As those of you know who have followed our work with Interfaith Partners of South Carolina, we have for a number of years partnered with the governor's office in proclaiming January as South Carolina's Interfaith Harmony Month. This year due to the Covid virus we were unable to have the in person meetings and events which have grown ever more popular and diverse over the years and instead developed a number of wonderful virtual meetings and presentations which were very successful. In some ways it was a great blessing and that many events which were local for some and would require a fair amount of travel for others became equally available to all.
 
As a part of my contribution to the events I was able to conduct a couple of video interviews with real powerhouses in the interfaith movement. Dr. Barbara Fields serves as the Executive Director of the Association of Global New Thought which also engages in a lot of interfaith work. Perhaps the most famous aspect of their work is the annual Gandhi/King Season of Peace which takes place each year beginning January 30th and runs 64 days until April 4th.  She was program director for the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions. For more information please visit WWW.AGNT.ORG We had a lovely time, and to watch this nearly one hour interview click on Dr. Fields image
 
The secondary interview was with Dr. Larry Greenfield, Pres. Emeritus of the Parliament of World Religions. Dr. Greenfield has been involved in many interfaith initiatives over the years as well as an ongoing commitment to the Baptist movement with which she has been affiliated for many many years. Our interview also ran nearly to one hour in length and I believe we covered some exciting topics which I'm anxious to share with you. To watch this interview click on Dr. Greenfield's image

This book was chosen by the leader of our nascent book club in IPSC as our first selection. I was so impressed that I chose to write this little review and feature the book among Interfaith Advocate’s recommendations. Many times while reading this book I was reminded of Eboo Patel’s exceptionally useful book Interfaith Leadership: A Primer. Looking back on our blog posts and the books reviewed in the fellow travelers section I was surprised to discover that I had not reviewed that book. I’ll soon make amends for that, though for now I wanted to emphasize Patel’s argument that the bridge building takes place in interfaith work happens most effectively in our one on one interactions with other human beings who among all other factors happen to have a different faith orientation that we do.

Generally we use abstraction to move from the particular to the universal and that can be a powerful technique particularly in realms such as mathematics and science, in the case of interfaith understanding I’m a firm believer that the best way to arrive at a universal understanding is through a whole bunch of particular examples. In fact I do not believe there is such a thing as a typical Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, etc. the best thing one can do to understand the human dimension of Islam for example is to have relationships with individual Muslims. This book demonstrates time and again through wide range of stories how religious differences often become minimal factors in our relations with others and certainly the time-honored tradition of breaking bread with someone or the more practical act of working together on some project will allow us to make the human connections that both minimize the differences in our faith orientation and simultaneously may well demonstrate how we live the central tenets of our faith. The following material comes from the publisher’s website. Clicking on the image of the book cover will take you to the Amazon page where you can peruse the book and purchase if you would like.

“We live in the most religiously diverse society in the history of humankind. Every day, people of different religious beliefs and practices encounter one another in a myriad of settings. How has this new situation of religious diversity impacted the way we understand the religious "other," ourselves, and God? Can we learn to live together with mutual respect, working together for the creation of a more compassionate and just world?
My Neighbor's Faith gathers an array of inspiring and penetrating stories about the interreligious encounters of outstanding community leaders, scholars, public intellectuals, and activists. With wisdom, wit, courage, and humility, these writers--from a range of religious backgrounds--share their personal experience of "border-crossing," and the unforgettable lessons learned from their interreligious encounters.”

Contributors include: Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Phyllis Berman; Mary Boys, Rita Nakashima-Brock, Miguel De La Torre, Irving Greenberg; Ruben Habito, Paul Knitter, Bill J. Leonard, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Brian McLaren, Ji Hyang Padma, Eboo Patel, Judith Plaskow, Paul Raushenbush, Anantand Rambachan, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Jim Wallis, and many more.

Jennifer Howe Peace is assistant professor of interfaith studies at Andover Newton Theological School and co-director of CIRCLE: The Center for Inter-Religious and Communal Leadership Education (a joint venture of Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School).

Rabbi Or Rose is Associate Dean at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College and co-director of CIRCLE.
Gregory Mobley is professor of Christian Bible at Andover Newton Theological School and co-founder of CIRCLE. He is an ordained American Baptist minister.

The UICC (Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort) was formed in response to the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston. A concerned group of Beaufort clergy began gathering to reflect on how faith communities in Beaufort might come together in such a way as to build relationships across historic divisions, in hopes that this might reduce the chance of such violent and hateful acts occurring in our community. This gathering evolved into the Unified Interfaith Community Coalition (UICC), a group of faith community leaders of different races and religions whose purpose is to foster interracial and interreligious harmony in our community.

Since that time the UICC has evolved and has developed a number of events and programs for the interfaith community of Beaufort County, South Carolina. A number of those events have been highlighted in these pages. Today I’d like to report on our 2019 remembrance of the mother Emanuel nine, which was held June 17, as it was on its second occasion, held at the historic Grace Chapel AME on Charles Street in Beaufort. As has been the case throughout these years the Rev. Jeannine R. Smalls, who is pastor at Grace AME Church on Lady’s Island and who is the founder of UICC, offered the welcome and introduced the various guests as the evening progressed. To view the video of this event visit here: vimeo.com/348051013

This year the Rev. Kenneth F Hodges, pastor, Tabernacle Baptist Church offered the opening prayer. Tabernacle Baptist is just across the street and a reception was held there following the service. On the grounds of Tabernacle Baptist is a very fine sculpture of Robert Smalls, who made a daring sea escape during the Civil War as a slave (bringing a number of others as well) and went on to serve five terms in Congress as a Representative from South Carolina. Since 2016 Rev. Hodges has been working toward building a monument for Harriet Tubman which will be installed on those same grounds. To learn more about this project and how you can contribute visit https://www.harriettubmanmonument.com/the-tabernacle-baptist-church.

Our keynote speaker was the Rev. Joseph A. Darby Sr., Pastor at Nichols Chapel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Rev. Darby also serves as vice president of the Charleston NAACP. In introducing him Rev. Jeannine also shared that he has been a mentor to her over the years. Rev. Darby’s talk was succinct and to the point, emphasizing the need to continue our reaching across all the lines of division and promoting harmony. The grace and quiet authority of this minister’s voice moved all who were present.

There was a candle lighting service conducted by Liz Santagati and Westley Byrne, and a Sharing of Intentions activity conducted by Rabbi TZiPi, all knit together with music flowing from the keyboard of Bishop Jack L. Bomar, presiding prelate, United Church as well as mother Cleo and Dawn Peebles of United Church.

The solid presence of very Jewish brothers and sisters was evidenced by Rabbi TZiPi Radonsky opening the evening with the blowing of the shofar and the beautiful singing by Gail Touger of Lo Yisa Goy in a duet with Bishop Jack. And also by the short address of the Hon. Billy Keyserling, Mayor of the city of Beaufort, who is Jewish. The Muslim community was represented and I’m sad to say that I do not have the names of those who attended to share with you. A roll call of the various churches that were represented revealed a number of Christian churches, as well as Unitarian Universalists and members of the Baha’i faith.

Since this beautiful event we’ve had a UICC board meeting and I can assure you that there are plans in the works for a number of events and we’ll keep you posted as they evolve.

This festival which took place Sunday, April 28 at the Irmo community Park 1 to 4 PM,  was a splendid success. A beautiful warm day with hundreds of people in attendance, dozens of vendors, a continual presentation of performances on stage, and an astounding display of artwork were the essential ingredients making it such a satisfying event. Cosponsored by IPSC (Interfaith Partners of South Carolina) and the town of Irmo, it was the result of a rather remarkable story of interfaith tensions, resolutions, and the eventual formation of critical new alliances. More about that history a little later.

A key factor in the success of this festival was the deep involvement IPSC’s Mary Kennerly. Mary has deep ties throughout the community and served for many years as a principal in the local high school. For me the most outstanding element was the art contest for the youth. IPSC produces a calendar each year which features the artwork of our youth on the theme of peace and harmony in our community. Over 130 entries were received and displayed all around the outside and in several rows through the center of a pavilion which allowed all to view this work in the shade. Those who entered were given the option of also having their work entered into IPSC’s Peace in the Park competition and virtually everyone did. This year’s calendar promises to be stellar in the range and quality of art work that will be able to present there.

On the stage a number of performances were given over the afternoon including dance exhibitions from our Hindu and Sikh communities, musical performances from various cultures in a poetry reading by young people who were selected as the winners of a separate poetry contest addressing the themes of peace, harmony and inclusivity.

A local art teacher organized the presentation of a Rangoli, a giant one dollar like installation on one of the lawns consisting of flower petals, macaroni, various colors of soils all combined into various patterns and pictorial themes. Students, parents and others participated in making it before and during the festival.

And no such festival would be complete without food in this festival delivered in grand fashion. It was food from a number of different cultures and plenty to drink including the very best lemonade I’ve ever been served, made from fresh lemons as you stood in line to receive it. It is very clear from the success of this initial festival that we can expect this to be an annual event drawing people from an ever wider circle in the Midlands of South Carolina.

Now a bit about the remarkable history which led to this festival. In June this year, an opportunity presented itself for IPSC to mobilize in the midst of a local controversy. The Mayor of Irmo, Hardy King, had posted controversial comments about Islam on his Facebook page, prompting calls of both support and protest within the local community. IPSC wrote to the Mayor, offering to facilitate a meeting with local Muslims in Columbia. Mayor King informed us that he had already been approached by Chaudhry Sadiq, friend of IPSC and president of the ‘Peace and Integration Council of North America’ (PICNA) to visit the Masjid Noor Ul Huda. Members of IPSC joined the Mayor at the Masjid, and through those all-important encounters, we witnessed a remarkable transformation.

Following the visit, the Mayor apologized for his original postings, acknowledging he had been received at the Mosque better than his own family reunion! Wanting to build on this initial step, IPSC worked in partnership with the Mayor and PICNA, to host a public forum entitled ‘Demystifying Islam’ in the heart of Irmo, took place from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 30 at the Irmo municipal building.  This was a valuable opportunity for people to come and learn about Islam, and to engage with panelists from the Muslim, Jewish and Christian community. This was an opportunity to ask questions and work together towards deconstructing harmful stereotypes, building in their place something far more enduring for strong and peaceable community. King said he was unaware of the ways in which Muslim leaders were distancing the faith from acts of terror until Sadiq spoke to him about it directly. Because of what is portrayed in the news media and on social media, King said, many people may believe Islam is a religion of terror and death. So he believed that this information session was very helpful to combat that perception. He said what started as a sour situation that drew much attention and backlash was, in his eyes, a great opportunity. “God has mysterious ways of bringing people together,” Sadiq said.

It was on the basis of the strong relationship that Mayor King had formed with IPSC that he reached out to us to cosponsor this first annual Irmo international Festival.

UICC (Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort) began in response to the Mother Emmanuel 9 assassination June 17, 2015. We work to ease tensions and promote harmony in the Beaufort County region of SC's Lowcountry. Founded by Rev. Jeannine Smalls, Pastor Grace AME Church, sister church to Mother Emmanuel. This is our third January/New Year celebration.

Thank you Reverend Therese Donlan Lee for entrusting me with assembling this program. Our guest speakers are each one pillars of faith in our wider community.

Thanks to my friend the Reverend Ed Kosak for hosting this at Unity of Charleston!

“So that we might be illuminated, to be called to significant action so that what may seem to be a tragedy to some can become a triumph to the rest of the world”.

These were the closing words of Rev. Dr. Kylon Middleton, Pastor, Mt. Zion AME Chapel, Charleston, SC and keynote speaker at Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort’s third annual Mother Emanuel Nine Memorial on June 15th, 2018. His rousing sermon in this interfaith event at the historic Brick Baptist Church, adjacent to Penn Center, honored those nine slain souls, and very personally that of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, his lifelong friend and pastoral colleague. To see his sermon click on the image above. Rev. Middleton went well beyond that though, furthering UICC’s goal of transcending the pain, of not being bound by the past, with a fervent desire to give meaning to the suffering we have sustained in the loss of so many to violence.

UICC was founded by Rev. Jeannine Smalls, Pastor Grace Chapel AME Church, in response to that tragic event in 2015 at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. From the beginning she felt that it was important that this tragedy unite us, transcending the barriers among denominations and between faiths, knowing that our faith communities share a common humanity, a desire for justice and a hunger for peace. Her longtime friend and spiritual brother Rev. Middleton spoke of this very eloquently “We are stronger together because of our faith, we are stronger when we stand as Baptists, and we are stronger when we stand as AME, we are stronger when we stand as Jews, we are stronger when we stand in the Baha’i faith, we are strong when we acknowledge our Unitarian Universalism, we are strong when we’re Islamic, we are strong when we stand up to be Episcopalians, especially in South Carolina in 2018, we are strong when we are Lutheran, we’re strong in our Presbyterianism, we are strong as non-denominationalists, we are strong as Catholics, so we are stronger in our faith together! It is larger than one church, it is larger than one denomination, is larger than one faith, it is about our human community.”

Rev. Smalls in her introduction for Rev. Middleton quoted Martin Luther King “…the most segregated hour in Christian America is 11 AM on a Sunday morning”. The interfaith work of UICC has as a key goal of the change to this “appalling” situation. It is common for events like these to be held on a Friday evening when many people are able to come, and appropriate venues are available. We are deeply grateful to Rev. Dr. Abraham Murray, pastor of the Brick Baptist Church for hosting this important event and for his gracious welcome in his opening remarks. Several of the most dedicated and hardworking members of our organization are members of the Jewish faith and we recognize that it is a hardship, and somewhat insensitive of us to hold these events on their Shabbat. In keeping with who we are and what we are about, it was the first time a Shabbat candle was lit in this august sanctuary. Rabbi TZiPi Radonsky of Watering the Tree Outside the Fence Foundation lit the candle and offered a prayer, closing with a reading from Numbers 6:23-27.

A number of segments of the evening were beautifully woven together with the music of choirs and Emma Stevenson of Rev. Murray’s congregation as soloist. “Aunt Emma” is the aunt of both Rev. Pinckney and Rev. Middleton. Rev. Penny Rahm of Waters Edge United Methodist, had written words reflecting our theme to go with the tune “we shall overcome” which she led a jubilant congregation through. Mostly behind the scenes though absolutely essential to the success of this event was Rev. Shannon Mullen, Pastor of St. John’s Lutheran. There was a slideshow honoring The Mother Emanuel Nine which was shown while one by one individuals in the congregation stood and spoke loudly the name of one of those nine followed by a hallowed chime from Rev. Lori Hlaban, of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Beaufort, as she conducted the remembrance portion. Theresa White of the Pan-African Family Empowerment and Land Preservation Network spoke to us about the history of Juneteenth and related a number of stories from her family history that brought it home to us all. Members of IPSC, Interfaith Partners of South Carolina, traveled down Columbia to attend including Dr. Adrian Bird, Carey Murphy, and Ethel Crawford. Rev. Roy Tripp of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church offered the closing Benediction.  

Our second keynote speaker was Victoria Smalls who currently serves as Commissioner, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and program director for the International African American Museum being built in Charleston South Carolina. Ms. Smalls served a number of years as director of History, Art an Culture programs at Penn Center and also serves everywhere she lives on Baha’i Local Spiritual Assemblies. As Ms. Smalls grew up on St. Helena Island and still had a lot of family living there she was able to offer a unique perspective. Her talk was informative, as she is an historian at heart, inspiring, and she ended with relevant quotes from her Baha’i scriptures. One point in particular that she made is that Penn Center was one of the very few places that Dr. Martin Luther King felt safe, and perhaps the only place where blacks and whites were able to sit down, speak and plan together, during the very segregated 1960s. Many of his most famous speeches were written here and shared with those who accompanied him. At the time of his death plans were in the works to build him a cottage on the marsh on the eastern edge of Penn Center where he could rest and find peace.

Our theme, “We Remember and We Do Not Forget” was suggested by Rabbi TZiPi Radonsky at one of our early planning meetings for this event. She shared with us that in her Jewish faith this phrase “We Remember and We Do Not Forget” is part of her weekly spiritual practice. That it is important to review and remember the blessings and challenges of the past week on the Sabbath and to remind one of the blessings and opportunities to come in the following week. She had a vision that this practice could be extended further back in time and further into the future in the context of this memorial service. One component of the evening was a slideshow where this phrase appeared and was followed by an image reminding us of many of the painful tragedies that somehow unite us. The images included scenes from more than a dozen of the mass shootings of the past few decades, atrocities committed at Jewish concentration camps, numerous slain martyrs to beloved causes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Harvey Milk, and others, slaughters of Native Americans at Wounded Knee, the Cherokee Trail of tears, the Japanese internment camps and most especially the assassinated Mother Emanuel Nine. It ended with these words “We Remember Those We Have Lost To Violence, And We Do Not Forget Our Commitment To Peace”.
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Rev. Smalls has carried the conviction that these tragedies might unite us and give us hope for the future, that our shared understanding and efforts will eventually make such things impossible. Just this morning as I was thinking through all of this in order to write this blog post a friend of mine shared with me this quote from the Talmud “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” People become martyrs when they are assassinated to prevent them from bringing to completion their life work, and though their deaths are a sadness to us they are most clearly a call to complete their labors.

On April 29, 2018 Rev. Ed Kosak and Unity of Charleston hosted a very successful interfaith event, with 15 faith paths represented. The event included a call to Jeffrey Mannaseh in Malawi Africa have a Skype call to the originator of this global event Greg Davis in Columbus Ohio. This event was held simultaneously in Madison, Wisconsin, Concorde, New Hampshire, Rockton, Illinois, Ventura County, California, Boise, Idaho, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Houston, Texas, Ames, Iowa, Grass Valley, California, Columbus, Ohio, Kasese, Uganda, Gulu Town, Uganda, Kashmir, India, Faisalabad, Pakistan as well as in Malawi in Africa. Among the partners in Africa was URI, United Religions Initiative which I believe is the organization that Jeffrey Mannaseh serves in. Click on image to view the video.

The opening speaker was to be Russell Binder, sharing his perspective on Judaism. He was unable to attend and his part was covered by Rev. Ed’s long time interfaith colleague Toreah “Cookie” Washington. Next came Victoria Smalls speaking from her Baha’i faith, she was followed by Dr. Amarjit Singh on Sikhism. Then came an artistic interlude with Dr. Peter Kfoury playing the Oud. Next to speak was Rev. Christian King on Christianity, she was followed by Shaila Shroff speaking on Hinduism, Native American spirituality was addressed by Rev. Catherine Nelson who also played beautifully on her double wooden flute. We were then presented with interpretive dance by Trudy’s School of Dance and coordinated by Erica Capdevila. Dr. Reshma Kahn spoke about Islam, and next was to be sensei Cindy Beach who was unable to attend due to logistical problems. Her time was taken to connect by Skype with the events originator Greg Davis in Ohio. The Quakers, the Religious Society of Friends were represented by Trish Bender and she was followed by another artistic interlude, native flute performed by Cerantha. Speaking for the Mormon faith was Dr. David Goltra and he was followed by Bernadette Victor from the Unitarian Universalist Church in Charleston, and she was followed by a Will Moredock who presented his secular humanist perspective. This was followed by another artistic interlude featuring Greg Guay performing an original piece on classical guitar. Perspectives on paganism were presented by IPSC’s Holli Emore and Clarissa Mickle who were followed by Simran Singh who spoke for the Oneness movement. This was followed by another artistic interlude featuring unity of Charleston’s own Brad Henty and Chris Crosby. Cookie Washington provided closing remarks.

Throughout the event people were informed of interfaith opportunities, locally this included The Coastal Interfaith Community, the Christian Jewish Council, Charleston Area Justice Ministry and the statewide organization IPSC, Interfaith Partners of South Carolina. Rev. Ed also took some time to talk about The Parliament of World Religions and encouraging people to become involved and to attend the upcoming Parliament this November in Toronto. Ed also shared that he and Greg will have a table at the Parliament promoting Religious Freedom: Malice Toward None.
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