Project of the National Peace Foundation and the Islamic Society of North America, Reflections and Experiences of Religion and Society includes essays from the participants in the exchange program between Muslims, Jews & Christians between the Middle East & the US Midwest.

A visit with organizer & editor, Sahar Taman, and with participant, Rabbi Jeremy Schneider.

Music Featured:
Maybe There's a World - Yusuf Islam

Nathen Aswell is a Canadian singer/songwriter who believes his purpose in this life is to inspire and heal through his music. His debut CD "Little By Little" is a mix of excellent music with deep Spirit.

Patrick Bellegarde-Smith teaches in the Africology Dept of UW-Milwaukee with special expertise in Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil and Haiti, where he grew up and where he was initiated as a voodoo (or vodou) houngan (priest). Patrick has collaborated on and written a number of books including:

Haiti: The Breached Citadel
Fragments of Bone: Neo-African Religions in a New World
Haitian Vodou: Spirit, Myth, and Reality - with Claudine Michel

Rod Kinny is a singer/songwriter on a heart-led spiritual journey. As his web site proclaims, "Rod Kinny, Music with a deeper meaning ...". Rod was raised Methodist, and now attends Unity Unitarian Universalist church in the Twin Cities.

David Serotkin is a singer/songwriter/guitarist/pianist from Richmond, CA. David also has a masters in Consciousness Studies from John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California, bringing tremendous insight to his songwriting and to this program.

5 students from Scattergood Friends School are headed down the Mississippi for Paddle for the Planet, a 1-month educational journey of environmental discovery. Colby, Sophia, Sam, Jamiah & Mary have studied renewable energy, river fish, the Gulf's dead zone, phenology & useful plants in preparation.

Music Featured:
"River" by Clay Riness
"Solar Power" by Kim & Reggie Harris
"Catfish" by Bob Franke
"Downstream" by Earth Mama
"Mississippi River Chant" by Yata

Andy Murray's music has been featured regularly on our Spirit In Action program because his music is steeped in a combination of deep spirit and healing work for the world. Andy has long worked as a teacher of Peace and Conflict studies at Juniata College in Pennsylvania. With a singer/songwriter sideline that has spanned 3 plus decades, Andy has created a lot of wonderful music, much of it originating with his lifelong faith as a member of the Church of the Brethren, one of the historic peace churches.

Dr. Ken Stone of Chicago Theological Seminary leads workshops on Eco-Justice & The Hebrew Bible and he's written and edited several books including Practicing Safer Texts: Food, Sex and Bible in Queer Perspective. His analysis is spiritual fuel for lives of justice.

Michelle Lynn, at 23, has already made 3 CD's, Jump Roping in Chains, Hospital Radio and Pre-echos for the Postmodern, experiencing her own spiritual emergence in the process. She now lives in Decorah, Iowa.