This celebration is a time for reconciliation

Friendship is the pathway to peace in our troubled world

RABBI LENORE BOHM explains the special power of Rosh Hashanah as “a Jewish holiday that celebrates all existence, all people and all possibility.”

ALSO, HOWARD BROWN tells us a true story of a Muslim friend who carried a holiday shofar halfway around the world as a symbol of their interfaith friendship. This is a wonderfully inspiring column to share with friends via social media or email this week to spread the joyous message: “Shanah tovah 5783!”

Then, regular Holidays & Festivals columnist Stephanie Fenton fills in more details about the holiday, especially geared to our non-Jewish readers. And regular readers know that the gems in Stephanie’s columns are her links to other resources—in this case to some delicious recipes.

WHY SHOULD WE REACH OUT ACROSS RELIGIOUS BOUNDARIES? That’s the timely question! And, after a lifetime of interfaith work, Howard Brown is also sharing this downloadable list of great ideas, headlined: Interfaith Bridge Building—Why do this work? That free-to-share one-page list is an ideal discussion-starter for your small group if you want to get involved in interfaith work with your friends.

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Holidays & Festivals

Colorectal cancer awareness

THIS MONTH, actor Ryan Reynolds got the whole world talking about the preventative power of early colorectal screening with his public colonoscopy. As Reynolds and his friend Rob McElhenney learned first hand: Early screening can catch problems before full-scale cancer emerges. That’s one reason folks also are talking about a lesser-known observance, World Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Day, which is September 30 in 2022 and has been picking up media attention mainly across the British Commonwealth in Canada, the UK and Australia. Here’s a story about the day from a Canadian website. Of course, as Reynolds and McElhenney just proved: Any time is a healthy time to encourage family and friends to undergo early screening. And this, of course, is one of the major themes of Howard Brown’s new book Shining Brightly, as Howard described in this earlier column.

 

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WANT TO SEE ALL OF THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS?—It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just remember the web address: InterfaithHolidays.com

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News about our authors—

John Harnish

His book about E. Stanley Jones is reviewed in world’s oldest Methodist weekly newspaper

WE’RE CELEBRATING the praise for John Harnish’s inspiring book, 30 Days with E. Stanley Jones, in the world’s oldest continuously published weekly newspaper, the UK-based Methodist Recorder. Reviewer Cathy Bird recommends this book, which includes a discussion guide, to congregations for special small-group series during Advent, the Christian season that leads up to Christmas.

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Faith & Film

ED McNULTY, for decades, has published reviews, magazine articles and books exploring connections between faith and film. Most of his work is freely published. Ed supports his work by selling the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with discussion guides to films. This resource is used coast-to-coast by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.

Here are some of Ed’s most recent free reviews and columns:

• HONK FOR JESUS. SAVE YOUR SOUL—“Director-writer Adamma Ebo takes aim at a very large target in his satirical film—the ostentatiously wealthy preacher of the prosperity gospel—so he finds plenty to ridicule in his film.”
• TREES OF PEACE—“Director-writer Alanna Brown’s harrowing film centers on four women who hide from the rampaging Hutus during the Rwandan genocide.”
• MEDIEVAL—“Czech director-writer Petr Jákl’s film focuses upon the early career of his nation’s hero Jan Žižka, regarded by many to be as great a military genius as any of the more famous generals.”
• EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO—”27-year-old attorney Woo Young Woo is indeed extraordinary in that she is Korea’s first lawyer with autism spectrum disorder.”
• HALLELUJAH—LEONARD COHEN, A JOURNEY, A SONG—”Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine’s documentary approaches the life of the Canadian poet/songwriter through one song, a mystical one that has captured the hearts of millions of people, some of whom believe in some form of God, as well as many who do not.”

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