Intertextuality of the Holy Books (Edited by M.O Ommen Jr. and Dr. Abraham Karickam)

The intertextuality series of conferences was started in the year 2005 under the joint auspices of Dr. Alexander Marthoma Centre for Dialogue-Kottarakara and Cosmic Community Center Karickam. This is a unique study program in which scholars from different parts of the world participate. It is centered on the study of Holy Books.
               The first Conference was held at Marthoma Jubilee Mandiram, Kottarakara. The theme of this Conference was "Intertextuality of the Holy Books". All the papers presented at the seminar were published in this volume and it was released by Dr. Philippose Mar Chrisostom Marthoma Metropolitian during the inauguration of the conference. It comes with a foreword by Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosious Episcopa. 15 articles related to this subject have been included.

ONE WORD, MANY VERSIONS: A RE- READING OF THE HOLY BOOKS (EDITORS DR. RUWAN PALAPATHWALA & DR. ABRAHAM KARICKAM)

The second International Intertextuality conference on Holy Books was held at Marthoma Jubilee Mandiram, Kottarakara in 2007 based on the theme "One word many versions: A re-reading of the Holy Books".  The specialty of this conference was that the URI Moral Imagination peace building team also participated in this program. There were 25 participants from different parts of the world in this team, icluding Rev. Canon Dr. Charles Gibbs, Sally Mahe, Barbara Hartford, Marites Africa and so on.

The concept that different Holy Books are like different chapters of one book is the underlying philosophy of this volume. All the papers presented during the conference are included in this book. The philosophical concepts that are discussed in this book will be extremely useful to any student of theology and epistemology. 

The book comes with a foreword by Dr. Abraham Mar Paulos Episcopa. it was published by Dr. Alexander Marthoma Centre for Dialogue, Kottarakkara and Cosmic Community Centre, Karickam.

Terrorist Bombings again

Nairobi and Peshwar! The terrorists are laughing again. They don’t realize that the tears of the bereaved ones will rise like a flood to cover the earth with waves of love. Revolution of love will ultimately rule the world. No one can support the killing of innocents in any forms. What do the martyrs achieve? Will the world be better/ different after the elimination of a hundred women and children in a mall and a church? What we need today is a big band of peace builders who can change the philosophy of violence, in a drastic manner. It is terrible that these incidents occur when the UN and the whole world is celebrating International Day of Peace. Let us pray for the victims. Let us pray for all those who believe in hatred, for a change of heart and mind. May peace prevail on Earth.

United Religions Initiative

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

United Religions Initiative
Headquarters		The Presidio in San Francisco, California,USA
Membership		+1 million people
Leaders
-	Global Council Chair	Yoland Trevino
-	President	The Rt. William E. Swing
-	Executive Director	Charles P. Gibbs
Establishment
-	United Religions Initiative Charter	26 June 2000
Website www.uri.org

The United Religions Initiative (URI) is an international, grassroots, interfaith bridge-building organization modeled after the United Nations. It aims to create social change by promoting "enduring, daily interfaith cooperation," ending "religiously motivated violence", and promoting "cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings."^[1]

Guided by the vision of founder The Rt. Rev. William E. Swing the URI Charter was developed through a series of international conferences and consultation with transformative organizational design practitioners David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney.^[2]The URI Charter was signed by more than two-hundred people present, and hundreds more joining over the Internet, at a ceremony in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA on June 26, 2000.^[3]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Organizational structure
• 2 Activities
• 3 References
• 4 External links

Organizational structure[edit source | editbeta]

The URI is composed of 426 Cooperation Circles (CCs) in 72 countries worldwide as of November 2009. CCs are groups of 7 or more individuals representing 3 or more different faiths or spiritual expressions. CC members are all located in one of eight regions or span across multiple regions:^[4]

• Africa
• Asia
• Europe
• Latin America & the Caribbean
• Middle East & North Africa
• Multi-regional
• North America
• Southeast Asia & the Pacific

Activities[edit source | editbeta]

Before the formal charter signing in 2000, URI supporters around the world participated together in a project called "72 Hours for Peace", in which more than 250 local organizations united in projects promoting peace and justice during the turn of the millennium.^[5]

Examples of global and member initiatives documented in the public record:

• The Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative has played a key role in promoting peace in war-torn northern Uganda.^[6] The Ugandan groups are also participants in the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund supported by the World Bank.^[7]
• Members united in early support of U.S. action to prevent continued atrocies in Darfur through the proposed Darfur Accountability Act of 2005.^[8]
• The Interfaith Peace-building Initiative (IPI) "is a peace organization which has been working actively since 2003 to promote interfaith cooperation, a culture of peace, harmony, constructive dialogue and the Golden Rule. It is a nongovernmental peace organization legally registered with the Ministry of Justice in Ethiopia. IPI was established by concerned citizens from different religions here in Ethiopia that strongly believe that religions should play an important role in building trust and promoting a culture of peace, healing and reconciliation."^[9]

IROM SHARMILA CHANU – IRON LADY OF MANIPUR

“There was no other means to stop further violations by the armed forces against innocent people. I thought that peace rally and inquiry commissions would be meaningless. Unless I do something to change the situation.” Sharmila.

Irom Sharmila Chanu (born 14 March 1972), also known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur" or "Mengoubi" ("the fair one") is a civil rights activist, political activist, and poet from the Indian state of Manipur. Since 2 November 2000, she has been on hunger strike to demand that the Indian government repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA), which she blames for violence in Manipur and other parts of northeast India. Having refused food and water for more than 500 weeks, she has been called "the world's longest hunger striker".

She is currently under trial for attempted suicide.

Decision to fast

On 2 November 2000, in Malom, a town in the Imphal Valley of Manipur, ten civilians were allegedly shot and killed by the Assam Rifles, one of the Indian Paramilitary forcesoperating in the state, while waiting at a bus stop. The incident later came to be known to activists as the "Malom Massacre". The next day's local newspapers published graphic pictures of the dead bodies, including one of a 62-year old woman, Leisangbam Ibetomi, and 18-year old Sinam Chandramani, a 1988 National Child Bravery Award winner.

Sharmila, the 28-year-old daughter of a Grade IV veterinary worker, began to fast in protest of the killings, taking neither food nor water. As her brother Irom Singhajit Singh recalled, "The killings took place on 2 November 2000. It was a Thursday. Sharmila used to fast on Thursdays since she was a child. That day she was fasting too. She has just continued with her fast". 4 November is also given as the start day of her fast. On the Friday third of November she had her last supper of pastries and sweets then touched her mother's feet and asked permission to fulfill her bounden duty. Her primary demand to the Indian government was the repeal of theAFSPA

Three days after she began her strike, she was arrested by the police and charged with an "attempt to commit suicide", which is unlawful under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, and was later transferred to judicial custody. Her health deteriorated rapidly, and the police then forcibly had to use nasogastric intubation in order to keep her alive while under arrest. Since then, Irom Sharmila has been regularly released and re-arrested every year since under IPC section 309, a person who "attempts to commit suicide" is punishable "with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year [or with fine, or with both]".

International attention

Sharmila was awarded the 2007 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, which is given to "an outstanding person or group, active in the promotion and advocacy of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights". She shared the award with Lenin Raghuvanshi of People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights, a northeastern Indian human rights organization.

In 2009, she was awarded the first Mayillama Award of the Mayilamma Foundation "for achievement of her nonviolent struggle in Manipur".In 2010, she won a lifetime achievement award from the Asian Human Rights Commission.Later that year, she won theRabindranath Tagore Peace Prize of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management, which came with a cash award of 5,100,000 rupees, and the Sarva Gunah Sampannah "Award for Peace and Harmony" from the Signature Training Centre.

Spiritual Story : WHY WE SHOUT IN ANGER 

A Hindu saint who was visiting river Ganges to take bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled and asked.

'Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?'

Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, 'Because we lose our calm, we shout.'

'But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner.' asked the saint

Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples.
Finally the saint explained, .

'When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.

What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small...'

The saint continued, 'When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.'

He looked at his disciples and said.

'So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, Do not say words that distance each other more, Or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return.