Notes from our first conversation on inter-religious and intercultural dialogue
March 31, 2007, Saturday 8:00 a.m. PDT, 11:00 a.m. EDT
Facilitator: Cecilia Ranger
Participants: Nancy Clemmons; Colleen Duffy, Miriam Daniel Fahey; Nancy Gast; Mary Ellen Robinson; Molia Sieh.
Molia led us in prayer. We sang Kumbaya, named a gift we wished for the group, and listened to a reading-prayer (which several requested copies of).
We introduced ourselves and shared some reasons for our caring about inter-religious and intercultural dialogue. (I tried not to repeat (much) what people had written in their autobiographic papers.)
a. Miriam Daniel Fahey, celebrating 60 yrs SNJM, has been a Spanish professor for many years and traveled widely. She’s currently active in PACT, a faith-based community organization, in which she’s counted as clergy and meets with other clergy monthly. PACT has taken action around issues of health insurance for children and ever-present immigration issues in California.
b. Mary Ellen lives on the Yakama reservation across the mountains from Seattle’s super-metro living, and wonders about dialogues that include hunter-gatherers who lived on all this land until only about 150 years ago, and who struggle to maintain and hand on their culture in technology saturated America; dialogues between "Christians" of such different ideologies as we experience today; and all the intercultural dialogues needed with (mostly Mexican) farmworkers, new and old immigrants from Moslem and East Asian cultures, etc.
c. Cecilia Ranger grew up in Minnesota of a ‘mixed marriage’ (Anglican/Roman Catholic) in a high Lutheran setting, so never learned one church better than another. Has taught theology all career and knows religion a factor in almost every war that’s been fought in the world, so is deeply committed to dialogue, so we can honor each other instead of killing each other. Her own family is like a little league of nations, especially through the marriages of her nieces and nephews.
d. Molia Sieh is excited for this dialogue. She looks forward to connecting with folks in the U.S. West, which bringers her closer to the East where she was born. Wherever she goes, she is bringing herself, who is different. She never felt she belonged anywhere, until she entered community, and then she was separated from her Chinese roots. Metropolitan Washington is getting more and more diverse, and Molia sees consequences, effects and challenges as she works in the mental health arena.
e. Colleen Duffy shared that there are about 25,000 Muslims in Windsor, a Muslim Academy near where she lives, and that her daughter’s questions have brought home her own need and desire to educate herself about other religions and cultures, especially Islam.
f. Nancy Clemmons interest began in early childhood, from her parents’ ‘mixed marriage", carried on in the family in her brothers’ marriages to Asian women. Nancy belongs to a Southern California Catholic-Jewish women’s conference, among other dialogue groups. She knows that religion carries culture and vice-versa. Living in California’s diversity makes the need for dialogue part of daily life and Californian’s identity.
g. Nancy Gast’s home town was 50% Native American, so she learned intercultural awareness naturally. She sees the world as such a mess of non-listening. We need to begin to talk with each other instead of shooting each other. We need to listen, understand, and walk with each other.
We then moved to the first Question: Share a dialogue – interfaith and/or intercultural – that has particularly affected and changed you.
Miriam Daniel lives in the largest parish in Northern California, 7,.000 famiies, a mix of Vietnamese, Mexican, Filipino, and some token whites, all represented on the parish council and all working to work together. Planning multi-lingual liturgies for special occasions is a big challenge! Two priests there, one Filipino and one Argentinian, recently gave talks about the challenges of working interculturally.
Nancy Gast’s mother’s second husband was half Native American and half Afro-American. Conversations with him about his childhood, his being forced to attend Catholic Church and forced into a strange culture as a child, left a lasting impression on her. He would say, "Until I’ve walked 10 miles in the other’s moccasins, I will not judge."
Cecilia Ranger had a 10-year dream of an interfaith spirituality center with classes and spiritual directors of many different traditions, and did get to make this dream real. Sacred Heart Parish rented them space. They worked through Ecumenical Ministries as a limited liability corporation. The group is still going, though Cecilia felt she had to withdraw due to concerns over financial implications to the Community if clergy abuse issues were to arise.
Nancy Clemmons shared that when the "Westside Interfaith Council" grew from the (all Christian) Westside Ecumenical council, some Christians dropped out because they couldn’t dialogue with Muslims, Jews, or other non-Christians. They thereby cut off dialogue with other Christians, too. It was a painful, prayer-evoking challenge, in the face of her ever deepening conviction about the need for broad, open dialogue and listening to one another.
Mary Ellen Robinson shared about an Easter dinner in which a conservative Christian did stay in a conversation, a tense and intense one, which brought home the preciousness of such opportunities, and the challenges.
Molia shared that funerals and memorial services have helped her cross cultural bridges. For example, an African American service she attended seemed dark, long, expressive and demonstrative. It was so different from a Chinese one, formal and reserved. What helped her cross the barrier, she said, was the grief, so real; the loss, so deep; the basic human realities being honored. Another funeral was Cambodian Buddhist, including sitting on one’s heels for hours. Not all Asians are Buddhist! As a Chinese Catholic, she was not particularly at home in a Buddhist setting; but to be with the bereaved in a loss so deeply felt again crossed barriers of ritual and culture.
Colleen said that after 9/11 she went to do some banking. She struck up a conversation with an Arab man standing near her, and learned that he was afraid to go to work, afraid the cross the border. It was her first conversation ever with an Arab, and an Arab male at that. One Christmas (or Sunday?) she had to run to the corner store for batteries for a toy. The Arab behind the counter began teasing and laughing with her about her urgency to get the batteries and began telling her about some major celebrations in his world. She learned a lot.
Before Miriam Daniel Fahey signed off due to a fading phone,
We confirmed that our next call will be
APRIL 29, SUNDAY, 8 A.M., P.D.T; 11 A.M., EDT
 
Responding to what we had shared, Nancy Clemmons observed that right here in our daily lives and among us in community we have opportunities for good dialogue. Molia agreed, and hopes we’re able to have rich conversations among and with each other as SNJMs . Colleen shared about signing up for a workshop on "Building a Glowing Bridge: an Introduction to Islam."
We agreed that next time we’d like to focus on --
The role we would like to envision
for members of our Congregation
in inter-religious and intercultural dialogue.
In the meantime, we’ll stay in touch by e-mail, and pray for one another.
We closed with the prayer which Molia had read at the beginning of the meeting. (and which she’ll send to us by e-mail???)
Respectfully submitted, (and open to corrections, revisions, etc.)
Mary Ellen Robinson, SNJM (melrobinson@charter.net)