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Jan. 13, 2012
New interfaith series begins
Beth Tikvah will lead off the study and discussion sessions.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Increasing the welfare of the people living in Richmond through interfaith dialogue is the ultimate goal of a new series starting next week.
Three meetings over the next five months are being organized and sponsored by Rabbi Claudio Kaiser-Blueth of Beth Tikvah Congregation, Rev. David Poirier of St. Joseph the Worker, Pastor Tim Le Drew of Our Savior Lutheran Church and Rev. Brian Vickers of St. Anne Steveston Anglican Church.
The open invitation is headed by a verse from Psalm 133: “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity.” It reads, “We are a group of Richmond clergy belonging to three churches and one synagogue who would like to promote a sense of spiritual comradeship between our different faiths and our congregants. We want to study, exchange ideas and work for our common causes in a spirit of tolerance and respect. We want to create the necessary bridges exploring the spiritual concerns we all share.”
The idea came from conversations between Kaiser-Blueth and the other clergy, who are among a larger group that take part in interfaith ecumenical meetings held once a month, generally at Vancouver School of Theology. The rabbi said that he suggested they do something “in the Richmond community; mainly two things parallel. One could be to gather, not just us, the clergy, but our membership; that people come, sit down around a table and study, and then share ideas with the purpose of, not just to know more, but know the other religions and to create bonds and bridges between the people. And, number two, is to have some religious activities, and what we will do is, therefore, have either services or have something practical, we would like also to create some type of social activities ... here in Richmond.”
The first event in the new series will take place at Beth Tikvah on Jan. 18.
“What we would like to do is to present a theme or topic from the Bible and then [have] all the members intermingle around the tables, Catholics, Jews, Protestants, etc., based upon a guideline of questions that we have pre-established, and for them to discuss, hear and know and interchange ideas among the different religions,” explained Kaiser-Blueth.
The second meeting will be in March, just before Passover, he said, “and we’ll have a seder of Pesach in a church and they, in turn, for our members, for the synagogue, they will somehow summarize what [the] Easter celebration is. The third one for this coming year will be in May, where we’ll be discussing the Ten Commandments from a Jewish and from a Christian point of view.”
There are plans to expand the number of clergy involved, said Kaiser-Blueth. “I wanted to begin small, and really establish that and then, [the] next step is to call imams and other people here in Richmond, [where] we are blessed with so many different religions and sects and so forth, that will be the next step.”
In describing the goal of the meetings, Kaiser-Blueth noted that, “we of different religions, unfortunately, have no contact among us, everybody has been a cell, an island on itself, [but] ... we can forcefully, seriously and responsibly contribute to the ... religious, cultural and social welfare of the people living here in Richmond, and maybe beyond, but let’s begin with Richmond.”
Bemoaning a lack of serious dialogue, Kaiser-Blueth said, “I just want somehow to create a bond, a connection, between us and, together, we can do so much more than individually.”
Kaiser-Blueth has lectured at Le Drew’s church and Poirier, whose congregation is a near neighbor of Beth Tikvah, has shared in activities with the synagogue, including on Shavuot.
The interfaith series opener at Beth Tikvah will have as its topic God is Calling: Is Somebody Going to Answer? The Prophet Samuel’s Call. The second session will focus on Passover and Easter, while the topic of the third scheduled meeting is The Ten Commandments (... are not Multiple Choice).
About the subject matter for the first meeting, Kaiser-Blueth said, “It’s that passage there in the Book of Samuel, where a young, young Samuel is in ... a little temple and he’s sleeping and he gets the call and he thinks that the priest of that shrine, that temple, is calling him, and his name is Eli, and he goes to him and he says, ‘Have you called me my master?’ and he says, ‘No.’ And this repeats itself three times, until that one moment that Samuel, that little boy ... understands that God is calling him.... [T]here are messages that are sent to us as human beings. Are we hearing them? Are we paying attention? Are we aware of our duties? Or, is this call not [being heeded].... So, I thought it was a good choice to begin this whole thing, and not be too controversial, because everybody shares this idea, different churches and synagogues.
“The second one will be much more daring, probably, because we all talk about Passover, we all talk about Easter, but do we know what’s going on? What are the common features between Easter and Passover? – a lot. After all, Jesus died on Passover, and so forth, and many of the, unfortunately, bad things that happened to the Jews because of Easter, mainly the blood libel, but we want to bring the positive, obviously, not just the negative.”
Everyone is invited to attend the three gatherings. While there is no charge, attendees are requested to bring a nonperishable food item to be distributed in Richmond to people in need.
Beth Tikvah, where the Jan. 18 meeting will take place, is at 9711 Geal Rd. The March 21 session on Passover and Easter will take place on March 21, at Our Savior Lutheran Church, 6340 No. 4 Rd., and The Ten Commandments will take place on May 23 at St. Joseph the Worker, 4451 Williams Rd. All of the meetings are scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. The presentations and discussions will be followed by singing and refreshments.
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