MeetingPoint aims to take Year of Altruism to the next level
May 5, 2015
GREENVILLE, SC – How does one take a successful program that engaged many across the region on creating a “beloved community” to the next level?
One word: MeetingPoint.
MeetingPoint is the outgrowth of the Year of Altruism and aims to create genuine interfaith opportunities by looking to the “trans-covenantal” nature of our endeavor, said Rabbi Marc Wilson, the group’s founder.
“We’re taking bite-sized chunks of altruism and using them to honor the values we share by doing things to better strengthen our community,” he said.
The first realty of MeetingPoint will be interfaith Bible discussions, said Bob St. Claire, the group’s director. The next major MeetingPoint program will feature scholars from diverse orientations who will discuss and debate “The Akedah – The Binding of Isaac,” for the theological, literary, and cultural implications of the controversial episode in Genesis 22.
The event will take place at Hughes Main Library in downtown Greenville on Tuesday, May 12, 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., he said.
“Our initiative does not aspire to have one leave their current religious commitment or house of worship,” St. Claire said. “We intend to be a complement to one’s faith journey, as they also seek to share an interfaith vision of worship, study, fellowship and social impact.”
Panelist include the Rev. Pat Jobe, Dr. Jay Jacoby and the Rev. Eric Cain. Moderating the program will be Dr. Bryan Bibb.
Jobe is a 15-year veteran of pastoral ministry and is currently serving as minister of the Greenville Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. He is the author or co-author of five books and did commentary as a volunteer for WNCW for 17 years.
Jacoby retired from full-time teaching and academic administration after 27 years at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. While at UNC-Charlotte, he routinely taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Immigrant Literature, Jewish-American Literature, and Literary Responses to the Holocaust.
Cain, the program director of the Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection at Furman University, was born and raised in rural, southeastern North Carolina. He is a 2004 graduate of Furman, where he majored in history and political science, with a concentration in Latin American studies. He attended Furman’s graduate school in the fields of education and theology.
Bibb is an Associate Professor of Religion at Furman University, where he has taught for 15 years. In addition to literary and theological interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, he is interested in the theory and practice of contemporary Bible translation. Towards that end he has published a number books and monographs.
Year of Altruism started in 2013 to encourage and celebrate altruism in thought, speech and deed, focusing the community on fostering acts of kindness in its organizations and individuals, thus creating a better future, one life at a time, Wilson said. MeetingPoint was created to spread that message forward.
“This is about uniting Greenville using our commonalities – not our difference,” he said.
About MeetingPoint
MeetingPoint is a United Interfaith Community, drawing together people of goodwill in prayer, study, fellowship and compassionate service. MeetingPoint is a direct outgrowth of Greenville’s Year of Altruism (YOA), which has taken our community to new heights of compassion, civic awareness, and social action. Learn more at www.facebook.com/MeetingPointSC.
