Dear Friends,
We hope you are all doing well. It has been challenging with the ongoing pandemic and being separated from friends and loved ones, including limited opportunities for getting together with our faith communities and attending other events.
Our FIRE steering committee has been pondering how best to proceed during the pandemic given our mission of increasing trust and understanding among people of different faith traditions. As you know, we cancelled the first dinner dialogue shortly after the start of the pandemic. Last November, and again in April, we hosted virtual interfaith dialogues trying to follow roughly the same format as our in-person events pre-pandemic. We’ve come to realize that the panel discussion format is not ideal for Zoom. We’ve therefore decided to try a new format.
We’re going to embark on a new series of events that will focus on learning more about one faith tradition at a time and what makes it unique. Because these are easier to organize than our traditional panel discussion format, with just one or two presenters rather than five or more, we should be able to do them more often – perhaps four times a year rather than twice. At each presentation, we’ll have the opportunity to learn in depth about a particular faith tradition, including more opportunities to ask questions.
Our first presentation with the new format will be on Sunday evening, October 3, 7:00-8:00 PM. FIRE steering committee member Mahrukh Motafram and others from her faith will share about Zoroastrianism. Full details, including how to register and receive the Zoom link, will be sent shortly.
We hope you’re as excited as we are for the opportunity to dive deeper into the history and teachings of our various faith traditions! We look forward to seeing you (virtually) on the evening of October 3.
Sincerely,
The FIRE Steering Committee