Theres something disarming about a noon lunch break, a brown bag meal and a relaxed setting where one can talk informally with leaders or others in authority. Whether in workplaces, community organization life or academic settings, chemistry becomes better for dialogue and easy-going talk.

Imagine a noon bull session to talk ethics. At the University of Chicago Divinity School, Professor William Schweiker, the adviser for the Ethics Club, met over lunch with students. Together, they discussed The Future of Religious Ethics. They examined trends in the field and how the study of religious ethics can remain relevant, rigorous and challenging.

In a relaxed and intimate setting, according to the schools autumn-winter newsletter, Schweiker and other professors heard what students thought.

In the last academic year, the Ethics Club actually hosted six noontime meetings with professors of various schools on ethical issues. Topics included just-war theory, female circumcision, process theology and the war in
Iraq. The club also explored the challenges and daunting process for any one of them to begin the long work on a doctorate degree.

No doubt, they frequently draw from the rich stories of scripture for guidelines on what directly they would take in complicated and damned-if-do and damned-if-dont situation.

The Ethics Club takes its activities to bars for Pub Night where divinity students talk about topics in ethics, religion, current events and sports. The club wants to hold conferences on medical ethics and business ethics. They plan a fall workshop with University of Notre Dame students and other projects to explore knotty ethical problem.

Ethics tends to be a stepchild in broad studies of religion. Its a healthy exercise to lay out situations and the facts and encourage lively discussion on right and wrong, perpetrator and victim, fair solution versus the correct one. Those more authoritarian among us typically has fewer conflicts in arriving at the best means to settle problems.

Theologian John Wesley offered one of the simplest instruction for an ethical life: Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.

Given the shape of the world and the scandals du’jour, ethicsneed to make a comeback in personal and institutional behavior.

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, the Valleys highest profile Muslim working toward Islamic moderation and public trust in his faith, recently was recognized by the Center for Security Policy, a 20-year-old Washington think tank dealing with security. Jasser, who speaks out regularly against radical Islam, is founder and chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, based in Phoenix.

On Oct. 17, he received a Defender of the Homefront Award, along with five others. At the same ceremony at a Washington, D.C., hotel, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., received the annual Keepers of the Flame award, first given in 1990. Among previous winners are Jon Kyl, Ronald Reagan, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Newt Gingrich, Gen. Peter Pace and Russian chess star and politico Garry Kasparov. Awards honored those who have rendered invaluable service to the nation in the ward for the Free World.

One web site says Jasser believes that it is the responsibility of Muslims in
America and worldwide to lead the global effort to combat Islamism and the ideologies which feed the terrorism committed by Muslims in the name of Islam.

Jasser, a specialist in internal medicine who is active in Valley interfaith programs, was a U.S. Navy lieutenant commander. He argues it is essential for devotional Muslims to lead the ideological war against militant Islamism by separating spiritual Islam from political Islam. This Muslim-led effort seeks to establish the synergy of Americanism and our constitutional democracy with a pluralistic Islam.

In 2000, he founded a Jewish-Muslim dialogue group called Children of Abraham. Until June, he was president of the Arizona Medical Association and is chairman of the bioethics committee of a Valley hospital where he teaches nuclear medicine.

Jasser frequently speaks in national media about Islam, Islamism, moderate Muslims and counterterrorism. His commentaries have appeared in Valley and national publications as well as FamilySecurityMatters.org and the website of American Islamic Forum for Democracy (www.aifdemocracy.org). He has carried on an ongoing public debate with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) over a range of issues, including Muslim complaints of victimization in the U.S. CAIR has been criticized as an apologist for militant Islamic organizations and failing to speak out forcefully against terrorism and other actions.

It comes as no surprise that the Bible verse that most people can quote from memory is also the most popular one: John 3:16 (NIV): For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

An Australian, Peter Chapman, founder of the Top Verses website, reports that he surveyed 37 million Bible references to rank those biblical verses that are most popular by virtue of their being accessed the most often.

As a result, he has made it easier to search the Web for verses. For example, someone wanting to find John 3:16 likely would remember world as a key word in the verse, and by putting world into the search engine, John 3:16, it would come up first and save nine pages of wrong hits.

Putting the most popular verses first makes the Bible much more accessible, Chapman said. All sorts of people are visiting the site and seeing the Bible in a new way. His website (www.topverses.com) also cherry-picked the favorite verses in each of the 66 books of the Bible. For example, Proverbs, the book that offers straight-forward advice, lists No. 1: Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.

The Bibles second and third most popular verses are John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the World was with God, and the Word was God; and John 14:6: Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Incidentally, the first verse of the Bible came in seventh overall: Genesis 1:1: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Not surprisingly, No. 4 is this from Matthew 28:19: Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Chapmans work actually takes the 31,101 verses to be found in the standard Bible and ranks them according to their Internet hits history. He not only ranked verses, but chapters and books. The top 10 books of the Bible are all in the New Testaments: 1) Ephesians; 2) James; 3) Titus: 4) 1 John; 5) 2 Peter; 6) John; 7) Philippians; Colossians; 9) Romans; and 10) 1 Peter. It wasnt until the 19th book that the Old Testament was first referenced: Malachi, but it could only muster five verses in the entire top 1,000.

Two chapters among the top 10 chapters of the Bible come from the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible. They are Psalm 1, second most popular, and Isaiah 53, No. 6. Most popular chapter is 2 Peter 1. The great cant-we-all-get-along? chapter, James 4 is ranked No. 4.

Clearly, a quick review of popular verses, chapters and book points out the bedrock teachings that pastors and rabbis have returned to again and again for messages. Chapman declares that what he has done is provide pastors especially with an easier way to find scriptures. Top verses will be my new search engine when preparing sermons and for my own Bible study, a Sydney, Australia, pastor declared. You no longer have to search through a hundred verses to find the only you have in mind. Most of the time, I find it on the first.

People are endlessly fascinated by lists. With the Top Verses website, people can also compare what parts of the Good Book most connect with them versus these most popular Internet hits. Interestingly, the most popular verses are those we find starkly printed on billboards on lonely roadways. An example is No. 5: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23.

Most of us have gone through retreats, training conferences or visioning exercises with groups. We were given a limited number of Post-It notes to use to write down SWOT issues (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). Then we went forward and stuck them to a big poster. The facilitator then read them, and some kind of new picture of the group would come into focus.More than a few times, my church has had the congregation fill out the Post-Its attached to the Sunday bulletin. Put down what you want the church to pray for were the instructions. Or write what you think Christ wants from you. Or if the church started one new ministry, what should it be?Such exercises allow for blue-sky thinking and they even allow for people to take risks especially if there is a modicum of anonymity. Ideas suddenly all have equal weight on the wall. The pastors idea has the same feasibility as that put up by the newest member.John Chuchman, a Scottsdale writer and Catholic who summers in
Michigan, tells about a truly exciting experience he had at the liturgy at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Minneapolis, Minn, led by the Rev. Jim DeBruycker.

They actually asked all of their parishioners (4,500 families) for their dreams, hopes, wishes for future Church and then proudly display them on screen in church. Those were put into a collection basket and later examined and made public.

I was there and loved it! Chuchman said. “There are priests around the country speaking to people where they are despite the oppressive rule of careerist bishops,” Chuchman argues. “And there are parishes around the country helping church be all they can be, rather than trying to make it what it was and can never be again,” he said.”St. Joan of Arc respects its parishioners and honors their canon law rights and obligations to speak their needs, wishes, and opinions,” said Chuchman, a pastoral bereavement educator and author of many books, including I Love My Church, But Oh, My God; Springtime in Autumn and WE are Church.; and Growth Through Loss and Love: Sacred Quest.Here are some statements made by the
Minneapolis parish was not afraid to display, he said:

I dream of a church where no one feels alone.I dream of a church that values my gender.

I dream of a church that risks to reach out unconditionally.

I dream of a church where God blesses everyone, no exceptions!

I dream of a church entirely in love with God and each other.

I dream of a church with a liturgy that addresses female as well as male, also in (the)prayer response instead of saying “Lord, hear our prayer,” we would say, “Lord makeus peacemakers.” We should be doing it, not God!

I dream of a church where good people aspire to remain involved.I dream of a church of healthy schools for children to grow.

I dream of a church willing to rediscover itself, to embrace ancient wisdom and modernprophets.I dream of a church where those who would like to divide us by religion would sitdown and embrace others.

I dream of a church that continues to embrace the vision of Vatican II.

I dream of a church wherein all of its halls would be paintings.

I dream of a church more accessible to the disabled community, especially the blind.

I dream of a church that does not judge.

I dream of a church concentrating on love, peace, compassion — no boundaries.

I dream of a church living out loud — no secrets.I dream of a church that lasts forever.I dream of a church with more parking.

I dream of a church ALIVE!I dream of a church where church leaders take risks to follow the lead and word ofJesus.

I dream of a church where everyone knows how to forgive the people and the thingsthat keep them from peace.

I dream of a church where every person is openly welcome to communion.I dream of a church that loves and speaks the truth.I dream of a church with self-waxing floors.

These expressions also can be found on the parish’s web site: www.stjoan.com/bulletinfr.htm

It was the man who tended to the flowers on the campus of Queen of Peace Catholic Church in downtown who died in the bus stop hit-and-run accident near downtown
Mesa on Oct. 2.

It took Mesa police a couple days to identify the body of Jose Luis Velasco-Garcia, 61, because he was not a U.S. citizen and his family lives in
Mexico. ‘He is the one who maintained the roses in the little rose garden in front of the school,’ said Mike Evans, a science teacher for grades 6-8 at Queen of Peace School. During at least some of Sunday’s Masses, parishioners were informed that Velasco-Garcia was the victim. He had been associated with the parish for about 20 years.

Velasco-Garcia was waiting at the bus stop near Main Street and Horne at about 7 p.m. when a blue pickup truck apparently went out of control and leaped the curb and struck him. The impact sent his body into a parking lot in front of a Mexican restaurant, more than 30 feet from where he was hit. There were conflicting reports that bagged groceries that Velsaco-Garcia was holding at the time, then spilled across the ground, were carried off by others who showed onto the scene.

‘His roses and his flowers were the way that he served here at the parish, and now he is gone,’ said Evans, who has been coming to Queen of Peace since 1991. Often, he said, people’s passing is primarily a family thing, but here it is a whole faith community that has been affected by it.

‘There would be lots of times when he would be here before I got to school,’ he said. ‘I would get here for school, and he had worked in there for a couple of hours, especially when it was hot. There would be lots of times where he would be here when I would leave at the end of the day, so that that side of the building would be in the shade.’

This Wednesday, members of the National Junior Honor Society at Queen of Peace started a collection to help raise the money needed to send Velasco-Garcia’s remains to his Mexican village for burial.

‘It has just been a shock, and it has taken a while for everyone to realize who he was,’ Evans said. Meanwhile, a warrant with a $1 million cash bond has been issued for the suspected driver of the pickup, Alan Ricardo Flores-Ocon, 23. The GMC pickup involved in the fatal incident was found less than two miles from the accident scene with a white plastic grocery bag still stuck on its grill.

Peoples big ideas are always worth money. Heres your chance to get a cash prize in six figures if you have a big Jewish idea.

The Jewish News of Greater Phoenix reports, in its Oct. 5, issue that philanthropist Charles Bronfman is ready to pay handsomely to whoever comes up with an idea that can transform how the Jewish community thinks about itself. The winner not only takes a hefty sum to the bank, he or she will be the Charles R. Bronfman Visiting Chair in Jewish Communal Innovation at

Brandeis
University in a two-year visiting professorship.

During that assignment, the winner will be charged with publishing a significant English-language work based on his or her idea.

We only have to look at the high-tech industry to see that all ideas dont pan out, but all you need is one Google or Mapquest to justify a whole lot of ideas that dont go anywhere, said Jonathan Sarna, the chairman of the Hornstein Jewish professional leadership program at the university in Waltham, Mass.

The goal is to find something as significant as Birthright Israel, the highly popular program that gives Jewish young people, ages 18 to 26, free trips to
Israel for intense education on its culture, government and spiritual dimension. They consequently come away with deeper roots to their Jewish heritage. It has been seen as a way to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry; and to strengthen participants’ personal Jewish identity and a connection to other Jewish people.

The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies fund numerous foundations and projects. By one list, Charles Bronfman is the 15^th richest person in
Canada, worth about $2.2 billion in U.S. dollars.

The winner will get a salary of $110,000, plus benefits, and will be expected to teach a course each semester at Brandeis, beginning in the fall of 2008. Brandeis University Press will publish the book that the winner is expected to write.

A proposal of up to five pages can be submitted. Finalists will be expected to present their plan to a symposium. For details, see www.brandeis.edu/jcs/resources/job/Bronfman%20Chair.html.

It amazing how many work for ecumenical and interfaith understanding. Quietly, patiently, intentionally. Talk to them and they dont engage in polemics. They dont overwhelm with any pious self-righteousness. They have their beliefs and they believe those are right for them, but they dont condemn and put down others for being what, or who, they are. They actually see beauty and commonality in other peoples faiths.

And they appreciate their fellow human beings who live out their faiths authentically and in way that enhances the journey of humankind.

But they also see whats happening across the planet, as religious extremists seem intent on bringing societies and cultures down through suppression and holy war to fulfill some sordid destiny.

One of the heartening efforts for understanding is the Foundation for Inter-Cultural Dialogue, which works throughout the Valley and
Tucson to break down barriers. (www.inter-culturaldialogue.org). The brainstorm of some Muslims from
Turkey, they have worked on many levels to engage people over the past four years.

For example, on Sept. 20, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in
Phoenix, they brought together 150 people for the 4^th Dialogue and Friendship Dinner. Foundation president Ismail Karatas told about the educational, social and community service activities it organizes to further intercultural and interfaith dialogue.

Their dinners have had various focuses: Multicultural Diversity, The Art of Living Together and Respect for the Sacred. There have been storytelling and poetry nights. The Foundation for Inter-Cultural Dialogue has led a group to
Turkey to see that culture. One person came away from that saying, There is no difference between us and the people on the other end of the world. We all love, we all want to be loved, we all cry, we all laugh. In other words, we are all human beings.

The Foundation for Inter-Cultural Dialogue has helped out victims of Hurricane Katrina and a Pakistan earthquake, while it collected new clothes for the homeless in
Tempe. They gave things out at Christmas. The Foundation even began what may become a tradition preparing a popular Middle Eastern dessert , Noahs pudding (containing nuts, fruits and sugar). Some of us called our moms, some of us did surf the Internet to find the recipe, but we managed to prepare a healthy and tasty pudding and shared it with over 800 of our friends at Tempe Community Christian Church, Arizona State University World Festival, United Methodist Church, University Presbyterian Church, East Mesa Christian Church and St. Augustines Episcopal Church, Karatas said.

Those kinds of outreaches earned the Foundation for Inter-Cultural Dialogue one of the City of
Tempes annual Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Awards early this year. Karatas forthrightly offers, We have to become aware of others, respect our differences, discover our shared values and foster the art of living together. The plan sounds simple but it needs a lot of patience.

To that end, it wants to organize events to enable children to become aware of the diversity and cultural richness within our society. A multicultural children festival is on the horizon, he said.

The foundation has held seminars with speakers from Catholicism, Christian Science, the Bahai Faith, Western African Ifa tradition, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Greek Orthodox Church and Buddhism.

Karatas explains that it is essential to develop and spread a model of religious tolerance and peace. It can be helped along by attracting outstanding speakers who know how to build social cohesion, show common ground in philosophies and celebrate the exciting things like joy in dance, food, art, customs, dress and the other many identities of each others cultures.

One of the speakers at the Sept. 20 dinner, Steve Farley, who had gone on a Foundation trip to
Turkey, told how deeply he was affected by the people there. He said they genuinely opened their hearts to the Western strangers. Opening our hearts is absolutely the key for what we need to do in the world today The only way to proceed forward and maintain world peace and be able to bring it here on earth is to keep hearts open no matter how hard that is. I think we have shown an example how to do this. We must carry that forward.