Cherry Hill Seminary graduation ceremony - M. Mueller

Last weekend I participated in a very important moment for Pagan Studies history: a graduation ceremony for students who had completed Cherry Hill Seminary certificates. View coverage on The Wild Hunt:

http://wildhunt.org/blog/2011/03/quick-note-more-on-cherry-hill-seminary-graduation-ceremony.html

It was an honor to be a part of the ceremony as faculty. I very much enjoyed meeting our students and their families in person during the reception following the ceremony.

Other than that, my Intro to Interfaith course at Cherry Hill Seminary continues to go well. I have talked recently with other Directors of Religious Education at Unitarian Universalist congregations interested in incorporating Paganism more into their religious education curricula.

Hindu-Pagan Interfaith Devotional to Our Great Mother

Since deep in my Witch's heart I feel much sympatico with Hindu beliefs and practices, I consider myself fortunate to have been invited to to assist in the performance of the ritual referred to in this press release. Amadae, a Dianic priestess, coordinated the ritual with people from the Hindu American Foundation. Its purpose was devotion (bhakti) to the Great Mother.

There was a two-sided round altar, with Hindu altar objects on one side and Pagan ones on the other. Reclaiming priestess Kala created the Pagan half of the altar. After the puja mentioned below, flowers and petals adorned both altars.

The ritual opened with the beautiful singing of Sangeetha Venkataraman; Corby and I had the pleasure of hearing her at the HAF Annual Dinner last September.

The sitar player, recently moved to the SF Bay Area from Ann Arbor, is a student at the Ali Akbar College of Music about a mile from our home, where he works with Arjun Verma. Arjun was one of four performers atMarin Interfaith Council's Annual Music of the Beloved sacred music concert last month. I invited my new friend to let me know when we might find a chance to visit when he's in San Rafael. I hope he does.

Cosette Paneque, of Beachfyre Coven, EMLC-CoG and Social Networking Coordinator of Cherry Hill Seminary, called upon the spirits of Air;Christine Kraemer, Department Chair at CHS, called Fire; I called Water;Wendy Griffin, CHS Academic Dean and frame drummer, called Earth; and Amadae called Spirit.

The pujari who led the Devi Ma puja and the men who sang with him had strong voices, made louder by the unnecessary use of a mike. This was unfortunate because we were performing in a hotel ballroom, separated by not-very-soundproof, floor-to-ceiling movable partitions from adjacent hotel ballrooms where other PantheaCon events were taking place: Yes They Are! queer gods ritual on the West side and Tarotist Mary Greer on the East. Having been in rituals in these ballrooms when another, sometimes louder event is taking place right next door, I know from past experience that it's a challenging situation for all. In any case, the men chanted for about 20 minutes. I was pleased to find that I was able to understand some of the words they chanted from having gone to many Kali pujas in my town and from kirtan singing.

After that, six lovely temple dancers, with bells on their ankles, exquisite gestures, and smiling faces, arrived to perform a dance to Lord Ganesha so that he may remove all obstacles to the worship of the Great Mother. This dance made me misty, for some reason. I later learned that none of the dancers was over 18 years old, and they had to perform these prescribed dances perfectly for years before they can perform alone.

The dance concluded with a spiral dance led by Amadae, to the chant "We all come from the Goddess..."

As a ritualist, I felt that we Pagans had more flexibility to adapt our ritual to age-old Hindu practices than the other way round, and we did. The fact that the participants wore big smiles at the conclusion convinces me of its effectiveness for each individual participant and as an interfaith collaboration. Those I spoke with expressed pleasure in the working.

As far as I know, this is the first anyone has blended traditional Hindu practices done by traditional Hindu practitioners (as opposed to Western attempts verging on cultural appropriation) with contemporary American Pagan practices. I was pleased and honored to be a part of it, and I was proud of my Pagan colleagues. I hope other opportunities to share sacred space with our Hindu friends present themselves. I will be ready.

Teenage Interfaith Diversity Education Conference" (TIDE) in Boston, MA - May 27-29, 2011

I got this info from Macha, who received it from the Pluralism Project at Harvard.   -Michelle

Dear friends,

Please see the message below from Interfaith Action’s Youth Leadership Program regarding the upcoming “Teenage Interfaith Diversity Education Conference” to be held at Northeastern University in Boston, MA on May 27-29, 2011. Please contact Jason Smith, Youth Program Director, at Jason@ifaction.org with any further questions or requests for additional information.

********************************

Teenage Interfaith Diversity Education Conference -- Boston, Massachusetts

Interfaith Action's Youth Leadership Program presents the fifth annual Teenage Interfaith Diversity Education (TIDE) Conference.  The TIDE Conference is organized and led by teens who wish to spread pluralism, increase the impact of teenage voices, and have their presence felt as a positive force in the global community.  The three-day conference is planned by fifty high school students of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, and held at Northeastern University over Memorial Day Weekend, May 27-29, 2011.  The goals of the conference are to train teens to communicate respectfully and use their skills in discussions about highly charged issues; develop leadership and facilitation skills; and foster bonds and lasting friendships among the youth in attendance. Conference attendees will participate in workshops, dialogues, and other activities throughout the weekend that allow them to discover more about themselves and their understanding of personal identity; learn about the beliefs and identities of others; and make their voices heard.  By the end of the weekend, teens will gain the skills needed to break down religious and ethnic barriers while becoming leaders in their communities.  Adults working with teens have the opportunity to attend a parallel but separate adult track at the conference.

Many of the conflicts that occur across the world are a result of cultural misunderstandings and a lack of tolerance and leadership. Participation in the TIDE Conference is one leap towards a more harmonious and peaceful world, led by strong individuals who have fostered their skills as teens!

The TIDE Conference has been officially designated as a Post-Parliament Event by the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions (CPWR).  The conference is sponsored by Interfaith Action, Inc. in collaboration with the Brudnick Center for the Study of Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University. 

More information about the conference and how you can register is available at www.ifaction.org .   Outside groups and individuals may submit workshop proposals to showcase their work during the Sunday track of the conference.  All proposals are due by April 1, 2011.  More information about this opportunity may also be found on Interfaith Action's website.

Please contact Jason Smith, Youth Program Director, at Jason@ifaction.org with any further questions or requests for additional information.

--
The Pluralism Project
Harvard University
2 Arrow Street, 4th floor
Cambridge, MA   02138

617-496-2481
www.pluralism.org

Our Last Day of Multiregion Meetings in Mexico

Thursday, February 3^rd.  Our 4^th day, but only a morning work session.  The quiet was amazing.  I think I only heard three explosions all day!  We started the day, as always, with our 7:30 silent meditation in the tea-house.  Over breakfast, we talked about travel and immigration and the remarkable and often absurd problems Mexicans have with visiting or immigrating to the US.  Margarita left right after breakfast for an annual birthday meeting with high-school friends in Mexico City.  She would be back late.

With only a short time to meet before Yoland had to leave, we sat in the courtyard after breakfast to talk about “next steps”.  First, we identified “pending issues” that will require future conference calls to work on.  These include:

* finding a new webmaster after Lance’s contract ends in mid-March.

* reviewing the Minutes from our March 2010 Regional Assembly.

* reviewing & revamping the Seed Grant process.

* exploring outreach to CCs in other Regions sharing themes with Multiregion MCCs.

* fundraising.

We spent quite a bit of time going through all of the notes from the last three days and listing who was charged with who what tasks when we went home.

We started the discussion around finding a new webmaster.  Some candidates were identified and specific plans for the website laid out.  For one thing, we want to be sure that all of the Regional Team can post to the Multiregion blog and that the public can comment on the posts.  We all committed ourselves both to finding material for the blog and to policing the comments to remove the ubiquitous, intrusive Viagra ads, etc.

At this point, Jonathan had to take Yoland to Cuernavaca to catch a bus for the airport in Mexico City.

Linda checked her email and discovered that her flight home on Continental Airlines had been canceled!  There wasn’t much she could do without knowing Spanish as all the folks she called spoke no English.  When Jonathan returned, he spent an hour and a half on the phone working things out.  Ultimately, Continental switched her to flight tomorrow that will require and overnight in Houston before she gets home, but we’ll leave at the same time tomorrow.

When things had been worked out, Jonathan drove me to the trailhead to begin my hike to the pyramid of Tepozteco.  The plan was to approach the pyramid by a shorter route from the town of San Juan on the other side of the mountains above Tepoztlan and then return via the much longer trail from the pyramid down a half-mile in altitude to Tepoztlan.  Linda came along for the ride.  At the recommendation of a friend of Jonathan’s, we went out of town and into the hills along roads that Jonathan had not traveled before.  As we neared the village of San Juan, we stopped to ask villagers the way to the trail.  They directed us back down the way we had come, “past the two trees painted blue”.  I had a feeling from studying the diorama in the Museum yesterday that this was not correct, but who’s going to argue with locals?  With some difficulty, we found the trailhead.  Armed with water bottle, flashlight, and cell phone, I set off to find the pyramid while Jonathan and Linda drove back to the Rose hacienda.

Contrary to Jonathan’s friend’s directions, the trail, once found, was not well-marked or easy to follow.  (The reason would later become apparent.)  The way split often with no clear indication of the correct route.  One woman I encountered gave me some directions, but my level of proficiency in Spanish meant that I was relying more on her hand-gestures than her words.  The dirt road became a trail.  The trail became a path.  The path became often indistinguishable from a dry-streambed, as indeed it often was.  I started using the arrows-made-out-of-broken-twigs tricks that I learned in Cub Scouts to mark the trail back, should it become necessary.  I was now about two miles in from the trailhead, and two miles up and the air was noticeably thinner.

Finally, I got my first view of the white pyramid of Tepozteco...

 

The pyramid is on the peak to the left of center.

 

With a shock, I realized that I was on the ridge of mountains behind and ABOVE the pyramid, and that a half-mile deep canyon lay between me and it!  I had been right and the directions from the locals had been wrong.  Had we gone just beyond San Juan there would have been a route following the ridge down to the pyramid and I wouldn’t be in this predicament.  I tried to scope a way further up and around to connect to the correct ridge and set off.

The trail got rougher and steeper.  Rocks started sliding beneath my feet.  I started following a sheer cliff face and it looked like the only way up was via a rock chimney.  At that point, just as I realized that if I went much further it would be much harder to be sure of finding the correct route back if I need to, I rounded a boulder and found the fresh grave of a hiker who had fallen to his death...

I took this as a sign and decided to turn back.  I called Jonathan, explained my situation and asked him to come pick me up.  I’d call when I knew that I was close to the paved road.  I went to a point on the rocks with a commanding view.  I poured out some my water to the Four Directions and thanked the Spirits of the Elements and of the Place in the best Spanish I could muster.  I then made my way back the way I had come, vowing to return and visit the pyramid.  (We have been talking about having a Multiregion Regional Assembly here in 2012, so maybe then…)

I found my way out without too much trouble and met Jonathan… just as rain clouds started to gather – another reason it was probably wise to stop when I did.  On the way back into town, we passed what appeared to be an occult supply shop.  Jonathan said that it would probably be open until 6 pm.  We got back to the hacienda at 5 pm.  I grabbed a quick shower and change of clothes and headed out to visit and ATM, find the shop to see what they had, and do a little gift-shopping before 6.  The shop turned out to be a mix of exotic Hindu stuff imported from India and candles and such for Christian candle magic.  I found a shop with some cool items for my wife Anna.

Returning by way of the restaurant “El Brujo”, I stopped and called Jonathan to have him and Linda come join me for a last dinner and drink.  It featured a fusion of local Mexican and Italian cuisine, and pastries baked on-site.  Jonathan had not yet eaten at this place, but it was great!  Worthy of at least the 4.5 stars in the online reviews.  The owner / master chef was very pleased when Jonathan explained that I am a “brujo” from America!

We made our way back to finish up with items on the computer, pack our bags, and write this, the last report on this trip.  And so, the first face-to-face meeting of the Regional Leadership Team of the URI’s Multiregion came to a close.  We leave at 8 am tomorrow for the drive to Cuernavaca and the bus-trip to Mexico City.  But we won’t have much time to rest… There’s a teleconference of the URI’s Global Council on the 9^th.

Interfaith marches onwards!

Blessed Be,

National Interfaith Representative

3rd workday at Interfaith meeting in Tepoztlan, Mexico

Wednesday, February 2nd.  Our 3^rd full day of meetings.  Candlemas for me, and for the inhabitants of Tepoztlan, who celebrate it as “Candelaria”  I can tell that it’s a holy day dedicated to the baby Jesus by the rounds of cannon-fire that wake me from a sound sleep, wondering if the protests in Cairo have spread to this small Mexican hill-town.  Of course, it’s not cannon-fire, but rather the largest yield fireworks I have ever encountered, made to explode just above the roof-tops and set off all over the town at random intervals not to exceed a minute and a half.

No one here can explain the connection between explosives and the baby Jesus, except to say that it is “costumbre” – custom.

We started the day, as always, with our 7:30 am silent (Hah!) meditation in the tea-house.  Over breakfast, Margarita explained about the traditions associated with this celebration of the presentation of the baby Jesus in the temple 40 days after his birth.  Almost every family has, in the past few days, acquired a doll of the baby Jesus and made elaborate baby clothes in which to dress him.  Today, they will bring these dolls to the town’s main church (built in 1580) to have them blessed in a huge outdoor Mass.  They will take these dolls home and seat them on little thrones in house-hold shrines for the next year.  The whole process is accompanied by feasting, processions, music in the streets, and yes, explosions.  Apparently, the bigger the bang, the greater the prestige.

We got down to business at about 8:30 am and started with what we thought would be quick items.

We discussed a proposal from the Global Healing CC regarding creating a closer relationship between the Multiregion and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).  After much discussion of this and of the Multiregion’s URI-UN CC we decided to ask the Global Healing CC for more detailed information to circulate to our CCs.  If there are CCs interested in pursuing the proposal, then the Multiregion Regional Leadership Team (the Trustees and Regional Coordinator) can consider endorsing it.

On a related note, we agreed that we need to arrange some communication with the URI-UN CC to talk about more productive collaboration between it and the Regional Support Team.

We talked about the thematic MCCs in the Multiregion, that is, CCs that have grouped together around a common concern to form what are called Multiple Cooperation Circles (MCCs).  Currently, we have two MCCs: the Women’s Coalition MCC and the Indigenous MCC.  We revisited the idea that while other Regions often have sub-Regional Coordinators, the Multiregion might end up needing thematic sub-Coordinators instead.  We noted that the description of MCCs in the URI’s Bylaws would allow individuals to members and also other, non-URI groups as well.  The promotional material we have talked about creating needs to explain this, and explain to CCs in the other Regions that they can be a CC within their geographic Region AND a member of a Multiregion MCC focused on a theme of common concern AT THE SAME TIME.  We need to engage in outreach to CCs in the other Regions around this.

We discussed the Seed Grant program (which has provided small grants to Multiregion CCs to help jumpstart projects) and the need to review and revamp the process of application, selection, and evaluation of results.  We agreed that we don’t have enough time to do this here, that we can do it in follow-up electronic communications, and that we wouldn’t award any new Grants until we can conduct a review in consultation with the Global Hub Staff.  We agreed that we want this to be completed by June.

By this time it was 12:30 pm and time to take a break to go see the Candelaria service at the Church.  We joined the throng of hundreds, perhaps over a thousand people converging on the church – some playing music, many carrying wrapped dolls. 

 Crowds at the Tepoztlan Church for Candelaria

As the service would go on for an hour, we had time to take a peek inside the attached Convento de la Natividad.  The convent is no longer functioning as one, but its extensive wall-paintings have been restored and the huge building is a historic site, including a museum and bookstore. 

 

Interior of Convent

The restored art was quite striking.  The museum included a model of the area seen from high above.  It showed the mountains behind Jonathan & Margarita’s house and the pyramid on top of the mountain.  It also showed that the mountains are in th3e middle of a long slope, with Tepoztlan on the downhill side.  The town of San Juan, on the uphill side of the mountain range, is closer to the summit.  This will have bearing later on…

We went back outside just in time to hear the priest call forward everyone carrying a doll to be blessed.  As the crowd surged forward, we slipped out the back.  In the large market filling the town square outside the church precinct Jonathan helped Yoland and Linda look for fruits and sweets to buy, while Margarita took me to a book stall she had discovered that she thought would interest me.

The stall was small, but filled with the most amazing array of books (in Spanish) on esoteric subjects: the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Understanding Dream Symbols, the Dialogues of Plato, Legends of the Vampires, Feng Shui for Love, Astrology for Success, the Odyssey, Myths of the Greeks & Romans, Islam in Antiquity, Talismans of Black Magic… on and on.  I purchased a dictionary of Nahuatl and a Mexican edition of the Necronomicon for my collection!  Perhaps the former will help me decipher the latter.  ;-)  Actually, the Nahuatl / Spanish dictionary is fascinating.  Between my basic ability to read simple Spanish and the many pictures, it’s quite easy to pick up Nahuatl words and phrases.  A conversation with Margarita helped me understand how to properly accent the words.  This will be fun.

Dodging mariachi bands and processions of doll-bearing women wreathed in the smoke of copal burning in swinging censors, we returned to the Rose hacienda for lunch.  Afterwards, we reconvened in what has become the “Multiregion office” – the terrace outside Linda’s room overlooking the Rose’s gardens and under the watchful presence of the pyramid of Tepozteco on the mountain.

We reviewed the work we had done the day before on the description of the Regional Coordinator position in the Multiregion and the plan for finding a new one.  After a few more tweaks of the language, we had completed something that could be submitted to the Hub for comment.

We had a lengthy discussion about the idea of tapping the musical performance potential of the members of the Multiregion as a means of raising funds, including the possibility of having a Performing Arts MCC.  This led into a lengthier discussion of fundraising in general in the Multiregion.  In addition to the possibility of income from music, as Linda had suggested, we talked about:

* cultivation of donors.  (We already have an annual pledge of $2000!)

* the creation of a dedicated bank account for the Multiregion.

* the idea of a global e-marketplace, selling the crafts produced by many of the members of Multiregion CCs.  This had been suggested before in the Global Council of the URI, but the scale of such a venture might be better suited to a Region.

* eco-tourism.  Yoland brought up how many of the Indigenous in the URI are interested in exploring this.  If it was done under the auspices of the Multiregion, both the Region and the Indigenous people would benefit.

Everyone on the Global Council has talked for years about the need for the Regions to be financially self-sufficient.  We in the Regional Leadership Team had been talking for weeks about committing to moving the Multiregion in that direction.  We agreed to start with generating 5% of our planned budget.  This is a great place to start since we have already raised more than that.  We agreed to commit to raising this percentage each year.  We call this “incremental financial autonomy”.

Yoland suggest that we state our intention to have another Regional Assembly in March of 2012 (possibly here at Jonathan’s).  We all agreed that we should work towards this.  I suggested that we ask all of our CCs to consider, if they want to meet face-to-face again NEXT year, contributing some money THIS year to help raise money for such a meeting – perhaps some fraction of what they would have spent to go if the meeting had been this year.

We talked again about using the phrase “The Multiregion -- We are the World!”  I said that I kept thinking of variations: “We are the World, and the World sings!” for music, “We are the World, and the World loves to eat!” for an interfaith cooking program, etc.  I said that I would look into the possible legal ramifications of using the phrase.

Linda said that we definitely need to increase youth participation in the Multiregion, with which we all agreed.  Linda said that she would ask former-Multiregion Trustee, now-URI-Youth-Coordinator Mathew Youde to consider young people in the URI who might be interested.

Reaching then end of another day spent in eight hours of meetings and of our time working together, we closed as we opened – by going through the list of CCs of the Multiregion and appreciating the gifts and skills that each of them brings to the Region.

This was a VERY positive experience!  We got MUCH more done than we ever could have through phone calls and email, and we built the Multiregion Regional Leadership Team in the process.  The Trustees are all VERY thankful to Jonathan and Margarita for opening their lovely home and gardens to us, and for showing us Tepoztlan.  Yoland leaves tomorrow morning, while Linda and I both leave on Friday.  That gives Linda and me one more day to try to see more of this amazing part of Mexico.

Tomorrow, Jonathan and Linda will drive Yoland to Cuernavaca to catch a bus to the airport in Mexico City.  Then they will get lunch in and explore the city of Cuernavaca.  I plan to be doing something very different.

Ever since we arrived, I have been fascinated by the white pyramid of Tepozteco shining on the mountain above us.  I am planning to hike up to it tomorrow.  Jonathan has called some friends who have confirmed that approaching the pyramid from San Juan will mean a much shorter climb – since the pyramid is almost half a mile higher than Tepoztlan, but San Juan is closer to the top.  Also, approaching the pyramid from the San Juan side means that I’ll be in the shade cast by the mountain for the ascent.  Then, the half-mile change in altitude will only be for the two-kilometer walk DOWN from the pyramid on the Tepoztlan side of the mountain.  The only down-sides of this plan are that we are already at an altitude of 1.5 miles here in Tepoztlan and all of us visiting can feel the relative thinness of the air, and that the trail on the San Juan side is not as well marked and rather hard to find.  Jonathan and his friends are trying to arrange for a local to accompany me.  I REALLY hope that this works out, since, much to my surprise, when I Googled “Tepozteco” site after site talked about how the hike to this pyramid is one the most fulfilling experiences one can have while traveling in Mexico!  Wow! 

It’s been calling to me since we got here.  If all goes well, I’ll celebrate my own Candlemas a day late at the pyramid.

It’s almost 1 am, so it’s time to post this and rest up for tomorrow.

Blessed Be,

Don Frew

National Interfaith Representative

URI Multiregion Leadership Team meeting continues

Today, Tuesday, February 1st, was our second full day of meetings.  We started again at 7:30am with meditation in Jonathan's tea-house.  Over breakfast, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Jonathan's wife Margarita.  Jonathan and Yoland also sang a Spanish birthday song.  I didn't know the song but I caught a reference to King David in the lyrics.  I asked about this and was told that the lyrics basically said: "King David greeted the morning with this song and since it's your birthday we sing it to you."  "How interesting," I said, "a Pagan song masquerading as a Christian one through a Biblical reference."  When they asked what I meant, I said that there wasn't anything obvious to connect the two parts of the song except that they were both addressing beginnings or times of "birth" -- of the person and of the day.  King David's song was clearly a Pagan hymn of praise addressing the rebirth of the Sun every day, but since David had done it, that made it "kosher".

Margarita also sang the King David song in Nahuatl, the language of the local people.  She mentioned that the suffix "-ita" or "-ito" in Nahuatl signified royalty.  When she and Jonathan first met and all of his friends called him "Jon", she took to calling him "Athon" as a pet name.  Over time, this became the more endearing"Athoncito", which we sometimes hear her call him.  :-)  We got into a discussion of how my name -- "Don" -- had been misunderstood in Latin American countries as being my title, and how this had led to assumptions about status that had interfered with building relationships.  Several suggestions were made for alternatives.  "Donquito", in imitation of Athoncito, was ruled out since it means "little donkey" in Spanish.  Margarita suggested basing something on my middle name -- "Hudson" -- possibly "Sonso", which is fine in Nahuatl, but means "stupid" in Spanish.  I wasn't having much luck until Jonathan pointed out that the longer form of my name in Spanish -- "Donaldo" -- is not as unusual as it used to be since there had recently been a Presidential candidate with that name (the only "Donaldo" he had ever heard of).  "Donaldo" it shall be, then, in future introductions.

After breakfast, we gathered again ion the terrace outside Linda's room to continue our meetings.  We started by reading aloud the Preamble, Purpose, and Principles of the URI -- a common practice at URI meetings.  (They can be found online at www.uri.org/about_uri/charter/preamble_purpose_and_principles)  We also read the description of the role of Trustees in the Charter:

"We use the term trustee in its truest sense: URI Trustees carry the trust of the entire global URI membership, charged with representing their interests in the larger body. The Trustees of URI are exemplary leaders who manifest the vision and values of the Preamble, Purpose and Principles through their actions, and have a deep commitment to serve the whole of the URI community."

Wow!  That's a lot to try to live up to, and we all felt the weight of that responsibility in approaching our deliberations.

We reviewed the Narrative Report covering what had been accomplished in the Multiregion from mid-November 2010 to the end of December, prepared by Jonathan as Regional Coordinator (RC) and submitted to Charles as Executive Director.  We also reviewed the Work Plan for the Multiregion for the first three months of 2011 in terms of Goals (Services provided to the CCs) and Intended Results (Intended Accomplishments by CCs) and worked out detailed steps to take to achieve the Goals.  We looked at shared governance in the Multiregion, nurturing of CCs, and our Seed Grant program.  We divided tasks into what could be accomplished in the three month period and what should be considered in terms of "deeper time" or more long-range goals of the Multiregion.

Highlights from the morning...
* The Trustees agreed to assist the RC and Webmaster in the collection of news and stories from the CCs for inclusion on the website (www.urimulti.org).
* We agreed that the Multiregion, more than any other Region, has an ethical obligation to be bilingual and that we commit to working towards all of our materials being available in both English and Spanish.  The idea was floated of a "Translators CC" of folks who might be interested in providing translation assistance within the URI.
* We realized that the Multiregion doesn't have a representative on the CC Approval Committee and agreed that Linda would be our person on that Committee (which is supposed to include one Trustee from each Region).

Before lunch, we started working on the requirements for a new, permanent Regional Coordinator.  We started by reviewing the input sent to us before this meeting from many of the Multiregion CCs with their thoughts on what qualities and skills were necessary in a Mutiregion RC.  We took to heart the URI's Manual of Standard Policies and Practices for Regional Development and let it be our guide through this process as we worked out the steps through which the Regional Leadership Team and the Hub Staff could work together to create a new RC position, announce it, evaluate applicants, and make a decision.

For lunch, we went out to a local restaurant to celebrate Margarita's birthday.  I had "cecina", a beef dish native to the area in which the beef is sliced very thin and cooked in a process resulting in something that tastes a bit like beef jerky, but is moist and tender.  On the way back to the Rose hacienda, I noticed several palm and card readers, a store selling Tarot decks and crystals, and a restaurant called "El Brujo" that is a 4.5 star place!  I'll try to stop in there before I leave on Friday.  Jonathan said that "brujo" is not a derogatory or negative word locally and would be how they would translate "Witch" in the way WE mean it.  Tepoztlan is an interesting town.

After lunch, Jonathan and Linda worked on incorporating the fruits of our discussion into the exiting URI document on identifying and selecting a Regional Coordinator.  They focused on the qualities we would look for in applicants while I worked on another computer on revising the description of the Multiregion.  Yoland took some time out from Multiregion work to catch up on other, pressing URI email.

We reconvened around 5:30 to compare notes and finalize our plans for tomorrow.  By 8pm, we were getting a bit fuzzy in the head and joined Margarita in the kitchen for some coffee and "pan dulce".  Today we worked about nine and a half hours and we were getting a bit fried.  We called it a night and I came back to the room to get a shower, make some corrections to yesterday's post, and write tonight's report.  While I worked, I turned on the TV in my room for the first time to find "Practical Magic" playing in Spanish! 

Well, it's 1am.  I seem to be getting back into me usual reporting pattern.  Time to get some rest before morning meditations.

Good night and Blessed Be,
Don Frew
National Interfaith Representative

URI Multiregion Leadership Team meeting starts in Tepoztlan, Mexico

I am in Tepoztlan, Mexico (about 2 hours south of Mexico city) for the first meeting of the Regional Leadership Team (RLT) of the Multiregion of the United Religions Initiative (URI) and this is my first chance to get online and post.

The URI now includes over 500 local Cooperation Circles (CCs) in 78 countries, involving about 2.5 million people (www.uri.org).  The URI is governed by a Global Council of Trustees elected by the CCs.  To ensure diversity in the Global Council, the CCs are arranged into eight Regions, which have become administrative entities kind of like the Local Councils in the Covenant of the Goddess.  Seven of these Regions are subdivisions of the globe: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean (LA&Car), the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), North America, Southeast Asia & the Pacific (SEAPac).  The eighth Region is global and is called the Multiregion.  The Multiregion includes all of those CCs who either have members in more than one Region or are focused on issues that are trans-Regional, like Women, the Environment, Youth, Peace, etc. (www.urimulti.org).  Each Region is managed by a Regional Coordinator (RC) - sometimes more than one -  who is part of the Global Support Staff.

Each Region elects three Trustees for a three-year term.  This 2009-2012 term, the three Trustees elected for the Multiregion were Yoland Trevino (Indigenous Mayan / Guatemala), Mathew Youde (Catholic / Wales), and Linda Bennet Elder (Christian / US).  One year into this term of the Global Council, the Multiregion found itself under some stress.  One of it's Trustees, Yoland, was called on to help coordinate the Latin American Region, in addition to her ongoing responsibilities as Chair of the Global Council.  Another Trustee, Mathew, resigned to take up a paid position as coordinator of the URI's youth efforts.  It's Regional Coordinator, Lance Trumball, also resigned to pursue other career opportunities.  The Region found itself short-handed.  Under these circumstances, and with too little time left in the term to hold an election in the Region, the Global Council asked me to accept appointment as an At-Large Trustee with a mandate to assist in the Multiregion; an appointment I was honored to accept.

One of the CCs I coordinate - Spirituality & the Earth - is a Multiregion CC and was one of the founding CCs of the URI.  I had also served two previous terms on the Global Council.  Apparently they felt this gave me sufficient experience and ongoing connection to be able to jump right in and get to work.  (And boy did they have work for me to do!  In addition to helping revitalize the Multiregion, I was also asked to serve in the creation of and on the new External Affairs Committee, which will be responsible for crafting the URI's official response to world events like what's going on right now in Tunis and Egypt.  But that's another story...)

While in many ways the Multiregion embodies the highest aspirations of the URI - people of all religions, spiritual expressions, and indigenous traditions working together around the world "to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence, and to create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings" - it has always been sort-of the odd-man-out.  It's been a lot easier to organize CCs who all live in one geographic area than it has been to organize something as far-flung as the Multiregion.  We have been VERY reliant on modern technology to create and maintain our network.  We had our very first face-to-face Regional Assembly only last March.  (See the reports in this blog in March 2010.)  That meeting generated a LOT of enthusiasm in the Multiregion and we really didn't want to see this dissipate.

The first thing Yoland, Linda and I did was to find an Interim Regional Coordinator to help keep things going while we did an evaluation of the Region's needs and came up with a plan for a new permanent RC.  Fortunately, a previous Multiregion RC and former Global Council Trustee was willing and available: Jonathan Rose (Jewish / Mexico).  Jonathan stepped in and the four of us became the Multiregion's new Regional Leadership Team.

We really felt the need to meet face-to-face to work on the Work Plan and Budget for the Multiregion, as well as develop the plan for finding a new Regional Coordinator, all while maintaining connections with the 25 CCs in the Multiregion and making sure that their input was part of our discussions.  Accordingly, we are now at the home of Jonathan and his wife Margarita.  They rent out their home for weddings and such and are well-equipped to handle us for the six days we'll be here (www.jardindelosrose.com.mx).  The pictures on their website don't do the place justice!  In addition to what you can see on the website, Jonathan has his own little Japanese tea-house tucked away in a secret part of the garden -- a perfect place for our morning meditations. Spectacular mountains loom over us, crowned by a white stone pyramid built by the Tlahuica c.1200 CE to honor their god of maguey and pulque, Tepoztecatl.  I have never heard of a pyramid on top of a mountain before!  I hope that there will be a chance to visit it before we go on Friday.  Google "Tepoztlan" and "Tepozteco" and click on "images" for an eye-full!

Jonathan's & Margarita's website also doesn't convey the auditory ambiance of this place.  There are birds singing all day long and the sound of running water from ponds and waterfalls in the gardens.  The bells of stone church on the corner ring out the quarter-hours all day (and night) long.  During the day, we can hear children singing in the nearby elementary school and bands playing in the nearby town square.  Truly a remarkable place!

Jonathan & Yoland on the roof terrace

Even with the distractions and the fatigue from a day of travel to get here yesterday, we put in a good day today.  Over all, we spent about eight hours in meetings -- going over the agenda for these four days of meetings, reviewing the status and activities of the 25 CCs in the Multiregion, listening to their input that they sent along to this meeting, discussing the most productive ways to promote a transparent and collaborative relationship between the Multiregion RLT and the central administration of the global URI, especially URI Exec. Director Charles Gibbs, Assoc. Exec. Director Debra Bernstein, and Director of Organizational & Regional Development Sally Mahe (www.uri.org/about_uri/staff), brainstorming promotional material to help explain the Multiregion to prospective CCs, ways to improve internal communications within the Multiregion, evaluating or Seed Grant program, and discussing how "shared governance" applies in the Multiregion. 

We agreed that we need to develop promotional material to explain to prospective CCs and to other folks who might be interested in the URI just what the Muliregion is all about.  We came up with the tag line "We are the World!" to describe the Multiregion.  We also came up with the idea that while other Regions sometimes have "sub-Regional Coordinators" to help the Regional Coordinator relate to various parts of large Regions, it might be more appropriate in the Multiregion to consider "sub-Regional Directors" based on themes, when, say, there are large numbers of Multiregion CCs focused on particular topics.

Tomorrow we continue with reviewing our Work Plan, discussing a proposal for a collaborative relationship with a UN agency, elucidating what we need in a permanent Regional Coordinator and how we'll go about finding such a person (including looking at some applications we've already received), and looking at some of the administrative structures in the Multiregion and URI.  It'll be a full day.

Well, it's not as late as some of the evenings when I've posted to this blog in the past, but it IS pushing midnight... when the church will ring the hour... twice.  "Chimes", followed by 24 bells.  Time to sleep.  ;-)

Blessed Be,
Don Frew
Nat. Interfaith Representativ