FCCB Home Page Upcoming Events Contact Us

Second Email from Pat

May 4, 2008

“We’ve been having quite a time of it. Leaving soon for Shiraz—it is Sunday afternoon. We saw Khomeni’s house this morning and then stopped by the House of Cartoons for Iran. The group is large, very intense and committed to seeking peace amidst trying to understand Iran. Sam was joyful to be able to get a meeting with the political cartoonist and we will return next week for a longer session there.

Please, if you get this in time for worship, let the congregation know that we are safe and that they are in my daily prayers—almost as if they are one body, one being, whom I miss and think of daily. Will try to write from Shiraz—hope all is well!”

First Email from Pat

May 3, 2008

“We are well and beginning our second full day in Iran. I was greeted, getting off the plane by the morality police, “where is your scarf?” After wrapping it around my head, we waited in line for an hour for our entry, then were greeted with a finger printing session ad another wait while they checked us again and copied our passports.

A small group of welcomers were waiting for us (now 5:30 in the morning) and we buzzed into Tehran in a speedy BMW—we were stopped by the police for speeding on the way in. I began to wonder if we were really going to get there!

Yesterday we visited the Armenian Culteral Center and a huge mountain outside of town. Today, museums and the group will meet to decide how we will procede.

All is well and we ae feeling fine. It is quite an adventure to wear the head scarf! I have been readig Infidel by Aarann Hirshi Ali and it is opening my eyes to the Muslim world again. I recommend it to the Book Group!”

Pat de Jong and Sam Keen Travel to Iran

April 25, 2008

Patricia de Jong, Senior Minister at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, United Church of Christ and her husband Sam Keen, well-known author and philosopher left from New York City on Tuesday, April 29 for a 12-day fact-finding and friendship mission to Iran. They will be part of a 21-member peace delegation organized by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the oldest and largest interfaith peace organization in the United States. First Church member Katharine Kunst is also a member of the delegation.

Keen, de Jong, Kunst and other delegates will learn first-hand about ordinary Iranians, even as tensions between the U.S. and Iran continue to rise amidst threats of new sanctions and rumors of military intervention in response to Iran’s nuclear program. In the wake of this month’s allegations to Congress by Gen. David Petraeus and members of the Bush administration that Iran has been interfering in efforts to stabilize the war in Iraq, the delegation provides an opportunity for the citizens of both countries to exchange ideas about peaceful alternatives to the standoff between their governments and to build concrete people-to-people relationships.

All three First Church members going on this trip have long-standing commitments to making peaceful connections around the world. As Katharine says, “This is an important time for peace-seeking Americans to go to Iran—what with Bush, et al, rattling sabers. We show up there to indicate that there are many Americans who are actively against more military initiatives. And we come back to tell the story of what we have learned, to speak the truth, as we saw it, about what is happening.” Sam Keen, who is the creator of the Faces of the Enemy book and public television series has a deep interest in understanding how we characterize and often demonize our “enemies.” He welcomes the opportunity to get first-hand experience with the Iranian people, and to make a statement, by his presence there, in opposition to US foreign policy. Rev. de Jong has traveled extensively with First Church delegations and has helped create connections with people in many countries as an important part of her ministry. First Church understands itself as being part of a world community.

The interfaith delegation—the seventh sent to Iran by FOR—includes people of Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, and Indigenous spiritual backgrounds. The delegates hail from 11 different states and range in age from 20 to 65, and include co-leader Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, the first woman rabbi to visit Iran and the first U.S. rabbi to travel there in a formal peacemaking capacity.

The civilian diplomats will visit cultural and historic centers in Tehran (the contemporary capital), Qom (world center of Shi’a theology), Hamadan (the location of the tomb of Esther & Mordecai, important Jewish biblical figures), Isfahan (legendary capital of medieval Persia), and Shiraz (jewel of classical Islamic culture, as well as the seat of Iran’s ancient pre-Islamic civilization).

The group will be hosted by Iran’s Center for Interfaith Dialogue, and meetings are scheduled with educators and students, politicians, artists, media representatives, and religious leaders from the Muslim as well as minority Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian communities. The delegation’s reports will be published on FOR’s blog, www.forpeace.net, and background information about FOR’s Iran program can be found online at www.forusa.org/programs/iran.