2017 Festival of Faiths
“Compassion Shining like the Sun”
2017 FESTIVAL OF FAITHS
The 22nd Annual Festival of Faiths explores cultivating compassion in our current economic systems, in world affairs and in ourselves. The Festival serves as a platform for conversations on meaning and offers itself as an honest broker and stakeholder in dialogue around authentic compassion.
VIDEOS
SPEAKERS
PROGRAM
I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. . ..
This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. . . But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
-Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
Teddy Abrams is a widely acclaimed conductor, established pianist, clarinetist, award-winning composer and passionate educator. He is the Music Director and Conductor of the
The Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus was installed as the Episcopal Bishop of California in 2006, having previously served as Bishop Suffragan in the Diocese of Alabama. In 1987, Andrus was awarded a Master of Divinity degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. Since his ordination to the priesthood in 1988, Bishop Andrus has focused his ministry on issues of peace and justice, including immigration reform, climate change, civil rights for LGBT persons and health care.
Jecorey “1200” Arthur is an award-winning educator, composer, performer and curator from Louisville, Kentucky. Arthur’s performances range from Forecastle Festival and the 92nd Street Y Musical Introduction Series to collaborations with the Louisville Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony. At the age of twelve he fell in love with hip-hop and purchased a KORG D-1200 recording studio. He then found his passion for classical music while at the University of Louisville, where he earned his BME and MAT. Arthur is currently the Music Specialist at Hite Elementary.
Karen Armstrong is a historian of religion whose books have been translated into forty-five languages. They include the bestseller A History of God and most recently, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence. In 2008 she was awarded the TED Prize and began working on the Charter for Compassion. The Charter was crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism and was launched in the fall of 2009 and has become a global movement.
Matthew Barzun is the former Ambassador of the United States of America to the United Kingdom (2013-2016) and previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Sweden (2009-2011). He was a pioneer in the early days of the internet, becoming the fourth employee of CNET Networks where he left in 2004 as Executive Vice President. Barzun was among the first to join Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee where he produced the first $25 per-person fundraiser. He has served on the boards of many non-profits focused on education, public policy and interfaith relations.
Susan Bauer-Wu, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, has dedicated her career to contemplative practices in healthcare and higher education. She completed doctoral studies in psychoneuroimmunology followed by post-doctoral training in psycho-oncology and behavioral medicine. Bauer-Wu is the current president of the Mind & Life Institute after directing the Compassionate Care Initiative at the University of Virginia and was formerly president of the Society for Integrative Oncology. She is the author of Leaves Falling Gently.
Hannah Drake is a poet, author and spoken word artist whose powerful stories have been heard around the world. She is frequently asked to speak throughout the country and believes that her words inspire transformation. She has performed her poetry at the Legendary Showtime at the Apollo and has opened for Iyanla Vanzant, Angela Davis and Nikki Finney. Drake is the Health Equity Strategist at IDEAS xLab and was previously the Pastoral Administrative Assistant at Bates Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville.
Dr. Noah Feldman is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School where he teaches constitutional and international law. As an academic and public intellectual, Feldman is concerned with issues at the intersection of religion and politics. Feldman served as senior constitutional advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and advised members of the Iraqi Governing Council on the drafting of the Transitional Administrative Law or interim constitution. He is a contributing writer for the Bloomberg View.
Through her work encouraging the American Muslim community to practice eco-lifestyle, Nana Firman became a member of the Green Mosque Initiative for the Islamic Society of North America. Recently, she organized the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change and co-founded the Global Muslim Climate Network, which calls to all Muslim nations to transition from fossil fuel to clean energy based development. Firman is a GreenFaith Fellow, coordinates Muslim outreach for OurVoices and previously worked with the World Wildlife Fund in Indonesia to create climate resiliency plans.
Greg Fischer is now in his second term as Louisville’s 50th Mayor. The three pillars of his administration have been to make Louisville a city of lifelong learning, a much healthier city and an even more compassionate community. He is a leader in the Charter for Compassion’s compassionate cities movement and the Compassionate Schools Project is a result of his vision and leadership. Fischer is a trustee for the U.S. Conference of Mayors and was named a “2013 Public Official of the Year” by Governing Magazine.
Rachel Grimes is a pianist and composer based in Kentucky and heralded “one of American independent music’s few truly inspired technicians” by WIRE magazine. Her compositions have been performed by artists around the world and she has performed at some of the world’s most diverse music festivals. Grimes is founding member of the ground-breaking indie-rock chamber Quarterstick / Touch & Go. Her recent commissions include a film score with Matthew Nolan for People on Sunday at the National Gallery of Art and orchestrations of Book of Leaves for the Louisville Orchestra.
Patrick Holden is a pioneer of the modern sustainable food movement and the Founding Director and Chief Executive of the Sustainable Food Trust. He was the founding chairman of British Organic Farmers in 1982, before joining the Soil Association where he worked for nearly 20 years. During this time the organization led the development of organic standards and the market for organic foods. Holden is Patron of the UK Biodynamic Association and was named the Commander of the British Empire in 2005 for services to organic farming.
Since 1985, Thupten Jinpa has been the principal English translator to the 14th Dalai Lama and has translated and edited many of his books including the New York Times bestseller Ethics for the New Millennium. Jinpa was born in Tibet in 1958. His training as a monk took place in South India where he went on to receive the Geshe Lharam degree from the Shartse College of Ganden Monastic University. He taught Buddhist epistemology, metaphysics, Middle Way philosophy and Buddhist psychology at Ganden for five years. Jinpa holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Cambridge University.
Dr. Ingrid Mattson is a leading Muslim religious figure, a professor of Islamic Studies and expert on the Qur’an. She was elected vice president and then president of the Islamic Society of North America, the first woman to serve in either position. In that capacity, a 2010 New York Times article called her “the most noticed figure among American Muslim women.” As a professor at Hartford Seminary, she developed and directed the first accredited graduate program for Muslim chaplains in America. Currently, Mattson teaches at the University of Western Ontario.
David Muhammad is a leader in the fields of criminal justice, violence prevention and youth development. He is the Executive Director of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform where he serves as a lead consultant and technical assistant provider to the Sierra Health Foundation’s Positive Youth Justice Initiative. Muhammad also provides leadership and technical assistance to the CeaseFire Violence Reduction Strategy in the cities of Oakland and Stockton, California. He is also a consultant to Cities United, a national initiative to drastically reduce Black male homicide rates.
Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel practiced the Buddhadharma for 30 years under the guidance of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, becoming his first Western student. Elizabeth has an academic background in both Anthropology and Buddhist Studies, and after many years of solitary retreat, was appointed Retreat Master at Longchen Jigme Samten Ling in southern Colorado. Using the Buddha’s teachings on emptiness as a lens, she asks us to take a fresh look at all the assumptions and beliefs we have about reality and liberation. Elizabeth is the author of The Power of an Open Question: The Buddha’s Path.
Rami Nashashibi has served as the Executive Director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) since 1997. He has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago and is a Visiting Professor of Religion & Muslim Studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary. He worked with several leading scholars in the area of globalization, African American studies and urban sociology. Rami and his work with IMAN have been featured in many national and international media outlets and Georgetown University identified him as one of the “500 Most Influential Muslims in the World.”
Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro is widely recognized as one of the most creative figures in contemporary American Judaism. A graduate of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, he also holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Union Graduate School. Shapiro is an award-winning poet, liturgist and essayist. “Rami Shapiro is brilliant, heartful and full of reverence (and irreverence!). A great pluralistic soul with a fabulous sense of humor. You will love him.” – Rabbi Tirzah Firestone
The challenges of growing up black and female in apartheid South Africa has led Naomi Tutu to her present work as an activist for human rights. Her professional experience ranges from being a development consultant in West Africa to coordinating programs on Race and Gender and Gender-based Violence in Education at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town. She is a postulant in the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee and will be seeking ordination. In her speeches, Tutu blends the passion for human dignity with humor and personal stories. She is the third child of Archbishop Desmond and Nomalizo Leah Tutu.
Jim Wallis is a New York Times bestselling author, public theologian, speaker, and international commentator on ethics and public life. He recently served on the White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and was former vice chair of and currently serves on the Global Agenda Council on Values of the World Economic Forum. Jim is the author of 12 books. His most recent book, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America, will be released in January. He is president and founder of Sojourners, where he is also editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine.
