Compassion, Spiritual Teachings and Their Challenging Practices: A Free Community Conversation

Join us at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, March 13th, at Brooks Memorial Library, for the first of a series of FREE, open panel discussions designed to highlight the compassion issues in our town, responses to date, and priority needs to be addressed. This week’s discussion is: Compassion, Spiritual Teachings and Their Challenging Practices. Speakers will include: Yasmeen Chaudhri (Islam), Dek Fromer (Baha’i), Duncan Hilton (Christianity), Kate Judd (Judaism), moderated by Rev. Scott Couper, Minister of Centre Church.

This discussion is open to the public, and is completely wheelchair accessible, and has been organized by Brattleboro Area Interfaith Leadership Association.

Presenters, representing major faith traditions will be:

Baha’i – Dek Fromer has been an active practitioner of the Baha’i faith (which has no professional clergy) and a follower of Baha’u’llah for many years and is presently living in Brattleboro.

Buddhism – Rae Houseman is the Interim Guiding teacher at the Vermont Insight Meditation Center. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders Program and holds an M.A. in Somatic Psychology. Rae has worked extensively with the Mahasi method and with Sayadaw U Tejaniya, and leads workshops integrating somatic awareness and Insight Meditation. She is also the Manager of the Coaching Team for the app 10% Happier and a mentor for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certificate Program through Sounds True.

Christianity – Duncan Hilton is the Minister of Discernment and Discipleship at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. He earlier served in Boston   with the Leadership Development Initiative (LDI), where he trained Episcopal parishes and Episcopal Service Corps young adults in team-based leadership practices.

Islam – Yasmeen Chaudhri, a wisdom figure in Abrahamic communities in Windham County over the past 45 years, was born in Pakistan, received an MS. degree from Antioch College, and has taught in this Windham County, in New York City and in Pakistan.

Judaism – Kate Judd has served as Cantor and Spiritual Leader of the Brattleboro Area Jewish Community since 2012. She received her Masters in Jewish Education from Hebrew College, has taught voice and the Alexander Technique since 1991 and has performed extensively in New England as a classical singer.

The moderator will be Rev. Scott Couper, Minister of Centre Church.The program will seek to elicit primary compassion teachings from these spiritual traditions, to understand compassionate undertakings presently underway locally within these traditions, focus on the panhandling issue and elicit views on compassion-related priorities in the Brattleboro area.

Further Community Conversations on Compassion will take place in the library on March 27 and on the second and fourth Wednesdays of April and May, all at 6:30 PM.
The programs are designed to be highly interactive with community members, and hope to attract persons representing a broad array of backgrounds.
BCTV will be filming the series.
For further information, contact:Jim Levinson: james.levinson@gmail.com    802 254 2652Scott Couper: centrepastor@centrechurchvt.org

The mission of Compassionate Brattleboro, is to raise community awareness about the meaning of compassion in our lives, and ways in which compassion can influence the town’s government, the organizations and institutions within the town, and—most important—among the town’s citizens in our daily lives and interactions with others.