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The Experience of One Congregation The experience of Presbyterians in Sackets
Harbor, New York, offers others an opportunity to think about the steps needed in the
early stages of Christian-Muslim dialogue. Why start? Who decided to act? Members of the United Presbyterian Church of
Sackets Harbor began to ask their pastor, the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Walton, questions about
Islam and Muslims after September 11, 2001. The pastor gathered the questions, augmenting
them with materials from the denominational web site, and presented these to church
leaders. These persons decided that, in response to the need, they wanted to talk
with Muslims. Who could they contact? An elder had provided business services to the
mosque and knew one of its officers. He would provide a link.
Following the initial contact by the elder, the pastor took further initiatives in her role as an educated church professional. “Would the mosque be willing to meet with Christians?” she asked as she invited the mosque to bring a group of its members – men, women, and family members, if they so chose – to the church. She and the mosque leaders talked about a format for a meeting. When the mosque president heard that the Christians normally would close a meeting with prayer, he suggested the evening end with his recitation of a passage from the Qur'an and its translation. The Christians, as hosts, did their own
planning for refreshments. Out of concern for time and dietary laws, they decided that a
selection of hot beverages would be acceptable and would provide the ease needed to enable
further informal conversation after the formal gathering.
The congregation announced an "Islam
101" session to be held before they would meet for dialogue with the Muslims (most
from South Asia). The session was publicized in the media as open to any town residents
who would wish to come. Goals of the preparatory session (for and by Christians)
included (1) the establishment of vocabulary that would enable conversation with Muslims
by those who were unfamiliar with Islam and (2) the development of a sense of common
categories of experience and belief between Muslims and Christians. Content included
discussion of religious holidays, the concept of community, belief in one God, the main
practices of Islam (the five pillars), the life of the founder (Muhammad), the role of
women, and early history (including early contacts of Islam with Christians and
Jews). All those at the preparatory session were asked
to write their questions. These were collated and sent to the mosque, to enable the
Muslims to prepare themselves.
The meeting occurred in the church sanctuary, a
semicircle that allowed a "conversation in the round." Using a roving
microphone, the pastor voiced the audience’s questions and facilitated getting
follow-up questions. Muslims provided responses. There was a feeling of real interchange
because there was opportunity for various participants to speak and to be heard. At the end of the allotted time period of one
and a half hours, it was clear that Muslim women had given minimal response to questions
that had arisen about women. They also seemed overly anxious to say what their husbands
would want. The pastor made a decision to close the evening by inviting women to come to a
separate session at a later date, when they could talk together. During the refreshments
period, she approached both a conservative as well as a more socially liberal woman. Would
they be willing to join with Christian women to create a planning team for a women's
gathering? They decided there should be a planning group of at least 3-4 from each
congregation. Muslims also invited Christians to visit their Islamic
center/mosque for a tour of the facility.
The pastor facilitated two planning meetings by
offering a detailed agenda of items that would need attention – date and place of
meeting, who would invite all women of both congregations and the broader community,
who would serve as greeters, how would name tags be prepared, what would be discussed.
A small difficulty was avoided when it was
discovered that the mosque's address list should not have been shared with the Christian
members of the planning committee as part of invitation plans. The address sheets were
returned. It was agreed that the women would eat together at a pot luck lunch. Muslim women wrote an explanation of their dietary regulations to be printed on the back of an invitation. They also agreed to bring hijab (Islamic) garments to the lunch so that Christian women could try them on and experience dressing similarly to their Muslim neighbors. The gathering would be at the church. Muslim
women would use one of the church education rooms for their noon prayers, after setting
up displays and before the lunch and afternoon program. Roles were assigned across generations, from
young children to older women. The generation of women who had grown up in the U.S., and
who were now high school/college students, helped prepare materials and offered help in
thinking about what is cultural and what is religious in the experience of the mosque
members. They offered comparisons of their lives in the family and the mosque and in the
school.
The mosque members included at least one
individual who was accustomed to a conversionary stance when he talked with non-Muslims.
He was asked to refrain from speaking from this orientation and told that, if participants
at the events were interested in pursuing the idea of conversion in either direction, they
would be free to come and talk to a leader privately.
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