Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

On April 28, 2003 the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that "the 40-year-old abbot of the Thai Buddhist temple in nearby Palm Springs [FL] merrily confessed to having a great time Sunday as he and five other monks from Florida led a New Year's celebration to mark the start two weeks ago of the year 2546 in the Buddhist calendar... The Songkran festival drew about 300 people, most of them Thai, to a picnic shelter in Lake Worth's John Prince Park, where the resonant chanting of the monks was followed by an exhibition of...

Source: The New York Times

Source: The San Diego Union Tribune

On April 26, 2003 The San Diego Union Tribune reported that "Thailand's most celebrated festival will have a return engagement [in Escondido, CA] this weekend. For the 13th year, the city will be host for the annual Songkran Festival... Songkran signals the beginning of the traditional Thai New Year... 'We call it a family day, like Thanksgiving for you guys,' said Ven Boonlue Khlongponggat, a Buddhist monk at the Thai Buddhist Temple... ' Water, which is believed to wash away bad luck and nourish a fresh start, plays a...

Source: The News-Times

http ://w ww.newstimes.com/cgi-bin/dbs.cgi?&db=news&view_records=1&id=49380&email=1

On April 25, 2003 The News-Times reported that "on Sunday at 7 p.m. at St. Gregory the Great Roman Catholic Church [in CT], the interfaith community will remember the Holocaust... and its meaning to all of humanity... The event, which will include a talk by United Jewish Center congregant and Holocaust survivor William Kaiser, is being sponsored by St. Gregory’s, the UJC, First Congregational Church,...

Source: Daily Press

On April 25, 2003 Daily Press reported that "Samuel Glasscock, who has been a Methodist since childhood, began working on the brown and white... [replica of a Buddhist temple], made mostly from wood, about a year ago. He expects it to take another year. When it's done, it will rise about 16 feet. That's not counting the copper finial... The project caps the veteran attorney's longtime fascination with the beauty of Buddhist architecture. Yet, he says, it is more than an effort to bring home the exotic. It is his own quiet monument to...

Source: Visalia Times-Delta

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/news/stories/20030421/localnews/157504.html

On April 21, 2003 the Visalia Times-Delta reported that "to remember and celebrate Lao culture, hundreds of Laotians from throughout the [CA] state, including Khounpaseuth, made their way to the Lao Buddhist Temple in Visalia Saturday to celebrate the Lao New Year... The New Year is considered the most important annual celebration for the Lao...

Source: The Denver Post

On April 20, 2003 The Denver Post printed an editorial by Judith Simmer-Brown stating that "the word 'hope' isn't used much in the Buddhist tradition, but the words peace and joy are used a lot. We believe that only by looking into the heart of suffering can one find peace and joy... In the most difficult environment, we can also find the most precious qualities. I'm confident in our ability to transform the real circumstances by working with the mind... The more enraged or despairing we are about war, the more we contribute to...

Source: Star Tribune

On April 20, 2003 the Star Tribune reported on "the Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center -- a plain, handsome room above a jewelry store on the main street in town... There, about two dozen people gather every Sunday to meditate, to reflect on the direction of their life, to focus on injustice in the world and to be silent, peaceful. They sit or kneel on black cushions in a stark white room... Two private colleges in this town of 17,000 people, about 45 minutes south of the Twin Cities...

Source: The Honolulu Advertiser

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Apr/19/il/il11afaith.html

On April 19, 2003 The Honolulu Advertiser reported on the Sun Mission in Hawaii... "The [Buddhist] sect is related to the Tendai sect of Mount Hiei, Kyoto, Japan... 'By making pure heart, we can become one with everyone and the universe. Together we can pray to change humanity thereby creating peace on this earth...' [Bishop] Lorraine Yamauchi...

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

On April 18, 2003 The Columbus Dispatch reported that "last weekend, members of a small East Side congregation blended Jewish and Christian practices into a Holy Week/Passover worship ceremony that ended with a feast -- a springtime tradition of both faiths... The Church of God and Saints of Christ began with evening worship on Palm Sunday, followed by a Passover Seder, or festive meal... Celebrations in many other faiths are festivals rich in food, but not just at springtime... Bahais hold communal meetings every 19 days....

Source: River City News

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/041903/neR_12306879.shtml

On April 18, 2003 the River City News reported that "the Wat Khanteyaram [in FL] celebrated the Cambodian New Year last weekend with chanting, dancing, blessings and messy fun... Stephanie Galloway, a World Religions teacher at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, gives her students the opportunity to take part in the celebration for class credit....

Source: News Observer

http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2443400p-2272463c.html

On April 16, 2003 the News Observer printed an interview with Warren A. Nord, director of the humanities program at UNC-Chapel Hill, relative to U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige's recent remarks. Nord stated, "it's extremely important to get into a discussion of Christian values. But people are worried that Christian values will be taught in a privileged way. Many of the values...

Source: Democrat and Chronicle

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0416story4_news.shtml

On April 16, 2003 the Democrat and Chronicle reported that "sprinkled among Rochester’s [NY] numerous Christian churches and Jewish synagogues are signs of Rochester’s growing religious diversity -- Tibetan, Laotian and Vietnamese Buddhist temples, a Sikh Gurdwara and a handful of botanicas, or shops, catering to, among others, followers of voodoo and...

Source: The Sheboygan Press

http://www.wisinfo.com/sheboyganpress/news/archive/feat_9727167.shtml

On April 11, 2003 The Sheboygan Press reported that "Bright Dawn Home, a new Buddhist retreat center near Plymouth, [Wisconsin] is opening its doors to the community with an activity-filled open house Saturday, April 26... The center is the realization of a dream for Chicago resident Richard Brandon. Raised Christian but later becoming Unitarian, he was...

Source: The Times-Picayune

On April 10, 2003 The Times-Picayune reported that "members of First Unitarian Universalist Church are celebrating their congregation's 170th year in New Orleans as a small bastion of spiritual liberalism embedded in conservative New Orleans... Continuing a recent tradition, members of the congregation of 100 or so ended a regular Sunday service March 23 by laying a wreath on the grave of the Rev. Theodore Clapp, a robust, colorful figure who in 1833 founded what would become First Unitarian Universalist after being expelled as a...