The Kinship Activity: A Time of Transition
As this year approaches its end, we offer a reflection and appreciation of what the Kinship activity has undertaken during the past few years. Rabia Povich led this activity in North America for the Inayatiyya over the past five years with dedication, innovation, positive energy, and grace. In this effort, she benefited from the willing and invaluable assistance of the members of the Kinship Council, whose names appear at the end of this newsletter, as well as many other volunteer participants from our Order and beyond. We express our deep gratitude to all Council members and celebrate the passing of the torch to four friends who will continue the work. Batina Sheets and Shams Kairys, along with Rabia, will be leaving the Council, but they will continue to oversee the Murids Emergency Relief Fund.
At the end of this year, Rabia will pass the leadership to a new generation. Four Kinship Council members agreed to continue to guide Kinship in a shared leadership model. They are Abdul Hakim Oerton (from Australia), Majid David Vowels (from New Zealand), Khatidja Rodriguez-Ruiz (from the US) and Raqib Jonah Yakel (from the US). Additional leadership appointments may come from Pir Zia.
As the Inayatiyya seeks to carry Murshid’s message of wholeness to the world, Pir Zia is emphasizing a more cohesive organization and deepening our sense of unity. Kinship is ready to serve the needs of the day, such as welcoming newcomers, building a sense of community and belonging, and caring for each other and the natural world of which we are a part.
As the editor of this newsletter is among those who are stepping down, this iteration of Kinship Connections will be complete for now. The new leaders of the activity may offer new modes of communication. (The past few years of Kinship Connections are available in the archives of the Kinship website: https://inayatiyyakinship.org.)
Below, we provide a brief recollection of what the Kinship Activity has offered to our Sufi community, and beyond, during the past five years. Many thanks to so many of you for participating and thereby contributing to the vibrancy of Kinship: love expressed in acts of friendship and service. —Zakir Amin Povich, editor
The Kinship Activity’s Work
November 2019 to November 2024
- Developed curriculum for, and hosted a 6-week on-line program of Earth Responders. This involved identifying and working with Inayatiyya teachers/presenters. We curated activities and resources for participants. This Kinship program was built and led with input from Zira’at, Universal Worship, and the Inner School; an inter-Activity program. (2023-2024)
- Earth Responders used Murshid’s 5 stages of Kinship as a lens for our relationship with the natural world to deepen our sense of inter-being, care and concern; and, expand our capacity to hold the suffering and loss, so that we can serve our local communities during this time of ecological crisis.
- Provide monthly meetings for participants in the Earth Responders course (2024-ongoing) in order to maintain connection and provide support as the ecological crisis worsens.
- Supported the design of how to include Ashiqs in the Inayatiyya (2023-2024). Now led by the Inayatiyya International Board, a plan is emerging to orient volunteer “friends” in each area to fill this role of connector. We seek to develop consistency around the world while allowing for cultural diversity.
- Intention: Welcoming those who identify as Ashiqs and helping them navigate Inayatiyya opportunities
- Formed Social Justice Book Group (2022-2024). Fazilee Buechel leads this group, supported by Tarana Jobin and Rabia. Books read included: How to be an Anti-Racist; My Grandmother’s Hands; Do Better; Viral Justice;Until We Reckon; James.
- Building our social justice muscle; examining our unintended role in perpetuation of unjust cultures and attitudes.
- Hosted Black History Month events with Music Activity (2022 – 2024)
- Celebrated Juneteenth (2021)
- Honoring the journey of African Americans; lift up exemplars of justice.
- Hosted Remembering the Sacred Masculine (2023). Led by Raqib Yakel, 7 sessions.
- Attuning to positive male archetypal energies.
- Hosted on-line 21 Day Racial Equity Building Opportunity (fall 2022)
- Increasing understanding of the impact of systemic racism, raising our awareness of our individual biases, cultivating sympathy and understanding for those experiencing oppression.
- Organized a Three-part conversation with Inayatiyya leadership on race and belonging (2021). Designed with Fatima Hafiz-Wahid and Onaje Muid.
- Developing organizational awareness of unconscious bias.
- Facilitated 9-Month Series on Racial Inquiry from the Inside Out (2020-2021)
- Becoming self-aware of presumptive, white-dominant culture, including the impact of “microaggressions”.
- Hosted Monthly Kinship Circles – 8 per year (2021 to 2023). Hosted by members of the Kinship Council. Focused on belonging and our relationship with nature/ the ecological crisis. Held a three-part series on the Ecological Crisis led by Shams Kairys (2020).
- Highlighting exemplars and topics of Kinship (service, friendship, tolerance, understanding); building connections and community
- Launched the Social Gathekas Book study (2021). Led by Jabriel Hasan.
- Deepening our understanding of Murshid’s teachings on service and kinship.
- Sustained the Prison Book Project Supported by Deb Hirabai.
- Serving the incarcerated; lighting a way forward.
- Elevated and supported the Hope Project
- Serving those in need living near the Dargah in Delhi, a legacy project of Pir Vilayat.
- Sustained Murid Emergency Relief Fund (ongoing)
- Serving our community members who are in financial need.
- Produced Quarterly Kinship Newsletters (2021-2024). Focused on service projects, program opportunities, community updates and interviews, including worldwide activities.
- Building awareness of kinship in our community, and beyond.
- Mutual support of Kinship Council Members: Abdul Hakim Oerton, Amir Bisio, Batina Sheets, Khatidja Rodrigues-Ruiz, Jabriel Hasan, Majid Vowels, Nur Azad Mangold, Raqib Yakel, Shams Kairys, Zakir Amin Povich. Some Council members will continue to be active on various projects.
- For consultation and development of leadership.
- Participated in RJEL (Race, Justice, Equity and Love) forums on race and Israel/Palestine (2021). Developed recommendations for Board on programs and next steps.
- Hosted Kinship Teas. This was particularly useful during the COVID era hosted by Shams Kairys and Khatidja Rodriguez-Ruiz. (summer 2021)
- Unstructured opportunities for connection and friendship.
- Helped organize WWMC and ONAMC as part of kinship work. World-Wide Message Council and the Oceania & North America Message Council meetings continue as new leaders get to know and support each other. (2019-2024)
- Supporting connection among activity leaders and clarifying organizational processes. Serving the Pir when asked.
Donations from Kinship events were made to the following organizations: The Hope Project, Doctors Without Borders, the World Central Kitchen, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Richmond Community Hospital.
New Social Justice Book Group
Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
Begins February 3rd, 2025
The Sufi message warns humanity to know life better and to achieve freedom in life; it warns humanity to accomplish what it considers good, just, and desirable, and before every action, to note its consequences by studying the situation, by judging one’s own attitude, by studying beforehand the method which one adopts to act in life. —Social Gathekas, Hazrat Inayat Khan
The North American Oceania Kinship Activity invites you to learn to see from an indigenous perspective in: Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Change the World by Tyson Yunkaporta. As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural and spiritual world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, he raises important questions. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently?
“An astonishing revelation of ancient Aboriginal wisdom as it applies to science and modern times. It’s one of the best books I ever read, and I’ve been reading books for 80 years. There’s nothing like it. It leaves you gasping. If you care about yourself, the world around you, and where you come from, you’d better read it. You won’t put it down.” — Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Dogs and Growing Old
The Social Justice Book Group is dedicated to reading books on issues of antiracism, indigenous rights, immigrant rights and more. The book group will meet every other Monday, 7 – 8:30 p.m. Eastern, for six sessions, starting February 3rd, 2025.
If you are interested in joining us for this book group, please email Fazilee, fazilee@gmail.com. to register. We will begin each session together in meditation. We will then spend time with discussion questions and practices from the book. A Zoom link and reading assignments will be sent to registrants two weeks before the first session. Registration for Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Change the World by Tyson Yunkaporta closes January 20th.
Join Us in Celebrating
Zebunissa Pamela Overeynder’s
New Publication
A New Birth: Sacred Kinship: Hearing the Call of the Earth Has Arrived:
https://www.amazon.com/author/pamelaovereynder
In these most challenging times, we need the medicine of nature. We need refuge. We need solace. We need hope. We need beauty. We need peace. We need living books and nature is a living book. Being in nature is one of the best ways to take care of ourselves and meet these needs.
In the pages of Sacred Kinship, you will find stories and conversations with many beings. You will meet members of our kinship clan. And at the end of each chapter, you will find practices and meditations to support your well-being and deepen the sacred bonds of kinship with all life.
Pamela offers wisdom and nurtures a new way of being to support our growing together through Sacred Kinship.
Paméla Overeynder
Sacred Kinship: Hearing the Call of the Earth
https://www.amazon.com/author/pamelaovereynder
http://www.onesacredearth.com
Blessings and Peace, from Inayatiyya North American Kinship Council: Rabia Povich, Abdul Hakim Oerton, Amir Bisio, Batina Sheets, Khatidja Rodriguez-Ruiz, Majid Vowells, Nur Azad Mangold, Raqib Yakel, Shams Kairys, Jabriel Hasan, Mikail Davenport (of blessed memory), and Zakir Amin Povich.