VeNews January 2009

Welcome to VeNews, the newsletter for Vesper Society friends!

Vesper Society Book Explores Roots of Global Laity Movement

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Mark Gibbs challenged church hierarchy by boldly claiming all Christian people are called to act on their faith in daily life. The former English schoolmaster became an important voice in the worldwide movement for ministry of the laity, one of the most important developments in 20th century church history.  In partnership with Vesper Society, Gibbs published provocative articles and convened groundbreaking conversations on pressing social issues with church, academic, business, and political leaders—conversations that prompted significant initiatives in the U.S. and abroad.

Scholars Nelvin Vos and Mel George have joined forces with Daniel Pryfogle, a journalist and leadership consultant, to write the engaging story of Gibbs and Vesper Society’s collaboration and their impact on the laity movement. Faith in the World: Mark Gibbs and Vesper Society, Being God’s Lively People will be available in the coming weeks through www.vesper.org. The site will also offer excerpts and photographs from the book, as well as samples of Gibbs’ writings and related content about this extraordinary figure in church history.

 

New Project Highlights Religious Pluralism as Strategy for Social Change

Acting together, communities of diverse faiths can alleviate entrenched social problems, Vesper Society believes. To raise awareness of this powerful strategy and to bring together religious leaders from several traditions, the Society will sponsor a series of public conversations at the University of San Francisco and the Los Angeles Central Library.

“For many of us, our faith encourages us to build bridges with people of other traditions and to work together to solve social problems,” says Julia Dowd, associate director of the Joan and Ralph Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought at the University of San Francisco (USF).

Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international nonprofit that builds mutual respect among religiously diverse young people, will give the keynote address at USF on January 29. “His work is one of the best examples of how interfaith dialogue can move people to a whole different place and help communities come together in serving people,” Dowd says.

In a panel discussion on March 4, the USF series will also explore the impact of religious fundamentalism on women worldwide. An invitation-only luncheon on April 1 will strengthen the existing regional interfaith collaboration that works on poverty and hunger both locally and globally. Details are here.

The Los Angeles series, part of the annual ALOUD program at Central Library, will kick off March 26 with a conversation with Patel and Gustav Niebuhr. Niebuhr, a leading writer about American religion, has just completed a book about religious pluralism and interfaith relations in the U.S.

Louise Steinman, curator of ALOUD, expects genuine give and take among the speakers and the audience. “Gustav will give an overview, and Eboo will describe his particular experience. Then Gustav will moderate a question and answer period. We hope [the audience] will walk away thinking about the possibilities, and we hope they’ll be inspired in their own work.”

A fall event, still being planned, may take the form of a panel discussion among people doing interfaith social justice work in Los Angeles. Both events will be available through podcasts on ALOUD’s web site.

ALOUD programs enrich the community by fostering the exchange of ideas, Steinman says. Niebuhr and Patel “represent everything we care about in the series: inquiry, curiosity, taking risks, and extending the conversation beyond the expected. We’re very excited about it.”

Both series build upon Vesper Society’s vision of bringing together multiple perspectives and insights to address real-world challenges.

“We live in a country with tremendous religious assets, not the least of which is a vibrant commitment to sustained engagement across faith traditions,” points out Society vice president Sabrina Lynn Motley. “We hope that, by providing a space for thoughtful and spirited dialogue, our work with USF’s Lane Center and Los Angeles Central Library’s ALOUD series will amplify the diverse voices of those who work for a healed and healthy society.”

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Vesper Society, a private operating foundation, promotes social justice locally and globally by addressing critical social issues including the provision of health services for the underserved.