Day 2 of Elijah Interfaith Summer School
Monday 3rd August 2020 — Hosted in Jerusalem, participants zoomed-in from around the world
We started the first session with Jonathan Wittenberg, Rabbi of the New North London Synagogue.
Do I go by my notes or what stayed with me? Talking of ‘staying with me’ it is the things that stayed with Jonathan that stay with me. I believe those things that stay with us have because we in that moment have learned a truth without expecting. Even more curious these moments of truth are often learned outside a place of worship.
He told the story of when watching the news with his father, his father asked him, “So what are you going to do with your life?” That was a moment of truth that got Jonathan pondering.
We were looking at the question of meaning and how religion provides a way of understanding our lives. He was speaking specifically about how Judaism provides meaning. Yet we were meeting as Faith people and I am particularly interested in how stories from other places, particularly other religions, speak to us.
Jonathan relayed a story he had heard from a Christian context. It was of a minister visiting a woman in hospital who was the soul of the church. She felt disabled by her hospitalisation. Her minister asked if she could still use the phone, she said she could so he gave her a list of people to phone and see how they were. His request gave her a purpose.
He then told the story of a neighbour he had known since childhood. She had been bereaved and had struggled with the loss of her husband. He met her on the street and had a chat. She spoke of the difficulties and took a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe away a tear. She noticed a flower imprint on it and commented on its beauty. She then said that until that moment she had not noticed anything so absorbed had she been in her grief.
These moments had stayed with Jonathan and the power of them were somehow staying with me.
We then took a fifteen-minute break. You definitely need a break while working with zoom.
The second session was led by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of the Orthodox Church. His Grace was happy to facilitate the session through questions. If I use the principle of what stayed with me it was his final meditative thought. He asked us to draw a circle in the sand and lines to the centre. Each line is a path to God. It reminded me of an image I referred to after having an experience some 12 years ago when I felt the unity of all things. I saw it like a bicycle wheel with many spokes but all leading to the centre and as His Grace, I saw that the closer we got to the centre the closer we got to each other. Not long after this, I was having a conversation with a devotee of Hare Krishna and although speaking different languages of faith I understood her spiritual journey.
The 3rd and final session of the day was led by Karma Lekshe Tsomo an Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego.
What stays with me about Karma is what she projects. She projects her message of loving-kindness and happiness. Indeed she doesn’t really have to speak as you can see that this person has found meaning and is living from it. I note that I am observing the person as they speak their message. I am weighing up their body language, their face, their tone and my emotional connection to what they are saying. If I can see the message it is much easier to understand it.
I also note that Karma was brought up Protestant though found meaning in Buddhism. She spoke of having to do the work yourself in Buddism whereas in evangelical Christianity Jesus has done it all for you. I asked her why she didn’t choose the easier option. I can’t remember the answer she gave other than that way was not for her.
This prompted me back to the earlier conversion with His Grace. He also moved from Anglicanism to Orthodoxy as he found a great fullness in it. As I reflect on what I am hearing and my own life I think we have to find meaning in something such as a religion for it to help us find meaning in life. If we don’t understand it, it won’t have meaning for us.
I am thinking about a question asked by a Muslim colleague about Christ arguing with Satan. For him, it is not possible for the Holy to meet with a figure such as Satan. I am also thinking of Karma and her beliefs in reincarnations. There are aspects of other faiths that I can understand and there are aspects I don’t and some of them greatly puzzle me. And then I turn to my own faith and I realise there are aspects of it that puzzle me hence I integrate those bits in which I find meaning. It is clear and not really a surprise that humans will find meaning in different things and we will be puzzled by each other.
Yet as in Jonathan's first session there is much in the stories of others that we too can find meaning without being part of their faith tradition.
Best day,
g
