Washington National Cathedral

Cathedral Dean Sam Lloyd and Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism will explore the most pressing justice issues facing the next president on Sunday morning, September 21.

The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith is a weekly program of honest and intellectually probing dialogue about major issues of our time. The 50-minute conversation includes questions from live and online audiences and is held between Sunday morning services, beginning at 10:10 am.

As a church for national purposes, Washington National Cathedral welcomes people of all faiths and none to participate. Dean Lloyd, a leading voice of for generous-spirited Christianity, hosts the weekly Forum and encourages people from across the nation to submit online questions in advance by visiting www.nationalcathedral.org. (Submit your questions for the upcoming Forum guest now »)

Also an attorney, Rabbi Saperstein teaches seminars in First Amendment church-state law and in Jewish law at Georgetown University Law School. He is completing a book about the use and misuse of religion in American elections.

Other scheduled guest and discussion topics for fall 2008 include:

September 28, Animals and Religion: Caring for All of God’s Creatures with Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States. He recently developed a new campaign for the organization, All Creatures Great and Small.

October 5, The State of the Episcopal Church with the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts-Schori, the 26th Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, the first woman ever to hold those offices.

October 12 Anne Rice, The Sunday Forum guest for October 12, has cancelled her speaking engagements for the next several months due to illness. Our guest for that morning’s conversation will be posted on the Sunday Forum page on the website in the near future.

October 19, Acts of Faith: Building the Interfaith Youth Movement with Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international organization building the interfaith youth movement.

October 26, Can We End Homelessness? with Philip Mangano, executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. He was recently named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” and his mission is to coordinate the federal response to homelessness.

November 2, Faith in the White House: The Next Chapter with the Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer, rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, Connecticut, professor of American Religious History at Barnard College and Visiting Professor at Yale Divinity School. He is the author of a dozen books, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America.

November 9, The Big Questions for Science and Religion with the Rev. Prof. Keith Ward, Anglican priest, theologian and philosopher. The author of over 20 books on theology and philosophy, Dr. Ward’s most recent publications are Is Religion Dangerous? and The Big Questions in Science and Religion.

November 16, Making the World Fit for Our Children with Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, a leading advocacy organization on behalf of children and families. She was the first woman admitted to the Mississippi State Bar and served as counsel for the Poor People’s Campaign that Dr. Martin Luther Kind, Jr. began organizing before his death in 1968.

November 23, Creative Aging: The Next Frontier with Dr. Gene Cohen, first director of the Center on Aging, Health & Humanities at George Washington University. He is founding director of a think tank on aging, the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Aging.

November 30, The Global Food Crisis and You with the Rev. Dr. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a nationwide faith-based citizen’s movement against hunger. He also serves as president of the Alliance to End Hunger, which engages diverse religious and secular institutions in building political will to resolve hunger issues.

December 7, Faith and Healthcare with Dr. Timothy Johnson, ABC News medical editor and reporter. He holds joint positions in medicine at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, placing him in the mainstream of the nation’s top medical resources. He is also the founding editor of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter and co-editor of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter Book.

December 14, Faith and Civic Life in America with Tavis Smiley, an internationally renowned broadcaster, author and philanthropist. He is the host of the late-night PBS television show Tavis Smiley and The Tavis Smiley Show distributed by Public Radio International.

December 21, a special Advent program, details to be announced in coming weeks.

SOURCE: Washington National Cathedral