of blessing and the disassembling of the mandala. We were given the opportunity to put sand into small bags to take home, and then the rest of the sand was sprinkled over a nearby lake to take the blessings and prayers all over the world.


Some Reflections:

• Regina is an amazingly diverse community. I met Baha’is, Muslims, Sikhs. Imagine – out here in the prairie.
• The Young Adult Scholars reminded me of the initiative of the Marin Interfaith Council in developing young interfaith leaders. These “kids” are all connected to Eboo Patel’s Interfaith Youth Core and represent great hope for the future.
• Of the 150 attendees, nearly half were first-timers. Next year NAIN will be held in Guadalajara – first time in Mexico.
• Young Muslim women are active in opening Islam to the LGBT community and addressing gender inequality. They introduced us to www.inclusivemosqueinitiative .org, which, among other goals, aims to “value gender expression and gender justice as an integral manifestation of Islamic practice” and looks to engage with “houses of worship internationally which share our aims within the context of their own religious tradition.”
• I met Vicki Garlock from Asheville, NC, who is developing an interfaith curriculum for children from preschool through 8th grade. Vicki is looking for congregations to help her test this curriculum. Her website is www.faithseekerkids.com.
• I sat with an Atheist young woman on the plane who is an interfaith leader at Concordia College (Lutheran!) in Nebraska. She helped develop the curriculum for a new minor in interfaith studies. She will be one of the first to earn that minor.

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Reports from ICP Executive Director Linda Crawford, who is attending the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) gathering in Canada, July 19-22.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015


Restoring Spirit Through Sacred Listening
The agenda today included many presentations, workshops and outings centered on indigenous people and issues concerning them. I would have loved to have participated in all of them, but there were other equally interesting sessions to attend.
Last month, the Marin Interfaith Council presented the film To Light a Candle, which I had been unable to attend. I was therefore pleased to find that the Baha’i community of Regina showed it at NAIN. The film tells the story of the extreme persecution of Baha’is in Iran and the courage of that community to provide education and support to their community. Several universities in the U.S. provide courses and curricula over the Internet to them.
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ICP’s long-time friend, Rachel Watcher presented a workshop titled “Comparing the Styles of Communication by which We Meet, Share Information, and Come to Decisions.” We participated in indigenous, consensus, and Robert’s Rules of Order styles of decision-making.  A teachable moment; a Sikh (from India?) had no idea what Robert’s Rules of Order are. Oops. Great discussion around the pros & cons of each. Rachel is a proponent and practitioner of consensus.


The plenary session at the end of the day was “Community Conversations: NAIN Young Adult Scholars.” The four young people connected with the audience by referring to their notes, whether on paper or smart phone, and then speaking from their hearts. These impressive young adults are doing amazing work in their universities around North America. It was very inspiring.

Reports from ICP Executive Director Linda Crawford, who is attending the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) gathering in Canada, July 19-22.
Monday, July 20, 2015

Restoring Spirit Through Sacred Listening
Goodness, where to start. I said yesterday that I was looking forward to learning more about Canada’s First Nations, and I did.

Did you know that there is a Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada? The morning plenary session was presented by Dr. Marie Wilson, one of the commissioners who had also served on the same type of commission in South Africa. Why a TRC in Canada?

Like the U.S., Canada has its ugly history in how it has treated indigenous, aboriginal, First Nations people. (I never heard the word “Indian” or “Native Canadian.”) From 1831 to 1969, nearly 30% of Native Canadian (Wikipedia) children were ripped from their families to attend Residential (Boarding) Schools for the purposes of assimilation and Christian conversion, predominantly by the Roman Catholic Church in Canada (60%), but also the Anglican Church of Canada (30%), and the United Church of Canada (10%).

These children were not allowed to speak in their own language, visit their families, or participate in their culture. As Wikipedia reports, “(this was equivalent to) cultural genocide or ‘killing the Indian in the child’”. They were terribly abused – physically, sexually, emotionally and psychologically. It is believed that over 4,000 of them died – many never accounted for.
The first church to apologize to the First Nations, Inuit, and Meti peoples was the United Church of Canada in 1986. The Canadian government didn’t apologize until 2006, and that was mandated by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the result, I believe, of a lawsuit. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed out of that.

See http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=3.

In the afternoon, I joined a tour of the Royal Canadian Mounted (Not Any More) Police Depot (Training Center for all of Canada) & Heritage Center. We visited the Chapel where the chaplain talked about his role in serving the needs of all diverse faiths in the RCMP. He has created a multi-cultural center where provisions are made for cadets of all faiths to have a sacred place to go.

It turns out that it was the RCMP who rounded up the indigenous children and took them away to the residential schools.

The day ended with my attending my first ever sweat lodge behind First Nations University. What a blessing. There were 4 half-hour sessions with the flaps thrown open for air and the ability to go outside. Each session had a focus, such as contacting the grandmothers and fathers, healing, and gratitude. One woman was so overcome with emotion within the first 20 minutes, that she had to leave. She sat outside and came back in later.
The elders prepared us well and were quite gracious and helpful, but it sure got hot.

Reflection: There’s a reason NAIN chose the word “Network” instead of “Council” or some other name. It really is about networking and building relationships. In each session, mealtime & tour, we got a chance to meet each other and connect. It’s been quite wonderful.
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Reports from ICP Executive Director Linda Crawford, who is attending the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) gathering in Canada, July 19-22.

Sun., July 19, 2015


Arrived in Regina (pronounced with a long “i” sound), Saskatchewan, Canada, for the annual NAIN (North American Interfaith Network) conference. This is the first one I’ve been to since ICP hosted it in 2008 at USF.


Got here Fri. night & rented a car so I could do some sightseeing. Couldn’t find the University of Regina (Yes, I’m staying in a dorm.) in the dark, in the rain, in a humongous Dodge Durango), so I bunked at the Double Tree Inn for the night.


Had a lovely day Sat. exploring the prairie and Last Mountain Lake. (Actually saw a prairie dog.) Visited a re-creation of a fur-trading outpost.
Started meeting people Sat. night. Jan & Paul Chaffee were surprised to see me! They started attending NAIN beginning in 1996 and only missed a few conferences. I believe Paul served on the board at one time. They’ve been great supporters.


We’re meeting and some of us are staying at Luther College within the University of Regina. Campion College is a Jesuit school also affiliated with UR. The most interesting college here is First Nations University. I haven’t figured out how the Canadian government and the indigenous peoples work this all out, but clearly treaties signed in the 1870’s still play a big role today. When the presidents of Luther College, Campion College and UR spoke, they always prefaced their words by saying that we were on on Treaty 4 Land. I’m anxious to learn more.


“Multi-faith” is used here in Canada much more than “Interfaith”. 2 local groups are Mult-ifaith Saskatchewan and Regina Multi-faith Forum which just turned 25, a year younger than the San Francisco Interfaith Council.
A most amazing evening of “Sacred Listening.” Jains, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs sang, danced, recited poems, prayed, chanted, blew shofars and conches. It was like “America’s Got Talent” only with a spiritual bent and much better.


I’m meeting amazing people;

• Bettina Gray (whom I know) from Berkeley who founded NAIN 26 years ago.
• Paul McKenna (with whom I’ve been in touch) from the Interfaith Office of Scarboro Missions, a Canadian Roman Catholic Mission Society. I believe he helped develop The Golden Rule poster.
• Fredrich Ulrich from the Jodo Shinsu (Japanese) Church of Canada. Fred knows our friend Ron Kobata from seminary. (Ron is the minister of the S.F. Buddhist Church.)
• Budd Friend-Jones, pastor of First Congregational Church of Crystal Springs, IL., who is on the board of FaithBridge an active interfaith organization, has published 2 books and is planning to write a book on how other faith traditions view Jesus of Nazareth. He’s very kindly shared the names of some of the books he’s using for his research.

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More tomorrow.