On October 19th Fairfax Presbyterian Church hosted the Rumi Forum for a discussion on social justice through the context of faith.

Date: Thursday, October, 19th

Time: 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Location: Fairfax Presbyterian Church
10723 Main Street, Fairfax, VA 22030

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

We define social justice as a concept of fair and just relation between the individual and society and struggle over how to promote and achieve that perfect equality. There are various ways to approach social justice from embracing your community, to celebrating diversity, to listening more to others, adopting a politician, etc.  For this event, however, we will approach social justice from a faith perspective. There are many elements of social justice that are referenced in various religious texts and this event aims to highlight those through the three Abrahamic faiths. By doing so, we hope that the community can learn from each other and ways to channel their religious beliefs into social justice action.

Speakers: 

Henry G. Brinton is the Senior Pastor at Fairfax Presbyterian Church Henry grew up in Bowie, Maryland. He was active in the Christian Community Presbyterian Church throughout his youth and was ordained a deacon as a teenager. After falling in love with religious studies as an undergraduate at Duke University, he earned a Master of Divinity at Yale Divinity School. In his first pastoral call, Henry served as associate pastor of First United Church of Christ in Milford, Connecticut, a 1200-member congregation with a corporate style of ministry. In 1989, Henry was called as pastor to Calvary Presbyterian Church in Alexandria. Henry writes freelance articles on religious topics for The Washington Post and USA Today and has been a writer for the preaching journal Homiletics since 1998.

Henry met his wife Nancy Freeborne in their church youth group in Bowie. They were married in 1985 and have two children, Sadie and Sam.

Hurunnessa Fariad and her family fled the war in Afghanistan in the late 1970’s and eventually settled in New York City.  She attended a music major high school and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and English Literature.  She is the youngest of 10 kids. She moved to Northern Virginia in 2004 and she currently lives in Sterling, Va with her 4 daughters.  She was the President of her own IT company for 10 years.  She served as the Vice Principal of ADAMS Radiant Hearts Academy for 8 years until she changed departments and now serves as the Outreach/Interfaith/Communications Coordinator, Branch Liaison and the ADAMS BEAT Music Director at the ADAMS Center under the leadership of Imam Mohamed Mag.

Rabbi Emeritus Bill Rudolph has been with Congregation Beth El since 1983. He served on a part-time basis about half of that period, during which he was the associate international director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. He was number two at Hillel when it achieved the Renaissance that changed the face of the American Jewish community. He was elected as Beth El’s associate rabbi in 1996 and rabbi in 2001. Rabbi Rudolph took a leadership role in Beth El’s multi-faceted response to Middle East crises in 2002 and 2006, including two $1 million dollar rallies for the Israel Emergency Campaign. He is the recipient of the Federation’s Matthew Simon Rabbinic Leadership Award. His position with the Federation includes the Federation Board (many terms), its Planning & Allocations Committee, its Rabbinic Cabinet, and its Missions Committee. He was co-chair of the Community Division and the Affinity Division of the Annual Campaign.