The whole Burma situation is very disheartening. It would be very sad if we keep quiet at times like this!
We are having a vigil in solidarity of the laypeople and the monks in Myanmar on Monday 1 October at 1.30pm in the St. Peter's Chaplaincy yard!
The vigil is organised by the Interfaith Society, St Peters Chaplaincy and with moral support from Buddhist Society. Be there! And tell anyone interested.
Email John jprobhu@yahoo. co.in or John.Probhudan@ manchester. ac.uk) the international students chaplain if you have any questions.
Join at the facebook event and invite your friends:
http://manchester.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6185585903
Friday, 28 September 2007
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Sep 25: First meeting of new term
In the first meeting of the Autumn term, after freshers week, we met at 5:30 pm in St Peters chaplaincy library. There were John, James the new chaplaincy assistant, Claire, Oxana, Joy, Enrique, Rueyfen, Shimon, Mo, Kevin etc. We decided to have Hana Agil (a muslim) as chair, Enrique (a buddhist) as treasurer and Kevin (a catholic christian) as secretary.
We also decided to have a timetable for formal meetings only 1st and 3rd (and 5th) Tuesday of every month at 5:30 in St Peters, but we will meet informally other tuesdays. We will have following:
Films: organised by Yoji
Workshop on Peaceful Zen martial art (oxana) and Bahai tranquility Zone (Schimon)
Scripture study on a given topic (organised by Claire)
Invited speakers for talks (organised by John, he has already talked to Dada from Ananda Marga, a hinduism-related spiritual group)
Kevin's summary of the meeting:
Summary of Minutes from preliminary meeting:
* Events on 1st and 3rd tuesday each month
* Abraham's Table 4th December
* Film 1st October - Yogi has it sorted, I need to book room, projector
* Need to sort visit - Jewish synagogue
* Need to sort speakers
* Scripture - sorted (thanks Olga!)
* Baha'i workshop with Simon sometime
Oxana's proposals for topics for Scripture Studies in 2007-08:
1. Righteous Anger: can anger (or any negative emotions for that matter) be justified?
2. Food and eating
3. Balance between social practice and spiritual practice (Variation: Which figure is an ideal in your religion: a Hermit or an Activist?)
4. What is the balance between the individual and the collectivist in your reigion?
5. The level of Fundamentalism (Dogmatism) prescribed by your scriptures?
6. Balance between institutional religious authority and individual consciousness in your religion?
Then we went to Gita Bhavan hindu Temple on Wilbraham Road (catch 85 bus from RNCM), it was the first meeting of national hindu students forum, website http://www.umsu.manchester.ac.uk/nhsf and
http://www.nhsf.org.uk/
We heard the Panditji (Hindu priest) chant some mantras and prayers to various Gods including Ganesha (God of auspiciousness), Saraswati (Goddess of learning), in Sanskrit, followed by Arati (lighting of lamps and ceremonial worship). Many NHSF officers gave talks about their various activities, including Yoga in Owens Park, Diwali ball, Navratri, Raas Garba, Alton Towers trip etc, all of which are non alcoholic events. A speaker gave an interesting talk on Transnational Indian Identity, and publicised a forum for exchanging views and getting involved in the topic, http://www.t-identity.com/ . Then the people sang some hindu kirtans to Lord Shiva.
Finally we all had some icebreakers and delicious Indian vegetarian food kindly provided by the temple. The priest said that the temple is open daily in the morning and in evening between 7 and 8:30 and invited everyone to visit.
We also decided to have a timetable for formal meetings only 1st and 3rd (and 5th) Tuesday of every month at 5:30 in St Peters, but we will meet informally other tuesdays. We will have following:
Films: organised by Yoji
Workshop on Peaceful Zen martial art (oxana) and Bahai tranquility Zone (Schimon)
Scripture study on a given topic (organised by Claire)
Invited speakers for talks (organised by John, he has already talked to Dada from Ananda Marga, a hinduism-related spiritual group)
Kevin's summary of the meeting:
Summary of Minutes from preliminary meeting:
* Events on 1st and 3rd tuesday each month
* Abraham's Table 4th December
* Film 1st October - Yogi has it sorted, I need to book room, projector
* Need to sort visit - Jewish synagogue
* Need to sort speakers
* Scripture - sorted (thanks Olga!)
* Baha'i workshop with Simon sometime
Oxana's proposals for topics for Scripture Studies in 2007-08:
1. Righteous Anger: can anger (or any negative emotions for that matter) be justified?
2. Food and eating
3. Balance between social practice and spiritual practice (Variation: Which figure is an ideal in your religion: a Hermit or an Activist?)
4. What is the balance between the individual and the collectivist in your reigion?
5. The level of Fundamentalism (Dogmatism) prescribed by your scriptures?
6. Balance between institutional religious authority and individual consciousness in your religion?
Then we went to Gita Bhavan hindu Temple on Wilbraham Road (catch 85 bus from RNCM), it was the first meeting of national hindu students forum, website http://www.umsu.manchester.ac.uk/nhsf and
http://www.nhsf.org.uk/
We heard the Panditji (Hindu priest) chant some mantras and prayers to various Gods including Ganesha (God of auspiciousness), Saraswati (Goddess of learning), in Sanskrit, followed by Arati (lighting of lamps and ceremonial worship). Many NHSF officers gave talks about their various activities, including Yoga in Owens Park, Diwali ball, Navratri, Raas Garba, Alton Towers trip etc, all of which are non alcoholic events. A speaker gave an interesting talk on Transnational Indian Identity, and publicised a forum for exchanging views and getting involved in the topic, http://www.t-identity.com/ . Then the people sang some hindu kirtans to Lord Shiva.
Finally we all had some icebreakers and delicious Indian vegetarian food kindly provided by the temple. The priest said that the temple is open daily in the morning and in evening between 7 and 8:30 and invited everyone to visit.
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Interfaith Soc: activities
The meetings of the multifaith/ interfaith society include:
a. Regular scripture study sessions, where scriptures from various
faiths on a given topic, such as peace, are read and discussed
b. Visits to different places of worship. Last year we have visited a gurudwara (sikh temple), a hindu temple, bahai centre, and a jewish synagogue. The visits usually include a guided tour of the place and a brief introduction to the faith and its rituals, along with a meal, but this depends on the convenience of the organisers of the place of worship that we are visiting.
c. Friendly discussions on a given theme such as food. Since there is a danger of the discussions becoming a source of discord, we tend to keep the themes mostly to topics relating to faith (such as God and rules to be followed) and less to overt politics.
d. Socials, including icebreaker games and movie nights, with a movie shown that promotes interfaith or intercultural harmony, such as "the adventures of Rabbi Jacob" and "my big fat greek wedding".
e. An exhibition of some aspects of different faiths. We have had a workshop (as part of the Multifaith week in the student union) where we shared hindu meditation, bahai tranqulity zone, and a buddhist martial art.
f. We also contribute to giving different interfaith perspectives at the discussion at the interfaith meetings over food called Abraham's Table with the MFRG, the last one being on the theme of Faith and the environment.
g. The interfaith society has a student representative from most of the major world faiths, whose job is to coordinate between the society and the faith communities for the purpose of coordinating visits to their places of worship and for publicising any of their events such as festivals which they might like to share with us. This has resulted in our getting invited to some of the places of worship on special occasions such as the Bahai centre on the world religion day, the Reform Synagogue on the celebration of a festival, and the Buddhist temple on the occasion of Chinese new year. We hope to persuade prominent prominent speakers from different faiths to give us talks in the near future.
a. Regular scripture study sessions, where scriptures from various
faiths on a given topic, such as peace, are read and discussed
b. Visits to different places of worship. Last year we have visited a gurudwara (sikh temple), a hindu temple, bahai centre, and a jewish synagogue. The visits usually include a guided tour of the place and a brief introduction to the faith and its rituals, along with a meal, but this depends on the convenience of the organisers of the place of worship that we are visiting.
c. Friendly discussions on a given theme such as food. Since there is a danger of the discussions becoming a source of discord, we tend to keep the themes mostly to topics relating to faith (such as God and rules to be followed) and less to overt politics.
d. Socials, including icebreaker games and movie nights, with a movie shown that promotes interfaith or intercultural harmony, such as "the adventures of Rabbi Jacob" and "my big fat greek wedding".
e. An exhibition of some aspects of different faiths. We have had a workshop (as part of the Multifaith week in the student union) where we shared hindu meditation, bahai tranqulity zone, and a buddhist martial art.
f. We also contribute to giving different interfaith perspectives at the discussion at the interfaith meetings over food called Abraham's Table with the MFRG, the last one being on the theme of Faith and the environment.
g. The interfaith society has a student representative from most of the major world faiths, whose job is to coordinate between the society and the faith communities for the purpose of coordinating visits to their places of worship and for publicising any of their events such as festivals which they might like to share with us. This has resulted in our getting invited to some of the places of worship on special occasions such as the Bahai centre on the world religion day, the Reform Synagogue on the celebration of a festival, and the Buddhist temple on the occasion of Chinese new year. We hope to persuade prominent prominent speakers from different faiths to give us talks in the near future.
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
May 29: Social at Tai Wu
We had a nice buffet social, discussing things like Richard Dawkins, Bill's book on Only God can be proved to exist by reason, and the travels of many of our members who are going away for the summer.
Tuesday, 22 May 2007
May 22: Discussion on religions and women
We discussed for a while about what to discuss during this meeting. I had some material with me about eco-islam as a leaflet (you can download the leaflet and mor info from http://www.ifees.org.uk/ ) and hare krishna's ecologically self-sustaining community in Hungary
( http://krisnavolgy.hu/english/day/index.html ) so I thought maybe we could discuss about religions and the environment. Robert brought with him a funny film called Victor/Victoria ( http://imdb.com/title/tt0084865/ ) but many of us had to leave early and it was unrelated to religion, so we didnt watch it. He also suggested a channel 4 movie called beautiful thing ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115640/ ). Anyway after a while we ended up discussing religions' approach to women (ironic for 6 guys to discuss, but no less ironic than the womens week at university few months back when there were 6 athiest or cynical women discussing women in religion, and 3 religious men).
Anyway, we discussed the bahai faith approach to women, especially the positive aspect that bahais are supposed to educate their daughters in preference if they have limited means, so that they can grow up to be good mothers. We discussed the buddhist problems about nuns having less rights than monks and the controversial part about women cant get enlightened. We went on to Christianity and discussed how perhaps (controversially for some) Jesus could be interpreted as a radical feminist in his time, since in the gospel are accounts where he touched women to heal them (perhaps not appropriate as per traditional jewish laws of the time), was anointed by a woman, had a woman wash his feet with tears before he washed the disciples' feet, was served water by a samaritan woman etc. we discussed the hindu concept of mother goddess, about God being depicted as androgynous ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanareshvara ) in certain places etc, yet the fact that some women are yet oppressed. I had to leave a bit early, so missed the rest of the discussion. Perhaps Kevin or Robert could fill us in on that.
Thats all for now, think we shall meet again next week if people are willing to come along.
( http://krisnavolgy.hu/english/day/index.html ) so I thought maybe we could discuss about religions and the environment. Robert brought with him a funny film called Victor/Victoria ( http://imdb.com/title/tt0084865/ ) but many of us had to leave early and it was unrelated to religion, so we didnt watch it. He also suggested a channel 4 movie called beautiful thing ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115640/ ). Anyway after a while we ended up discussing religions' approach to women (ironic for 6 guys to discuss, but no less ironic than the womens week at university few months back when there were 6 athiest or cynical women discussing women in religion, and 3 religious men).
Anyway, we discussed the bahai faith approach to women, especially the positive aspect that bahais are supposed to educate their daughters in preference if they have limited means, so that they can grow up to be good mothers. We discussed the buddhist problems about nuns having less rights than monks and the controversial part about women cant get enlightened. We went on to Christianity and discussed how perhaps (controversially for some) Jesus could be interpreted as a radical feminist in his time, since in the gospel are accounts where he touched women to heal them (perhaps not appropriate as per traditional jewish laws of the time), was anointed by a woman, had a woman wash his feet with tears before he washed the disciples' feet, was served water by a samaritan woman etc. we discussed the hindu concept of mother goddess, about God being depicted as androgynous ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanareshvara ) in certain places etc, yet the fact that some women are yet oppressed. I had to leave a bit early, so missed the rest of the discussion. Perhaps Kevin or Robert could fill us in on that.
Thats all for now, think we shall meet again next week if people are willing to come along.
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
May 15: Discussion on meaning of life
We were thinking of showing the film "the Message" based on the founding of Islam by Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) and its early days (at least i brought my laptop and the DVD). However, it was a bit long and some of us had already seen it, so we shelved the plan. I have a DVD that was kindly given by the Islamic society (or it could be didsbury mosque) so if any of you want to borrow it, it can be arranged. For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Message_%28film%29
For those interested in many religious films, you can see the list at http://www.adherents.com/movies/
We started with Oxana sharing some Buddhist jokes from http://www.serve.com/cmtan/buddhism/Lighter/index.html (some of the jokes might need a bit of knowledge about buddhist world to appreciate)
After that we started with a discussion on the meaning of life, sharing our own views. There were various views from different perspectives discussed as to what is the meaning of life, including to get rid of suffering, to live in the fullness of life, to get close to God, to obey God's laws and his messengers, to live and not try to live, to simply exist, etc. We also spoke on how it would be to exist for a child in darfur for example. We also spoke about maths and physics and reality (inductive and abductive arguments, that there is no such thing as a perfect circle) and skepticism (that everything that is spoken is within some axioms out of which no communication is possible) and bayesians and meditation and drugs and a popular catholic priest called Brian D'arcy.
After the discussion, some of us went to falafel for some food. We decided that we would keep these meetings going for next few weeks, as long as people are happy to come along.
For those interested in many religious films, you can see the list at http://www.adherents.com/movies/
We started with Oxana sharing some Buddhist jokes from http://www.serve.com/cmtan/buddhism/Lighter/index.html (some of the jokes might need a bit of knowledge about buddhist world to appreciate)
After that we started with a discussion on the meaning of life, sharing our own views. There were various views from different perspectives discussed as to what is the meaning of life, including to get rid of suffering, to live in the fullness of life, to get close to God, to obey God's laws and his messengers, to live and not try to live, to simply exist, etc. We also spoke on how it would be to exist for a child in darfur for example. We also spoke about maths and physics and reality (inductive and abductive arguments, that there is no such thing as a perfect circle) and skepticism (that everything that is spoken is within some axioms out of which no communication is possible) and bayesians and meditation and drugs and a popular catholic priest called Brian D'arcy.
After the discussion, some of us went to falafel for some food. We decided that we would keep these meetings going for next few weeks, as long as people are happy to come along.
Sunday, 13 May 2007
Mar 13: mass at Holy Name
We went to the Holy Name church and although all couldnt see properly the whole thing, it was certainly a very interesting experience for everyone. At least you can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_%28liturgy%29
After attending the mass we went to Falafel restaurant in Rusholme and had a meal and also had grace before the meal in different languages: Bengali (from John), German (Robert) and English, and witnessed Nicholas and others breaking the Bahai fast with a Bahai prayer.
After attending the mass we went to Falafel restaurant in Rusholme and had a meal and also had grace before the meal in different languages: Bengali (from John), German (Robert) and English, and witnessed Nicholas and others breaking the Bahai fast with a Bahai prayer.
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