News for March 2010
Islam — A Legacy of Peace
Edited: March 31st, 2010
March 8, 2010 AVIC Press Release
Antelope Valley Interfaith Council (AVIC) has announced their elected officers for the current year. They are: Valerie Elliott – President, Deborah Shelton – Vice President, Lisa Morgenstern – Secretary, Rev. Hilde Brooks – Treasurer, and Archbishop Bernie Price as Historian.
AVIC was established in the late 1980s as a place for religious leaders to discuss their community’s concerns and to share community activities. An early mission was to provide a forum in which members could exchange ideas and learn from each other’s teachings in order to build a better community. Since then, membership has expanded to include the general public – anyone who wishes to join them in achieving these goals. Also, some clergy, or faiths without clergy, may appoint someone from their congregation to be that faith’s representative.
Their mission also includes educating the public by hosting interfaith events and having a variety of faiths offer prayer or brief information about their faith at these events. An example of the inclusionary vision of the Council is their National Day of Prayer (NDP) service that is held at the Center for Spiritual Living (formerly the Center of Light) in Lancaster. Prior to AVIC’s evening NDP event, the only other NDP event has been the Mayors’ NDP Breakfast meetings that have been exclusively for a specific interpretation of Christianity.
Edited: March 11th, 2010
March 9, 2010 Statement from Antelope Valley Interfaith Council
The following was read by Valerie Elliott, AVIC President, at a news conference on March 9, 2010, regarding the resolution of the Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force condemning statements of Mayor R. Rex Parris and City Councilwoman Sherry Marquez of the City of Lancaster:
Some may think the resolution presented here is anticlimactic. However, the simple fact that people are still talking about it, and writing letters to the editor, says Lancaster and this valley are not yet “over it.”
There are a few things that need to be remembered.
Most everyone is aware that Lancaster Mayor Parris realized there was a larger back-lash than he anticipated by his public comments; and he has given a genuine apology to the public. Unfortunately, there was a timing problem, in that he was aware of the complaint that had been reported to the Task Force and was invited to a special meeting to discuss it. Instead of going to the meeting, he chose to have a public press conference a few hours before. To apologize through a press conference was a wonderful thing to do; unfortunately, it isn’t the press that does the reporting for complaints filed with the Task Force. The Task Force still needed to go through its procedures.
Edited: March 11th, 2010
