March Announcements

March-April Greeters (subject to change)
March 3: Holadays
March 10: Kim Ranger
March 17: Gerard Akkerhuis and Judi Buchman
March 24: Walt Marston and Mark Hepper
March 31: Holadays
April 7: Kim Ranger
April 14: Gerard Akkerhuis and Judi Buchman
April 21: Walt Marston and Mark Hepper
April 28: Holadays

On the Calendar

• Mar. 3: Grand Rapids Symphony Sacred Dimensions Concert, Cathedral of St. Andrew, 301 Sheldon Blvd., at 3:00 p.m. The program features 14 choral works with the Symphony Chorus and Orchestra. Tickets are $22 at the box office.
• Mar. 5: West Michigan Hindu Temple Tour, 4870 Whitneyville Ave. SE, Ada, at 5:00 p.m. For more information please contact Fred Stella at stelthom@juno.com.
• Mar. 7 and Mar. 14: Shoah: Remembering and Learning from the Holocaust continues with “The Holocaust” (Mar. 7) and “Post-Holocaust World” (Mar. 14). Presented by Jaymie Perry, a Catholic holocaust educator, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Vatican II. At the Catholic Information Center, 360 Division Ave., Ste. 2A.
• Mar. 12: Passover Seder, Westminster Presbyterian Church, 47 Jefferson SE, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Led by members of Congregation Ahavas Israel. Space is limited—please call Sherrill Vore at 717-5541 or contact sherrillv@wpcgr.org. $10 contribution.
• Mar. 14: Cecile Pineda, DEVIL’S TANGO: How I Learned the Fukushima Step by Step. 12:15 pm at Aquinas College, Wege Ballroom (Wege Student Center) Grand Rapids, Mi. ; 2:30 pm Raybrook Manor (Friendship Room), 2121 Raybrook SE Grand Rapids, Mi.
  
  On the second anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Cecile Pineda, anti-nuclear activist and critically acclaimed author, will tour the Great Lakes region March 10-20. The author of Devil’s Tango: How I learned the Fukushima Step by Step, Cecile will give her stirring insight of the nuclear industry and update us on the consequences of the tragic event that began to unfold on March 11, 2011, with the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility. Devil’s Tango is an anguished dissection of the nuclear industry in which a crazy quilt of multiple voices, pieced together day-by-day, reflects Cecile’s attempt to come to terms with Fukushima’s catastrophic consequences to the planet.
  
  Devil’s Tango will be available for sale and signing by the author. Browse our literature tables at 12 noon. 
  
  Sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; Co-sponsored by: Kent County Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, POLIS (Aquinas College Student group), Don’t Waste Michigan, Left Forum, Micah Center. For more info. contact smaki1@hotmail.com or (616) 897-5107
• Mar. 15-16: Green Pastures Quarterly Meeting mid-winter gathering, Ann Arbor Friends Meetinghouse, 1420 Hill St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104. To register, write to Scot Miller (r.scot.miller@gmail.com, or phone 269-792-9183).
• Mar. 24: Next open finance committee meeting to discuss the budgeting process, noon.
• Apr. 6: LEYM representatives meeting, Pittsburgh Friends Meeting House.
• Apr. 12-14: Merry Stanford and April Allison visit.
• May 11: Memorial service for Ray Jansma, a Friend from the Fremont Worship Group. Visitation begins at 2:00 p.m.; memorial service at 3:00, at Crandall Funeral Home, 7193 W. 48th St., Fremont.
• May 18: GPQM Spring Gathering, MI Friends Center.

News and Notes

• Holland Monthly Meeting now meets at Western Theological Seminary on the first, third and fifth Sundays of every month, rather than just the second Sunday as they’ve been doing for a couple of years. We’re glad to hear they’ll be able to keep more connected with each other in this way. For more information, please contact Greg Murray, 616-395-7716 or gmurray@hope.edu.
• Ray Jansma, longtime member of the Fremont Worship Group, died Feb. 19. A memorial service is planned for May 11 at the Crandell Funeral Home, Fremont Chapel. Cards or letters may be sent to Phyllis Jansma, 3055 Ramshorn Dr., Fremont MI 49412-7713.
• Robert Foulkes from the Manitou Worship Group will be at the Foinse Research Station in Ireland during March.
• GPQM’s mid-winter quarterly gathering will feature speakers Chuck Fager and Paul Buckley. Fager will speak on the topic “Mystics, Psychics, Skeptics & Critics—The Roots and Evolution of FGC Quakerism,” at 7:00 p.m. on Friday evening, Mar. 15. On Saturday, Mar. 16, at 10:00 a.m. Buckley will speak on “What does Elias Hicks have to tell contemporary Friends about how to live a faithful life in the face of the world’s temptations?” On Saturday afternoon at 1:30, Fager and Buckley will discuss “Diversity and Unity Among Contemporary Liberal Friends.”

Some Comments on Science and Religion, by Douglas Kindschi, PhD, Director of the Kaufman Interfaith Institute

I am wondering whether we can learn something about interfaith from the sciences. The various disciplines look at the world by asking different questions and using different sets of assumptions. A biologist might be interested in how a particular species interacts with its environment, whereas the chemist would focus on the chemical compositions in the cell of the organism. The physicist, however, would be more interested in mass and energy exchanges. They are asking different questions but not to the exclusion of other approaches that can be taken. While the biologist might be quite certain of her understanding it does not mean that the chemist or the physicist is wrong.

This is the approach that Stephen Prothero took in his recent book, God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World—and Why Their Differences Matter. He argues that the religions are not just different paths to the same truth, but they ask significantly different questions and hence provide different answers. Christianity deals with the problem of sin and salvation, while Islam is concerned about pride and submission. Each can be quite certain of its perspective but not in a way that negates the other questions and issues posed by another faith understanding. Of course this is not the only way of seeing the various faith traditions. There are truth claims that can be seen as in conflict and these cannot be ignored.

In the sciences a person in one discipline can learn from the other discipline’s insights without changing one’s primary affiliation. Furthermore some of the most interesting questions lie at the intersection or at the borders between disciplines. Could interfaith dialogue benefit from this model and can a person be comfortable in affirming one’s own firmly held perspective while not insisting on the error of the other’s perspective? Could it also be that there is much to learn from the intersection of these perspectives? Could it be that the “borders” need not be always the point of conflict, but a place of increased insight and growth in understanding?