Progressive Faith Con Blog

Okay, I got a real shock this week when I went to work out group rates for the hotel I thought was in a perfect place for the Conference. Instead of a hotel, I saw a big mound of dirt and several bulldozers. Eeek! That won’t work!

So I drove around in a semi-daze for a while and found the next best spot:

The Wellesley Inn and Suites on Route 3 in Clifton. The cost for a room is $71.00 per night (plus tax). That includes a continental breakfast and wireless service at the hotel. To get the discounted room rate, you must dial (973) 778-6500 and ask for the “Montclair Visiting Rate”. That gives you a fairly substantial reduction from their $99 per night regular price.

I’ll post some more information about the immediate area in the next few days. One bonus for using the Wellesley is that it has a good restaraunt attached to it (Red Robin) which is a sort of sports bar meets family restaraunt. It also sits adjacent to a shopping center that has a grocery store, several restaraunts (Chili’s, etc.), a book store (Barnes & Noble), and even a movie theatre if you get all blogged-out (or if you bring family who needs to get away from the bloggy goodness of the Conference).

We’ll be supplying transportation to and from the event and we are working out details on how to get you to the hotel from the airport and back.

A new carnival is up at Lo-Fi Tribe. Next week we move to Jesus Was a Liberal. Thanks.

The new Carnival is up at Raising Kaine. Many thanks for Lowell for organizing this week. Next week, the Lo Fi Tribe will take over the Carni.

This week’s edition of the Progressive Faith Blog Carnival is up, hosted by Tiel of Knocking from Inside. It’s fantastic — a ton of terrific links. Poetry, prayer, thoughts on work and institutional dynamics and gender, musings on religious labels, religion and politics and everything in between… good stuff.

 Check it out here. Thanks, Tiel!

Next week the Carnival will be hosted by Raising Kaine. If you have posts to suggest, submit them by email to ProgFaithCarnival @ yahoo.com with "Carnival link" in the title.

Technorati tags: religion, politics, progfaithblogcon.

We have corrected the technical problems with PAYPAL.

We now have a paypal account to accept donations directly:

If you do choose to make a contribution, please also follow that up with an email to me at xpatriated_texan-at-yahoo-dot-com and let me know.

All of us here working on the planning of the BlogCon appreciate all of the support and prayers we’ve received.

Thanks to all of you from all of us.

A while back when I posted the most recent draft of the schedule for the Progressive Faith Blog Con, I promised that I would post some explanatory words about "ecumenical worship." Here goes!

The Wikipedia entry on Ecumenism says that "in its broadest meaning ecumenism is the religious initiative towards world-wide unity. A more limited goal of ecumenism is the promotion of co-operation and improved understanding between distinct religious groups or denominations within the same religion." My interest in ecumenism and interfaith work stems in part from quotations like this one: 

How do we engage with fellow seekers in a way that does not water down differences, but treasures them? How do we share our history, celebrations, and spiritual experiences with members of other faiths in a way that is real and deep, rather than just a ‘You bring the Easter eggs; I’ll bring the matzah’ affair?"

(That comes from Jewish With Feeling, a book by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi which I reviewed on my own blog a while back.)

I think one way that we can engage in deep ecumenical work at this conference is by entering into meditation and prayer together. So we’re planning to hold four ecumenical worship/meditation experiences over the course of the weekend. Each will be rooted in a particular religious tradition; each will be an authentic service, not an amalgam of traditions. But each will also be created with mindfulness that the community coming together is a multi-faith community, and each is meant to be user-friendly to insiders and outsiders alike.

The folks planning and leading each experience will need to balance, on the one hand, the need to create something meaningful and valid and recognizable to adherents of that tradition, not watered-down or distorted by the multifaith crowd — and, on the other hand, the need to create something which is intelligible to outsiders, welcoming, and non-triumphalist in tone. It’s going to be a real challenge, but one I think is well worth the work.

As things stand now, the schedule calls for a Friday night Jewish Shabbat (Sabbath) service, led by Rachel of Velveteen Rabbi (that’s me!), with help from other Jewish bloggers including Andrew of Semitism.net; a Saturday morning Buddhist meditation sit, led by Lorianne of Hoarded Ordinaries; a Saturday evening Muslim maghrib prayer/salaat/namaz (leader TBA; suggestions and volunteers welcome!); and a Sunday morning Christian Sabbath service led by Chris of Even the Devils Believe among others. (Chris recently posted some thoughts on institutional ecumenism, incidentally.)

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Let us know your thoughts. (And if you’d like to lend a hand with one or more of these ecumenical prayer/meditation experiences, tell us that too!)

Technorati tags: religion, ecumenism.

Rabbi Rami Shapiro (author of many excellent books; his blog is called Toto) posted recently about religious progressives — what the term means, and how it might be reconceptualized. I think his post might be interesting to the Progressive Faith Blog Con community.

He writes: 

I have a contrarian streak; I need to stand out; to say something different. This is a psychological disorder, I am sure, but it is mine nonetheless. So when asked to define "religious progressive" I suggested that a religious progressive is someone who has progressed beyond religion…

A true religious progressive is one whose faith is not in religion, but in God; not in the known but in the Unknowable; not in this or that belief but in the realization that belief is simply the projection of ones own ego.

I think his post dovetails in fascinating ways with the conversations we’ll be having at the convention this July in Montclair. Our mission statement makes reference to "progressive bloggers of faith" — it’s not a far leap from there to "religious progressives," and I find good food for thought in Rabbi Shapiro’s exhortation to push the boundaries of what we think that term means.

Read his post here.

Technorati tags: religion, Judaism, progfaithblogcon.

Montclair State University is the second largest public university in the state of New Jersey. It’s located in Upper Montclair, New Jersey.

For those who will be flying, the nearest airport is Newark International, which is also known as Newark Liberty. The airline abbreviation is EWR.

The campus is serviced by NJ Transit for public transportation. There is a train line and bus system that services the area. It’s a little tricky to get from the airport to MSU. It’s also time consuming because you must change trains.

From the airport, you will need to take either the Northeast Corridor Line (NEC) or the New Jersey Coast Line (NJCL) to Secaucus Junction. From there, you will take the Montclair-Boontown Line (BNTNM) to the MSU station. Depending on how long you have to wait at Secaucus, the trip can take anywhere from an hour to three hours.

You can plan your train trip online and see how long it would take.

Be advised that the MSU station leaves you a

very long

Even though there is a bus system, my suggestion is that you rent a car - and be wary of the crazy, crazy, crazy drivers. You can find directions from the airport to the campus here. There is a mapquest link at the top of the page - put in “Newark Liberty International Airport” for your starting place and “Montclair State University” as your destination.

The best visitor parking is in the Red Hawk Parking Deck. You should figure approximately $10 for parking for the whole day (8 hours). You can find the Red Hawk by turning into the University entrance on Normal Rd.

That brings us to where you will stay. Here are some hotels in the area and the contact numbers for reservations:

I’ll be contacting them in the near future and get back to you with prices. Of course, if you want to schedule a vacation in the area, I thought you might appreciate the info.