PRELUDE, March 2002



FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:

"How Should We Pray When We Come Together?"

One of the good things to emerge out of the Sept. 11 tragedy has been a wave of ecumenical prayer vigils (involving several denominations) and interfaith ones (involving 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 bring us together across lines of race and religion.

As the members of our new Mid-Island Steering Committee have noticed, though, they are being thrown into hastily-planned services where they are not 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 distinctly differing worship styles presents fresh challenges:

These questions are important to both ecumenical and interfaith cooperation. It took extensive planning, compromise, and negotiation to bring together evangelical and liberal Christians, Protestant and Catholic, pentecostals and orthodox, "mainline" and independent at Jesus Alive 2000. It wasn't easy, and sometimes it was painful, but we all grew in grace (as we Methodists like to say). It is worth the effort, I believe, to hash out these issues.

To help Long Islanders wrestle with this topic, this year's Annual Meeting of LICC (Thursday, April 11, from 11:30 to 2:00 at Temple Beth David in Commack) will focus on how we should pray when we come together, with panelists from a variety of faiths and worship styles sharing their thoughts and experiences. I hope you'll be there--and that you'll discuss this topic in your own community.

Shalom/Salaam/Shanti/Pax,

Tom



LICC OFFERS WORKSHOPS ON LOANS, CREDIT, AND FINANCES

At the Long Island Council of Churches we see many vulnerable people who 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.

We are launching a new program to help prevent these tragedies and to help people get a fair deal from banks and other financial institutions. We are planning our first presentation for sometime in late April at a congregation in Riverhead or nearby. This presentation would run about an hour and a half, anytime in late April. We will arrange for speakers, publicity, educational materials, free credit checks for those who come, and other freebies. All you need to supply is the location and refreshments. The first workshop will be at Unity Baptist Church in Mattituck, sometime late in April. If you would like this sort of a workshop at your congregation, please contact Tom Goodhue or Sara Weiss at 565-0290, send a fax (516-565-0291) or e-mail me at licchemp@aol.com.



IDEAS YOU CAN USE

Holy Humor Sunday

The Fellowship of Merry Christians, an ecumenical group of religious humorists and pranksters, has encouraged churches to rediscover the ancient tradition of celebrating the period after Easter as a time of sharing God's laughter at death, evil, and human foolishness. What better way could there be to affirm our belief in resurrection than to laugh at death? "Bright Sunday" or "Holy Humor Sunday" is observed in a growing number of congregations each year. FMC's "Joyful Noiseletter" recently shared some fresh ideas for this day:

To join the FMC and get further ideas for Bright Sunday, call 1-800-877-2757 or visit joyfulnoiseletter.com.



MORE RESPONSES TO THE TERROR ATTACKS:

Here are some addition resources to help people deal with the aftermath of Sept. 11:



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