Champaign-Urbana Interfaith Exploration is a “collaborative effort that builds bridges across local faith communities, the University of Illinois, community groups, campus religious and student life associations, faculty, staff, and administrators.” This weekend, they will host their first event: Cultivating Hope in Anxious Times, with the goal of strengthening connections and relationships through differences.
There are several events happening throughout the weekend, all of which are open to the public:
Thursday, November 7th: Keynote address by author and educator Dr. Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core
Dr. Patel will challenge participants to consider whether the United States can leverage the current diversity explosion to promote the common good, or whether it will blow up in our faces in forms such as open prejudice, rampant discrimination, deeper disunity, further inequality, and identity conflict.
Friday, November 8th: Talk by Dr. Mark Swanson of the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago and panel discussion hosted by the Central Illinois Mosque and Islamic Center featuring leading scholars from the Lutheran, Mennonite, Muslim, and Jewish traditions
Saturday November 9th: Panel hosted by Sinai Temple featuring local faith leaders
Sunday, November 10th: Ted and Company Theatre Works presents I’d Like to Buy an Enemy 2.0
A new show exploring issues such as race, domestic militarism (including school/religious institution shootings, in the streets and on the border), Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism as they present within the current ethos in the U.S.
You can find the full programming list here, and read our interview with Reverend Michael Crosby, one of the event organizers, here. Registration is not required, but encouraged.
