Interfaith TeaHouses Bridge Art and Spirituality in Dialogue in Washington, D.C.
May 9th, 2007
URI-DC has been actively engaging Washington, D.C. area residents in interfaith programs large and small since the official URI founding in 2007. Lately they’ve begun a series of Interfaith TeaHouses providing a dialogue in art and word.
The group describes the TeaHouse in their flyer/invitation:
Come to the 5th Hollow Reed Teahouse (our name is inspired by the Persian poet Rumi) and meet people from different traditions in a spirit of respect and harmony. Offerings of live music and poetry from near and far will increase your appreciation of the richness of our common inheritance. Share what you believe and learn about what others hold sacred in conversation while you sip your tea and enjoy delicious taste treats.
Stream Ohrstrom, Chairman of the Board, writes, “Our recent Interfaith TeaHouse on April 29th had over 75 participants and a successful program with a combination of 6 moving musical, theatrical and poetry productions plus a brief introduction to Free Faith Facility Energy Audits by GWIPL and EPA.”
The program included the following elements:
- Listen to the reed flute… reading from Rumi’s Mathnawi with ney improvisation.
- Ten Thousand Joys, Ten thousand Sorrows - Buddhist performance piece by Julia Burger
- Greater Washington Power and Light – an introduction to an ecological alternative.
- Songs and Musical Celebrations with Len Seligman and Friends
- Outbreath of Beauty – performance work-in-progress by Tania Gerich and Collaborators.
- As Kindred Spirits – Sacred Songs and Chants from the Hindu Tradition.
- Music from the Open Hearted Revolution - Stream and The Blue Dragons.
At the next program, on May 8th, the group plans further exploration of the nexus of Faith, Religion, and Ecology (7-9 PM, St. Albans on the grounds of the National Cathedral).