UCI Forum Focuses on Diversity of Faiths

It was the kind of place where an atheist-leaning agnostic like Stephen Maranzano could confront a devout Bahai like Ray Zimmerman, with neither coming away bloody.

Indeed, through discussing their views, both said, they ended up with a better understanding of one another, epitomizing the aim of the event at which they met: the fourth annual Religious Diversity Faire.

“There are so many different views on things, but I am somewhat agnostic, so to me it’s all academic,” said Maranzano, 44, of Irvine.

Zimmerman, 35, of Tustin said he appreciated Maranzano’s and others’ “willingness to hear and listen and to respect. This program is the most important spiritual event in Orange County all year, in my opinion.”

All around them in the UC Irvine student center, where the event took place, discussions of “common ground,” “mutual understanding,” and “respectful discovery” filled the air at an all-day forum covering 13 faiths.

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Organizers said it drew nearly 500 people who attended workshops on such diverse topics as “Afterlife in the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Bridge,” “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Christian Science and Never Dared to Ask,” “Suffering: Its Pain and Its Gift,” “Is Death an End or a Beginning?” and “There Is No Such Thing as an Accident: A Kabbalistic Viewpoint on Health, Death, Birth and Rebirth.”

“A lot of this is for people for the first time to be in so much diversity without violence,” said Kay Lindahl, spokeswoman for the event, which was sponsored by UCI’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, the National Conference and the Alliance for a Spiritual Community.

People selling books and religious materials shared space along the hallways with tables for religious groups.

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Jan Roberts Steury, a trustee at Orange Coast Unitarian-Universalist Church in Costa Mesa, explained her faith to passersby, many of whom did not realize the religion’s roots go back more than 200 years. She described her church as “very liberal in conservative Orange County,” even accommodating a group of pagans who hew to the Unitarian-Universalist faith while expanding their spirituality.

The Rev. Robert Jordan Ross, Orange Coast’s minister, who offered a workshop on his faith, said he “picked up bits and pieces” about other religions at the fair.

“It’s like more color coming into the picture,” he said.

Toward day’s end, keynote speaker Rev. Malcolm Boyd, a writer and poet at the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Los Angeles and author of the best-seller “Are You Running With Me, Jesus?” spiced humor with frank words of wisdom that seemed to sum up the day.

“Since no one is an island, quit acting like one,” he said to growing applause. “Reach out to one another.”