The site visit to Tu Vien Hong Doc will take place on Sunday, October 10th, 2021 from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm
The community will be observing the annual commemoration of the installation of their bodhisattva Quan Am statue in 2014. The festivities will consist of indoor chanting and a dharma talk from 2:00–5:00pm, then a bowing procession to and prayers at the statue from 5:00-7:00pm. Most likely, food, etc. will be available for purchase.
Masks are required indoors. Also know that visitors will need to remove shoes (indoors) and should avoid pointing outstretched legs toward sacred statues, altars, and monks. Modest attire is also advised in the indoor spaces.
The site visit to Was Phothisomphan will take place on Sunday, Saturday, September 19th, 2021 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm.
The community will observe Boun Khao Salak, a celebration and remembrance of the dead, which also includes chanting, food offerings to the monks (tak bat), a meal, and probably also a dharma talk (“sermon”).
Masks will be required of visitors, who should also observe these basic rules of etiquette and attire: (1) dress modestly – arms should be covered at least to elbows, and legs at least to knees, both for women and men (no shorts or short skirts, no sleeveless or short-sleeve tops); (2) remove shoes and head-coverings upon entering facility; (3) do not touch the monks; (4) do not point outstretched legs at the monks or holy objects; (5) consider making a small donation or buying a tak bat basket to donate to the monks.
On Thursday, March 27, at 6:00 pm, in Drake’s Sussman Theater (lower level of Olmsted Center), Dr. Julia Watts Belser, Professor of Jewish Studies at Georgetown University, will deliver a lecture on “Radical Rest: Jewish Sabbath Practice as Resistance to Ableism.”
Although this lecture will be delivered remotely through zoom, we will be screening it in Sussman Theater. For those wishing to attend virtually, here is the zoom link: https://drake-edu.zoom.us/j/87875502626.
We live in a world pitched toward productivity, where we often face intense pressure to measure our worth on the basis of our work. In this talk, Julia Watts Belser brings the insights of disability culture into conversation with Jewish wisdom about Shabbat and Sabbath practice to explore how traditions of radical rest can counter productivity culture. How might Sabbath practice and other forms of intentional slowness offer resources for challenging ableism? How might reimagining religious practice to take seriously disabled people’s experiences of living with limits spur us to build a world that better honors the needs and the yearnings of all our bodies and minds?
Julia Watts Belser is Professor of Jewish Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, as well as core faculty in Georgetown’s Disability Studies Program and a Senior Research Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Her research centers on gender, sexuality, and disability in rabbinic literature, as well as queer feminist Jewish ethics and theology. She directs Disability and Climate Change: A Public Archive Project, an initiative that an initiative that documents the wisdom and insights of disabled activists, artists, and first responders on the frontlines of climate crisis.
Her work brings ancient texts into conversation with disability studies, queer theory, feminist thought, and environmental ethics. She has held faculty fellowships at Harvard Divinity School and the Katz Center for Advanced Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Rabbinic Tales of Destruction: Gender, Sex, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem (Oxford University Press, 2018) and Power, Ethics, and Ecology: Rabbinic Responses to Drought and Disaster (Cambridge University Press, 2015). Her most recent book is Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole (Beacon Press, 2023; published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton).
A rabbi and a longtime advocate for disability and gender justice, Belser writes queer feminist Jewish theology and brings disability arts and culture into conversation with Jewish tradition. She co-authored an international Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities (Hesperian Foundation, 2007), developed in collaboration with disability activists from 42 countries and translated into 14 languages, designed to help challenge the root causes of poverty, gender violence, and disability discrimination. She’s an avid wheelchair hiker, a lover of wild places, and a passionate supporter of disability dance.
Click below to download Prof. Watts Belser’s PowerPoint.
On March 8th, from 6:00–7:30 pm, we will attend a Ramadan prayer and Iftar meal at Masjid an-Noor (1117 42nd St, Des Moines). The event includes the sunset (maghrib) prayer, the breaking of the fast, and an iftar meal.
Please dress appropriately: women should be covered below the elbows and knees and should cover their head/hair with a scarf. Men should wear long pants.
This event is part of the “Meet My Religious Neighbor” series, which is co-programmed with CultureALL, the Des Moines Area Religious Council, and Interfaith Alliance of Iowa.
