May 2010 Interfaith Connection Newsletter, Interfaith Works

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INTERFAITH CONNECTION

Published Monthly by Interfaith Works, P.O. Box 1221, Olympia, WA [email protected] (360) 357-7224 www.Interfaith-Works.org

Interfaith Works is an association of congregations, affiliatednon-profit organizations and individuals. Our purpose is topromote interfaith understanding, and serve the community through

charitable, social and educational endeavors.MAY 2010

30TH

ANNUAL CROP WALKWe Walk Because They Walk

HELLO, IM THE NEW E.D.Daniel Kadden, Executive Director

It is a pleasure and honor to step into the ExecutiveDirector position for Interfaith Works. For over 35years, this organization has made an indelible markon our community, growing into a bold expressionof interfaith unity to become an important volunteer

service agency addressing social and culturalneeds in Thurston County.

I bring to the job a background in community orga-nizing and professional work with non-profits. I wasraised in Chicago, where my parents showed meby example the importance of building bridges

across racial, religious and cultural lines to work forthe common good. Over the years I have been in-volved in many kinds of issues: affordable housingand homelessness, poverty and economic develop-ment, consumer rights, environmental concerns,civil rights. I have done some college teaching aswell in the areas of sociology and Jewish Studies,

and been involved for many years in Holocausteducation with a focus on preventing genocide. Iam a long-time member of Temple Beth Hatfilohand have participated with my family in a number ofInterfaith Works programs.

(Continued on page 2)

Sunday, May 2, 1:30 pmBegins at State Capitol Steps

Interfaith Works helps to feedthousands of hungry people in

our community by sponsoringthe CROP Walk every springon the first Sunday in May.CROP stands for CommunitiesResponding to Overcome Poverty. Since our firstWalk in 1980, Thurston County CROP Walk hasraised over $1,000,000 for hunger relief! May 2,

2010, the 30th

Thurston County CROP Walk, iscause for celebration.

CROP Walk, 10K (6.2 miles) in length, was the veryfirst walking fundraiser in Thurston County. In re-cent years, 400-500 walkers have participated inour CROP Walk. The motto is We walk becausethey walk, and it reminds us that millions of people

around the globe walk great distances every day just to get clean water, food, and fire wood forcooking. We walk in solidarity with those we hopeto help.

Those who will benefit from this years Walk arevictims of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chili, and

(Continued on page 2)


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May 2010, p. 2

I love grassroots organizations: how they work,how they innovate, how they make a difference inthe lives of real people. And Im especially excitednow to be able to work closely with faith communi-ties who share a vision and calling to make ourcommunity and world a better place.

Following in the footsteps of Kathy Erlandson isno small task. Under Kathys leadership, IW ex-panded its programs and grew to include a re-markably diverse set of faith communities andaffiliated organizations. Through your work, youhave set a powerful example for tolerance, trustand understanding.

Looking ahead, we face a number of challenges:We must adapt to the changing nature of volun-

teerism and learn to be creative in reaching outand mobilizing volunteers.

Our budget is exceedingly modest. We willneed to explore new sources of public support

in order to continue to accomplish our missionand expand the programs we consider crucialto serving this community.

We want to place more emphasis on involvingyoung people in our work, and utilize newmethods to communicate with and educate thepublic on important concerns.

And we continue to strive to be an effective andvaluable direct resource for the faith communi-ties that make up our core membership.

I look forward to working with -- and learning from-- everyone in Interfaith Works. I want to be in-spired by your vision, listen to your practical feed-back, and hear about your ideas on how we can

move forward.

I am grateful for the opportunity to work with you.

Daniel Kadden, Executive Director(Continued from page 1)

eight local hunger-relief agencies: First BaptistChurch Sunday Dinner Feeding Ministry, Outof the Woods, Sacred Heart Emergency Out-reach, Salvation Army/Olympia CommunityKitchen, Senior Services for South Sound/Meals on Wheels, St. Benedicts CommunityDinner Program, St. Vincent DePaul Society,

and Thurston County Food Bank.There are several ways YOU can participate. Youcan be a walker, a sponsor, a team leader, or acommittee member. You can volunteer to helpregister walkers, serve refreshments or sell teeshirts on Walk Day. And you can make a financialdonation to the Walk. And with Walk-on-the-Web,

its easier than ever to donate, and collect supportfor your walk, because you can do so on-line atwww.cropwalkonline.org/olympiawa

If you would like to volunteer to help or walk, con-tact Interfaith Works at 360-357-7224 or ChairmanWayne Gruen at 352-9703. And visit our website:

www.oly-wa.us/interfaith/CropWalk.phpGet involved. Hunger is a huge and growing problemin our community. Please, help make this the mostproductive Walk ever. Help CROP stop hunger!

CROP Walk (Continued from page 1)

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE

MEMBERSHIP IS MAY 11Tuesday, May 11, 7 p.m.

Temple Beth Hatfiloh201 8th Ave SE, Olympia

Meet the new Director! Election of Officers,Approval of the budget, Goodies, schmoozing!

Everyone Welcome!Please attend this important and necessary meet-ing, and well have as much fun as possible.


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May 2010, p. 3

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints(commonly called the Mormon Church) is a Chris-tian church with approximately 13.5 million mem-bers worldwide. In Thurston County, the Churchhas 19 congregations that meet each Sunday forservices. These weekly services are held in chap-els, but the Church also has temples, which are

special buildings where members perform sacredordinances such as marriages and baptisms forthose who have passed on.

Anyone, regardless of religion, may enter a Latter-day Saint chapel and attend services. However,because of the sacredness of temples, only mem-bers of the Church who are in good standing areallowed to enter the temples. A member must beobserving the basic principles of the faith and pro-fess such to his or her local leaders once every twoyears in order to enter a temple. The temple is opento members throughout the week. Members of theChurch go to the temple as often as possible, typi-cally once a month where temples are easily acces-sible.

Temples were built in ancient times as mentioned inthe Old Testament. The Tabernacle was carried bythe Israelites, which was effectively a portable tem-ple. Later the Temple of Solomon was used as theholiest place of worship and a place of instruction.

The temple was a symbol of devotion to God andthe faith of the people.

Modern temples are places of beauty and peacemeant to inspire those who visit. The temple is aplace of tranquility where the cares of everyday lifecan be set aside. Members can go to the temple toreflect on their life and to meditate. Those who at-tend are taught about the purpose of life.

In temples members perform sacred ordinancessuch as marriage. Marriages in the temple arecalled sealings because they seal a family to-gether for eternity. When a man and a woman aremarried in the temple, their children born thereafteralso become part of their eternal family. Coupleswho have been married civilly can be sealed later.

Once a member has performed ordinances for himor herself, the member returns to the temple to per-form these ordinances as proxy for someone whohas already passed on who did not receive the ordi-nances while living. Members of the Church areencouraged to do genealogy for their ancestors. Asa result of members work, the Church operates thelargest genealogical library in the world the FamilyHistory Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Churchalso operates branch libraries throughout the worldincluding one in Olympia at 1116 Yew Ave NE.

The Church has 130 temples throughout the world.Another 22 temples are under construction or are in

planning stages. In Washington there are threetemples located in Bellevue, Spokane and Richland.

NEW TEMPLE OPEN HOUSEA new temple is being built in Vancouver, BC. Thistemple will serve members of the Church in BritishColumbia and parts of northern Washington. The

Vancouver, BC temple will have an open houseApril 9 April 24 (except Sundays). Details can befound at www.lds.org. During the open house thepublic is invited to take a tour of the building. Par-ticipants can reverently walk through the buildingand have an opportunity to ask questions beforeand after the tour. After the open house the templeis dedicated and open only to members of theChurch.

MORMON TEMPLESTom Nelson, Director of Public Affairs, Olympia Washington Stake


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May 2010, p. 4

CLEANING TEAMSpecial thanks to All Souls Uni-

tarian Universalist Community:

Logan Chrysler

Michael McMillan

BOARD MEMBERSAlexa Johnson

Marge JohnsonBarnett Kalikow

Miles

Mustafa Mohemadali

Kathleen Peppard

Dan Ryan

Jan Spiller

Rich YoungDELEGATES

Anise Ahmed

Alan Corwin

Leslie Edwards-Hill

Barbara Gibson

Brenda Hatcher

Terry KirkpatrickTia Kremer

Larry Larson

Jeannette Larson

Pat Lisoskie

Carol McKinley

Tom McLain

Pat PerryDiane Pieroni

Wes Pruitt

Jim Shulruff

Suzanne Simons

Luther Smith

Jan Spiller

Scott Stevens

Roger Tanquist

Connie WalkerFran Williams

Heather Williams-Durka

Wendy Wilson

Melissa Young

Rich Young

DONORSLaura & Paul Abernathy

Robert Aieta

Anonymous

Clyde & Elizabeth Bachman

Baha'i Assembly of Olympia

Sally Blonien

James Cammack

Community of ChristSonja Dordal

Leslie Edwards-Hill

Kathy Erlandson

First Church of Christ, Scientist

First United Methodist Church

James Fulton

Marilyn Gisser

Gloria Dei Lutheran ChurchKristofer Graap

Jon HalvorsonMarguerite Holcomb

Alexa Johnson

Barnett Kalikow

Arlene Kuczynkski

Lacey Community ChurchLacey Presbyterian Church

Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-

ter-Day Saints, Olympia Stake

Patrick & Marilyn LaViollette

Thomas & Elsa McLain

Pacific NorthWest Association

of Church Libraries

Lois & Philip Parker

Pamela ParsonsKathleen Peppard

Pat Perry

Paul Pickett

Plum Mountain Refuge

Nancy Powers

Mary Raines

St. Michael Catholic Parish

R.P. Smith

Bernie Steckler

Vonnie Tallon

Janet Tanaka

United Churches of Olympia

United Way of Thurston

County

Unity Church of OlympiaConnie Walker

Marlene Westhoff

Fran Williams

Marvin Young

Rich & Melissa Young

EARTH STEWARDSDon ForanPat Lisoskie

Clarice McCartenMimi Maloney

Leslie Romer

Bernie Steckler

EMERGENCYOVERFLOW SHELTER(See next months issue)

OFFICEJanette Egan

Carol Judge

Marguerite Holcomb

Jeanette Larson

Jan Smith

THANK YOU INTERFAITH WORKS VOLUNTEERS & DONORS,

JANUARYMARCH 2010


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You Are Invited to

Kathys Retirement Party

Sunday, April 25 2 p.m.4 p.m.St. Placid Priory, 500 College St. NE, Olympia

After over 20 years with Interfaith Works, as volunteer, in-terim Director and Executive Director, Kathy Erlandson hasretired. Please join us to celebrate her accomplishments.

There will be refreshments, music, a presentation, spokentributes and a chance to thank Kathy for her years of service.

VOLUNTEER WORK PARTIES AT BREAD AND ROSES

Every Saturday, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. followed bySaturday Supper, 6:00 p.m.

1320 8th Ave SE, Olympia, WA 98501www.breadandrosesolympia.org, 754-4085

We're building a food garden! By summertime next year, every square foot of land at the Bread & Rosescommunity will be growing fruits, nuts, herbs, and vegetables for our community meals and for local soupkitchens and food banks.

If you like to play in the soil, if you have a pickup truck, if you have yard tools to loan, if you are passionateabout organic gardening or local food security, or if you just like doing fun projects with your neighbors,please come join us!

If you have other skills, there are a lot of ways to get involved. Help us paint the shelter, make repairs, canour home-grown food, prepare the Saturday Supper, or build new furniture for the shelter.

Work parties are followed by Saturday Supper at 6 p.m. Bread & Roses' volunteer hosts serve a gourmet

meal every Saturday evening. When the work party is over, please join us and our women's shelter guestsfor good food and a great time!

May 2010, p. 5

READ OLYMPIAN ARTICLE ON KATHY

Olympian staff writer John Dodge visited our offices and interviewed outgoing director KathyErlandson and new director Danny Kadden. Here is the link to that article:

http://www.theolympian.com/2010/04/04/1194490/erlandsons-leadership-turned-interfaith.html


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May 2010, p. 6

Olympia is one of only a handful of communities inthe U.S. that has the presence of both Benedictinemen and women. Since the late 19th century, Laceyhas been home to the womens community of St.Placids Priory and the mens community of SaintMartins Abbey, both founded by neighboring com-munities in Collegeville, Minnesota. The Benedic-

tines are a religious order of the Roman CatholicChurch that dates back to the 5th century, foundedby St. Benedict of Nursia who had a twin sister, St.Scholastica, the head of her own religious commu-nity. As a monastic religious order, the Benedictines,and related orders such as Trappists and Cisterci-ans, have a lot to offer regarding contemplation,

mysticism, communal prayer life, and interreligiousdialogue.

The Catholic Church has all the diversity that onemight expect from a religious tradition of global mag-nitude and an estimated one billion adherents. Ofcourse, that statistic would include all those whohave been baptized into the Catholic Churchwhether they continue to seriously practice withinthe church or not. With this in mind, it is significantto see the commitment to interreligious dialogue thatthe church has made in its official documents. Keep-ing in mind that true interreligious dialogue and co-operation is a relatively recent phenomenon in thecontext of human history, the Catholic Church offi-cially entered the interreligious movement in theearly 1960s with the Second Vatican Council and itsdocument, Nostra Aetate. But these actions werethe result of a lot of dialogue that had begun previ-ously at the grassroots level.

In this, Benedictines, from Bede Griffiths to Thomas

Merton to more recent, less famous monastics, haveplayed a key role. That role has manifested andcontinues through Monastic Interreligious Dialogue

(MID), an organization of Benedictine and Trappistmonks and nuns committed to fostering interrelig-ious dialogue particularly with our monastic counter-parts in other religions. MID has the strongest rela-tions with Asian religions, Hinduism and Buddhism,religions that place heavy emphasis on monasti-cism. In 1978, MID evolved out of another organiza-

tion, the Alliance for International Monasticism (AIM)out of a realization that many Benedictine and Cis-tercians monasteries in Asia had, out of necessity,developed relationships with representatives ofAsian religions and monasteries. The MID website(www.monasticdialogue.com) contains a wealth ofinformation, including Bulletin archives dating back

to 1977.MID has developed momentum in the last 15 yearsor so. At the anniversary of the original Parliamentof the Worlds Religions in Chicago in 1993, theDalai Lama and a few Benedictines discussed theidea of bringing Benedictine, Cistercian, and Bud-dhist monks of various traditions together to sharetheir spiritual traditions and practices. It was agreedto hold these gatherings at Gethsemani Abbey, thehome monastery of pioneer Thomas Merton, and tocall these meetings Gethsemani Encounters. So far,three such encounters have been held, in 1996 on avariety of topics, in 2002 focusing on suffering, andin 2008 on ecological concerns. Meanwhile, it ap-pears that interreligious dialogue in general hasgained and continues to gain momentum.

Last fall, I was honored to be appointed to the MIDboard. I see this as a wonderful opportunity to be-come more deeply immersed in the specificallyBenedictine monastic contributions to interreligious

dialogue. My interests in the global interreligiousmovement are balanced with local participation atwith organizations such as Interfaith Works.

BENEDICTINES AND INTERRELIGIOUS FRIENDSHIPSBr. Luke Devine, Order of St. Benedict (OSB)


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COMMUNITY CALENDARA listing of some of the activities and events of Interfaith Works members, affiliated organizations, and of general interest.

IW does not necessarily endorse these events. More details and events at www.Interfaith-Works.org.

May 2010, p. 7

April 9-24

Mon-Sat

Temple Open HouseChurch of Jesus Christ o f Latter Day Saints. The public is in-

vited to tour the new Vancouver, B.C temple before its dedication. www.lds.org

April 24++Saturdays1-5 pm

Volunteer Work Parties at Bread and Roses. Come help build a food garden. Volunteerskills of all sorts welcomed at our ongoing Saturday work parties, followed by Supper at6pm. RSVP at http://www.breadandrosesolympia.org/

April 24Saturday

4:30

Procession of the Speciesa joyous, spontaneous artistic parade celebrating our rela-tionships with each other and the natural world. Downtown Olympia. See the website for

exact route. www.procession.org.

April 25Sunday24 pm

Retirement Party for KATHY ERLANDSON, Interfaith Works Executive Director.Come wish Kathy farewell as she steps down after over nine years. See our website

for more details. St. Placid Priory, 500 College St. NE, Lacey, WA 98516.

April 30Friday

9:15-3:30

The Sacred Arts in Ministry. An introductory workshop on the use of artistic expressionin Christian contexts of prayer, retreat and spiritual direction. Priory Spirituality Center, 500

College St NE, Lacey. Registration & fees $65. 438-2595, [email protected].

April 30 ++Friday ++9:30-4:30

Hospice Volunteer Training with Providence SoundHome Care and Hospice. 30hours of training. Volunteers provide support to families and those who are dying. For reg-istration and information contact Volunteer Coordinator Debe Edden at 360-493-4689.

May 1Saturday

7:00 pm

CIELO benefit concert with Celso Duarte Sextet, Laura Rebollos and Los Calaveras.An exciting program of traditional Mexican music, to benefit CIELOs ESL and GED pro-

grams.Capitol Theater, 206 5th Ave SE, Olympia, 98501. www.cieloproject.org

May 2Sunday1:30 pm

30thAnnual Thurston County CROP Walk for Hunger Relief. Walk,pledge, or volunteer to raise funds for local and global hunger projects!

Contact Wayne Gruen at 352-9703. www.oly-wa.us/interfaith/CropWalk.php

May 6Thursday7:00 pm

Practicing and Applying Mindfulness. Tibetan Buddhist monkGeshe Jamyang contin-ues teachings on the application of Mindfulness in formal meditation and daily life. $15donation requested. Temple Lien Hoa, 1211 Wilson St NE, Olympia. Info at 956-1215.

May 11Thursday7:00 pm

Interfaith Works Annual Meeting of the Membership - Goodies! Entertainment!Election of Officers! Approval of the Budget! Please attend this necessary event and

well have as much fun as possible. Temple Beth Hatfiloh, 8th & Washington

May 12WednesdayNoon7:00 pm

Interfaith Works Earth Stewardship Committee. Connect with others in local faith com-munities around environmental concerns. Noon, second Wednesdays at Traditions.EARTH CARE SERIES #8: The Great Story(DVD).The life and work of Thomas Berry, culturalhistorian and ecologian. Discussion follows. Traditions Caf, 300 5thAve SW. Free/donations


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2nd

Tuesday

30 th Annual Thurston CountyCROP WALK - Sunday, May 2Over $1,000,000$1,000,000$1,000,000 raisedfor hunger relief!

You can help - Tovolunteer, walk or pledge call

352-9703 or 357-7224

www.cropwalkonline.org/olympiawa

May 2010 Interfaith Connection Newsletter, Interfaith Works

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