A funny thing has happened, I have noticed, to Christians in the Long Island Multi-Faith Forum: the more time they spend with Buddhists and Brahma Kumaris, the more comfortable they are saying "I am a Christian" and the better they are about explaining their beliefs to non-Christians.
Some Christians are worried that interfaith cooperation can lead to an unconscious blending and watering down of important beliefs, that we may fail to proclaim the Good News for fear of giving offense to Jews, Muslims, and others. I think this actually is a reasonable concern--all differences tend to get mushed together in the modern world, including the core teachings of our faith--but just the opposite often happens. In dialogue with Jews and Muslims, for example, Christians often discover exactly why they believe Jesus is more than a teacher and more than a prophet.
In much the same way, we often learn through ecumenical work (inter-denominational cooperation) the profound reasons for Christian practices which may have seemed to be only empty rituals. Earlier this month, for example, Church Women United encouraged its members to observe World Day of Prayer by making the sign of the cross, as do Romanian Orthodox Christians, explaining that they join together the thumb, index, and middle fingers of the right hand to signify that God is One in Three Persons in the Trinity and touch the other two fingers to their palms to symbolize the way in which Jesus is both human and divine. In making a cross by touching the head, breast, right shoulder, and left shoulder, Orthodox Christians (and Catholics and others) dedicate mind, heart, body and soul to serve God. Having heard this, and done it myself a dozen times with the women in Wantagh, I don't think I will ever again see this as a custom devoid of meaning.
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks people across Long Island and around the nation came together suddenly, spontaneously to pray, to comfort one another, and to draw strength from God. In a few cases, clergy who helped lead ecumenical or interfaith gatherings were criticized by members of their flocks, as if God were offended by a Lutheran worshiping with a Catholic or a Christian praying with a Muslim. Most Christians, though, had more sense than that: they saw the impulse to hold hands across divisions of faith and race, to light a candle and bow our heads, to be a very good one. Some of them remembered that the church rejected as heresy the notion that Jews, Christians, and Muslims do not worship the same God.
Certainly we should take care that we do not distort our own faith or that of others when we come together as diverse Christians, or as Christians and non-Christians--and that is why the LICC is focusing on this very issue of how we should pray together across religious differences at our annual meeting April 11. I cannot imagine that my rabbi I follow, whom the Gospels report healing the daughter of a Roman pagan and arguing theology with Syro-Phoenician and Samaritan women, would have hesitated to pray with Bahais or Sikhs.
Shalom/Salaam/Shanti/Pax,
Tom Goodhue
The Long Island Council of Churches, the region's largest ecumenical and interfaith organization, invites all to its Easter dawn worship service at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 31, at Jones Beach. "The Council organizes this event each year so that those who do not have a sunrise service in their own church or an interdenominational one in their community can gather with diverse Christians to celebrate Easter," explains the Rev. Thomas W. Goodhue, Executive Director of the LICC. "For all of us who love the water, there is also something special about celebrating the new life promised by the Resurrection as the sun comes up over the sea."
This year's preacher will be the Rev. Lloyd "Sandy" Van Norden, pastor of the East Meadow United Methodist Church, and a member of the LICC's Western Area Steering Committee. The Rev. Mark Lukens, pastor of Bethany Congregational Church in East Rockaway, and chair of the committee, will offer prayers, along with Major Carol Ditmer, who leads the Salvation Army in Hempstead with her husband Stephen. Goodhue will tell an Easter story, for both children and adults, from his most recent book "Sharing the Good News with Children," published by the Franciscans (St. Anthony Messenger Press).
The service will be held at Parking Field 6, near the East Bath House at Jones Beach State Park. It will be fairly brief and is quite informal. A free-will offering will be received to support the work of the LICC. Worshipers are encouraged to dress warmly and to bring a beach chair or blanket.
This inspiring tale of death and oppression, youthful courage and a nation's resurrection, premieres Easter Sunday, March 31, at 10 p.m. on WNET/13 and other public television stations. It chronicles the rise of a peaceful army which waged non-violent war against Slobodan Milosevic, "the butcher of the Balkans" whose regime was one of the bloodiest of the 20th century. 78 days of NATO bombing dislodged his Serbian army from Kossovo, at a cost of $3 billion and many lives, but actually strengthened his grip on power. What really threatened his reign, it turned out, was the soul-force of a dozen college students.
"Bringing Down a Dictator" is introduced and narrated by Martin Sheen, a devout Christian and faithful member of the peace group Pax Christi, someone who has gone to jail himself in pursuit of peaceful change. Sheen's narration is as exceptional as is his acting in the "The West Wing," the best drama on television. We never heard about the war between Optor ("Resistance") and the dictator, Sheen points out, and the media treated his fall as a one-day wonder, never covering the two years of faithful work which brought it about. The American media neglected this important story, even though the U.S. State Department came to support the resistance movement, which was coached by a retired U.S. Army colonel.
Launched in 1998 after the Kossovo war, Optor was made up almost entirely of students. Its goals was to remove Milosevic through the ballot box--even though he controlled the elections. With humor, rock music, ridicule of the former-communist elite, and sympathy for the police who enforced despotic rule, students showed wisdom far beyond their years. On the Eastern Orthodox Church's New Year's Eve, for example, these 18-to-20-year-olds gathered a huge crowd with a free rock concert and then showed a film about Milosevic's victims. They wisely refused to align themselves with any political party, and eventually embarrassed their nation's 18 tiny, timid opposition parties into uniting behind a single candidate for President.
Like the prophets of Israel, Optor declared victory before their enemies knew their was a conflict, flooding the countryside with millions of flyers and stickers which proclaimed simply: "He's finished." Like early Christians, members of Optor expected to suffer and were prepared for arrest, using persecution to build sympathy for their movement. Optor turned humor on their tormentors, blanketing the headquarters of the corrupt Electoral Commission in toilet paper and baking a cake for the dictator's birthday which fell apart the way his country was. When he tried to prevent Parliament from meeting, claiming the building was infested with mosquitos, crowds marched there with cans of insecticide. Students, farmers, miners, and taxi drivers finally forced a tyrant to concede his defeat at the polls. Last April Fool's Day, Milosevic was arrested. This February, his trial by the International Criminal Tribunal began in The Hague. Optor has already inspired peaceful resistance movements in Belarus and Iran. If we want to defeat terrorism, Martin Sheen insists, we will have to learn to use the tools of nonviolence to bring down dictatorships which breed terrorists.
Rabbi Ronald Androphy, President of the Long Island Board of Rabbis, Bishop David Benke of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Msgr. Donald Beckmann, ecumenical & interfaith officer for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, the Rev. Charles Coverdale, pastor of 1st Baptist Church in Riverhead, the Rev. Hope Koski, pasto rof St. Lawrence of Canterbury Episcopal Church, and the Rev. Reggie Tuggle, pastor of Memorial Presbyterian Church in Roosevelt will explore issues surrounding interdenominational and interfaith worship at the LICC Annual Meeting on Thursday, April 11, at Temple Beth David in Commack, from 11:30 to 2:00.
One of the good things to emerge out of the Sept. 11 tragedy has been a wave of prayer vigils which were ecumenical (involving several denominations) and/or interfaith (several religions) and a renewed interest in joint worship services celebrating Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King's birthday, and such. Many local clergy associations have proved their worth by gathering people to pray, comfort one another, and unite us across lines of race and religion. As the members of our new Mid-Island Steering Committee have noticed, though, we are often joining in hastily-planned services where not everyone is entirely comfortable. Even some long-established clergy associations have not had full and frank discussion of how they want to pray or worship together. Each of us had seen of interfaith worship done with grace and sensitivity and others which increased tensions between those whom the organizers had hoped to unite. Bringing together people of different backgrounds and distinctly differing worshi At the LICC Annual Meeting, panelists will explore questions surfaced by the LICC Board and the Mid-Island Committee, such as:
Aids Interfaith Long Island, an interrelitious organization which the LICC helped form, will hold its fifth annual conference for clergy and lay leaders of Long Island's faith communities on Thursday, April 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The keynote speaker will be the Rev. Calvin Butts, President of SUNY at Old Westbury and pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Manhattan. Tom Goodhue will be moderating one of the panels. The cost is $25, which includes both breakfast and lunch, and scholarships are available for clergy. For info or scholarships, call Barbara Strongin at 516-496-7550.
Many of the people who come to the Long Island Council of Churches for help have been exploited by loan sharks, check-cashing places, and abusive lenders. At our Social Services offices in Hempstead and Riverhead we regularly end up trying to help those who are already in deep financial trouble, often because they have been victimized by predatory lending. The LICC is launching a new program to help prevent these tragedies and to help parishioners get a fair deal from banks and other financial institutions. The Rev. Marvin Dozier and Unity Baptist Church in Mattituck will host the first of these presentations on Thursday, April 25, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Unity Baptist is located on Factory Avenue, just north of Route 25, in Mattituck. All are invited to this free seminar, which will cover
Each such presentation will be tailored to the needs of the host congregation and its community. The LICC will arrange speakers, publicity, educational materials, free credit checks for those who come, and other freebies. Thanks to the generous support of Greepoint Savings Bank, Astoria Federal Savings & Loan, Citibank, and the Dime Savings Bank/Washington Mutual. All you need to supply is the location and refreshments. If you would like your congregation to host a presentation, call Tom Goodhue at 516-565-0290, send a fax (516-565-0291) or e-mail licchemp@aol.com.
Our Executive Director recently noticed that after the children's sermon at the Community Church of East Williston, fathers took the kids to Sunday School or child-care. I don't know that this is always the case there--but it is a great idea. Not only does it honor the dads who come to worship, something which is more than a little counter-cultural for men, it also helps teachers to meet the fathers and helps young children with separation anxiety say good-bye to their mothers for an hour or so. In addition, it helps fidgety guys--who are more numerous than their female counterparts--to have permission to get up a move around in the middle of worship.
One of the ways in which ecumenical and interfaith relationships have blessed Christians is to reconnect us with our forgotten traditions of contemplative prayer and creation-centered spirituality:
"I was talking to a non-Christian about her religion. She sheepishly admitted that she doesn't go to church anymore and added that she meditates. Asked about her practice, she described a Buddhist-like meditation to nature-sound music done in the quiet of her home. She said all of this in a hushed conspiratorial tone, as if confessing a broken rule to a parent. (Ministers get used to hearing this tone of voice.) When she finished, I said, `That sounds like a good spiritual practice. We have a prayer and meditation group at our church that is very similar.'
She was shocked. "You do? That's okay at a church?' I assured her that Christian spirituality comes in many forms and encouraged her to continue her meditating and perhaps find a community to support her. . . .
In truth, our spirituality is fed by a variety of practices. Some of us resonate more to the quiet of meditation, while others seek the camaraderie of a crowd. At its heart, spirituality is about being in relationship with God. And just as there are all types of human relationships, so are there many ways to know God."
The Rev. Mark Bigelow
Congregational Church of Huntington
"The Gospel calls us to seek God here among God's people, made in God's image, especially among those we call `the least of these': the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger and the prisoner. Steel melts, buildings fall, planes crash and innocents perish, but when the heart of a community responds as one to the pain that is our common lot, it rises again from the ashes, not same but tempered and transformed, it it gives eloquent testimony to what is permanent and real and holy."
The Rev. Mark Lukens
Bethany Congregational Church, East Rockaway
Many of us rolled up our sleeves in September and even waited on long lines to help others in need of blood. It's time to do it again! Here are some upcoming opportunities: