One heck of an interesting fella

His name is Bill Conklin, a member of the congregation in which I serve. He lives up in Washington, DC but for a long time was an active-participant in my parish. An architect by trade, he is also a textile expert who examined and wrote about the finding of Juanita, the mumified remains of a child offered as a sacrifice in the Inca religion. He is also one of the collaborators of the Society of Religion, Arts and Contemporary Culture. The SRACC identifies itself this way,

"The Society's purpose and program are based on the belief that the roles of the arts and religion are decisive. They reflect the struggle to conserve and to recover depth and wholeness, to reaffirm personal responsibility in the face of dehumanization, to define the ground for human freedom and creativity in a culture which tends increasingly to impose impersonal tyrannies over mind and spirit. Religion in isolation from the arts is starved of concrete embodiment of its insights into the fullness of human life. Art gives religion the eyes to see ourselves in all our dimensions, the ears to hear the voice of our inner lives and the instruments with which to communicate with each other."

Okay, so Bill and I had lunch today over at The Mill, a great Korean restaurant on the Upper West side of Manhattan. Afterwards, we went out for coffee at a nearby Starbucks. Seeing how we really didn't know each other, we afforded ourselves with the time to get acquainted. During our conversation, we spoke about faith, religion, and the need to interpret and understand how it is we go about understanding God. I shared with him my moderate views (although some who read this blog may think I am just a big ol' liberal) about God and our relationship with one another (regardless of faith journeys). It was a fun time and Bill volunteered to get me information about the SRACC and Cross Currents, the magazine that highlights the scholarly work of those across religious lines.

I am pretty psyched about meeting Bill and feel blessed to have made his acquaintance. Who knew he'd be someone I could "name-drop" about. ;)