The Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort

Yesterday I traveled to Beaufort, SC to attend a meeting with the Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort. I approached them about becoming involved after attending the Mother Emmanuel Nine Annual Memorial Service which they had produced so beautifully. See my earlier post for more about that event.

I parked in the shade next to the beautiful Parish Church of St. Helena which is in fact in historic Beaufort on Church Street. Getting out of my truck I saw Mayor Billy Keyserling walking my way and had a chance to chat for a few minutes on the way to our meeting which was being hosted this month at First Presbyterian. I had worked with Billy in 2001 as a computer consultant but had not seen him since his election as mayor. He has always seemed to me to be a well inattentioned, soft spoken and very capable gentleman, who has deep roots in the city of Beaufort. Entering the church we were joined by Rabbi TZiPi Radonsky, who has also been active in Interfaith Partners of South Carolina.

The meeting lasted several hours with a group composed of various Ministers, Rabbis, the honorable mayor Billy Keyserling, the Chief of Police, his Sargent in charge of community relations as well as a few others with stakes in the community. I had hoped that the organization might expand into Beaufort County but it became obvious that there were deep issues specific to the city of Beaufort which needed to be addressed before they can expand their scope. Rev. Smalls of Grace Chapel AME who heads up the group, did make it clear that I would be welcome and encouraged me to attend in August.

The vast majority of the time was spent discussing the problems that exist between our black citizens and various law enforcement agencies. While it should be noted that the Beaufort Police Department was recently commended by the Department of Justice for the way in which its employees match the demographics of the community, it is obvious that there have been incidents and ongoing conflicts from the past which are not easily forgotten. All in attendance were anxious to develop approaches and programs to address these concerns. Rev. Smalls announced that their new church building will soon be completed and they intend to repurpose their historic chapel on Charles Street as a Center for Social Justice.

Later in the afternoon I met with Dimitri Cherny for dinner, he is running for Congress in the first district. I discussed this meeting with him to compare his perceptions with mine, in the context of his work along similar lines in Charleston. Dimitri has been involved with the 'Black Lives Matter' movement for the past few years in Charleston, has worked with the Chief of the Charleston Police Department in related matters, and with the Charleston Area Justice Ministry (CAJM), which currently has the participation of twenty congregations. It was a very fruitful discussion. I can assure you that good work is being done by people of all races in these two cities at least, although there IS much left to be done yet.

There is some controversy over the use of the words “Ecumenical”, “Interreligious” and “Interfaith”. Some might say that what I am addressing here is not strictly “Interfaith”, but the work I am involved has elements of all and I choose to use Interfaith as an umbrella word placing the emphasis on the highest level of dialogue. I wanted to share this because you’ll find that although I am quite enamored of and committed to the spiritual ideals of the Interfaith movement in general, for me this is a spiritual practice and discipline; nevertheless I do see profoundly practical needs finding remedy in dialogues just like the one I attended earlier that day.

In these times, with the tragedies our nation is experiencing all too often and with the increased intensity and focus we’ve seen this summer, it is essential that differences are resolved. To my way of thinking no one is better equipped to facilitate this than we in the Interfaith movement. Faith leaders can initiate these conversations from the pulpit and facilitate the hard talks that are necessary within their communities. They can then come together in organizations such as The Unified Interfaith Community Coalition of Beaufort to share these findings amongst themselves and arrange forums to communicate their concerns and propose solutions to the various authorities that can then implement policies, programs and procedures that will make a difference.