April, 2003

Contents

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| editorial |
Alan Race, Seshagiro Rao, Jim Kenney: Entangled in Conversion

| creative encounters |
Perspectives on Hinduism and Christianity
Swami Dayanand Saraswati: Mission, Dialogue & the Roman Catholic Church, a Hindu critique
Peter Chave: Adjusting to Dialogue, the case of the Roman Catholic Church
O. P. Sharma: Religious Fanaticism is Not True Religion
Andrew Wingate: Hindu Fundamentalism in India and Contemporary Britain
John P. Keenan: New Interfaith Context & Shifting Agenda for Religious Thinking
Alwi Shihab: Islam Versus Terrorism
Christopher Ives: Meditating on the Brink, Buddhism & Violence in our Post-9/11 World

| sacred spaces |
David Herslett: Varanasi, sacred city with contemporary relevance

| youth |
A Call to Hospitality
April Kunze: Introduction
Annapurna Astley: Hospitality & Kashi Ashram
Kevin Coval: Opening the Door for Elijah

| practically speaking |
Paul Weller: Unfair Treatment Between Religions, findings for a research project in England and Wales

| focus on the interreligious movement |
Andrew T. Clark & Zarrin T. Caldwell: Religious Freedom & Human Flourishing

| in review |
Michael Hilton: Review Article: Jonathon Sacks' The Dignity of Difference
Book Reviews
Briefly Noted

| poetry |
Raficq Abdullah: The direct apprehension of forms
Jane Cook Barnes: Goodrich Woods
Eknath Easwaran: Trans, From the Rig Veda Prayers
Mark Milligan: A prayer of Survival for Our Group

| prayers and meditation |
Jim Kenney: Meditation on a Fallen Tree
Traditional: Prayers for Peace

meditation on a fallen tree
Jim Kenney

Coming on a neat stack of logs in the forest with the shared ring signature of a single tree, I wonder what brought this little giant down. A storm perhaps, or some tiny beetling thing? Was the chain saw a mercy or did greed play a role? Now already the damp earth humus smell and softening wood invite new tenants that would not have made a home in the living tree. And a new cycle begins

I nod to the single blue herald of the forest's next day, remembering that the old Latin word for nodding in recognition, greeting or awe is numen.

A fallen tree, a brash new flowering, a numinous moment.

The holiness, wholeness of death and rebirth.