IFA cosponors Climate Action event

The Harrisonburg Rockingham Interfaith Association is partnering with The Climate Action Alliance of the Valley (CAAV) to sponsor a conversation on climate change Wednesday, May 7, at First Presbyterian Church on Court Square in Harrisonburg.  The program, which includes a light lunch, is from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. There is no charge for this event.

 Les Grady of CAAV will open the program with a brief statement on why Climate Change matters as an issue for faith communities and for our society.  His remarks will be followed by conversation involving all who are present.  

Please RSVP by May 2 to drmiller.cob@gmail.com or call David Miller, 540.578.0241.  We are eager to share in a meal and conversation with you.  And please share this invitation with other colleagues and churches. 

David R. Miller

Montezuma Church of the Brethren

President, Harrisonburg Rockingham Interfaith Association

Noter:  Dr. Les Grady is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm.  Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming.

March 6, 2014 Program

Thursday, March 6th, the Interfaith Association meets from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. at Our Community Place (OCP) in Harrisonburg, an organization which will also be the focus of this month's program. Executive Director Philip Rhodes will meet with us to explain what the organization does as well as to present its overall mission.  

OCP often provides box lunches for the IFA when we meet off the EMU campus, so most of you know the drill; we will need an advance lunch count for those who wish to order lunch.  The options, as usual, are either a turkey or veggie / hummus sandwich, and please do indicate if you would prefer a gluten-free version of either lunch choice.

Our Community Place is located just off North Main Street / Route 11, opposite from and catty corner to the Little Grill Collective (with parking available off Johnson Street, behind the building).  I am including a map link for those unfamiliar with the location (look for OCP right in the center of the map): 

 https://www.google.com/maps/@38.4556435,-78.8645799,17z

Please do let me know if you plan to attend, along with your lunch order. gluschei@yahoo.com

2014 Lenten Luncheons

2014 Lenten Luncheon Schedule
WHO	WHAT	WHERE	WHEN
Jon Heeringa, Pastor First Presbyterian Church	First Lenten Luncheon	First Presbyterian Church, 17 N Court Square	March 12 12:05 to 12:55
Steve Hay, Pastor Asbury United Methodist Church	Second Lenten Luncheon	Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalist Church, 4104 Rawley Pike	March 19 12:05 to 12:55
Sara Ardrey-Graves Associate Rector, Emmanuel Episcopal Church	Third Lenten Luncheon	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 210 S. Avenue	March 26 12:05 to 12:55
Richard Wehrle, Pastor Sunrise Church of the Brethren	Fourth Lenten Luncheon	Presbytery of Shenandoah 1111 N, Main Street	April 2 12:05 to 12:55
Joe Goldsmith, Priest Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church	Fifth Lenten Luncheon	Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, 154 N. Main Street	April 9 12:05 to 12:55

February 6, 2014 Program

EMU's West Dining Room for a 12 noon to 1:30 program on Volunteer Farm program in Woodstock for growing food for local Food Bank.

January 2014 Program

Program from 12 noon to 1:30 pm at Emmanuel Episcopal Church on the Open Doors Thermal Shelter (formerly HARTS).

December 5 IFA Luncheon

Jerrilyn MacDanel, a highly-respected music educator who has guided our area children through many aspects of musicianship for many years while also developing her own philosophy of music education, will speak to us on music as "the heart of worship."

Jerrilyn will take on the topic of "contemporary" music and how it fits in to worship services, both within the established church and beyond the church walls.  The sacred dimension of music can penetrate every heart, and Jerrilyn will help us to explore the many ways in which choral singing can open our hearts to sacred experience.

 

We meet in the East Dining Room of EMU's cafeteria at noon Thursday, December 5.

Community Events

“The Church and Same-Sex Marriage: Two Perspectives”

A coalition of local groups will sponsor a public forum entitled, “The Church and Same-Sex Marriage: Two Perspectives,” at Bridgewater College’s Cole Hall on Tuesday, November 12^th, at 7 p.m. 

This structured dialogue will present the community with two different pastoral perspectives on same-sex marriage. The event is being hosted by Bridgewater College’s Pre-Law Society and co-sponsored by Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Interfaith Engagement and The Valley Family Forum.

The traditional position—that the Church should only endorse marriage between a man and woman—will be presented by Dr. John Sloop, who served as Senior Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg for the past 27 years. The view that the Church should also endorse same-sex marriage will be presented by Rev. Daniel Robayo, who was ordained in 1988 and is the current Rector of Harrisonburg’s Emmanuel Episcopal Church.

While the session will bear some resemblances to a traditional debate, its organizers prefer to call it an “encounter.” The encounter is designed to foster mutual respect and a deeper understanding of the two perspectives rather than to produce a “winner.” For instance, after both perspectives are presented, each participant will be asked to restate the other’s perspective to the other's satisfaction. There will also be a time for the two participants to entertain questions from the audience. Eastern Mennonite University’s Barry Hart will moderate the encounter. Hart is a professor of Trauma, Identity and Conflict Studies at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

This will be the first of two encounters dealing with cultural issues surrounding same-sex marriage. The second, tentatively scheduled for next spring, will feature public policy experts discussing the question of whether civil marriage should encompass committed same-sex couples.

These encounters are the product of the newly-created “Community Dialogue Project,” which seeks to bring liberal and conservative elements of the community together to discuss important cultural issues at a deeper level and with greater civility than is typical in today’s polarized, partisan environment. The Community Dialogue Project includes John Fairfield, Research Fellow at EMU's Center for Interfaith Engagement; Rita Dunaway, Vice President for Public Policy at Virginia Christian Alliance; David Brubaker, Associate Professor with EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding; and Tim Frost, Facilitating Pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church.

A pdf of a publicity poster is here. For more information, please contact The Community Dialogue Project at CommunityDialogueProject@gmail.com.

For more information, please contact John Fairfield at contact me at (540) 271 4008; jhn.frfld@gmail.com, or Rita Dunaway at (540) 830-1229; rita.dunaway@gmail.com