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The Temple of Understanding is an interfaith organization founded in 1960 by Juliet Hollister and located in New York City. [1] [2] [3]
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2015) |
The Temple of Understanding is an interfaith organization founded in 1960 by Juliet Hollister and located in New York City. [1] [2] [3]
In its early years, the organization convened large “Spiritual Summits” in Calcutta (1968) and Geneva (1970) bringing together religious and spiritual leaders of diverse traditions to engage in dialogue, and address problems of intolerance, injustice and religious persecution. This network was supported by a distinguished group of “Founding Friends” including Eleanor Roosevelt, U Thant, Pope John XXIII, and the XIVth Dalai Lama, among others. [2] [4] These gatherings included Spiritual Summit V (1975), the first interfaith conference held at the United Nations and the first time a woman, Mother Teresa, represented the Catholic Church. The TOU has maintained a strong presence at the United Nations, attending global conferences, organizing workshops, lectures and major events including hosting the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the UN in New York (1995).
As of 2008, the Temple of Understanding had become a leading organization in the interfaith movement. [5]
The mission of The Temple of Understanding is to achieve peaceful coexistence among individuals, communities and societies through interfaith education. TOU programs emphasize experiential knowledge and dialogue as a means of connecting people across a spectrum of religious communities to create a more just and peaceful world. TOU goals are to:
The Temple of Understanding is a 501(c) (3) non-profit and Non-Governmental Organization with Consultative Status at the United Nation (ECOSOC).
In 1960, the TOU was encouraged by Eleanor Roosevelt to become an NGO and embrace Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, protecting freedom of thought, conscience and religion. In 2000 the Millennium Declaration, signed by 189 Member States, identified 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to be achieved by the year 2015. The TOU's representative to the United Nations interweaves these goals throughout the organization's programs at the UN, in addition to sponsoring conferences and workshops on religious freedom.
In 1996, in support and affirmation of individuals whose life work has advanced the interfaith ideal, the Temple of Understanding established the Juliet Hollister Awards Ceremony. Named in honor of the founder’s achievements, Hollister Awards are granted to individuals who are: 1. Religious figures who bring interfaith values into the place of worship where the faithful congregate; and 2. Secular figures who promote greater understanding of spiritual values in areas such as the arts, education, media, government, science, social justice, law and ecology.
Past awardees include: Queen Noor, James Parks Morton, Sri Swami Satchidananda, Maestro Ravi Shankar, Henry Luce III, Mary Robinson, the XIVth Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Dr. Wangari Maathai, Peter Max, Dr. Thomas Berry, Dr. Coleman Barks, Dr Suheil Bushrui, Cokie and Steven Roberts, Dr. Hans Kung, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Suzan Johnson Cook, Thomas Keating, Majora Carter, Dr. Karan Singh, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Venerable Dr. Yifa, and Daniel Pearl (accepted by Dr. Judea Pearl), Karen Armstrong, Prince El Hassan bin Talal, Bartholomew, Desmond M. Tutu, Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, May Rihani, Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp, NYU Center for Spiritual Life Development Team (Chelsea Clinton, Imam Khalid Latif, and Rabbi Yehuda Sarna). [6] [7] [8]
The Temple of Understanding does not itself host religious services. It is an organization that advocates the importance of respect for all faiths.
The Interfaith Dialogue, Education and Action Program (IDEA) is an education and leadership skills development program for 14 to 19-year-old students.
The mission of IDEA is to empower and educate youth (ages 14 to 19) from different cultural backgrounds to build leadership and critical thinking skills, create strong bonds of friendship across ethnic, cultural and religious groups and engender an appreciation for and willingness to pursue lifelong learning opportunities. By expanding these skills in underserved youth, we can help students gain the confidence and important tools necessary for breaking the cycle of poverty.
In the fall of 2007, the TOU launched "The Interfaith Experience," a program at the Rubin Museum of Art which presents contemporary artists, thinkers and leaders who provide insights on the role of faith in the creative and intellectual process. Presenters for the series have included actor Linus Roache, The Venerable Nicholas Vreeland, visionary artist Alex Grey, Revs. Alan Lokos and Susanna Weiss, Ezgi Sorman, Dr Kurt Johnson, Loch Kelly and the Rev. Masud Ibn Syedullah, TSSF.
Interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels.
Ingrid Mattson is a Canadian activist and scholar. A professor of Islamic studies, she is currently the London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. Mattson is a former president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and was described as "Perhaps the most noticed figure among American Muslim women" in a 2010 New York Times article.
There have been several meetings referred to as a Parliament of the World's Religions, the first being the World's Parliament of Religions of 1893, which was an attempt to create a global dialogue of faiths. The event was celebrated by another conference on its centenary in 1993. This led to a new series of conferences under the official title Parliament of the World's Religions with the same goal of trying to create a global dialogue of faiths.
Forum 2000 is a foundation and conference of the same name held in Prague, Czech Republic. The Forum 2000 Foundation was founded in 1996 as a joint initiative of the Czech President Václav Havel, Japanese philanthropist Yohei Sasakawa, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel. Mr. Havel based his idea for Forum 2000 on the principle that, “it would be good if intelligent people, not only from the various ends of the earth, different continents, different cultures, from civilization's religious circles, but also from different disciplines of human knowledge could come together somewhere in calm discussion.”
The Washington Theological Consortium is an ecumenical organization of Christian theological schools and interfaith partners located in Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Members cooperate to deepen ecumenical unity in theological education and to broaden interfaith dialogue and understanding and to prepare both clergy and laity with skills they need to minister in a diverse church and society. The Consortium is one of the most diverse of its kind in the nation, as it includes Roman and Byzantine Catholic traditions, mainline Protestants, Evangelicals, and Historic Black Divinity schools; with partners in spiritual formation, Jewish, and Islamic education.
Reverend Patrick McCollum is an interfaith chaplain, spiritual mentor, and peace counselor.
Religion and environmentalism is an emerging interdisciplinary subfield in the academic disciplines of religious studies, religious ethics, the sociology of religion, and theology amongst others, with environmentalism and ecological principles as a primary focus.
Yifa is a Taiwanese scholar and writer and the founder of the organization, Woodenfish Foundation. She is a nun ordained in 1979 by Fo Guang Shan, a Buddhist organization in Taiwan. Yifa holds a law degree from the National Taiwan University, a masters in comparative philosophy from the University of Hawaiʻi, and a doctorate in religious studies from Yale University. She served as a department head and dean of University of the West during her tenure at the college.
Nepal is a secular state under the Constitution of Nepal 2015, where "secular" means religious, cultural freedoms, including protection of religion and culture handed down from time immemorial.
After an isolated presence in the late 1920s, the Baháʼí Faith in Nigeria begins with pioneering Baháʼís coming to Sub-Saharan West Africa in the 1950s especially following the efforts of Enoch Olinga who directly and indirectly affected the growth of the religion in Nigeria. Following growth across West Africa a regional National Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1956. As the community multiplied across cities and became diverse in its engagements, it elected its own National Spiritual Assembly by 1979. Estimates of membership vary widely - a 2001 estimate by Operation World showed 1000 Baháʼís in 2001 while the Association of Religion Data Archives estimated some 38,000 Baháʼís in 2005.
The Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize is a biannual, $50,000 award to "an individual or an organisation in recognition of propagating Guru Nanak’s philosophy of discovering oneness of humanity by exploring the differences that separate people". The prize is administered by Hofstra University, New York as part of its efforts in the advancement of religious study, and is supported by the Sardarni Kuljit Kaur Bindra Foundation, funded by a gift from the family of Ishar Singh Bindra.
Tenzin Priyadarshi is the president and CEO of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, full spiritual name: Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, also known as Tenzin Gyatso; né Lhamo Thondup; was born on the 5th day of the 5th month in the Wood-Pig Year of the Tibetan lunar calendar, July 6, 1935 in the Gregorian calendar. The incumbent Dalai Lama is the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. Before 1959, he served as both the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, and subsequently established and led the Tibetan government in exile represented by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, India. The adherents of Tibetan Buddhism consider the Dalai Lama a living Bodhisattva, specifically an emanation of Avalokiteśvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, a belief central to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and the institution of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, whose name means Ocean of Wisdom, is known to Tibetans as Gyalwa Rinpoche, The Precious Jewel-like Buddha-Master, Kundun, The Presence, and Yizhin Norbu, The Wish-Fulfilling Gem. His devotees, as well as much of the Western world, often call him His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the style employed on his website. He is also the leader and a monk of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, formally headed by the Ganden Tripa.
The Interfaith Center of New York (ICNY) is a secular educational non-profit organization founded in 1997 by the Very Reverend James Parks Morton. ICNY programs work to connect religious leaders and their communities with civil organizations and each other.
The Canadian Centre For Ecumenism (CCE) is a non-profit organization whose main focus is interfaith dialogues and is established in Montreal, Québec, Canada. The centre is supported by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. It promotes conversations, interfaith dialogues and ecumenical dialogues.
Suheil Badi Bushrui was a Palestinian professor, author, poet, critic, translator, and peace maker. He was a prominent scholar in regard to the life and works of the Lebanese-American author and poet Kahlil Gibran.
Yoshinobu Miyake is a Japanese Shinto priest and scholar. Rev. Miyake was appointed the Superior General of Konko Church of Izuo in 2006 and appointed chair of the Board of International Shinto Studies Association in 2013.
Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia OBE KSG is the chairman of the Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha UK. He is listed in the top 100 most influential Sikhs in the world.
The Millennium Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders was held in New York City between August 28–31, 2000. The meeting recognized the importance of religion to world peace and faith leaders’ commitment to peacekeeping, poverty relief, and environmental conservation. It preceded the Millennium Summit, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations (UN).
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