 |
 |
|
| Publications | ||
|
Summer/Fall 2005 |
|
|
.jpg)
inSpire Interactive
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5
As a chaplain there has been considerable pressure for me to help our institution, Hershey Medical Center, develop the skills to deal with an increasingly diverse population. In 1995 our interfaith chapel was designed with alcoves in three corners of the room for the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions. They were asked to address three things. “What are the key customs or rituals of your tradition to which the hospital staff should be sensitive?” “What beliefs, traditions, and customs surround death?” “Are there any bioethical issues that are very important to your group?” We have covered African American, Hispanic, Jewish, Islamic, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, Amish, Native American, Buddhist, and Wiccan traditions. They were presented and videotaped in one hour Nursing Grand Rounds.
Out of these presentations grew a request from the Native American community to provide the opportunity to perform a smudge ceremony for patients. We had to find an isolated room and a smoke eradicator, to comply with safety standards. It was easier during the summer when this ceremony could be done outdoors.
When an employee dies, we hold a memorial service. Each service is done in the style of that person’s religious tradition. We invite clergy or other employees from that tradition to participate in the service.
We are now entering a phase of trying to help our staff be aware of the assumptions by which they judge others. The dean has appointed a Diversity Task Force to address these issues.
Paul Derrickson (M.Div., 1969)
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Last year on the upper west side of Manhattan, Christians of all flavors, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists, planned and celebrated Thanksgiving worship together. Clergy costumes, music accompanied by guitar, piano, violin, and drum, the singing of the Koran, and the imam’s sermon featuring more talk of Jesus than I’d ever heard in any interfaith service prompted Father Mike to express the feelings of many when he said, months later, “I’m still high from the Thanksgiving service.”
This year’s service was in a synagogue. I’m teaching a well-attended course called “Christianity and Islam— So Much in Common, So Far Apart,” and a rabbi, a Lutheran, a Roman Catholic, and I will embark on our study of Sunday’s text from Isaiah. The kingdom may tarry, but it will surely come.
Leslie Merlin (M.Div., 1976)
New York, New York
During the summer, our church planned a five-year education series on Islam. We were prompted by a curriculum developed by The Christian Century to open our discussion with things that we felt sure we knew, or facts about Islam, its faith, doctrines, practices, etc. We also named those questions about the religion that linger in the back of our minds, even those things that we fear out of misunderstanding and distrust. Through our own conversation and also dialogue with someone from a local mosque, we found that there was common ground to foster deeper understanding, respect, and trust.
John Gulden (M.Div., 2003)
Louisville, Kentucky
For almost 30 years now, our East End clergy association has sponsored an interfaith Thanksgiving service in November. Regular participants include not only two Presbyterian churches, three Jewish congregations, and a Roman Catholic and Episcopal parish, but also leaders from the local Islamic center, Baha’i faith, and Hindu temple. Speakers have come from politics, academia, social service organizations, and religious coalitions. What’s remarkable is the considerable common ground we find, especially in the midst of national and international trials. It’s been a grand occasion to thank God for blessings received and to pray God’s guidance for our continuing work together.
Trip Torbert (M.Div., 1987)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The whole Henderson family, Bob (’88), Susan Watts (’90), and our three children, spent a month at Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem where Suzanne was a Scholar-in-Residence. While there, our children Abbie, Will, and Hannah attended a Palestinian day camp sponsored by International Bethlehem Center for at-risk Muslim and Christian children in the West Bank. In addition to making friendships with Christians across the world at Tantur, we forged friendships with Palestinians behind the wall in the West Bank by sharing meals, visiting homes, and coming to understand the circumstances of their lives. Their hospitality was extraordinary, and we were deeply blessed by gaining better insight into the oppression of the Palestinian people.
Bob Henderson (M.Div., 1988)
Greensboro, North Carolina
I am the cofounder and treasurer of the Rochester Area Interfaith Hospitality Network (RAIHN) in Rochester, New York. RAIHN is a 34-congregation network of Christians, Jews, and Muslims who shelter homeless families in congregational facilities and provide professional case management to help the families become self-sufficient. In the last 12 months, RAIHN has so assisted 188 persons. The pastor of one of the member congregations is Bruce Boak, M.Div., 1971.
Roderic Frohman (M.Div., 1971)
Rochester, New York
In my work as a pastor at the University Congregational United Church of Christ in Seattle, I have found a new ministry in interfaith work with Rabbi Ted Falcon of Bet Alef Meditational Synagogue and Jamal Rahman, a Muslim Sufi and scholar of the Qur’an.
We have initiated interfaith worship services quarterly to help acquaint people with the substance of the monotheistic traditions. We are writing a book together and recently we returned from a two-week interfaith trip to Israel and Palestine.
Our goal is to deepen understandings so that cooperation can happen on the important social issues of our time.
Don Mackenzie (M.Div., 1970)
Seattle, Washington
Suburban ministry provides ample opportunity for interfaith dialogue. An Islamic mosque is being constructed not far from our church. Further away, another mosque, a Catholic parish, and a Hindu temple sit nearly side by side. The presence of different traditions provides frequent opportunities for dialogue, including a visit by our youth to the home of a Jewish family during Succoth, an Islamic/Presbyterian wedding, and a ceremonial Passover Seder. During our Seder, the rabbi conducting the service quipped that our non-Kosher potluck feast was the best Passover meal she had ever eaten!
Chris Keating, (M.Div., 1987)
Wildwood, Missouri
Because of my background in ecumenical and crisis ministry as a recently retired Navy chaplain, I was asked to coordinate church volunteers and religious support at the Katrina evacuee shelter in Alton, Illinois, that housed 176 evacuees. I established simple written policies for access and cooperation and invited all interested faith groups to participate. Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Christian Science, Muslim, and Buddhist groups responded and collaborated in a positive manner to support the total needs of evacuees in the four months the shelter operated.
Bob Phillips (Th.M., 1975; D.Min., 1988)
Alton, Illinois
“Women’s Sanctuary— Worship for Women” is a contemplative, Taize-style worship service and dinner for women I founded in 2003. We regularly experience interfaith gatherings in our services that have included identified Buddhist, Jewish, New Thought, and Christian women of faith. A different group of women plan and lead the services each time. Together the women create liturgy and rituals that are inclusive of the variety of faith traditions represented, as well as substantive of women’s lives and stories. Recently we participated in “One-World, One Cloth,” a international art project that is creating seven world cloths woven from threads sent in from around the world.
Monica McDowell Elvig (M.Div., 1994)
Seattle, Washington
Oasis Ministries’ staff, board, and spiritual direction programs represent a wide range of faith traditions— mainstream (Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Lutheran, etc.), Christian Methodist Episcopal, Quaker, independent evangelical, Anabaptist (Mennonite, Brethren, etc.). They sit side by side with Catholic, Southern Baptist, Unity, Unitarian, and, sometimes, Jewish participants. What makes it work is our vision statement: Drawing from the Well of Christ, Contemplatively, Actively.
Participants’ experiences are part of the “curriculum” that includes staff presentations, readings, and prayer forms from Christian viewpoints, with reference to other traditions. My book, What Would I Believe if I Didn’t Believe Anything? A Handbook for Spiritual Orphans is a tool for interfaith spiritual direction, dialogue, and prayer.
Kent Ira Groff (M.Div., 1967)
Camp Hill, Pennsylvania
While I was Cleveland district associate for nine years, one part of my portfolio was ecumenical/interfaith relations. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with the other judicatory heads and comparing notes about how we each did clergy appointments, church troubleshooting, congregational development, missions, theology, etc. We learned a lot from one another. I was often the United Methodist representative to various gatherings, including helping plan the 50th anniversary celebration of the National Council of Churches (NCC). I hadn’t realized that the NCC started in Cleveland.
Then as I moved on to pastor the Huron United Methodist Church along Lake Erie’s coastline close to Cedar Point, I brought those experiences to bear by taking my confirmation class to the Sandusky Synagogue for Friday night Shabbat services, youth mass at the St. Peter’s Catholic Church, and Ramadan dinner at the Cleveland mosque. I led a Seder meal on Maundy Thursday for the congregation. Our ministerial association meets monthly for lunch and has a major unifying influence upon the community as we conduct activities and services together annually and model a cooperative, understanding spirit.
Concurrently, our bishop has recently appointed me chairperson of the East Ohio Commission on Christian Unity and Inter-Religious Concerns (COUIC). As such, I attend national gatherings and relate to the Ohio Council of Churches.
Actually, this all comes full circle. Growing up in Nashville with several Jewish neighborhood friends and living in Hodge Hall at Princeton Seminary among many international students and others from a broad range of faith traditions all gave me an appreciation for listening and learning. Little did I know that the recent political and religious controversies would make such an approach so vital to the national and world scene.
J. Roger Skelley-Watts (M.Div., 1974)
Vermillion, Ohio
As Headmaster of Miami Valley Christian Academy in Cincinnati, I serve a school that represents 93 different churches within this community. My professional experience is that working within the framework of the wide range of theological views in Christ’s community is very similar to the dialogue that takes place between members of the interfaith community. Whether we are serving non-believers on our mission trips, or believers on very different ends of a theological spectrum, the opportunity to share Christ’s love is there every day! PTS uniquely prepared me for this and I am most grateful.
Gary Sallquist (M.Div., 1993)
Cincinnati, Ohio
First Presbyterian Church of Wichita, Kansas, is the first religious organization established in Wichita, dating to March 13, 1870, the year of Wichita’s founding. The first federation of churches, initiated by First Presbyterians, was chartered Thanksgiving Day, 1885. Jewish participation began in 1932. Though known for some years as the Council of Churches and Synagogues, the name of the organization became Inter-Faith Ministries (IFM) in 1975, including thereafter the Muslim community (First Presbyterian contributed to the building fund for a mosque in 2001). IFM is in dialogue with the Mid-American Native American Center in Wichita. When Pope John Paul II called for an interfaith conference for world religious leaders in Assisi in 1986, Wichita hosted in 1988 the North American Assisi. Three hundred and fifty attended from diverse faith communities. This conference resulted in the formation of the North American Interfaith Network. Interfaith dialogue in Wichita is synonymous with First Presbyterian Church.
Robert Philip Hoover (M.Div., 1964)
Youngstown, Ohio
First Presbyterian Church of Rutherford has shared several events with our Turkish Muslim neighbors that the Interfaith Dialogue Center’s staff, Levant Koc, and I have led. During a presentation at the center about the meaning of Christmas, we decided to focus on some things we have in common, but to do them differently. In September we had a music program in the church’s chapel; the choir sang selections from the church year and invited the community to sing along. About 150 people joined in singing, listening to a Turkish instrumental group, and the sung call to prayer, and shared lunch.
Barbara Lucia (M.Div., 1984)
Rutherford, New Jersey
As pastor of St. Peter’s United Church of Christ in Skokie, Illinois, I participate in the annual Thanksgiving Eve Community interfaith worship service. It’s organized by our Niles Township Clergy Forum, and the site rotates each year between Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish houses of worship. Since 2001 we have included Hindu, Buddhist, Baha’i, Muslim, and Sikh faiths in the service. There are homilies, prayers, Scriptures, and a processional where writings or symbols of the faiths are brought in. Also, after the release of The Passion of the Christ, Jewish and Christian folk gathered to discuss the movie, also organized by the forum.
Richard A. Lanford (M.Div., 1984)
Chicago, Illinois
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church (FAPC) has been involved in interfaith dialogue and worship for many years, mostly through two wonderful groupings of clergy. A Partnership of Faith in New York City and The Mid-Town Senior Clergy. In recent years, these relationships have grown and spread and are beginning to reach not only our clergy, but also our congregations.
FAPC has participated in an annual interfaith Thanksgiving Eve Service led by the Mid-town Senior clergy (Episcopal, Jewish, Lutheran, Methodist, Muslim, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic) for more than seven years.
On December 8, 1998, Central Synagogue hosted a service of appreciation in the FAPC Sanctuary to thank the New York City Mayor, police, firefighters, and several neighboring houses of worship for support following a devastating fire.
In December 1998 members of Central Synagogue began volunteering to deliver meals to our shut-ins on Christmas Day.
On Thursday, September 13, 2001, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church hosted “A Partnership of Faith’s Interfaith Service of Prayer and Reflection in Time of Peril” (again, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim clergy), complete with a statement of “Together As One,” in less than 48 hours during a time of crisis.
From June 2003 through June 2004, FAPC worshiped in Central Synagogue during a major building project that involved closing our sanctuary and church house. During that year we included seminars by the Central Synagogue rabbis in our education programs and participated in programs of interfaith dialogue between our senior pastor, their senior rabbi, and a Roman Catholic priest.
We have continued to offer education classes in conjunction with Central Synagogue, co-led by pastors and rabbis.
Our ushers and greeters have partnered with those of Central Synagogue for both the Jewish High Holidays and our extra services at Christmas and Easter.
The relationships begun by the senior clergy of Manhattan have spread to our associate clergy, lay leaders, and congregation. And this still feels like just a beginning. May God continue to bless both our ministry in the name of Christ and our relationship with all of our neighbors.
Randolph L.C. Weber (M.Div., 1982)
New York, New York
The town square in Falfurrias, Texas, rang with hymns on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The crowd sang with Presbyterian reserve, Baptist enthusiasm, and Pentecostal demonstrativeness. It was the first time that churches in this small ranch-country town had ever cancelled their regular Sunday services to join together in a community Thanksgiving service.
The Brush Country Ministerial Association was formed in the kitchen of the local Presbyterian Church in September, and this was its first public event. The Love and Mercy Mission was officially opened that day, to provide food, clothing, and a little coffee shop for all who need its services. Brooks County is one of the poorest counties in the state, with more than 50 percent of the people living under the poverty level, most of them of Hispanic descent.
Ernest Williams (M.Div., 1965)
Falfurrias, Texas
As a Presbyterian associate pastor working under a Southern Baptist senior pastor in a union church in Tokyo, Japan, I recently had the opportunity to attend the seventh international Buddhist-Christian conference in Los Angeles at Loyola-Marymount University. The theme was “Hearing the Cries of the World,” and more than one hundred Buddhists and Christians from around the world were in attendance. The conference found a nice balance between the presentation of academic papers, panels and discussions, and interactive experiences. I participated in Theravada walking meditation, Zazen, and Catholic mass, and heard panels on a variety of topics, comparing Tillich with Buddhist philosophers, for example. We visited the largest Buddhist temple in the Western hemisphere, heard from Japanese-American Buddhist priests and Protestant pastors who had been interned during World War II, and worshipped together in an interfaith service in the Los Angeles Cathedral. Protestants in general, and Presbyterian clergy in particular, were not well represented among the participants. I hope more will have the opportunity to participate in the future in such a richly rewarding experience.
Craig Hunter (M.Div., 2000)
St. Augustine, Florida
In the spring of 2002, just seven months after the horrific events of 9/11, I was privileged to travel to the Kingdom of Jordan along with a group of clergy. I was more than a little apprehensive, wondering whether we would be safe and whether we would be welcomed warmly or shunned.
Near the end of our trip we spent a day in Aqaba, Jordan’s seaport on the Red Sea, which is very close to the border of Israel. After breakfast, I had some spare time, so I set off on foot in the direction of the border to see what I could see. I’d only gone a short distance when a military guard holding a rifle stopped me and said, “You can’t go any farther!”
“I’m looking for the border,” I said, “I haven’t come to it yet, have I?”
“No,” said the guard. “If you want to go toward the border, you have to go that way, but you can’t come any closer this way.”
An older man emerged from the guard house, shook my hand, and said, ”Where are you from?”
“The United States,” I replied “and where are you from?”
“I’m from Palestine,” he replied. “My family was forced off our land in 1967 and we have lived here in Jordan ever since.”
He was not the first Palestinian I met, since somewhere between one half and three quarters of a million Palestinians have sought refuge in Jordan. “What do the people of Palestine think of the people of the United States?” I asked.
“We love the people of the United States,” he said, “but we disagree with your government’s policy toward Israel and Palestine. By the way, may we offer you a cup of tea?”
“I would be honored,” I said, and a moment later the old man produced three cups of tea, one for himself, one for the Jordanian soldier with rifle in hand, and one for this Christian minister from Fairfax, Virginia. As we sipped the sweet tea, we spoke about the violence in nearby Palestine as well as terrorism across the world, and wished that things were somehow different. As I finished my tea and needed to say goodbye, I asked, “If you’re not at the border of Israel, what are you guarding?”
“This is the summer home of King Hussein’s sister,” said the guard with a smile, “but don’t tell anyone, OK?”
As I walked back to the hotel, I marveled at Middle Eastern hospitality where even strangers can become friends, sipping sweet tea and sharing in cordial cross-cultural conversation.Al Butzer (M.Div., 1980; Th.M., 1985)
Fairfax, Virginia
Last year, our family took an unusual sabbatical year in Granada, Spain. In order to finance the year away, we sold our home, and used the equity to live in a 900 year old village and attend Spanish immersion classes every day. Although I wasn’t serving a church, Brice and Phyllis Little, regional liaisons for Spain, Portugal, and Gibralter, arranged key contacts with the Andalusia Presbytery and kept in close contact with me during our time in Spain. I had the great privilege of becoming an associate member of Andalusian Presbytery, and cherish my friendship with the pastor of the Granada congregation. Protestant churches have a difficult journey in Spain. Memories of the civil war are still raw. One friend had two uncles that were killed because they attended a Protestant Church, and funding for the churches is scarce. The pastor had no heat last winter, the congregation couldn’t afford to pay the bill. And yet, the presbytery is a beacon of teaching tolerance and supporting Muslim refugees.
Jeanie Shaw (M.Div., 1983)
Sacramento, California
| |