November 9th WISDOM hosts journeys to three Eastern Religions

Dear WISDOM Sisters:

WISDOM is proud to announce our next Educational Day about three Eastern Faiths – Sikhism, Hinduism, and Jainism called “Sacred Spaces/Eastern Faiths”on Sunday, November 9th from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM (lunch included) for a $25.00 charge.

We are very excited about this wonderful day of learning. Please mark your calendars, register, and let’s all come together as women of many faith traditions to increase respect and understanding in Metro Detroit!! A maximum of 75 people for this event, so register early.

Gail Katz
WISDOM President

Sacred Spaces/Eastern Faiths
Join WISDOM
Sunday, November 9th from 11:00AM – 6:00 PM
Learn about the faiths of our neighbors!!

Tour a Hindu Temple, Sikh Gurdwara & a Jain Temple

Bharatiya Temple of Metropolitan Detroit in Troy
Gurdwara Sahib - Hidden Falls in Plymouth
Jain Society of Greater Detroit in Farmington Hills

Get Answers to Basic Questions

What does the house of worship look like?
Who is the founder of the faith?
What are the scriptures?
What are some core beliefs?
What are the life rituals and customs of the faith?

Increase Your Knowledge

A basic history of the faith community in the world & in America.
A question and answer session along with a tour of the premises.
An opportunity to be part of a prayer service/religious event
Take-home materials for further reference.

Directions from House of Worship to House of Worship
November 9th, 2008 WISDOM Event

Driving Directions Link:

<http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Bharatiya+Temple,+Troy,+MI&daddr=Gurdwara+Sahib,+Plymouth+Twp.+MI+to:Jain+Temple,+Farmington+Hills,+MI&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=41.224889,93.164063&ie=UTF8&z=11>

Start address: Bharatiya Temple 6850 N Adams Rd Troy, MI 48098 End address: Jain Temple 29250 W 12 Mile Rd Farmington Hills, MI 48334

Start at: Bharatiya Temple 6850 N Adams Rd Troy, MI 48098

1. Head south on N Adams Rd toward Repton Ln - 0.9 mi

2. Turn right at E Square Lake Rd - 0.1 mi

3. Turn right to merge onto I-75 S toward Detroit - 12.7 mi

4. Take exit 61 to merge onto I-696 W toward Lansing - 16.4 mi

5. Take the exit toward I-275 S/I-96 E - 0.8 mi

6. Keep left at the fork, follow signs for Toledo/I-96 E/Detroit and merge onto I-275 S/I-96 E - 6.6 mi

7. Take the exit on the left onto I-96 E toward Detroit - 1.5 mi

8. Take exit 173 toward Levan Rd/Newburgh Rd - 0.3 mi

9. Merge onto Schoolcraft Rd - 52 ft

10. Slight left toward Schoolcraft Rd - 371 ft

11. Turn left at Schoolcraft Rd - 0.5 mi

12. Continue straight to stay on Schoolcraft Rd - 1.0 mi Arrive at: Gurdwara Sahib 40600 Schoolcraft Rd Plymouth, MI 48170

13. Head northwest on Schoolcraft Rd toward N Haggerty Rd - 0.1 mi

14. Turn right at N Haggerty Rd - 1.9 mi

15. Turn right at 6 Mile Rd - 0.5 mi

16. Take the ramp onto I-275 N/I-96 W - 4.1 mi

17. Take exit 165 to merge onto I-696 E toward Port Huron - 4.8 mi

18. Take exit 5 for Orchard Lake Rd - 0.4 mi

19. Turn left at Orchard Lake Rd (signs for Orchard Lake) - 0.3 mi

20. Turn right at W 12 Mile Rd - 1.2 mi Arrive at: Jain Temple 29250 W 12 Mile Rd Farmington Hills, MI 48334




SACRED SPACES/EASTERN FAITHS
WISDOM EVENT

REGISTRATION FORM
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH
11:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Cost $25.00 to cover lunch and expenses
­­
Name: ________________________________________________­­­_

Address: ______________________________________________­­_

City: ___________________________________________________

State, Zip: _______________________________________________

Telephone: Home __________________________________________

Work __________________________________________________

Cell ___________________________________________________

E-mail Address: __________________________________________

Faith Tradition __________________________________________

Please complete the form and send with your $25.00 check by November 5th to:

WISDOM P.O. Box 525 Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48303

Questions? Call Gail Katz, WISDOM President
248-978-6664
Or e-mail gailkatz@comcast.net

Sacred Spaces/Eastern Faiths
Tour a Hindu Temple, Sikh Gurdwara & a Jain Temple
with WISDOM on Sunday, November 9th 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Outline of The Tours

The first House of Worship (HOW) is the Bharatiya Temple of Metro-Detroit:
6850 N Adams Road, Troy, MI 48098 (Enter from South Blvd because of the construction)

We will start our tour here at 11 a.m., and leave to the next HOW after a light vegetarian lunch.

The second House of Worship is the Gurdwara Sahib - Hidden Falls:
40600 Schoolcraft Rd, Plymouth Township, MI 48170

We will start our tour here at 2:30 p.m. and leave to the next HOW after this segment.

The third House of Worship is the Jain Society of Greater Detroit:
29278 W. 12 Mile Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48334

We will start our tour here at 4:30 and expect to conclude the day by 6 p.m.



What to Wear & What to Do
People are usually dressed modestly, and will have showered before coming. Please dress appropriately so that you can comfortably and with decency sit on the carpeted floor in the Prayer Hall. Those who are unable to sit on the floor will be provided folding chairs in the Prayer Hall at the Hindu Temple.

All visitors entering the Prayer Halls will have to remove their shoes and place them in the shoe racks provided. At the Gurdwara, you will be asked to cover your head. Scarves will be provided or you can bring you own.

Strictly No Smoking is allowed on the premises. Visitors cannot enter the HOW while under the influence of Alcohol or Drugs.

What to Expect
Answers to basic questions – who is the founder, what are the scriptures, life rituals and customs of the faith, central figures, a basic history of the faith community both in the world and in the American context – will be provided. There will be a question and answer session along with a tour of the premises. Participants may have the opportunity to observe or participate in a prayer service or another religious event. Take-home materials will be provided for further reference.

November 16th WISDOM sponsors speaker at the Jewish Community Center Book Fair

Dear WISDOM Sisters:



This is a reminder of the upcoming WISDOM sponsored Jewish Community Center’s Book Fair event featuring interfaith activist Rabbi Brad Hirschfield on November 16th at 8:15 PM. Rabbi Hirschfield’s book is entitled You Don’t Have to Be Wrong, for Me to Be Right. Rabbi Hirschfield will be introduced by Imam Achmat Salie from the Muslim Unity Center in Bloomfield Hills. The address of the Jewish Community Center is 6600 W. Maple Road West Bloomfield 48322. The Jewish Community Center is located at the intersection of Maple and Drake Roads. The phone number at the JCC is 248-661-1000. This event is free and open to the public.



Along with WISDOM, the other co-sponsors of this event are Pathways to Peace Foundation, the American Jewish Committee, and the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion. Rabbi Hirschfield seeks to build bridges among people of different faiths – and those with no faith at all. He is devoted to teaching inclusiveness, celebrating diversity, and delivering a message of acceptance. His book provides a pragmatic path to peace, understanding, and hope that appeals to the common wisdom of all religions. Rabbi Hirschfield addresses:



- the ways faith has many faces

- how justice can coexist with forgiveness and mercy

- how unity does not necessitate uniformity

- the ways we can learn to disagree without disconnecting.



At last year’s book fair WISDOM sponsored the three authors of The Faith Club. We hope that this year’s interfaith presentation at the Jewish Community Center’s Book Fair will be as well attended by our interfaith community!! (Last year’s event attracted over 600 people!!) Please mark your calendar for a wonderful, stimulating interfaith evening.



Gail Katz

WISDOM President


Rabbi Brad Hirschfield
Author of:
You Don’t Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right
“A wise and important story, engagingly told. I hope everyone, from the most
piously committed to the most militantly atheist, reads it and absorbs its
lessons.” – Rabbi Harold S. Kushner
“Brad Hirschfield brings a unique understanding – forged in years of theological
study and personal interreligious dialogues – of where so many great faiths have
gone wrong…” – Joseph Telushkin
Orthodox Rabbi, and former activist in the West Bank, Rabbi Hirschfield has
a bright outlook on life and diversity. He shares his personal experiences
and applies them to Jewish text, and the knowledge he communicates is
appropriate for those of all religions. You Don’t Have to be Wrong for Me to
be Right ultimately provides a realistic approach to peace, harmony and
acceptance.
Rabbi Hirschfield was listed in Newsweek as one
of America’s Top 50 Rabbis. Currently, he is
President of The National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership (CLAL).
Sunday, November 16, 2008 ● 8:15 p.m.
Free of charge
Co-sponsored By:
Pathways to Peace Foundation, American Jewish Committee, WISDOM, Muslim Unity Center, and SAFE For All Seasons

Stories of Forgiveness and Upcoming Jewish Holidays

Dear WISDOM Sisters:

I am forwarding a request to you from a Free Press Journalist by the name of Cassandra Spratling. She is working on an article about the power of forgiveness tied to a new garden of forgiveness being opened at the Dominican Center for Religious Development in Detroit.
In addition to that garden, she will be writing about a couple creating a park in Highland Park so kids have a safe place to play—part of their forgiveness of a man who killed their 2-year-old son in a hit and run.
She is looking for other examples of expressions of forgiveness or personal stories that demonstrate the power of forgiveness.

Since the garden is in Detroit and the playground will be in Highland Park, she especially needs to find people or examples in Oakland or Macomb county. If you can help Cassandra with her article for the Free Press, please reply to me at wisdom@interfaithwisdom.org with your contact information and I will forward it on to her. Thanks!!

While we are talking about forgiveness, I would like to mention that the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are fast approaching. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement is centered around forgiveness. I would like to wish our Jewish Sisters a Happy and Healthy New Year (the Jewish New Year!!). Please read on for more information.

Gail Katz
WISDOM President


Rosh Hashanah, the first Jewish holiday of the year, begins at sundown on Monday, September 29th and ends at sundown on Wednesday, October 1st. Rosh Hashanah literally means “head of the year” and is New Year’s Day for the Jewish people. Rosh Hashanah commemorates the day when God created Adam and Eve. At this time God judges everyone and weighs their good deeds, or mitzvot, next to their sins. Thus, Rosh Hashanah is also called the Day of Judgment. If you have a superabundance of good deeds, you will immediately be inscribed in God’s Book of Life and Blessing. If you have way too many sins, and you are wicked, you will be inscribed in the Book for Death and Misfortune. Most people, however, are not in either of these extremes. So God gives people an extra ten days to improve their lives by committing to the Ten Commandments, and by asking their fellow human beings for forgiveness for hurtful words that may have been said, or hurtful acts that may have been committed during the year. Jews are supposed to be mindful of making peace and reconciliation.These ten days of repentance end on Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown on Wednesday, October 8th and ends at sundown on Thursday, October 9th. This repentance must be accompanied by a commitment to change. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, the day when God’s written decree for each Jewish person for the coming year is about to be sealed. This day is supposed to be spent fasting, in prayer and meditation, in confession of sin, and in reconciliation with God and with his/her fellow man and woman.

Yom Kippur is the conclusion of the 10 days of repentance that began with Rosh Hashanah, and the time when God will inscribe you in the Book of Life and Blessing (or not, as the case may be). But it also has a story from the Bible (Torah) connected with it that gives it special meaning. When the Jews were brought out of Egypt, they made a golden calf and worshipped it. This was a horrible sin against God. Moses begged God for 40 days and 40 nights until he could obtain His forgiveness. The day that God forgave the Jews for this major sin (the 10th of Tishrei on the Jewish calendar) was selected as the Day of Atonement for future generations. This is became the day of Yom Kippur for future generations.

Visiting Sacred Places Exhibit at the DIA

Wisdom women and friends gathered at the Detroit Institute of Arts Sunday afternoon to view and discuss the photographic exhibit, “Sacred Places,” by Kenro Izu. The 23 women assembled first visited the exhibit with guide, Paula Drewek, to highlight special features of Izu’s photography: his 300 lb. camera and reliance on platinum-palladium processing of negatives; his focus on ancient stone monuments amidst natural settings, the presence of sacred geometry, and the dense atmosphere of spirituality which his photographs captured were among features discussed. Group members were able to interact with one another during the viewing based upon a series of study questions prepared in advance. Many of the sites Izu chose to photograph were in remote locations suggesting a pilgrimage of sorts to journey there. Sites at Angkor Wat,Cambodia, Borobudur, Java, Stonehenge, and Easter Island received the bulk of attention before the group adjourned to the auditorium to hear Mr. Izu speak on his history as a photographer and his choice of sites and techniques to photograph. This was most enlightening as well as enjoyable. Mr. Izu has a marvelous sense of humor and familiarized the full house with his latest photographs in Bhutan and her people. Following his presentation, the group met in Prentice court to discuss responses to his work and our own experience of sacred places. Trish Harris, who had planned the event, lead the discussion which educed a great variety of comments and experiences. We concluded that “sacredness” is both a characteristic of certain places as well as the framework of understanding which observers bring to the site. Discussants included women from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Unity and Baha’i traditions, offering great diversity of sacred places and their connotations. To cap the afternoon, members of the group met at the Traffic Jam for an early dinner and socializing.

Please continue on to the next blog entry to view upcoming interfaith initiatives in Metro Detroit!!

Upcoming Interfaith Events

Dear WISDOM Sisters:

There are so many interfaith events coming up this fall. Please make a note of the following:

1) The One Peace event celebrating United Nations International Day of Peace this Sunday, September 21, 2008 at Eastern Michigan University Convocation Center from 1:00 -5:00 PM

2) On Saturday morning, September 27th from 9 AM until 1PM, the Western Campus of Wayne County Community College (located just north of the Haggerty Road/Interstate 94 intersection, at 9555 Haggerty Road in Belleville) will hold and sponsor its Second Annual Conference on Religion and Politics. This year it will be addressing Peacemaking and the Rev. Dan Buttry (author of Interfaith Heroes) will be the keynote speaker with additional presentations from Raman Singh (Sikh), Lisa Klopfer (Friends), and Ted Amsden (Baha’i). For further information please e-mail Bob Bruttell at rabruttell@aol.com or call (734) 699-7008.

3) On September 30th, Tuesday, from 8:30 AM – 3:00 PM “Quickening the Art Spirit” with Rev. Dr. Mary Ellen Ashcroft, St. Francis Retreat Center in Dewitt, MI $35.00 fee. Register at www.stfrancis.ws

4) The Thursday, October 16th General Board meeting of WISDOM will include a very special happening at the NorthMinster Presbyterian Church in Troy (3633 West Big Beaver Road – just East of Coolidge on the North side of Big Beaver – 248-644-5920). WISDOM would like to invite the public to join us as we hear Pastor Charlotte Sommers discuss the building of the Troy Interfaith Labyrinth and what the Labyrinth symbolizes, we walk the Interfaith Labyrinth, and we discuss our personal reactions to the Labyrinth during a “bring your own bag lunch” interfaith lunchtime. Please join us on October 16th as we walk a spiritual path built to aid in meditation. E-mail Gail Katz at wisdom@interfaithwisdom.org to let her know you plan to attend the Labyrinth Walk and brown bag lunch.

5) Thursday, November 6th from 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM at Macomb Community College Center Campus Library (CENTER CAMPUS 44575 Garfield Road, Clinton Township, MI 48038-1139) MACOMB MULTICULTURAL INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES presents “Detroit’s Religious Diversity - Dilemma or Opportunity”.

Never in their wildest dream did they think a coffee date, less than 2 years ago, would result in the establishment of a vibrant non-profit which is making a difference in Detroit. They have gone from a group of 4 women, a Catholic, a Jew, a Muslim, and a Protestant to a highly active organization with Board of Director’s, community events, and web presence. Come and learn about WISDOM (Women’s Interfaith Solutions for Dialogue and Outreach in Metro-Detroit) its evolution, the successes, challenges, and lessons learned. The co-founders and several Board members will be in attendance.
WISDOM founding members: Gail Katz, Shahina Begg, and Trish Harris will present
For more information email MMII@Macomb.edu or for directions go to http://www.macomb.edu/About+Macomb/Maps+and+Locations/Center+Campus.htm


6) WISDOM is planning an Educational Temple Tour on Sunday November 9th. The cost will be $25.00 per person, and the flyer and registration forms will be sent out sometime soon. We hope you will form carpools with other interested folks to go to the following holy places to learn about three Eastern religions – Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism. The tentative agenda is as follows:

11:00 AM – 1:30 PM Hindu Bharatiya Temple on Adams Road in Troy (includes a vegetarian lunch)

2:30 – 4:00 PM Sikh Gurdwara Sahib on Schoolcraft Road in Plymouth

4:30 – 6:00 PM Jain Temple on 12 Mile Road in Farmington Hills

7) Monday and Tuesday, November 10th and 11th, New Directions-New Connections Conference, “Unity Within the Family of Abraham” for those who work with youth in our faith communities. Featuring Reuniting the Children of Abraham on Monday Nov. 10th from 5 to 9 PM. Marriott Centerpoint, located at 3600 Centerpoint Pkwy, Pontiac. To register go to www.cyodetroit.org.

8) Sunday, November 16th at 8:15 PM, “You Don’t Have to be Wrong for Me to Be Right” , Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, Interfaith Activist, at the Jewish Book Fair at the Jewish Community Center, 6600 W. Maple Rd., West Bloomfield 48322. More information at (248) 432-5467

9) Wednesday, November 26th 7 PM at the Westminster Church of Detroit at 17567 Hubbell St. at W. Outer Drive, the 22nd Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service.

10) Sunday, January 25th, at 4:00 PM the Tenth Annual World Sabbath of Religious Reconciliation at Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, MI.