|
|
MARCH 12, 2003 - INDEPENDENT SESSION - REPORT
On the eve of the Islamic festival of Ashura, some 70-80 people attended
the St. Johns dialogue which was ably moderated by Dr. Dan McKanan. After
setting forth the parameters of the dialogue, he invited all to be silent
for a moment to spiritually prepare for the formal exercise of interfaith
encounter that was about to happen thanks to the attendees and the panel
of 3 Muslim speakers: Ahmad Ramadani (SCSU graduate student from Bangladesh,
main Islamic presenter for the series), Jarrod Hall (SCSU graduate student,
African American, Imam of the Nation of Islam, Founder of Changing Faces),
and Norhashimah Erpelding (homemaker, architect, artist, webpage designer,
American from Malaysia).
The multicultural panelists spoke of their understanding and lived experience
of Islam in the United States. What came across was a certain unity in the
panelists' feelings of pride in, and gratitude for being Muslim as well as
their basic concurrence in their understandings of Islam although their
diversity was no less striking.
St. John and St. Benedict students, especially undergrads who are taking a
CSBSJU course on "Islamic Spiritual Traditions" under Dr. Noreen Herzfeld,
as well as other CSBSJU grad and undergrad students, faculty, and staff,
asked lively, intelligent questions and fully engaged all the panelists.
After the Muslim speakers gave their concluding comments and expressed
their gratitude and satisfaction at the proceedings, Dr. Malcolm Nazareth
of CIE/UNIITE, drew everybody's attention to the racial and interracial
diversity and the rich religiosity of the panelists. For example, Imam Hall
has Native American Apache ancestry, hails from Haiti, and is married to a
Native American woman. Ms. Erpelding is the daughter of an Imam in Malaysia
and married to a St. Cloud native of the White community. Mr. Ramadani, who
had just expressed his amazement at the great interest of the young students
of CSBSJU, as shown in the turn-out, is trained to address Jews and Christians.
At the entrance to the hall was a visitor sign-in book and a table of Islam
related displays and many handouts. One handout consisted of the Surah
Al-Fatihah (opening chapter of the Qur'an) which Ms. Erpelding, after the
nearly 30 minutes of interfaith exchange, chanted devotionally and to which
the audience listened to in a spirit of deep prayerfulness. The soulful chant
was followed by a short period of silence after which all enjoyed refreshments in
each others' company. Some lingered on for over an hour enjoying the warmth,
spiritual atmosphere, and goodwill which the dialogue had generated.
Emmaus Hall was physically accessible and the spacious room, in which the
dialogue was held, comfortable. Patti of the School of Theology made visitors
feel warmly welcome. There were five children of attendees who sat most
respectfully through the session.
The Emmaus Hall stand-alone session of 3/12 was a sort of pre-prandial that
promised wonderful fare to come in the March-April series at five of St.
Cloud's various Christian denominational churches.
The first session is titled "Basic Beliefs of Islam." It will be held in
the basement of University Lutheran Church of the Epiphany on Tuesday 18 March.
The session will begin with a Smudging Ceremony conducted by Dr. Nancy Harles,
Director of the St. Cloud Area American Indian Center. Childcare along with
educational and other fun activities relating to Islam will be provided by
Imam Jarrod and Becky Hall under the auspices of Changing Faces Multicultural
Daycare Center. Once more, the facilities are physically accessible.
Refreshments will be provided by the hosting ELCA Lutheran church.
The 90-minutes dialogue session proper will commence at 6.30 pm. For those
who arrive earlier there will be a short video "Abraham and His Children"
which will be screened at 6 pm. This video recording of an interfaith
seminar, which was held in New York in the early 1990s, makes the point
which undergirds the entire series "Muslims-Dialogues-Beliefs." It indicates
that despite the striking historic differences between the three major
Abrahamic religions, at root the common ground which is theologically,
geographically, and historically shared by Islam with its older siblings
Judaism and Christianity is most striking, even if not generally publicized.
The organizers of the series CIE/UNIITE and FCBRH are confident that these
facts will come home to attendees and participants in the St. Cloud area
Muslim dialogues through the various sessions, and especially in the concluding
one on Tuesday, 22 April, "Hagar in the Wilderness," a panel discussion
featuring women from Jewish, Islamic, and Christian faiths.
The entire overarching "Interfaith Sacred Texts and Communities Series" will
continue to bank on generous community financing and support in order to make
every presentation free and open to the public. The main organizers of this
ongoing CIE/UNIITE and FCBRH promise to offer area religions ongoing
opportunities to come center stage and engage turn by turn in dialoguing
with members of other faith communities. The overarching series appropriately
begins with a focus on Islam, fastest growing religion in the United States
today and one of the most misunderstood of world religions.
The organizers' purpose is to proactively foster mutual understanding,
appreciation, and harmony among the practitioners of diverse area religions
and to effectively deal with the viruses of racism, bigotry, and religious
exclusivism that infect members of far too many communities everywhere on our
endangered planet. The series' organizers join all supporting faith
communities and secular organizations in an unspoken pledge -- they aim for
nothing less than the definitive shaping of St. Cloud as a city that is
nationally famous for its multicultural and interreligious competence.
Report by:
Malcolm Nazareth
|
|
|
