Lots to catch up on from the past several weeks! Some highlights: my family’s visit in July, seeing lots of dear friends from Spring Canyon, visiting Petra, and going to a U of A basketball game. I need to download photos for these things, so for now I’ll share about the Elijah Interfaith Institute.
The Elijah Interfaith Institute is basically a 1.5 week program for students of any religious faith. Leaders from several different religions discuss the same topic, sometimes individually or sometimes with leaders of other faiths. The subject this year was “Climate Repentance.”
Since I had work and friends visiting, I mainly attended sessions at the beginning of the week when everyone was talking about individual repentance and corporate repentance, so I didn’t hear as much about climate. Repentance was a fascinating subject to think about, and it was notable how the Abrahamic religions are much more similar to each other than Buddhism/Hinduism etc.
Some of the sessions were on zoom. I like this photo because of the juxtaposition: a cloistered Roman Catholic nun asks a question of a former surfer turned Buddhist nun in Hawaii.
One highlight of the week was attending Shabbat dinner at the home of the administrative organizer (an Orthodox Jewish woman). Fauzia, Sr. Verbo, and I walked there and back together, and we had such a good time talking about prayers in our respective traditions on the way there and our thoughts on synagogue and the dinner on the way back. A lovely time!
Renee, Alan, and I are the three volunteers right now. We all attended sessions when possible. Here we are with Sr. Jayanti, of the Bruhama Kumaris.
Our July group of volunteers. Me, Renee, Sister Cecelia, Claudia, and Alan. Claudia, a Romanian teacher, left the first day of August to go back to work.
Last of all, a joyful photo from Crystal’s birthday! Crystal is a novice in the Sisters of Sion. Bénédicte, on the left, is a nun in Chemin Neuf. She’s leaving on Sunday to work with a different Chemin Neuf community in France, and we’re all very sad. 😦
More on other fun topics later!
xoxo, Cecilia
Cecilia Joy 