October 28, 2016 St. Thomas Newsroom
Rahuldeep Singh Gill, associate professor of religion and director of the Center for Equality and Justice at California Lutheran University, will present “The Oneness of God and the Diversity of Religions: A Sikh Perspective” on Monday, Nov. 14, at 1:30 p.m. in Room 100 of McNeely Hall on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
October 27, 2016 St. Thomas Newsroom
Anantanand Rambachan, professor of religion and philosophy at St. Olaf College, will present “The Oneness of God and the Diversity of Religions: A Hindu Perspective” Monday, Nov. 7, at 1:30 p.m. in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
October 14, 2016
A Taste of South Indian and Sephardic Jewish Music” (Song of Wonder Concert Preview) is an upcoming fall open house that the newly created and student governed Diversity Activities Board (DAB) at the University of St. Thomas will be holding for the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning and the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center. Both centers recently moved into the campus house at 2057 Portland Avenue, referred to as Centers for Interreligious Understanding. It will take place on Oct. 26th from 6-8pm.
October 12, 2016 St. Thomas Newsroom
Religious leaders from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist traditions will be panelists in the program “Change and Conflict Within Religious Communities” on Thursday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. at St. Luke Presbyterian Church, 3121 Groveland School Rd., Minnetonka.
23 August 2016 1:13 PM
“Discover Islam” and “A Taste of South Indian and Sephardic Jewish Music” (Song of Wonder Concert Preview) are two fall open houses that the newly created and student governed Diversity Activities Board (DAB) at the University of St. Thomas will be holding for the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center and the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning. Both centers recently moved into the campus house at 2057 Portland Avenue, referred to as Centers for Interreligious Understanding.
“Discover Islam” Sept. 15, 2016, 5-7pm: This event will celebrate Islam and offer an opportunity for dialogue about the religion and its major holiday, Eid-al-Adah. There will be delicious appetizers, live music, and great people to meet. Please stop by and join us! This event is presented by the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center.
“A Taste of South Indian and Sephardic Jewish Music” Oct. 26, 2016, 6-8pm:
Falling between the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and the Hindu holiday of Diwali, this open house features a preview of the “Song of Wonder” concert, a blend of Judeo- Spanish and South Indian music. It is an opportunity to learn about the Jewish and Hindu celebrations and enjoy Jewish and Indian food. Rabbi Norman Cohen and Satya Balroop will be in attendance to teach and answer questions about their traditions. Please stop by and join us! This event is presented by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning.
The Song of Wonder concert celebrates the spirit of “wonder” through South Indian and Judeo-Spanish music, folktales, and poetry. Co-created by world-renowned musician Nirmala Rajasekar and David Jordan Harris, Artistic Director of Voices of Sepharad, Song of Wonder also features a trio of distinguished instrumentalists: Carnatic percussion master Thanjavur Murugaboopathi, percussionist Mick LaBriola, and oud player David Burk. Highlights of Song of Wonder include excerpts from the oldest known written Jewish music; virtuoso performances of Indian music; ancient Tamil Sangam poetry; Judeo-Spanish and Hebrew chants from traditional Jewish communities in Bosnia, Turkey, and Morocco; and new musical arrangements flowing from the cross-cultural collaboration of these amazing artists. Please consider attending upcoming full Song of Wonder concert at the Sheldon Theatre in Red Wing, MN on November 12 (click here to purchase tickets).
*Both events will take place at 2057 Portland Avenue at the Centers for Interreligious Understanding (across Cleveland from OEC)
St. Thomas Newsroom July 22, 2016 For Faculty/Staff, For Students, Notices
St. Thomas will raze five buildings on the north side of Grand Avenue between Cleveland and Cretin avenues in early August.
The buildings include houses at 2093, 2097, 2103 and 2167 Grand and an office building at 2117-2119 Grand. The house at 2167 Grand has been used for rental housing and the other buildings housed various offices, including the Muslim- Christian Dialogue Center (2093), the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning (2097) and Parking Services (2117).
Parking Services has moved to Murray-Herrick Campus Center and the Phillips and Muslim-Christian centers have moved to the St. Thomas-owned house at 2057 Portland Ave.
St. Thomas decided to raze the buildings because of their condition, the need for extensive renovation for any undetermined long-term use and an interest in providing more open space for the students housed on those blocks. The areas will be sodded, landscaped and used for green space.
A year ago, St. Thomas razed a house at 2091 Grand.
17 June 2016 8:34 AM
The University of St. Thomas has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Interfaith Youth Core and the Teagle Foundation to assist in developing undergraduate curricular programs in interreligious studies that bridge the liberal arts and pre- professional programs. The grant proposal process was led by Sarah Farnes (Muslim- Christian Dialogue Center), Barbara Gorski (Opus College of Business), Dominic Longo (Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center), and Hans Gustafson (Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning). The funding will allow for the implementation of workshops and events in the 2016-2017 academic year that promote the creation of curricular units fostering interreligious understanding through community and workplace engagement.
St. Thomas Newsroom March 24, 2016 Academic News, College of Arts and Sciences, Events, Front Page, News
As a part of the “Jubilee Year of Mercy” called for by Pope Francis, the program “The Face of God: Mercy in the Islamic, Jewish and Christian Traditions” will be held at Wednesday, April 6, 7 p.m. in the 3M Auditorium of Owens Science Hall on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
The program, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the university’s Office for Mission, the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning and the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center. The Jay Phillips Center is a joint enterprise of St. Thomas and Saint John’s University, Collegeville.
Brief presentations will be made by Dr. Hamdy El-Sawaf, Rabbi Amy Eilberg and Father Michael Joncas. A discussion among the panelists and with members of the audience will follow.
This past Dec. 8, Pope Francis inaugurated what he declared to be the “Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy,” saying that “the celebration of this feast involves … fully accepting God and his merciful grace in our lives” and “becoming, in turn, artisans of mercy.”
As Pope Francis has frequently urged Catholics to engage in interfaith dialogue and learning, this program will focus on the meaning and practice of mercy as found not only in the Christian tradition but in the Islamic and Jewish traditions as well.
El-Sawaf is the founding director of the Al-Wafaa Center for Human Services in Minneapolis, a psychotherapist actively involved in the Minnesota Council of Churches Healing Resources for Refugees initiative, and an imam at Masjid Al-Iman Mosque in northeast Minneapolis.
Eilberg, who in 1985 became the first woman ordained in Judaism’s Conservative Movement, directs interfaith programs sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center, teaches at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and St. Catherine University, and is the author of From Enemy to Friend: Jewish Wisdom and the Pursuit of Peace (Orbis Books, 2014).
Joncas, a liturgical theologian and composer of Catholic music, taught for many years in St. Thomas’ Theology Department; he now is artist-in-residence and fellow at the Center for Catholic Studies.
TOMMIE MEDIA – POSTED ON MARCH 6, 2016 BY MARISSA GROECHEL
St. Thomas, an outspoken Catholic institution, is increasing efforts to accommodate the 51 percent of non-Catholic students on campus.
The Rev. Larry Snyder, St. Thomas’ vice president for mission, teamed up with Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based organization aiming to encourage interfaith dialogue and community-building. Though many opportunities exist for Catholic students, who represent just under half of the student body, Snyder said he wanted to extend services across other religions to meet those needs.
“Even though we are a Catholic institution, we welcome students of other traditions. In doing so, we want to make sure that they have opportunities for their faith and spirituality to grow,” Snyder said. “I think it will be a great way to welcome people expressing their faith.”
According to Nasser Asif, the director of marketing and communications at Interfaith Youth Core, the group’s vision is to make interfaith cooperations the social norm on college campuses.
“We do that by working with colleges and universities, because we see them as mirrors of a larger civil society that can reflect that desired society where interfaith cooperation is a norm,” Asif said.
Interfaith Youth Core has worked with a number of different types of religiously affiliated institutions, and Asif has found that Catholic campuses have done a great job in engaging with these issues robustly.
“One of the things that we have always led with or helped the campus lead with is its own values, and there are a lot of established Catholic values around interfaith cooperations,” Asif said.
A group of students, faculty and staff from diverse departments will work with Interfaith Youth Core to create a plan that complements St. Thomas and advances the interfaith cooperation campus-wide.
Snyder explained the three-step process necessary to implement a successful strategic plan.
“The first stage is a survey,” Snyder said. “It’s a very thorough survey that will give us a lot of information … about, not only people’s identity as their faith or worldview, but then also how comfortable our students are with other faiths and other worldviews.”
Mapping out St. Thomas’ religious assets, like the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning, the Muslim Christian Dialogue Center, campus ministry and various student organizations is the next step in the process.
The third stage develops a strategy.
“It’s not just, ‘Are we providing services for various faiths,’ but more about in the curriculum,” Snyder said. “Are there opportunities to take classes that will help you understand others?”
The project was recently launched and will take about a year to implement, according to Snyder.
“We are not going to do any less with our Catholic students than what we are doing now … but for me it’s like raising up the others to be of value as well, which only makes us stronger,” he said.
St. Thomas sophomore Emma Teal, who identifies as Presbyterian, is involved with faith-based campus groups and goes home to Eden Prairie on Sundays to attend church with her family.
“If the chapel at St. Thomas offered a service that fit with my religious beliefs completely, I would for sure attend,” Teal said.
Snyder hopes to implement an interdenominational service in the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel. He hopes the project will help build a society based on understanding others.
“We can embrace our differences as something that’s not threatening but really enhances who we are both as individuals and again as a university community,” Snyder said. “It’s really helping people cultivate that respect and need to find common ground for the common good.”
Interfaith Youth Core’s vision is to develop knowledge, relationships and attitudes that surround religion. St. Thomas hopes to mirror these values in the coming year.
“We really are all in this together,” Snyder said.
Marissa Groechel can be reached at groe5630@stthomas.edu
February 22, 2016 NEWSROOM at the University of St.
Todd Green, author of The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West (Fortress Press, 2015), will be interviewed about his book Wednesday, March 2, at 7 p.m. in the James B. Woulfe Alumni Hall in the Anderson Student Center on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas. Hans Gustafson, associate director of the Jay Phillips Center, will conduct the interview.