Except for monthly Vital Conversations convened by David Nelson, CRES programs arise by request. Our management principle is "management by opportunity." Every year we are delighted by the number of opportunties given to us, as, for example, last year's list demonstrates. (Of course we also provide free consulation to organizations and other services as requested, not listed on our public website.) |
Transcendent meanings from COVID?
#MLK ![]() King Holiday Essay — 2023 January 16 Download a PDF of Vern's 2-page summary of the genius of the spiritual approach of Martin Luther King Jr by clicking this link. You can also read the Letter from a Birmingham Jail here. Bill Tammeus writes about King's visits to Kansas City here. Vern writes:
I remember meeting King in a church basement in
Washington, DC, the year before he was assassinated. I remember his
appearance was delayed quite a while as his team checked the church for
threats and dangers, as those of us gathered to hear him hoped to see
him alive. It was a dark time. I remember his brilliant analysis of
Vietnam, and particularly its effect on young Black men.
I was a student at the University of Chicago Divinity School when he was assassinated. The next Sunday was Palm Sunday, April 7, and I was to be a guest preacher. I remember struggling to find something uplifting to say, and thankfully, able to rely on King's teachings and his public ministry in the context of the Christian story. I used a recording of the April 3 "Mountain Top" speech in many sermons in the following months. I remember studying the writings and speeches of King, with their eloquence and depth. Each year I continue to reread the Letter from the Birmingham Jail, which every year renews me with astonishment. I also especially cherish his last sermon, March 31, at the Washington National Cathedral, a few days before his assassination. And I claim King also as an exemplar of interfaith respect, which is why I wrote this essay. February 1-7 ![]() ![]() To observe World Interfaith Harmony week, we offer one of our most cited essays, "Stealing Another's Faith." The question of honoring without misappropriating material from others is not so easy, and this essay raises awareness so faiths can be less in conflict and more in harmony. Read, download this PDF, and share this important essay by Vern -- with excerpts from Huston Smith and Harvey Cox. TO UPDATE #SevenDays2024 ![]() ![]() The themes help us focus on kindness in seven different ways, on seven different days. 2024 April tba LOVE DISCOVER OTHERS CONNECT YOU GO ONWARD The SevenDays website gives you the SevenDays story (with the horrific past on April 14, 2014), the present, and the future, the
SevenDays events this year, how to get involved, resources, and an
opportunity to shop and various sponsorship opportunities. ![]() CRES
is glad to have been involved from the very first year with an
interfaith panel, and admires the folks and the organization involved
for turning tragedy into continuing community benefit by advancing
understanding and relationships. TO UPDATE
# 92 AL BROOKS CELEBRATION ![]() Please join the Brooks family, Vern, and other friends
at an open house to celebrate the induction of Al Brooks into the Black Archives of Mid-America Heritage Hall on his 91st Birthday. 1:00 - 6:00pmWednesday, May 3, 2023
The Black Archives of Mid-America1722 E 17th Terrace, Kansas City, MO 64108In lieu of gifts, donations can be made to www.blackarchives.org The Black Archives is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization LAST-MINUTE UPDATES: ![]() Location: Black Archives of Mid-America Heritage Hall, 1722 E. 17th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64108. The museum itself is featuring much to see about our friend. The Black Archives staff and volunteers will be help guest register when you arrive. The museum has a large parking lot. Time: 1-6 pm, May 3 Wednesday, with remarks and the Historic Induction Ceremony at 4 p.m. Dress: Business casual is preferred. Food/Beverages: We will be serving hors d'oeuvres and dessert. Bottled water and punch available. Alcoholic drinks have been donated by Beam Suntory -- we will have a “signature cocktail” served during the event. Food and drink are allowed in designated areas. Book Signing: If you have not had an opportunity to purchase Alvin Brooks’ book Binding Us Together, copies will be for sale in the Black Archives Gift Shop. Al would love to personally sign your book. Support Alvin Brooks Charities: * Metropolitan Community College Penn Valley campus is home to the Brooks Institute. Established in 2000 and named in honor of Alvin Brooks, the Brooks Institute supports the Civil Rights Learning Community, Civil Rights Pilgrimage and Civil Rights/Social Justice Speakers Bureau. * Alvin Brooks Center for Faith-Justice at Rockhurst University. The center will house many of the university’s faith-justice related efforts, including a chapel, mission and ministry programs, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. TO UPDATE ![]() Here is the website: funeralskc.org where you can read the articles and survey the research data. #230704 Independence Day readings * Vern Barnet * Frederick Douglass
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#240911 #911 A way of understanding the years since 9/11 While the 9/11 attacks opened new gates of hell, the way our government has responded has brought us inside hell's domain. The smoke from that day, the acrid fumes, amplified into war, brings us purblind to the charred and hobbled Body Politic. How do we understand what has happened? How do we move forward? And what of other international conflicts, especially the war of Russia against Ukraine? 9/11: METAPHORICAL MALADY:
1. Before 9/11, terrorism had been dealt with as a CRIME, internationally and at home. The violation of life and property in an otherwise orderly society makes the terrorist an especially despised outlaw. We employ a legal system to assure justice by punishing the criminal and removing the criminal from society. International courts have done the same. 2. But since September 11 we have used a WAR metaphor. Of course the metaphor is hardly new. We love war. We have fought the war against poverty and the war against drugs, though it is hard for us to admit defeat, even though Vietnam and Afghanistan are history now. We still fight the war against cancer, against crime, against . . . you name it. But a war against terrorism was new. The metaphor had power because we struggled not just against isolated attack but against an organized force seeking not just advantage through harm of a target but rather destruction of a government or civilization. Though we ourselves use violence, we assumed our own righteousness would bring us victory over evil. Both of the metaphors of crime and war too easily commend themselves because they are simple, and rest on the assumption that we are wholly good — and our opponents are completely evil. 3. A third metaphor might come closer to the
complexity of the situation: DISEASE.
Here the metaphor suggests not separate, competing powers but of all
humanity as a sick body, within the organs of communities, cities, and
nations, afflicted in various ways, degrading or sustaining each other
in different degrees, infected with individuals and groups poisoned (using
Buddhist language) with greed, fear, and ignorance. Now, with COVID, we
are learning that, as Martin Luther King said, “Whatever affects one directly,
affects all indirectly.” Is the disease metaphor give us any insights into the war of Russia against Ukraine? I think this metaphor gives us an essential insight into debilitated world governance, enfeebled by the failure to place armaments under international control requiring some body (a strengthened United Nations) to manage conflict between states when states cannot resolve problems peacefully. One way of looking at this situation, using the disease metaphor, is the war as an auto-immune disease of the world body; Russia, which benefits from a peaceful world order, attacks that very order, and the body must address this illness by sending resources to return to homeostasis. Just as chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and other cures, can destroy healthy cells, so the body's response to Russian aggression requires the short-term sacrifice of some otherwise healthy parts for long-term health. Whether the expansion of NATO will inspire a true government of all nations is very unclear, and whether the many increasingly complex forces of civilization lead to planetary senescence and death, or to universal peace #Aporia200524
Vern offers his conclusions
from over 50 years of experience and study: in a troubled world, what paths
lie forward? and how can one dare offer praise for the intertwined mix
of the horror and the beauty of existence?
Greater KC Interfaith Council's annual Table of Faiths event - with awards to our friend of many years, Karta Purkh Khalsa, and a key organization seeking to cure prejudice, MCHE, the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, and remembering CRES Amity Shaman Ed Chasteen ![]() A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE Table of Faiths EARLY YEARS -- #CouncilPhoto1989_____________________________________________________________The first Table of Faiths event, with David Nelson as convener, was a luncheon at the Marriott Muehlebach Hotel downtown Nov 10, 2005. Alvin Brooks, one of the co-chairs (Gayle Krigel, Mahnaz Shabbir, and Chuck Stanford), welcomed guests. Mayor Kay Barnes was the keynote speaker and presented the first Table of Faiths Award to Vern Barnet. The second Table of Faiths luncheon, Nov 14, 2006, honored Don and Adel Hall and Ed Chasteen. The third Table of Faiths luncheon, Nov 7, 2007, honored Alvin L Brooks and The Kansas City Star. The fourth Table of Faiths luncheon, Nov 13, 2008, included a presentation of Donna Ziegenhorn's play, The Hindu and the Cowboy. Honored were Robert Lee Hill and the Shawnee Mission Medical Center, and Steve Jeffers (1948-2008) was lovingly remembered. The fifth Table of Faiths luncheon, Nov 12, 2009, introduced The Steve Jeffers Leadership Award, given to Ahmed El-Sherif. All Souls Unitarian Church was also recognized, and Allan Abrams (1939-2009) was lovingly remembered. The sixth Table of Faiths luncheon, Nov 11, 2010, honored Notre Dame de Sion High School with the Table of Faiths Award and Queen Mother Maxie McFarlane with the Steve Jeffers Leadership Award. The seventh Table of Faiths luncheon, Nov 10, 2011 honored the Kansas City Public Library with the Table of Faiths Award and Donna Ziegenhorn with the Steve Jeffers Leadership Award. The eighth and last Table of Faiths luncheon, Nov 8, 2012, presented the theme of "Spirituality and the Environment: Caring for the Earth, Our Legacy." The Steve Jeffers Leadership Award was given to Mayor Sly James and the Table of Faiths Award went to Unity Church of Overland Park. There was no Table of Faiths event in 2013. Beginning in 2014, Table of Faiths events were no longer major downtown civic luncheons involving elected, cultural, and business leaders. With a longer evening format, the first in the new Table of Faiths dinners was held May 8, 2014, at Unity Village. --CRES ARCHIVES Vern Barnet founded the Council
in 1989 as a program of CRES and is Council Convener Emeritus. The Council newsletter has
published his brief notes about three
milestones in the early history of the Council.
#ThgvgSunday TO UPDATE 2024 TBA 2022 November 13 Sunday 5 pm CT INTERFAITH THANKSGIVING GATHERING “Promoting Interfaith Peace, Renewal and Regrowth” ![]() FREE online interfaith gathering -- including interfaith prayers of gratitude. Hosted by Heartland Chapter of the Alliance of Divine Love Co-sponsored by Greater KC Interfaith Council Livestream on www.facebook.com/HeartLoveKC bit.ly/3zNcLX2 ![]() The annual observance was sponsored by CRES for its first 25 years. This year, 2022, is the 376th year of the tradition and we are indeed grateful to the sponsors for perpetuating the recognition of the place of gratitude in every faith. OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
Having spawned several other organizations, including the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, we continue to offer programs initiated by and through others but we no longer create our own in order to focus on our unique work. For interfaith and cultural calendars maintained by other groups, click here. |
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You are welcome even if you have not read the book or seen the movie A Free Monthly Discussion Group Led by David E Nelson CRES senior associate minister president, The Human Agenda “The purpose of a Vital Conversation is not to
win an argument,
"Listen with curiosity, not judgement.” —David Nelson in dialog that will add value to the participants and to the world. In Vital Conversations, we become co-creators of a better community. —David Nelson The discussions began May 24, 2002, at the CRES facility by examining Karen Armstrong’sThe Battle for God 2024 Vital Conversations Schedule
2024 January 10 Wednesday 1-2:30 pm. David Nelson, humanagenda@gmail.com In person at the library and on Zoom ID: 832 3534 6541 ABOUT VITAL CONVERSATIONS: YOUTUBE VIDEO Stringing Rosaries by Denise K. Lajimodiere - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - #vcFeb2024 February 14 Wednesday 1-2:30 pm. David Nelson, humanagenda@gmail.com In person at the library and on Zoom ID: 832 3534 6541 ABOUT VITAL CONVERSATIONS: YOUTUBE VIDEO Postwar Journeys: American and Vietnamese Transnational Peace Efforts since 1975 by Hany Thi Thu Le-Tormala who will be with us for the conversation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - #vcMar 2024 March 8 Wednesday 1-2:30 pm. David Nelson, humanagenda@gmail.com In person at the library and on Zoom ID: 832 3534 6541 ABOUT VITAL CONVERSATIONS: YOUTUBE VIDEO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2024 April 12 Wednesday 1-2:30 pm. David Nelson, humanagenda@gmail.com #vcMay - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - #vcJun #vcJul Uni #vcAug Wire - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - #vcSep - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - #vcOct #vcNov - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - vc#Dec Selections are subject to change. For Zoom
link and additional information,
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