For the fourth time, the Abrahamic Reunion has programs accepted at the Parliament of the World’s Religions and will attend sending a delegate of staff, board, volunteers, and supporters!
The Parliament of Religions will be held this year in Chicago, from August 13-18, at McCormick Place. Click for details on the Parliament’s website.
The AR’s delegation will include:
- David Less, Co-Founder and US Chairman
- Sheikh Ghassan Manasra, International Director, Sufi Sheikh in the Qadiri-as-Salaam Tariqa
- Ted Brownstein, Board of Directors and Lake Worth Interfaith Network Board Member
- Supporters, Volunteers, others, and possibly you!
Live Film Screening and discussion – “Elias Jabbour: Palestinian Christian Peacemaker”
Monday, August 14th, 1-2pm: E352
Live Film Screening and discussion – “Elias Jabbour: Palestinian Christian Peacemaker,” and the new short from Amertat Cohn and SunSeed Productions, “Peace is Possible: The Peacemakers of the Holy Land.”
“We have a choice – we can either live together, or we can die together,” was an oft-repeated maxim by the late Christian Palestinian Peacemaker of Shefar’am, Elias Jabbour, author of Sulha: Traditional Palestinian Peacemaking Process.
Elias grew up learning Sulha–the traditional Palestinian Arab peacemaking modality–from his father, Jabbour Jabbour, a member of the regional jaha (sulha peacemaking council) that brokered peace in disputes that ranged from domestic to municipal and regional agreements with the nascent state of Israel in 1948.
Elias become a key jaha member himself, founded The House of Hope, a peace center in Shefar’am, and was a founding member of The Abrahamic Reunion (AR), an interfaith peacemaking organization.
The AR has compiled interviews, biographical information, and footage of Elias sharing his inimitable spirit and will for peace.
Join AR Co-Founder David Less, and AR International Director Sheikh Ghassan Manasra, for a live Q&A.
Virtual Reality (VR) Peacebuilding in Israel/Palestine
Wednesday, August 16th, 8-9am: Hall E – Room 9
Panel presentation: Virtual Reality (VR) Peacebuilding in Israel/Palestine, in collaboration with Peace Literacy Institute (PLI) and Paths To Peace (P2P) Foundation.
During the pandemic, Abrahamic Reunion’s (AR) interfaith peacemakers in Israel and Palestine partnered with the Peace Literacy Institute (PLI) and Paths to Peace Foundation (P2P) to introduce virtual reality (VR) peacebuilding programs.
VR programming has a few benefits for our work in the Holy Land: allows participation beyond cross-border travel and COVID preventative restrictions; anonymous space is safer for those threatened by repercussions for participating; digital avatars remove visual triggers, biases, & associations; and VR’s novelty attracts many curious youth and young adults.
Join the Abrahamic Reunion, PLI, and P2P for a demo, presentation, and discussion of VR peacebuilding programming, benefits, and future, with Q&A. We are very excited about this opportunity to expand our interfaith peacebuilding!
Peace Is Possible: Religious Peacemakers of the Holy Land
Friday, August 18th, 8am – 9:30am: Room E271b
Panel presentation – David Less, Ghassan Manasra, Ted Brownstein, Annie Borofsky
Meet the interfaith peacemakers of the Holy Land (Israel/Palestine): the Abrahamic Reunion! These women, men, and youth put their lives on the line to bridge communities, religions, ethnicities, and the conflict. The Abrahamic Reunion is a nonviolent, nonpolitical, interfaith approach to peacebuilding and community building, bringing thousands of Israelis and Palestinians together every year in dialogue, for dinners, traveling to each other’s sacred sites, for conferences, and trainings that are training the next wave of clergy, women, and youth to become cultural leaders in peace. Hear their stories, see video footage and photos, learn about this unique approach to peacebuilding, and pray with them, together, for peace in the Holy Land.
Intercultural Peacebuilding Workshop With Holy Land Peacemakers
Friday, August 18th, 1:30 – 2:30pm: E258
Workshop – “Intercultural Peacebuilding Workshop with Holy Land Peacemaker Sheikh Ghassan Manasra.”
How can we overcome differences, stigmas, and preconceptions of “the other” – especially in places of conflict and tension—to build the intercultural community that can foster, support, and birth a real and lasting peace?
Join Sheikh Ghassan Mansara for this session of peacebuilding exercises that they use to train clergy, women, youth, and men—Israelis, Palestinians, Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Druze—to become peacemakers in Israel and Palestine. Learn some of the techniques, theories of connection and change, and methods for helping others encounter and open up to each other by experiencing them first hand!
Find out how Sheikh Ghassan, Anat, and the Abrahamic Reunion have continued to foster multi-faith and cross-cultural peace community in the Holy Land, amidst tension, war, conflict, trauma, and hatred creating trust, hope, cooperation, knowledge, and resilience.
Speaker: Ghassan Manasra, AR International Director
Contact chris@abrahamicreunion.org for more details.
