We are pleased to announce with a $28.5 million gift from Boniuk Center founders Dr. Milton and Laurie Boniuk, Rice will establish the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement click here for more information:  New Link

You and Your Guests Are Invited to

 the Boniuk Center's Embracing Tolerance Essay Contest

Awards Ceremony

Thursday, April 18th, 7:00 p.m.


Asia Society Texas Center
1370 Southmore Blvd.
Houston, TX  77004

Parking available across the street from Asia Society

$4.00  

                              You and Your Guests Are Invited To

                the Mural Unveiling and Closing Celebration of                     

                 the Boniuk Center's SSQ3 (Sacred Sites Quest) 

                      Saturday, March 2nd: 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

                                        Bread of Life

                                       1703 Gray St.

                                     Houston, TX 77003

                                     click below for map

                                     http://goo.gl/maps/ipbCA

                                 There will be a brief program.

                                 Light refreshments will be served.
                 No RSVP required. The ceremony is free and open to the public.
                 Feel free to join us in celebrating our students' achievements! 

          Event sponsored by The Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance at Rice University,
           MOCAH (The Museum of Cultural Arts Houston) andThe Art Project, Houston (TAPH) 

             

          

Dear Friends of the Boniuk Center:

As many of you already know, an Intrafaith Panel Dialogue on Islam

will be our next Bridge-Builder Series event. It will begin at

 7:00PM on Thursday, February 21st  at the Asia Society Texas Center.  

The Asia Society Center is no longer accepting reservations. 

Standby seats will be made available on a first-come first-serve basis.

We are excited to be partnering with  Asia Society Texas Center and the
Risala Foundation to co-sponsor this program as part of our Boniuk Center’s
Bridge-Builder Series.Our Bridge-Builder theme this year has focused
on intrafaith dialogue within the three Abrahamic religions.  This panel dialogue
on Islam is the third of those three programs.

It will feature four Imams representing the African-American, Ahmadiyya,
Shia, and Sunni traditions of Islam. Together, they will explore topics such
as how cultural and generational nuances manifest themselves in various
Muslim communities, the role of grace, fellowship, and forgiveness in their
traditions, and what they most want those outside Islam to know
about their faith.

Religious and Cultural Pluralism Commentator and Activist Mike Ghouse
will serve as panelmoderator. Mr. Ghouse is President of the Foundation
for Pluralism and America Together Foundation. The four panelists include
Imam Wazir Ali of Houston; Imam Azhar Haneef of Silver Spring, MD;
Imam Moustafa al-Qazwini of Orange County, CA; and Imam Zia Shaikh
of Irving, TX.

The Asia Society Texas Center is at 1370 Southmore Blvd. in Houston’s
Museum District. Ample paid parking is available in the lot right
across the street from ASTC.

A pre-event Reception will begin at 6:30 before the program starts at 7:00.
Isha prayer space will also be available at ASTC that evening. 

Please see the flyer below or the ASTC or Boniuk Center websites for
additional information about this event.

Sincerely,

Mike Pardee,
Executive Director

  Dear Friends of the Boniuk Center:

For many of us, December and January are packed with holiday celebrations and
lots of quality time spent with dear friends and family. As 2012 winds down to a close
we would also like to offer some current Boniuk Center updates about our high school
educational outreach, in particular.

2013 Embracing Tolerance High School Essay Contest

Our 3rd annual Embracing Tolerance Essay Contest has launched. This year’s writing
prompt is perhaps our most interesting yet: “What are the limits—or limitations—
of religious tolerance?”

The deadline for submissions is 4:00PM on Thursday, February 14^th.  
Additional information about the essay question and
other requirements for entering the contest are posted in the
drop-down menu on the left side of our website.

We also attach an e-flyer describing more Essay Contest details below.

SSQ3: Our 2012 – 2013 Sacred Sites Quest

Our two-dozen SSQ’ers have recently completed their site visits to more than a dozen places of worship in and around Houston. For the next phase of our 3rd annual Sacred Sites Quest, we move into the studios of The Museum of Cultural Arts Houston  (MOCAH) for these mostly high school students—plus a couple of college student mentors—to compose their capstone art project.


This year we are fortunate to be partnering too with the  Bread of Life’s Art Project, Houston (TAPH). . TAPH artists are collaborating with our HS students on the conception, design, execution & installation of their SSQ3 capstone mural at Bread of Life. These murals will be unveiled at our SSQ3 Closing Celebration on Saturday afternoon, March 2nd, which promises to be a very festive affair! So please save that date.

Other Featured Events Still to Come….

Our recent Bridge-Builder Series events have focused on the theme of Intrafaith Relations and Dialogue. To that end, we have hosted some fine programs about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In November, we happily co-sponsored one of these, entitled “The Future of Muslims in America: Building a Strong Community,” with our friends from the  Muslim Professional Association (MPA).

We look forward to holding another of these Intrafaith Panel Dialogues on Islam at the Asia Society of Texas Center on Thursday, February 21st, 2013. So please make a note of it and save the date for that upcoming Bridge-Builder event!

Thanks Again to Our Generous and Loyal Donors

Every fall, we undertake a fundraising campaign among our dedicated Friends of the Boniuk Center. Whether by contributing to that appeal or donating to our other fundraising efforts, scores of loyal donors have consistently demonstrated their generosity to the Boniuk Center over the years.

Needless to say, we are grateful for this tangible support of our mission. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to offer the breadth and depth of programming promoting religious tolerance that we do.

If you share our Boniuk Center’s core values of tolerance, compassion, and respect, we encourage you to include us in your charitable giving for 2012. We welcome philanthropic gifts of any size to help our program participants share similarities and differences as we learn together from each other and about ourselves.

Our aim through all this learning is to build a genuine sense of community and peaceful coexistence amongst all whose lives we touch. Thanks again for your shared commitment to this important campaign!

Appreciatively,

Mike Pardee, Executive Director

Dear Friends:

We have much for which to be grateful at the Boniuk Center. As we embark
on this season of Thanksgiving, we share this partial list of some of the
good fortune and invaluable partnerships that we cherish. This list focuses
primarily on our 2 – 3 most recent years, since we began our “especially youth”
educational outreach emphasis. But it could easily be much longer
if reaching even further back.


Our Remarkable Students


Over the past three years, more than seventy high school students have embarked as participants or alumni mentors on our Sacred Sites Quests. And almost a thousand entries will have been submitted in our Embracing Tolerance high school Essay Contest by the close of its third annual incarnation this upcoming spring.



Dozens of college students have also worked closely with and benefitted richly from programs offered by the Center. Although most of these undergraduates have been enrolled at Rice, we have also interacted in some depth with students from the Universities of Houston and St. Thomas, as well.



Our Collaborators, Panelists, Speakers, and other Featured Presenters

We are also blessed to be able to partner mutually advantageously with related organizations like The Institute for Interfaith Dialog (IID Houston) and our Interfaith Relations colleagues from Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston (IMGH). And perennial SSQ stalwarts like The Museum of Cultural Arts Houston (MOCAH) and the Bread of Life’s Art Project, Houston (TAPH) are collaborating with our HS students this year on the conception, design, execution & installation of their SSQ capstone mural project at Bread of Life.

Our Bridge-Builder Series events recently have focused on the theme of Intrafaith Relations and Dialogue. To that end, we have just hosted some fine panel programs about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We happily co-sponsored one of these, entitled “The Future of Muslims in America: Building a Strong Community,” with our friends from the Muslim Professional Association (MPA).

We look forward to holding another of these Intrafaith Panel Dialogues on Islam at the Asia Society of Texas Center on Thursday, February 21st, 2013. So please make a note of it and save the date for that upcoming Bridge-Builder event!

Our Dedicated Advisory Board

Our Boniuk Center Advisory Board includes members who offer their time, talent, and treasure to support and inform all our work. Most serve at least one three-year term; yet many return for much longer than that initial commitment. We also have several active Advisory Board committees that focus on more particular aspects of our operations and financial affairs.

Our Loyal Donors

Every year (usually in the fall) we undertake a fundraising campaign with our dedicated Friends of the Boniuk Center. Whether by contributing to that appeal or donating to our other fundraising efforts, scores of loyal donors have consistently demonstrated their generosity to the Boniuk Center over the years.

Finally: Our Inspired Founders

The vision and generosity of Dr. Milton and Mrs. Laurie Boniuk, who graciously endowed the Center at Rice, have largely funded our work promoting religious tolerance, compassion and respect since 2004. Needless to say, we are indebted to them, above all, for our very existence in the first place.



In sum, we have many, many things for which to be thankful: not only during this holiday season, but all year long. May you and yours be blessed with similar good fortune these days, as well!

We also encourage you to scroll down below for information about a couple other promising multifaith programs in early December and beyond.

Appreciatively,

Mike Pardee, Executive Director

Our 3rd annual Sacred Sites Quest for high school students has been underway
for about a month. But our online donation interface for contributing scholarship
support to their efforts will be going offline soon. If you’d like to assist them
with their site visits to various places of worship and collaborative capstone
mural project at the end of their Quest, please act now to make
a gift of any size.

The mural will be installed at the  Bread of Life shelter, associated with
St. John’s United Methodist Church Downtown. . Artists from Bread of Life and
Art Project, Houston (TAPH) will collaborate with our HS SSQ students on
the conception, design, & execution of this mural. Both the creative process
and final product that results will be wonderful. It will also be expensive.

That’s where you (could) come in!


We currently have 16 10th-12th graders enrolled in SSQ3, along with a couple Rice undergraduates serving as SSQ mentors. They each pay tuition fees to register, which cover part—but by no means all—of their expenses. We also offer scholarships to all SSQ participants on a sliding scale, according to their individual need.

This philanthropic opportunity is currently posted on thePower2Give website, along with a more detailed SSQ3 project description. But the giving window to assist with our funding will close down within the next week or so. The P2G post includes a brief two-minute video, photo of some previous SSQ’ers, and a menu of Donor Benefits at various giving levels.

Won’t you please consider contributing some tangible support to these students’ worthy efforts? We are especially excited about our community partners at The Art Project, Houston, St. John’s Downtown Church, and Bread of Life on this endeavor. And we are completing all the artwork again under the aegis of  MOCAH, The Museum of Cultural Arts Houston, for our third consecutive year.


Yet room remains for you to participate in SSQ3 too, by contributing financially to the costs the Quest incurs. Our first Sacred Sites Quest capstone murals were deemed “The Best Public Art Project” of 2011 by The Houston Press   We can’t guarantee that any similar kudos or awards are in store for this year’s version. But we certainly aim to do our level best for equally strong results this year!

Finally, please also find below the e-flyer for the Saturday evening November 10th event featuring  Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (Founder and Chairman of the Cordoba Initiative) and others. Entitled “The Future of Muslims in America: Building a Strong Community,” the program is co-sponsored by the Boniuk Center and the  Muslim Professional Association (MPA). It promises to be an enlightening, stimulating affair for all who attend.

With all best wishes,

Mike Pardee, Executive Director

Dear Friends of the Boniuk Center:

Be sure to save the dates of Thursday, October 25th and Saturday, November 10th
for two exciting evening programs (co-)sponsored by the Boniuk
Center’s Bridge-Builder Series. Consistent with our Intrafaith theme
for this year, both will focus especially on intrafaith issues.

First, please save the date and time of 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 25th,                                  when our Bridge-Builder Series resumes with an Intrafaith Panel Dialogue on                                             Christianity. This will be our second of three intrafaith events about the three Abrahamic                                  religions. The series offers attendees invaluable opportunities to get to know our neighbors                                and ourselves better, as we each pursue our respective spiritual journeys in our own distinctive                          ways.

Additional information about this ecumenical Christian Intrafaith Panel
Dialogue at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church appears on the e-flyer attached below.

Second, save the evening of Saturday, November 10th, when the Boniuk
Center will collaborate with the Muslim Professional Association (MPA)
to bring Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf to town.   Imam Rauf  is the founder of
The Cordoba Initiative,based in New York City.

A few more details of this event remain to be worked out, in conjunction
with the MPA. So please stay tuned to our e-newsletters and Boniuk
Center website for more specific updates with all that information to
come in due time.

Our third item this issue announces the launch of our SSQ3, our 3rd
annual Sacred Sites Quest program for mostly high school students.
Our current enrollment as we begin the SSQ stands at 15:

Yet there remains room for more, so we will continue to accept online SSQ3 applications via our Boniuk Center website. Instructions for signing up for this opportunity appear here and in the e-flyer below.

Finally, we have another Save-the-Date posting about an upcoming interfaith event featuring “On Being’s” Krista Tippett at Christ Church Cathedral in mid-October.  Please see the e-flyer about these three worthy events attached at the end of this newsletter below.

Sincerely,

Mike Pardee
Executive Director

   Dear Friends of the Boniuk Center:

Our 3rd annual Sacred Sites Quest for HS students launches in just a
few short weeks. There are 2 ways one can get involved in SSQ3—but
deadlines for each are looming; so it’s important to act soon, if interested.
8th – 12th graders can enroll to participate, and anyone else who cares
to can make an online contribution to help underwrite scholarship support
for these enterprising students.

Our scholarship donation link is posted on the Power2Give website,
hosted by the Houston Arts Alliance:
http://www.power2give.org/Houston/Project/Detail?projectId=981

Some of our loyal and generous Boniuk Center donors might prefer to
wait for the launch of our Fall Friends Campaign to make their annual
philanthropic contributions. Yet others are likely to opt for this opportunity
instead, to enable deserving SSQ3’ers to participate who might not
otherwise be able to cover the program’s tuition fee themselves.

Applications for interested 8th – 12th graders are currently available
online via the SSQ tab in the drop-down menu on our website. Early
registration is encouraged, since admission is mostly “first come, first served.”

Please save the date of Thursday, October 25th, when our Bridge-Builder
Series resumes with an Intrafaith Panel Dialogue on Christianity. This will
be our second of three intrafaith events about the three Abrahamic religions.
These will offer attendees invaluable opportunities to get to know both our
neighbors and ourselves even better, as we all pursue our respective faith
journeys in our own distinctive ways.

Additional information about this ecumenical Christian Intrafaith Panel
Dialogue also appears on the e-flyer attached below.

Finally, we have some other Save-the-Date postings about upcoming
interfaith events at the MFAH this weekend and at Christ Church Cathedral
in mid-October. Please see the e-flyers about these three worthy events
attached at the end of this newsletter below.

Sincerely,

Mike Pardee
Executive Director

   Dear Friends of the Boniuk Center:

It was a moving show of multifaith support and solidarity for the Sikh casualties and others
injured in the shootings. The event was well covered in the press. Additional photos are also
available on our Boniuk Center Facebook page and our Flickr postings here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boniukcenter/sets/72157631182730788/

II. Our 3rd annual Sacred Sites Quest for HS students will resume in early October. There are 2 ways one can get involved in SSQ3. 8th – 12th graders can enroll to participate, and anyone else who cares to can make an online contribution to help underwrite scholarship support for these enterprising students.

Our scholarship donation link is posted on the Power2Give website, hosted by the Houston Arts Alliance: http://www.power2give.org/Houston/Project/Detail?projectId=98.  Some of our loyal and generous Boniuk Center donors might prefer to wait for the launch of our Fall Friends Campaign to make their annual philanthropic contributions. Yet others are likely to opt for this opportunity instead, to enable deserving SSQ3’ers to participate who might not otherwise be able to cover the program’s tuition fee themselves.

Applications for interested 8th – 12th graders are currently available online via the SSQ tab in the drop-down menu on our website. Early registration is encouraged, since admission is mostly “first come, first served.”

Additional information about SSQ3 and signing up for it also appears on the e-flyer attached below.

III. Please save the date of Thursday, October 25th, when our Bridge-Builder Series resumes with an Intrafaith Panel Dialogue on Christianity.  This will be our second of three intrafaith events about the three Abrahamic religions. These will offer attendees invaluable opportunities to get to know both our neighbors and ourselves even better, as we all pursue our respective faith journeys in our own distinctive ways.

Additional information about this ecumenical Christian Intrafaith Panel Dialogue also appears on the e-flyer attached below.

That’s all from the Boniuk Center as Rice University classes resume in late August. We’ll be back, as usual, with more updates about other new developments from here and elsewhere over the next several weeks….

Sincerely,
Mike Pardee
Executive Director

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