Dear Fellow People of Faiths Near and Far,
Though you may not find regular (e.g. weekly or monthly) posts on this blog (but you can follow my more regular Tweets on Twitter, GlobalFaith4U), it does not mean that I am not active in my work and mission of Global Faith education. My World Religions course I teach at a college keeps me fairly busy, continually studying more myself in each religion to increase my understanding, and creating new strategies to engage my students instead of just continually lecturing at them.
My number 1 goal for this year is to complete the next book in the Global Faith Series. I had it titled "Global Faith: Universal and Existential." But I am re-titling it "Sacred Scriptures for the 21st Century and Beyond," because it has been planned from the first to become a sacred text, not by sheer individual human will fiat, but by a vision of the Spirit's leading, I believe, that it will eventually become a sacred text for many of various nations and cultures. It will be a blend of many thought patterns from various previous sacred texts of the ages brought into the current age AND fresh material that has come to me, I believe by the Spirit of God. It will all be woven together in such a way as perhaps creating a beautiful sacred literary masterpiece, which in some respects I do not even feel qualified to attempt. But all wonderful thoughts that have come to me, I am compelled out of sheer goodness, out of love of God and fellow human beings, to set all this in writing and publish for the world. Few in history have undertaken the task of writing a text that became a sacred text. I am very humbled at this prospect, but all that has been given me, that which as already been written down on paper with pen (I just need to organize and type it up) I truly feel that this text will be deemed worthy of being called a "sacred" text.
My students are on spring break this week, which gives me some extra time to get back to this sacred project. But before I engaged in it, yesterday, Monday, I first wanted to write "Guiding Thoughts and Questions for Visiting Houses of Worship for the Purpose of Studying the Various Faiths/Religions. I conceived it simply as a few page handout for leading or facilitating local groups to visit and then discuss afterwards to increase their learning of the various faiths. For years I have been planning to engage the local community in this way. After I wrote up the engaging thoughts and questions, I decided to put it into a booklet format which will be easier for the participants for carrying in and out of the places they visit. Therefore then, with this format and title and copyright symbol and date, I sent it off to a local printers. And I submitted a Public Service Announcement for the local newspaper for this new local group. It is open to all: non-student life-long learners and students alike.
This should even become a model for the Global Faith Movement, an important method of engaging the communities in faith education. My model is that groups form from those who respond to the announcement(s). The visits could be once a month or more than that. I presume that more than one person will be interested, thus a "group." After the house of worship visit, the groups should meet to discuss with each other, going through the questions in the Guide, sharing some of their notes (there is space between the questions for writing notes). The discussion is also an important part of the learning process. Even if a large group of 10 people visit any particular "house," each one will have a different experience. So you learn from others as well as from your own experience too. And I recommend the group to meet and discuss soon after the visit, within the next few days. Meeting right after the visit, such as for lunch or brunch may be ideal, while the experience is most fresh.
This Guide with is group use plan, designed to be used at virtually any house of worship or sacred interior space by anyone who is studying faiths more, can become a new model for people studying faiths through visiting actual gathering places. The "Guiding Thoughts and Questions for Visitors to Houses of Worship for...Study..." is a total of 12 pages long (in this booklet format) including an introduction with pre-visit thoughts to prepare for the visit. The main portion leads the learner to reflect on all the main aspects of the experience in the interior space: the lighting/ambiance, the physical setting and design, the images/paintings/symbols (if any) to the rituals of both the leaders and people gathered for the service, to the deeper meaning, the theological and philosophical beliefs behind both the elements in the service and the surroundings. This Guide will sure be a help to many. You can request a copy or a number of copies for a small donation to cover the cost of printing and shipping, by emailing me.
Guiding Thoughts and Questions
for Visitors to Houses of Worship
for the Purpose of Studying the Beliefs of Various Faiths/ Religions©
Mark Ahavel
