Sexuality, Gender Identity and Religion June 16, 2007

Sexuality, Gender Identity and Religion:
Celebrating Gay Pride Month
An Interfaith Conversation with
Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara and Rev. Robert Kaizen Gunn, Ph.D.

Saturday, June 16, 2007
1:00 – 4:00 pm

Issues of sexuality and gender identity run like fault lines through contemporary religious thinking. Crisis in the global Episcopal Church, scandals shaking American Catholicism and fundamentalist Christian churches, and the life-threatening oppression of gay men in much of the Muslim world underscore the conflict between sexual minorities and religious orthodoxy.

Despite institutionalized homophobia, over the past four decades lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have shown remarkable courage in the struggle for recognition within their communities of faith. Yet centuries-old religious prejudices still empower official policies that cause spiritual and physical suffering to millions around the world.

How can one live with spiritual power and integrity amid such homophobia? How can we answer the challenge of our religious histories and traditions? How can we heal our own suffering and that of others? Come and join us in exploring these questions.

Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara is a Soto Zen Priest, Abbot of Village Zendo Temple, and a certified Zen Teacher in the White Plum lineage. She holds a Ph.D. in Media Ecology and taught at New York University for over 20 years. She also served as Chairperson of the Board of the National AIDS Interfaith Network. Her focus is on true self-expression, peacemaking and HIV/AIDS activism.

Rev. Robert Kaizen Gunn, Ph.D. is pastor of the United Church of Rockville Centre. He is a practicing psychotherapist, lecturer in Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary and active in the Society for Buddhist/Christian Studies. Dr. Gunn is the author of Journeys into Emptiness: Dogen, Merton, Jung and the Quest for Transformation.

Fee: $15 members; $25 non-members
To register, email: jkpr1@verizon.net

Village Zendo, 588 Broadway Suite 910 between Houston & Prince, F,V, B, D to Broadway/Lafayette; N, R. to Prince; 6 to Spring

Official Website: http://www.villagezendo.org