Author Archives: sivicouncil

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Silicon Valley Interreligious Council (SiVIC)

Speaking out against genocide

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SiVIC has joined with other interfaith organizations around the Bay Area to raise awareness of the attacks on the Yezidi- a minority religion in northern Iraq currently under assault by ISIS.

There will be a press conference next Wednesday, April 15, and an informational meeting at the Interfaith Center at the Presidio on Monday, April 27. Other interfaith groups include the Interfaith Center at the Presidio, San Francisco Interfaith Council, Marin Interfaith Council, and the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County.

There is an article on the URI blog with details of how you can get involved:

Bay Area CCs launch Yezidi genocide awareness campaign

SiVIC at the American Academy of Religion

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D. Andrew Kille, Henry Millstein, and Boo Riley

Andrew Kille, Henry Millstein, and Boo Riley

The Western Regional Meeting of the American Academy of Religion gathered at Santa Clara University March 20-22, 2015. At one of the sessions of the “Religion in America Unit,” Prof. Philip Boo Riley, Vice Chair of SiVIC, along with Board Chair Rev. D. Andrew Kille and Board Member Henry Millstein, presented some reflections on “Religion in Silicon Valley.” Dr. Riley outlined some issues and concerns in religious studies about the tendency to study and teach religions as if they were monolithic, static, and easily defined, and asked if it was possible to do interreligious work without falling into those traps.

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Tolerance, Respect & Pluralism

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Rev. D. Andrew KilleSiVIC Board Chair Rev. D. Andrew Kille spoke at the Pacifica Institute on March 4, 2015. The title of his talk was “Tolerance, Respect, and Pluralism: Changing Relationships in a “Multi-“ World.” The full text of his presentation, including the “Dialogue Decalogue” developed by Leondard Swidler, is available on the Pacifica Institute website.

Silicon Valley Interfaith Book Club

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booksSiVIC has created a new opportunity for those interested in reading together with people of differing religious traditions. The Silicon Valley Interfaith Book Club, hosted at Goodreads.com, will proved a venue for reading and discussing books focused on faith journeys taken by individuals of different religions and/or spiritual communities.

The book club is moderated by two members of the SiVIC Board, who will work through the book one chapter per week and develop discussion questions for group members to consider and comment.

The group is open to any interested people. To join, simply go to the Club Page, and click the button “Join Group.” Questions about the Book Club can be addressed to info@sivicouncil.org.

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On Attacks on Muslims and Hindus

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February 15, 2015

A week ago, people around the world were celebrating World Interfaith Harmony Week, a week dedicated to building peaceful relationships among the diverse religious communities of the world. SiVIC chose to observe that week with efforts to build compassion. We encouraged people in our community to reach out to one another across boundaries that separate us from each other, and celebrated those compassionate actions, as part of SiVIC’s commitment to build a more just and compassionate society in Silicon Valley. Continue Reading →

Celebrating WIHW: Compassion in a New Light

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SiVIC Interreligious Leaders Forum

Garth Pickett speaks on compassion

by Sari Heidenreich, Regional Coordinator for North America at URI (SiVIC is a Cooperating Circle of URI)

There are special moments in life when things just click, when something you thought you knew takes on new life.

That happened for me yesterday with compassion.

It’s not that before yesterday I didn’t think compassion was important — or that I didn’t seek to practice it everyday. On the contrary, I was doing both of those things. But yesterday, sitting around a table with 25 people, all seeking to understand the role of compassion in their religion and spiritual journey, my understanding of compassion ballooned.

Garth Pickett, a board member of the URI Cooperation Circle Silicon Valley Interreligious Council (SiVIC) and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, shared with the group that, in the Bible, the word compassion is mostly used to describe a feeling while compassion in action is charity.

  As someone raised in the Christian tradition, this set off about a hundred light bulbs in my brain. Charity — that is the word used in that most famous and central of Bible passages — 1 Corinthians 13.

Read more at United Religions Initiative

World Interfaith Harmony Week

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World Interfaith Harmony WeekThe first week of February each year is designated as World Interfaith Harmony Week, “when all interfaith groups and other groups of goodwill can show the world what a powerful movement they are.” Its goals are to highlight Love of God and Love of the Neighbor and/or Love of the Good and Love of the Neighbor. Here are eight things you can do during this week.

Speaking Out against Extremism

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Ameena Jandali and Osgur Koca

Ameena Jandali and Ozgur Koca at Pacifica Institute

Ameena Jandali has been helping people understand what Islam is for a long time and, after all these years, she is concerned that she still needed to explain how Islam is a religion of peace.

She is the co-founder and curriculum director of Islamic Networks Group, a group which has educated students, governmental agencies, religious congregations, hospital staff and more about Islam since 1993. Jandali was one of the panelists at “Muslim Voices Against Extremism,’ an event sponsored by the Pacifica Institute in Sunnyvale, an Affiliate Organization of SiVIC (Silicon Valley Interreligious Council).

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Muslims Speak Out Against Extremism

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Muslim Voices Against Extremism:
Pacifica Institute Speaker Series

Tuesday, January 27, 2015, 6:45 pm
Pacifica Institute-Silicon Valley Branch
1257 Tasman Dr., Unit B, Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Keynote Speakers:

  • Ameena Jandali, content director and founding member of Islamic Networks Group (ING), a non-profit organization with affiliates around the country that counter prejudice and discrimination against American Muslims by teaching about their traditions and contributions in the context of America’s history and cultural diversity, while building relations between American Muslims and other groups.
  • Abdullah bin Hamid Ali, full-time faculty member specializing in Islamic Law, Theology, and Hadith Science at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, CA.
  • Ozgur Koca Assistant Professor of Muslim studies and spent ten years of his life teaching physics, mathematics and astronomy in different countries. His studies focus on Islamic Philosophy-Theology, Spirituality, Science and Religion Discussion, Environmental Ethics, lnterreligious Discourse, and Contemporary Islamic Movements and Ideologies.

FREE Admission; RSVP Required at http://pacificasv.org/rsvp. Sponsored by Pacifica Institute, ING and SiVIC. Download a flyer: Muslim Voices Against Extremism.

Global March

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#GLOBALMARCHFORHUMANITY

Inspired by 1 Billion Acts of Peace, a global initiative seeking to record an unprecedented number of acts of kindness and altruism, coupled with the challenge put forth by Compassion Games International to inspire compassionate competition through a collaborative and cooperative model, a 3 part initiative emerged:

  1. “Like” the Global March for Humanity page on Facebook. Our goal is a million people
  2. Encouraging marches, flash mobs, candle lightings (limited only by your creativity) and acts of compassion during World Interfaith Harmony Week (February 1-7)
  3. Check the Global March website for more information and to report what’s happening