Ventura County Interfaith Community Minutes

Regular meeting, January 11, 2007         (page 1 of 4)

 

Note:  Minutes were not taken for the following year-end activities:

                        Nov. 2, 2006               Work session to finalize arrangements for the Feast of Faiths

                        Nov. 9, 2006               Feast of Faiths event

                        Dec. 14, 2006              Interfaith Holiday Dinner at Ottavio’s Restaurant

 

Attendees:        Bahá’í – Renée

(Jan. 11)           Buddhist – Debbie, OBT Pure Land;  Kim and Roz, SGI Nichiren

Christian –Teri and Tim, St. Columba’s Episcopal;  Lowell, LDS Mormon; 

      Linda, PS Catholic

                        Hindu – Mahesh and Vineeta Talwar

 

Devotional:       Debbie – A Buddhist parable

 

Review of Minutes:  October 27th minutes were approved on November 2nd.

 

Upcoming events in our communities:

 

Jan. 28, Sun. Bayard Taylor, author of Blah, Blah, Blah at Camarillo Community Church,

322 Las Posas at Carmen Drive.  Session A 4-5:30 pm, Session B 6:30 -8 pm, Dinner and

Communion 5:30-6:30 pm.  Dinner is $5 payable at the door with advance reservation.  Guests welcome.  Contact Jim Moyer 805-482-2657 x118 for RESERVATIONS. 

 

Feb. 10, Sat. Bill Lowe’s Ordination to the Deaconate, 10 am at Padre Serra Church, 5205 Upland

in Camarillo.  All are welcome.  This is our own Linda Lowe’s husband, a former Episcopal priest of 30 years, taking an important step toward becoming the first married Catholic priest in Southern California.  His ordination to the priesthood will be at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in LA with Cardinal Mahoney, date TBA.

 

Feb. 11, Sun. SGI Monthly World Peace Prayer Meeting, 10 am at Oxnard Activity Center, 2340

Wankel Way.  Pacific Area meetings are now held every second Sunday.

For details on meetings in Thousand Oaks the first Sunday, contact Roz Wolin 818-706-

2542.

 

Upcoming VCIC PLANNED VISITS:

 

Mar. 11, Sun. Hindu Monthly Worship, Temple Ner Ami, 4098 Calle Tesoro, Camarillo, 3:45 pm

Visitors meet for brief introduction, 4-5 pm rituals, 5 pm lecture in Hindi (VCIC visitors will

listen in separate room where interpreter can translate and answer questions.), 6 pm dinner.

VCIC visitors are invited for all or part of the event, including dinner. NOTE: SHOES must

be left outside, NO LEATHER allowed inside.

 

The group decided to resume visits to one another’s communities on a monthly basis.  Future visits will be planned at the February VCIC Core Team meeting.

 

Re: Event and Visit announcements and publicity:  Tim needs email with specific instructions on what to Post on the special events page of the website.  Also, Tim will provide in writing via email how event announcements and publicity had been done in the past.  ACTION-TIM email Core Team.

VCIC minutes page 2 of 4, January 11, 2006 

 

Group DISCUSSION in REVIEW of November’s FEAST OF FAITHS

(Note from Secretary:  Members comments are paraphrased, not directly quoted.)

 

Financial

 

VCIC owes Sheila’s Catering    $1584

Balance in checking account           1349

 

Lowell moved and Linda seconded that VCIC write a check for $1249 to Sheila’s Catering, leaving $100 in the account.  The Heltons wrote a personal check for $335 to cover the difference.

 

VCIC members who wish to help to reimburse Tim and Teri may write checks to VCIC and submit them to P.O.Box 515, Camarillo, CA  93010.

 

Guest feedback 

 

Everyone reported positive verbal feedback.  Renée reported interest in resuming community visits.

 

ACTION-KIM  Include results and guest comments from the forms in the minutes.  Here it is: 

 

Unfortunately, due to the format of the tear-off, largely geared for future follow-up, there really is nothing in the way of evaluation of the event. 

 

Of the 70 guests, including VCIC Core Team members and spouses, 37 forms requesting future contact were turned in of which 3 were spouse duplicates.  We must assume that those who wish to be recontacted did enjoy the event.

 

The tally of those who indicated their faith tradition is as follows:

OBT Buddhist – 1        SGI Buddhist – 4          Other Buddhist – 1       Catholic – 9      Episcopal – 1  

Four Square – 1           Hindu – 3                     Jewish – 2                    LDS – 6           Relig. Sci. – 2

Unitarian Universalist – 5

 

The only new community that requested to become involved was the Unitarian Universalist.

 

The following suggestions were made for future dialogue topics:

            Equality of religions                   Hope                Justice              Money             Legacy

            How we can get along better and help each other                      Finding common ground

            Unity and Global Representation

 

NOTE FOR FUTURE:  Include FEEDBACK REQUEST or EVALUATION FORM so that guests can provide positive and negative input to help us improve future events.

 

Individual reports  (members’ comments are paraphrased, not directly quoted)

 

Debbie—Some people weren’t forthcoming about faiths, specifically Christians not identifying themselves as Catholics resulted in a table with only Catholics and Buddhists, with at least one Catholic pushing her views.  Debbie reminded everyone to find similarities and common ground.

 

VCIC minutes page 3 of 4, January 11, 2006  (Discussion of Feast of Faiths continued)

 

Renée—Politics kept coming into the discussion at her table, she had to steer it back to religion.

 

Linda—Bill, her husband, had a difficult table with one individual aggressively trying to dominate.

 

Teri—Ferial Masry was “witnessed” to by a guest;  we must stress that proselytizing is not appropriate at VCIC events.

 

Roz—Her table focused on exchange of information.  A Japanese lady answered many questions about TAIKO drums.

 

Kim—A couple of reticent people had to be prodded to share, but generally everyone seemed equally interested in each other’s religions—1 LSD, 2 Hindu, 2 Catholic, 1 SGI Buddhist, 1 Christian taiko drummer.

 

Negatives

 

Biggest faux pas was failure to thank the Center for Spiritual Living for hosting the event free of charge.  Our MC Lowell did not recall making mention of it at the event, and neither Teri nor Kim wrote a letter.  ACTION-KIM  Write thank you letter, send toVCIC officers via email for approval prior to mailing.

 

FUTURE PLANS and IDEAS

INTERFAITH DIALOGUE EVENTS

 

Kim expressed the desire to plan MANY more round table dialogue sessions where people of many faiths can gather to discuss important topics, but to keep it simple, without a meal or large fee.

 

Renée expressed agreement.

 

Teri reported that John Sherwood of Temple Emet called and called her wanting to help our group build on the success of the Feast of Faiths.  He has lots of ideas for us based on his experience with starting the Valley Interfaith Council, which is now a huge organization.  A friend named Lucky Lynch Altman (?) also teaches facilitation.

 

Roz shared her experience with SFV Interfaith through SFV Arts Council serving as its 501C umbrella in the beginning.  Also with the League of Women Voters, she facilitated group discussion on the issues;  facilitators need to be prepared with questions to keep conversation flowing.

 

Discussion followed concerning the pro’s and con’s of using facilities of our religious communities.

 

Teri—We should be able to rotate meetings, holding them at our various sites.  Valley Interfaith was very successful with this strategy.

 

Debbie—Expressed serious reservations about going to sites of certain religious groups;  their members might overwhelm the event;  many people wouldn’t be comfortable, including herself.

 

Mahesh—We need not worry about how many people show up; we can start small and build from there.

 

VCIC minutes page 4 of 4, January 11, 2006  (Discussion of future plans and ideas continued)

 

Kim—Lots of people are interested, lots were deterred by the cost of tickets.  We might get a hundred people to show up for these discussions.

 

Renée—There is an unmet need for this kind of connection in our community.  People will come.

 

Roz—She knew Barry Berman from Valley IF who staged many large gatherings with speakers and honoring various people.  She said that her original idea when she came to VCIC was to plan a dialogue on peace so that people could discuss ways to create world peace.

 

We will continue discussion on where and how to host these events.  ACTION-TERI  Invite John Sherwood to our next meeting. 

 

MESSAGE BOARD

 

Debbie explained the idea of a VCIC MESSAGE BOARD where people could have online discussions of various topics.  Her daughter Irene has set up a sample at http://vcic.proboards100.com. 

 

Several members agreed with Tim that a disclaimer must be posted that the opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of VCIC, and Teri added that a note stating that proselytizing is not allowed should also be posted.  We agreed to continue discussions on this idea.

 

YOUTH AUTHORITY SERVICE PROJECTS will be discussed at the next meeting.

 

NEXT VCIC CORE TEAM MEETING:     

 

Thursday, February 15, 6:30 pm at the Heltons, 3482 Barca in Camarillo, phone: 805-482-0313.

 

NOTE:  We are starting EARLY for a PRESENTATION by RENÉE on her visit to Haifa, Israel, while under bombardment in July.  In addition, she will provide the devotional for the meeting.

 

ALSO, we will devote much of the meeting to discussion with Rabbi John Sherwood who will share recommendations for VCIC based on his experience from the early days of the Valley Interfaith Council.