Dear Friends of the Boniuk Center:
The Mayor’s candlelight Solidarity Vigil, our 3rd annual Sacred Sites Quest,
and our October 25th Christian Intrafaith Panel headline this newsletter.
I. On Thursday evening August 9th, hundreds of Houstonians turned out at
City Hall Plaza for a candlelight vigil in solidarity with the victims of the recent
tragedy at the Sikh gurdwara in Wisconsin. A gifted cellist played some evocative
music, Mayor Parker and several civil and religious dignitaries spoke, and the
crowd lit commemorative candles to remember and honor the victims, as darkness
fell at sunset.
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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