The North Olympic Peninsula has developed its own community read.
Reading groups studying “Finding Peace Through Spiritual Practice — The Interfaith Amigos Guide to Personal, Social and Environmental Healing” are growing throughout the Peninsula.
Groups have formed in Port Hadlock, Port Angeles, Sequim and Forks.
The Interfaith Amigos — Pastor Don Mackenzie, Imam Jamal Rahman and Rabbi Ted Falcon, who began working together in Seattle — will visit the Peninsula this week.
They will speak about building bridges through spiritual practice at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 E. Lopez Ave. in Port Angeles, and at 2 p.m. Sunday at the auditorium at Port Townsend High School, 1500 Van Ness St.
“I think the groups are popular because people are hungry for connection and for spiritual strengthening,” said Marilyn Eash of the Interfaith Community of Clallam County.
“The book is inspiring because the authors — a minister, a rabbi, and an imam — have years of experience in social justice and environmental advocacy. More importantly, they practice and teach how to advocate with courage and compassion … and how to fill your heart and soul, again and again.
“I think people are really excited to be part of an in-depth, positive communitywide project.”
In Clallam County, contact interfaithclallamcounty@gmail.com or 360-477-0681 for more information.
Reading groups are listed by community.
Port Hadlock
• A 10-week read of “Finding Peace through Spiritual Practice” will continue at the Jefferson County Library at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The discussion group, which began Jan. 3 at the library at 620 Cedar Ave., is open to all.
“This Ten-Week Spiritual Read is not a ‘feel good’ book club but rather a widespread shared experience which will kindle authentic connection and meaningful collaboration toward activism,” the library staff said.
“If you cannot attend all 10 weeks, come to as many meetings as you can.”
The 10-week session will close with a “Celebration of Our Journey” on March 5.
For more information, see www.jclibrary.info.
Port Angeles
In Port Angeles, several groups began the third week of January and will continue through the third week of March — but newcomers are welcome anytime.
Interfaith Community of Clallam County will host a “Celebration of Our Journey” at 2 p.m. March 18 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 510 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles.
Venues and meeting times for reading groups are listed as:
• Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St. — 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursdays.
• Unity in the Olympics, 2917 E. Myrtle St., Port Angeles — 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays.
• Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 E. Lopez Ave., Port Angeles — noon Wednesdays.
Two groups, which are now full, are in private homes in central and west Port Angeles.
Four new nine-week groups will start the week of Feb. 12. Three are at First United Methodist Church, 110 E. Seventh St., Port Angeles. They will meet at 12:30 p.m. Sundays, 4 p.m. Mondays and 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays.
The other group is in a private home; to receive the address and meeting time, contact interfaithclallamcounty@gmail.com or 360-477-0681.
Another group in a private home, Interfaith Port Angeles, is at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Again, contact interfaithclallamcounty@gmail.com or 360-477-0681 for the address.
A group from a Buddhist perspective is in progress from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Feb. 28 at the Port Angeles Dzogchen Dharma Center, 117-C E. First St., Port Angeles. The center is up the stairway from the parking lot near the back entrance to Michael’s Seafood and Steakhouse.
Buddhist practitioners from all lineages as well as those interested in Buddhism are welcome. To participate in this group, contact candancehall@gmail.com or 360-808-2620.
Sequim
• Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave. — 10 a.m. to noon Tuesdays.
• Natural Healing Clinic, 162 S. Barr Road — 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesdays.
• Dungeness Valley Lutheran Church, 925 N. Sequim Ave. — 10:30 p.m. to noon Tuesdays or 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays. A home group meets at 4 p.m. Sundays. Contact interfaithclallamcounty@gmail.com or 360-477-0681 for the address.
• Trinity Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave. — 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays.
Forks
• Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 250 N. Blackberry Ave. — 6 p.m. Wednesdays or noon Thursdays.
Rahman, Mackenzie and Falcon began working together after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, supporting interfaith dialogue “that can bring greater collaboration on the major social and economic issues of time,” they say on their website at http://interfaithamigos.com/.
Mackenzie, who has a doctorate, now lives in Minneapolis. He devoted himself to interfaith work after retiring as minister and head of staff at Seattle’s University Congregational United Church of Christ.
Previously, he served congregations in Hanover, N.H., and Princeton, N.J. Ordained in 1970, he is a graduate of Macalester College, Princeton Theological Seminary and New York University.
Falcon has taught Jewish traditions of Kabbalah, meditation and spirituality since the 1970s.
Ordained in 1968 at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, he served in Los Angeles as a congregational and then a campus rabbi.
In 1975, he earned a doctorate in professional psychology and, in 1978, founded the first meditative Reform congregation. He moved to Seattle in 1993, where he also founded a meditative synagogue.
He is the author of “A Journey of Awakening: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tree of Life” and co-author with David Blatner of “Judaism For Dummies.”
Rahman is co-founder and Muslim Sufi minister at Interfaith Community Sanctuary in Seattle and adjunct faculty at Seattle University.
Originally from Bangladesh, he is a graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of California, Berkeley.
His books include “Sacred Laughter of the Sufis: Awakening the Soul with the Mulla’s Comic Teaching Stories and Other Islamic Wisdom,” “Spiritual Gems of Islam: Insights &Practices from the Qur’an, Hadith, Rumi &Muslim Teaching Stories to Enlighten the Heart &Mind,” “The Fragrance of Faith: The Enlightened Heart of Islam” and “Out of Darkness into Light: Spiritual Guidance in the Quran with Reflections from Jewish and Christian Sources.”
