St. Valentine's Day: This year, don't forget friends ...

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14: The National Retail Federation predicts that Valentine’s Day gift giving is rising, once again, for most Americans! Of course, that’s terrific economic news for our nation. The poll of more than 9,000 men and women shows that total holiday spending is likely to top $17 billion this year—with spending rising in all retail categories associated with Valentine’s Day.

Where is all that money going? Jewelry, candy, flowers, cards, special dinners and new clothes are the big categories in our shopping lists.
Who is spending—and who is receiving? Brace yourself! In the Federation survey, Americans said they plan to spend an average of more than $70, each. Parents plan to spend an average of $25 on their children. Pet owners are likely to spend about $5 on their animals!
And, How about our friends? In terms of the money we’re laying out—our “friends” rank somewhere between our children and our pets. Survey respondents plan to spend an average of $7 on friends.

VALENTINE’S DAY HISTORY AND TRIVIA

Want the facts? Wikipedia has an extensive overview of Valentine’s Day history and culture.
Who wrote the first Valentine’s Day love letter? Geoffrey Chaucer usually gets the credit for a couple of lines he penned in his 1382 work: Parliament of Birds. Adapted for contemporary English spelling, Chaucer wrote: “For this was St. Valentine’s Day, when every bird comes there to choose his mate.”
Who was the “real” St. Valentine? That’s a trick question, because there were many. Valentine was a popular name in the era of early Christian martyrdom. Saints by that name apparently dropped like flies. The two martyrs honored with Feb. 14 feast days were Christian clergy, killed in Roman persecution.
Is this truly an international holiday? Sure is! You may enjoy reading a snapshot of Valentine’s Day culture from the Straits Times, a major newspaper serving the regions between southeast Asia and Indonesia. One popular item in that part of the world this year? Teddy bears.

DID YOU KNOW VALENTINE’S DAY CAN HURT?

It’s true. ReadTheSpirit reports on the challenges congregations face because we tend to focus mainly on married couples—in an era when half of American men and women aren’t married. Read “A Valentine to the Divorced,” by Carolyne Call. And, read our interview with Carolyne: “Church Growth Takes More than Reaching Out to the Married.” Both columns are valuable reading for congregational leaders.

WHAT ABOUT THOSE FRIENDS WE OVERLOOK?

Dr. Benjamin Pratt, author of our new Guide for Caregiving, urges us to remember friends on Valentine’s Day. The new Retail Federation report, showing that we tend to overlook our friends at this time of year, suggests that Pratt’s advice may be right on target.
Here is Benjamin Pratt’s advice …

When you need a friend—be a friend. That simple proposal may never be more applicable than at the starry-eyed, romantic, idealized times of our lives like Valentine’s Day, Christmas and Thanksgiving. Loneliness, self-pity and even bitterness can ooze through our veins when we imagine that others live the dream and we do not. If that happens to you, you are not alone. It is time to act, not just feel.

In A Guide For Caregivers, I advise the 65 million Americans who are caregivers to reach out and connect with others—for your own spiritual wellbeing. Valentine’s Day is a perfect time to do that. For many, the loneliness of Valentine’s Day can penetrate the marrow of our bones. Think of someone who needs a friend. Invite him or her for tea or coffee. Eagerly and respectfully listen to your friend’s story—and your friend might even listen to yours.  Either way, your gift of listening will bolster you against your own ache. Don’t forget to thank your friend for giving you an hour of his or her life. Spiritually healthy caregivers learn that we often are the ones who need the blessing of another’s care.

Originally published at www.ReadTheSpirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Anniversary: Darwin Day and Evolution Weekend

Charles Darwin photograph by the famous American photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. Now in public domain, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.SATURDAY & SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11 & 12:
Faith and science aren’t enemies, more than 13,000 religious leaders have declared in recent years. That nationwide campaign against Fundamentalist approaches to understanding the opening passages of the Bible is focused, each year, around Charles Darwin’s birthday: February 12, 1809.

ReadTheSpirit provides an Educational Resources page on the so-called Science vs. Religion issue. Wikipedia has a detailed history of Darwin Day, plus a closely related history of the Clergy Letter Project, which is focused around Evolution Weekend.

The best 2012 news coverage of Darwin Day and Evolution Weekend we’ve spotted comes from the Mother Nature Network (MNN). Want to find out about a “Phylum Feast” or a “Primordial Soup,” which are creative ideas for marking this weekend? MNN explains them. Best of all, MNN dug out a 10-minute YoutTube clip of a classic Carl Sagan presentation on evolution.

The coolest new Darwin website we found for 2012 is the American Museum of Natural History’s new portal to a huge range of Darwin’s papers. The manuscripts collection is a little intimidating at first. There’s even a lengthy user agreement that readers need to affirm before digging deeper. But the search is worth it. Within a few clicks, readers can examine pages from Darwin’s original hand-written text of Origin of Species. A New York Times story about the portal points out: “In addition to revealing Darwin’s intellectual evolution, the project also reveals Darwin’s sometimes less-than-careful treatment of some of his own papers.” Darwin apparently had a habit of turning his own manuscripts into scrap paper. He even allowed his children to draw pictures on pages he had written—and the Darwins had a huge family, so that was a lot of scribbling!

Originally published at www.ReadTheSpirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Christian: Pray the Novena for Our Lady of Lourdes

The grotto at Our Lady of Lourdes. Photo in public domainSATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11: Years before “Immaculate Conception” became a common term in the Christian Church, a single event cemented it in history: the Marian apparition at Our Lady of Lourdes. On Feb. 11, 1858, a 14-year-old peasant girl reportedly saw a “lady” in the grotto of Massabielle while she was gathering firewood. In the past 154 years, more than 60 cases have been accepted as inexplicable miracles at the site where the peasant girl says the “Immaculate Conception” asked her to dig for a spring. Each year, millions of people still flock to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Bernadette Soubirous reported the “lady” to have yellow roses on each foot—in a practice that, to this day, remains popular for pilgrims to imitate with Marian statues. (Wikipedia has details.) When the apparition instructed Bernadette to ask local clergy that a chapel be built at the grotto, clergy demanded to know the apparition’s name. Bernadette was told: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” What Bernadette did not know is that, just three years earlier, Pople Pius IX had proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Sources agree that Bernadette would not have been familiar with the term. (Get hymns and readings at Women for Faith and Family.)

For pilgrims who can’t travel to France, many churches offer a Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes during February. At St. Bernadette Parish in Massachusetts, 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of the congregation’s novena. (Read the article in the Catholic Free Press.) St. Bernadette’s pastor attests that many “favors have been granted” to those who have faithfully attended the 9-day novena each year. (Anyone wanting to pray the novenas can do so with help from the Global Catholic Network.)

Pope Pius X knew that “miraculous” cures from Lourdes would be under intense investigation, and as such, he quickly requested the establishment of the Lourdes Medical Bureau. From its earliest days of receiving pilgrims, the grotto at Lourdes has housed an on-site Bureau Medical that welcomes any scientist in search of proof of the approved miracles. The Lourdes Medical Bureau continues to leave its records open to any medical doctor who specializes in the area of any cure.

Anniversary: Egypt marks 1 year since Mubarak's fall

HOSNI MUBARAK IN HIS PRIME. In 2002, President George W. Bush rolled out the White House red carpet to Mubarak, and Bush told the world: “President Mubarak has a long history of advancing peace and stability in the Middle East.”SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11: The eyes of the world are on Egypt, once again, at the one-year anniversary of the fall of Hosni Mubarak, who is still alive at age 83 although reportedly is in frail health. America’s top general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, is expressing serious concerns to Egyptian leaders about the harsh new course that military leaders based in Cairo appear to be taking.

No less an editorial voice than the New York Times, on Sunday Feb. 12, thundered at the Egyptian generals about their country’s “Unwise Course.” In part, the Times editorial declared:
The generals who have controlled the country since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted a year ago have started a preposterous crusade against civil society groups. … Their paranoid argument? That the groups—which do voter and poll-worker training among other things—are ‘foreign hands’ out to destroy Egypt at a time of unprecedented unrest. The generals portray themselves as defenders of the country’s sovereignty. The army is under fire at home for holding back the democratic tide, abusing civilians even more than Mr. Mubarak and failing to govern effectively, so it is using America as a scapegoat. The confrontation is poisoning relations with a key ally at a time when Egypt needs all the friends it can get. It is diverting attention from solving the country’s profoundly serious problems: continued political turmoil and looming economic meltdown.

That pretty well sums up global concerns, especially among groups concerned about global peacemaking.

In addition, the Newsweek-owned Daily Beast website warns that fear is spreading among Egypt’s newly emerging community of artists and creative-media professionals. According to the Daily Beast: “One year on, Egypt’s revolution has opened up space for more criticism of the cultural status quo, but it has also opened the door to other, deeply conservative forces that see much of the recent art as an affront to religion.”

British newspapers are reporting that the threat to cut off American aid to the Cairo regime may be more than a bluff. While American leaders are wary of losing influence with Egyptian leaders by cutting off the aid, UK correspondents for the Independent and other newspapers are saying that the generals in Cairo may actually welcome turning off the flow of funds for their own political advantage—a show of defiant independence. No question: The year-old Egyptian revolution is at another major crossroads.

Care about these issues? At ReadTheSpirit, we recommend two books: Read Daniel Buttry’s Blessed Are the Peacemakers for a larger perspective on the challenges unfolding in Egypt and around the world. And, for a first-hand perspective on the talented and courageous young peacemakers who ousted Mubarak, get a copy of Wael Ghonim’s new Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power

Originally published at www.ReadTheSpirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity. 

Milestone: After 117 years, Kodak stops making cameras

Kodak founder George Eastman tests one of his early cameras aboard a ship in 1890. By 1900, Eastman introduced the world-changing Brownie camera, priced at $1 each. That marketing is in keeping with Kodak’s famous slogan: “You push the button, we do the rest.”THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9: Mark this milestone in your journals, note it in your blogs and newsletters—the creative force that made modern media possible has stopped making cameras for the first time in 117 years. KODAK announced on February 9, 2012, the end of camera production (and the end of its pocket video cameras and digital picture frames). One more media giant has failed to adapt to the emerging digital media that it helped to create and is foundering on the rocky shores of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Is this an over-the-top way of describing this milestone? In one word: No. Consider …

By the mid 1880s, George Eastman (Kodak’s founder) owned the U.S. Patent to his greatest development: roll film. He also quickly consolidated ideas from a number of American inventors so that Eastman controlled and produced America’s first inexpensive cameras for roll film. Prior to that time, photography depended on cumbersome plates made of various rigid substances. Eastman’s innovations opened the floodgates to everyday photography. On a larger scale, his roll film allowed other inventors, especially Thomas Edison, to launch the American movie industry. Kodak so completely dominated these emerging fields of media that 80 of the American movies that went on to win the Best Picture Oscar were shot on Kodak film.

Hollywood wasn’t the only place where Kodak pretty much owned the entire photographic market. In a widely cited Harvard Business School report on Kodak, the year 1976 is identified as one peak in Kodak’s fortunes. In that year, Kodak produced 90 percent of all film sold in the U.S. and 85 percent of all cameras.

One myth floating around the Internet this week is that Kodak ignored digital photography. On the contrary, a Kodak engineer named Steven Sasson invented the digital camera. Perhaps digital photography was inevitable, given the direction of modern science, but Kodak was at the opening gate of this new era. In fact, Sasson opened the gate for Kodak and the rest of the world. The Kodak digital-camera patents were awarded between 1974 and 1976. Unfortunately, innovators in the rest of the world raced far beyond Kodak with the processes the media giant introduced.

Yes, news reports on Kodak over the past week all cite the company’s far-too-complacent assumptions about film and traditional cameras. Much like the too-complacent assumptions of American newspaper moguls, which sidelined newspapers as the dominant force in news media around the world, Kodak let its virtual monopoly on American photography slip away. Some news reports say that the Kodak decision to let Fuji film sponsor the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was a key tipping point. Certainly, Kodak’s failure was obvious by 2009, when the company ended production of Kodachrome film after 74 years.

Today, Kodak is trying to stave off complete disaster by focusing on its home-printer technology, according to business reports over the past week. Whether Kodak can survive 2012 is still a serious question. After all, the company already seems to have wrung dry the possibilities for large court settlements with competitors, based on its legacy of patents over the past century. That settlement money now is gone, too.

One possible solution? Kodak may become the Colonel Harland Sanders of the media industry. At this point, lots of companies around the world are eager to get their hands on that Kodak name and logo.

Want to strike a positive blow on the new-media frontier? Check out ReadTheSpirit’s newest book release, this week’s publicaiton of Our Lent, 2nd Edition. In a short supplement to the new edition, ReadTheSpirit Publisher John Hile writes: “ReadTheSpirit Books produces its titles using innovative digital systems that serve the emerging wave of readers who want their books delivered in a wide range of formats—from traditional print to digital readers in many shapes and sizes. This book was produced using this entirely digital process that separates the core content of the book from details of final presentation, a process we have developed that easily increases the flexibility and accessibility of our books.”
Interested in that next-wave development of digital production for small publishing houses? Email us at ReadTheSpirit@gmail.com and ask to talk with our publisher, John Hile. After two years of software development by Hile, Our Lent 2nd Edition is the first book we have produced with our newly complete digital workflow. We welcome questions from other interested professionals.

Originally published at www.ReadTheSpirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Buddhist: Embrace death & Enlightenment on Parinirvana

Photo in public domainWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8: Mahayana Buddhists celebrate the death of the Buddha today. That may seem like an odd attitude to Westerners, but Buddhists believe that their master had acheived Enlightenment—so his final triumph was leaving this physical world in death and all of this world’s lingering attachments. The holiday is known as Parinirvana Day. (It’s easier to pronounce if you think of the word as “Pari—Nirvana”).

The man known to his followers as the Buddha actually had reached Enlightenment 40 years before; still, he wasn’t able to enjoy the full benefits of his release from the cycle of death and rebirth until his physical body had died. At age 80, Buddha was in a state of meditation when he died and attained nirvana. Thus, on Parinirvana Day, a Buddhist will often meditate on his own impending death, as well as the deaths of loved ones who have recently died. (Read more at Wikipedia.) By meditating, devotees hope to get one step closer to Enlightenment and, possibly, to help their loved ones to do the same.

East Asian temples and monasteries are filled with Buddhist followers today, and passages from the Nirvana Sutra—describing Buddha’s final days on earth—are read. The faithful bring food to temples and monasteries, and as well as gifts, including money and clothes. By offering one’s possessions and understanding the impermanence of life, Buddhists aspire to fully comprehend and embrace the steps needed to reach Enlightenment.

While Parinirvana Day is celebrated most widely in East Asia, it is also marked by some Western Buddhists; some will observe it today, while others will mark it Feb. 15.

WHERE DID BUDDHA ACHIEVE MAHA PARINIRVANA?

In India, in the present-day town of Kushinagar. (Details are at Wikipedia.)

MAHA PARINIRVANA IN THE NEWS

Some Sri Lankan Buddhists are pushing for their country’s devotees to befriend Buddhists in India, as a means of creating peace between the two countries; after all, India is home to millions of Buddhists and several important Buddhist landmarks, including the spot where Buddha attained Maha Parinirvana. In a recent column in The Asian Tribune, Sri Lankan Buddhists are urged to help preserve the memory of the late Indian philosopher and political activist Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. In his prime in the early 20th Century, Ambedkar converted to Buddhism and was famous for arguing against restrictions placed on Dalits, better known to Americans as the “Untouchables” caste. Perhaps Sri Lankens could embrace an Indian hero who advocated on behalf of poor people, the column in the Asian Tribune argues.

Originally published at www.ReadTheSpirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Jewish: Tu B'Shvat celebrates trees, agricultural bounty

A family plants a tree in Israel. Photo in public domain courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.SUNSET TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7: Tu Bishvat, the Jewish New Year for Trees, falls on the 15th day of the month of Shevat. This year, it begins on Tuesday evening, February 7.

Joe Lewis—a Jewish scholar and the creator of a series of Singlish books for easily enjoying Hebrew traditions—wrote today’s story:

The Jewish calendar has four New Years, and in ancient times, this early springtime date was the beginning of the agricultural year when farmers would mark the age of their trees and know if a tree was old enough for its fruit to be harvested and tithed (see Leviticus 19:23-25). After 2,000 years of exile, the festival took on new meaning with the establishment of the State of Israel: Once again, Jewish people were farmers, and this holiday became a time to celebrate the fruits of Israel (Deuteronomy 8:8) and to plant trees through donations to the Jewish National Fund.

During our long exile, Kabbalists developed the tradition of holding a festive meal with prescribed rituals—a “seder” meal akin to the Passover seder—reflecting on the relationship between God, humanity, and the agricultural products that sustain us.

Today, the Tu Bishvat seder has become a popular custom, and many synagogues hold one; it’s an opportunity to eat fruits, nuts and other produce of Israel; to consider the miraculous process by which we sustain our own lives by eating agricultural products; and to explore our responsibility to sustainable agriculture and the planet that feeds us.

Originally published at www.ReadTheSpirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Anniversary: Happy bicentennial, Charles Dickens!

Charles Dickens in wax at Madame Tussaud’s Museum in London. Photo in public domain“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”
Charles Dickens’ opening of David Copperfield

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7: If you grew up loving “A Christmas Carol” or one of Dickens’ longer novels—count yourself among the millions celebrating the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens! On this day in 1812, Charles Dickens was born in Kent in southeast England.

Dickens survived a childhood in which his family was impoverished. His father’s poor choices with money forced him into debtors’ prison—an experience echoed in the character of Mr. Micawber in “David Copperfield” (played by W.C. Fields in one film version of that semi-autobiographical novel). As a young boy, Dickens was forced to work in the kind of inhumane factory conditions that were later described in several of his novels. (Wikipedia has details.)

Dickens’ initial ticket out of poverty was his remarkable gift as a rapid reporter of legal news. He became London’s top expert at taking shorthand transcripts of legal proceedings for daily news reports. Thriving in that cut-throat realm of breaking news, Dickens also fine-tuned his eye and ear to capture prose portraits of the city’s most eccentric characters. He understood compelling stories and wrote rapidly. From these talents, a literary giant was born.

Dickens completed his first full book, “The Pickwick Papers,” in his mid-20s, and with it he earned an immediate fame that never dimmed. Dickens identified with the downtrodden and everyday working people, and his public readings and personal visits gained him immense popularity. Dickens published his stories in weekly or monthly installments, thereby keeping readers on edge. The author never forgot his own formative experiences; he even engaged in public campaigns on behalf of social issues he championed. In one case, he pushed for a law that would allow working people a day off each week.

Eventually, Dickens toured the world, performing his novels on stage in readings that were so strenuous, he sometimes collapsed after a reading. In the U.S., he traveled all the way to the Midwest along the Ohio River. Many countries around the world, including Switzerland, are marking the bicentennial with special programs and exhibits marking Dickens’s travels.

ONE AUTHOR, MANY FANS

Anyone in search of an event for Dickens’s bicentennial won’t be limited in choices: London’s Westminster Abbey will host a Charles Dickens ceremony today; the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will visit the Charles Dickens Museum in the morning hours (the museum will also have a bicentenary birthday cake and free cupcakes for visitors—learn more at DickensMuseum.com); a 24-hour reading marathon will be followed on Twitter through 24 countries, from Australia to Zimbabwe; and a new Dickens Newspaper will be launched in print and as an iPad App. (Get the scoop from USA Today.) Penguin Classics will announce today the results of a nationwide poll to discover America’s favorite Dickens character; a museum in Switzerland will exhibit “The Mysteries of Charles Dickens” through March 4; and events to recreate Dickens’s first and immensely popular U.S. tour will take place in West Virginia.

A full website is devoted to Dickens, his works and his bicentennial: Dickens2012.org.

CHARLES DICKENS QUICK FACTS:

• “A Christmas Carol” has been adapted for film since the earliest years of cinema; last December, “Carol” appeared as a semi-animated iPad App.

• All of Dickens’s major novels were adapted for the stage during his lifetime.

• More than 320 movies have been inspired by Dickens’s works.

Originally published at www.ReadTheSpirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Anniversary: Jubilee marks Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years

Queen Elizabeth II is the second monarch in history to have reigned 60 years. Photo in public domainMONDAY, FEBRUARY 6: The Conservative-leaning Daily Telegraph in the UK describes the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee this way: “As we prepare to mark the Queen’s accession, 60 years ago next week, we celebrate the common values that link our monarch to her legendary predecessor—duty, strength, constancy.”

Care to read more from the Telegraph’s voluminous coverage? Visit the Telegraph’s special Jubilee portal.

On this date in 1952, 24-year-old Elizabeth—following the death of her father, King George VI—took over as Head of the Commonwealth.
The BBC archives provide much more.

At this point, the Queen is the longest-lived and second-longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom after Queen Victoria who carried on for 63 years and seven months. Queen Elizabeth II also is the second-longest-serving current head of state in the world after the king of Thailand. (Wonder how Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee? The Daily Mail reports on what happened in 1897.)

Events celebrating this milestone will continue throughout the year. Planning a trip overseas this summer? You’ll find Jubilee events continuing into the tourist season. That’s because of the lengthy process of succession in 1952. Elizabeth received word of her father’s death while she was on a tour and she took to the throne immediately. The official coronation didn’t take place until June 2. This year, June 2-5 will be the official Diamond Jubilee Weekend in Britain.

A TYPICAL DAY FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH II

Queen Elizabeth II begins by reading British newspapers and answering a few of the hundreds of letters she receives each day. After a series of meetings with anyone from a head of state to a literary award recipient, the queen may present honors to those recently awarded a medal or decoration. Following a solo lunch, Elizabeth II often travels for public engagements. Approximately 430 engagements per year can include the unveiling of plaques; visitations to schools, hospitals, art galleries, shelters and military units; community meetings; and lengthier travels. Evening occasionally brings a visit with the Prime Minister; attendance at a film premiere, concert or charitable event; or the hosting of an official reception at the Buckingham Palace. Phew! What a schedule!

THE DIAMOND JUBILEE PRAYER SHARED WORLDWIDE

The Church of England has issued a prayer written especially for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which will be used at the Jubilee Thanksgiving Service on June 5 and is recommended for use throughout the Church of England. On the Jubilee Weekend, thousands of beacons will be lit through the UK and Commonwealth, and a carriage procession will line the streets of London. (Get more information from the official website of The British Monarchy.)

THE OFFICIAL JUBILEE PRAYER:
God of time and eternity,
Whose Son reigns as servant, not master;
We give you thanks and praise
That you have blessed this nation, the realms and territories with Elizabeth,
Our beloved and glorious Queen.
In this year of Jubilee,
Grant her your gifts of love and joy and peace
As she continues in faithful obedience to you, her Lord and God,
And in devoted service to her lands and peoples,
And those of the Commonwealth,
Now and all the days of her life;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

ROYALS JOIN IN THE CELEBRATION

Camilla, the duchess of Cornwall, recently began a Cook for the Queen competition for children in the UK as part of her Jubilee gift, asking children to capture the best of Britain in food. Even Prince William and Duchess Catherine announced their plans to delay having a baby until next year, so that they can focus on the queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the summer’s London Olympics. (USA Today has the story.)

THE ROMANCE BEHIND THE THRONE

Elizabeth met her future husband, Philip, when she was 13 years old; she reports having fallen in love and began exchanging letters with him. Today, the 85-year-old queen and 90-year-old duke have been married for 64 years.

Originally published at www.ReadTheSpirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Interfaith: Harmony is in diversity on Four Chaplains Sunday

Photo in public domainSUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5: Celebrate heroes of the interfaith movement today by honoring the Four (Immortal) Chaplains: a group of four U.S. Army chaplains—each of a different religious tradition—whose collective sacrifice inspired the nation.

By handing over their lifejackets while aboard a sinking ship in World War II—then linking arms, praying in their own respective religious traditions, the men provided a shining example of religious unity across doctrinal boundaries. Their story has been retold in numerous documentaries, memorials, books and annual ceremonies. (Wikipedia has details.)

The Dorchester was a civilian cruise ship built in 1926 that later was converted for military service during WWII. By the time renovations and additions were finished, a ship originally built for 315 passengers could now carry more than 900. On Jan. 23, 1943, the USAT Dorchester left New York for Greenland—but it never arrived at its destination. The service ship was slammed by German submarine U-223 at 12:55 a.m. on Feb. 3; three-quarters of the men aboard the Dorchester perished that night.

The one ray of hope in this great tragedy was the four chaplains. The four were a Methodist chaplain, the Rev. George Fox, Rabbi Alexander Goode, Roman Catholic Father John Washington and Reformed Church in America Minister Clark Poling. Their example calmed down the ship’s men when the electrical system failed. They attempted to help organize the evacuation of the vessel. While passing out a short supply of life jackets, the chaplains took the jackets off their backs and gave them to other men. (Learn more at ImmortalChaplains.org.) Today, some recognize Four Chaplains Day on Feb. 3; others observe on the first Sunday of February.

Last week, many individuals and congregations echoed the chaplains’ example by taking part in World Interfaith Harmony Week. The London Central Mosque hosted the Healing the World event on Feb. 1, during which representatives from different religions discussed sources of hate and how to better encourage interfaith relationships. (Check out an article here.) A World Interfaith Harmony Assembly in Syracuse, New York, last Sunday showcased songs, dances and even humorous skits.

Originally published at www.ReadTheSpirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.