are interfaith religious services feasible?

[cellio]

The latest issue of Moment reproduces part of a catalogue page listing "communion wafers (kosher)". It makes me wonder who the target market is, but sadly, that information is absent.
But that's not what I'm here to write about...
My rabbi does a lot of interfaith work locally, mostly

Comments

[tangerinpenguin]

OK, trying to find shared elements: generic praise, celebration, a lot of the stuff you'd find in Psalms for example, would be worth mining. Appeals for help with issues of the community at large have potential, but you either end up with your focus narrowing to one shared secular issue (bigotry, say) or have a couple of nights follwed by nothing sustainable. Beyond that, I see unnavigable minefields

[cellio]

OK, trying to find shared elements:

Good suggestions. Thanks!

She didn't say what frequency they're aiming for (I suspect they don't know yet), though I got a vague impression of "monthly". That's infrequent enough that they could probably assemble several themed services like you suggested, but it's still regular. On the other hand, I would worry about maintaining momentum, especially in the beginning, with something that infrequent.

If this is actually getting traction, I'd get on board with the idea of pulling it away from generic "worship light" and toward ongoing discussion and education once there are stakeholders other than the organizer who can be lobbied.

Good point. I don't even know how many people she's got coming to this, so there are a lot of unknowns right now. I think the community could really benefit from a more education-oriented plan, but would probably say "ho hum" to "worship light", as you put it. So I'll try to nudge things in this direction.

On the other hand, if she's got a lot of noble ideas and

[sanpaku]

You know that I study this sort of thing in my academic background... There's a long history of various attempts at interfaith services. This was a big deal at the turn of the century, with interfaith conferences of liberal clergymen. A real learning experience. But I can't really understand a group that would be trying to reinvent something like that. Wouldn't most of what's done in a Unitarian service suit everyone? (And, conversely, have no meaning, but that's another story...)

[sanpaku]

Sorry about the implication -- didn't mean that Unitarian services had no meaning -- meant that something that only referred to God sans divine Jesus, trinity, princples of grace and salvation, etc., wouldn't have much specific content for people who came to a service from a trinitarian, Jewish, or Muslim background. Wouldn't really express most of what makes those faiths what they are.

Unitarians

[cellio]

Hmm, I hadn't thought about that, but you may be right in saying that Unitarians have already invented a lot of this. I wonder if they have any Unitarians in their group

[kayre]

I volunteered for a time as organist for interfaith services put on by an organization that involved Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Unitarians and Ba'hai. It really didn't bother me to not mention the Trinity, especially since I'm more God-centered than Jesus-centered anyway. We used a printed liturgy to avoid slips of the tongue, and had a small hymnal of about 40 hymns, mostly from the Unitarian hymnal because they had already addressed all the inclusiveness issues. And we drew very heavily on the Psalms as a common element.

A link for you if you're interested, or to pass on if it might be helpful: http://www.urcsjc.org/

[cellio]

Thanks for the information!

I assume I'm supposed to be able to see content at that site (beyond the "who we are") blurb, but I'm not seeing it. Just a missing image at the top and an address in the left-hand frame. I wonder what's wrong. (Hmm. Popped it into IE and it wants me to download a Flash plugin. I didn't, but I now see at least three places-where-things-should-be indicators in the left frame. Still don't see any text/html, though.)

[amergina]

On the Kosher wafer bit...

... I think I remember a group of Christians who kept some of the dietary restrictions of Judaism.

Or maybe I'm misremembering. :) I don't know. But something like that might explain it.

[cellio]

Oh good point. I think I've heard that Seventh-Day Adventists keep some of the dietary laws. I don't know how thoroughly and what else they keep.

[xiphias]

Kosher communion wafers would be for Jews-For-Jesus, basically. Both for Chrisitans who claim to be Jews (who wigg me out), and the much less creepy, Christians who choose to follow some Jewish laws but who are aware that they are Christian.

[cellio]

Good point! I had forgotten all about J4J (wishful thinking, I guess :-) ).