BUILDING BRIDGES & THE LONG ISLAND MULTI-FAITH FORUM
The Long Island Council of Churches and Auburn Theological Seminary launched the LIMFF in 1993 to help people in our area understand their neighbors. The LIMFF unites hundreds of Islanders from eleven different faith communities and many races, nationalities, and cultures. Our volunteers represent the Bahai Faith, the Brahma Kumaris, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduisms, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Native American Spirituality, Sikhism, and Unitarian Universalism. If you are not familiar with all these traditions or did not know that they are your neighbors, you may need a Building Bridges program!
The Forum has presented more than 230 "Building Bridges" presentations and Multi-Faith Festivals in schools, workplaces, and houses of worship, for audiences ranging from ten to 1100.
While most of our programs are done in English, we have also been able to accommodate requests for Spanish language and bi-lingual presentations and could try other languages as well.
Tom Goodhue
Executive Director
Long Island Council of Churches
HOW TO REQUEST A BUILDING BRIDGES PROGRAM OR FESTIVAL
Requests should be made to Bernice Suplee (631-665-7033 or jbsuplee@aol.com). Let her know:
Who is the contact person? Daytime and evening phone numbers? Fax number or email?
What can you tell us about the audience? How many people do you expect?
Would you like to see any particular faith communities represented?
What location, day and time do you want? Please bear in mind that the time you pick may affect which faiths can participate. If you want a particular faith community, please consult their holiday schedule to see if this is a major holiday for them. Calendars can be found at:
www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/calendar, or www.interfaithcalendar.org.
How much time is available for our presentation? It is best to allow an hour to an hour and a half for a presentation. We can do shorter presentations by bringing fewer speakers, but we find it hard to convey anything meaningful in less than 40 minutes.
Are there particular topics you want panelists to cover? We avoid politics and foreign policy, and our panelists are not professional theologians, but they can address a wide variety of questions about how they practice their faith in the daily lives, such as the religious holidays they celebrate, what they want their neighbors to know about their customs and beliefs, and how to get along with one another in our increasingly diverse communities. Do you want them to tell what they have learned from their tradition about tolerance? Discrimination? Health and sickness? Dating? Marriage? Managing money?
Do you want us to begin by Faiths of Long Island, our 30-minute DVD giving an overview of all the faith communities in the LIMFF? Or would you like to show it before we come?
Would you like copies of educational materials to distribute in advance or for advance approval? We have prepared one-page descriptions of each of our faiths that have been reviewed and vetted by our faith communities and many school officials.
Who will send directions to Bernice for the panelists? Where should they park?
LONG ISLAND MULTI-FAITH FORUM REQUEST FORM
Name of Sponsoring Organization:___________________________________
Address:________________________________________________________
Your Name:______________________________________________________
Phone Number (s):_________________________________________________
E-Mail:__________________________________________________________
Date(s) requested:__________________________________________________
(Please allow at least a month for us to line up volunteers)
Location of event:___________________________________________________
Size and nature of the Audience:_______________________________________
Do you need speakers fluent in Spanish? Some other language? ______________
Any topics you'd like us to cover?:______________________________________
(Please note that we do not deal with politics and foreign policy.)
Are any of the following religions of particular interest to you? (Please circle)
Baha'i Faith Christianity Judaism Sikhism
Brahma Kumaris Hinduism Islam Unitarian Universalism
Buddhism Jainism Native American Spirituality
Who will send directions? Name___________________________________ Phone_________________
Would you like us to show our 30-minute DVD Faiths of Long Island? Yes____ No____
Who will set up equipment?______________
Is your group able to make a donation to the Multi-Faith Forum to help us continue this program? Yes____ No______
Please fill out this form and send it to:
Bernice Suplee
1363 Lombardy Blvd.
Bay Shore, New York 11706
jbsuplee@aol.com
GUIDELINES FOR BUILDING BRIDGES PANELISTS & MODERATORS
- Proselytizing is not permitted in our presentations. It is okay to state differences but not to compare other faiths with one's own in an unfavorable way. It is important, for example, to answer questions about the origins of your faith community without unfairly ascribing the persecution of your founders to another community: Sikhs can honestly describe the suffering of their early gurus by the Mughal rulers of India, but it is unfair to blame Islam for this. It is better --and more accurate--to say "Jesus was executed by the Roman Empire and its lackeys, some of whom were his own people," rather than "the Jews killed Jesus."
- Panelists who have converted must refrain from derogatory remarks about their former faith. If the audience asks, "Why did you leave your former religion?" the moderators should rephrase this in a form that all panelists can answer, such as, "What most attracted you to your faith community-either the one to which you converted or the one in which you chose to remain?"
- Keep your answers to questions as brief as possible, and allow all panelists an equal opportunity to speak. The moderator should indicate how much time each will have. If a panelist exceeds the allotted time the moderator should give a signal or ask the panelist to wrap up his/her reply. If the audience asks questions only of one panelist, the moderator should give other panelists a chance to respond or ask, "Does anyone have a question for our other panelists?"
- Moderators should ask follow up questions if either the question or the response needs clarification. It is important to honor the questions from the audience, even if they need to be rephrased, or they re beyond the scope of our program, or seem silly to you personally. If your religion has no position on body piercing, you may find the question, "Can you wear ear rings in your religion?" a bizarre question, but to the teenager who asks, this may be an important issue of identity and faithfulness to her faith community.
- The moderator should tell the audience that the panelists are not professional theologians and that some questions--such as politics and foreign policy--are beyond the scope of our program: panelists speak as individual volunteers from their community who want their neighbors to understand how they practice their beliefs in their daily lives here. If someone asks an inappropriate question, the moderator should politely but firmly-and with a smile, if possible-rephrase it someway that addresses our personal religious practices. How to end terrorism or solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is out-of-bounds, for example, but it might be fine to ask, "What have you learned from your faith about how to respond to violence and injustice?"
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