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

September Program

Isabel Castillo and Rick Castaneda of Virginia Organizing will present "Documented and Afraid: What does the faith community have to say about immigration reform?"

Meal and program from noon to 1:30 in the West Dining Room on the ground floor of Northlawn at Eastern Mennonite University. Come early to go through the line before the student rush. Senior discount available.

May 2013 Interfaith Program

Our May 2 meeting will be at Harrisonburg’s Church of Latter Day Saints meetinghouse at 210 South Main, http://goo.gl/maps/IoLJk .   The speakers will be Bob Brady and Jim Herrick.  They will share thoughts on being a "Mormon" in the Shenandoah Valley.  Jim is a professor of microbiology at JMU and a former bishop of the LDS 1st Ward in Harrisonburg. Bob is retired and has been an active participant of IFA for many years.