Ecumenical & Interfaith Network - PCUSA

Shared Models

This page's models, strategies, and curricula that have fostered ecumenical and/or interfaith relationships include contributions from network members. Contribute yours!  They may be examples pointing to "best practices" -- methods and processes that have proven to be especially effective in reaching desired objectives. Or they may be new and experimental efforts.

| Sharing space | Interfaith travel | Prison ministry | Interfaith camping | Religion learning experiences

| Dialoguing | Meeting and empowering neighbors | Combating racism |

Interfaith understanding for youth

Walking the Walk

Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill are among the congregations represented in a high school youth program of the Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia known as "Walking the Walk." The name implies living out values, not just talking. A schematization of the program divides it into four segments:

• Interfaith engagement through visiting houses of worship, sharing ritual objects, engaging in question and answer time with religious leaders
• Creative reflection through such activities as writing poetry, making music, creating mosaic tiles
• Service learning through such activities as spending time with disabled adults, responding to book requests from incarcerated individuals, taking care of the earth
• Community building through breaking down stereotypes, building bridges, forming relationships with adult mentors, bringing a diverse community together for a Day of Service

The average Walk the Walk individual spent 32 contact hours in the program, according to the summer 2008 update. Groups gather 13 times in a year. Teenagers are provided with with the experiences, skills, and resources necessary to live in a diverse world, deepen their own identities, and break through walls that divide them from others. Abby Stamelman Hocky is the center's executive director. Presbyterian minister Sherri Hausser (pictured) is a member of its executive committee.

TO TOP

Sharing space

A Presbyterian and a Jewish congregation

In a time when two or more congregations increasingly use the same building, synagogues and churches are sometimes sharing common space. In 1997, when the Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland was doing renovation in its building complex, it invited Bethesda Jewish Synagogue -- which shared its space -- to participate in the finances and in the renovation design and finance committees. Ownership remains with the PC(USA). A covenant states the basis for living together, and a new building is appropriately named Covenant Hall. Fresh dialogue was needed when there was a fracture in Presbyterian-Jewish relationships in the aftermath of the PC(USA) 216th General Assembly (2004). Out of their dialogue came a common statement they sent to the General Assembly Council (GAC). Susan Andrews, moderator of the 215th PC(USA) General Assembly (2003), was pastor of Bradley Hills (1989-2006). See the story as told by an Alban Institute writer. Read the brief advice offered in a PC(USA)-produced brochure.

TO TOP

Sacred hospitality

World Pilgrims of Atlanta

Even when it involves sightseeing, spiritual pilgrimage differs from tourist travel because it focuses on deepening the spirituality of the travelers.This is the premise behind World Pilgrims of Atlanta who -- as Jews, Christians, and Muslims -- have made a series of journeys to Turkey, Morocco, Israel, and Jordan. For a youth trip, each one took a Myers Briggs test, after which the group discussed personality and spiritual types. The religiously and racially diverse groups regularly rotate roommate and meal partners to enable sharing. Jan Swanson (pictured), a member of Atlanta's Central Presbyterian Church, has provided key leadership. The Turkey trip is described in articles in Faith and the City. The 2006 youth journey is described in a Winter 2008 Review and Expositor article by Lanny Peters.

TO TOP

Youth together

Hands of Peace // Face to Face/Faith to Faith

Two programs that bring youth from troubled areas together, for a period of living with one, provide opportunities for Israelis and Palestinians to interact while visiting the U.S. The Hands of Peace interfaith organization, which receives funding from the United Church of Christ, brings Palestinians (both Christians and Muslims), Jewish Israelis, and Arab citizens of Israel to stay in local Chicago-area homes for two weeks in the summer. They meet with one another and with American teens, under the guidance of professional facilitators, for dialogue, team-building exercises, and cultural activities. During the rest of the year, the Middle East teens gather for follow-up meetings and projects, as do the U.S.-based high schoolers. The program is the result of efforts of a church, a synagogue, and a mosque.

Auburn Seminary's Face to Face / Faith to Faith program actually has participants not only from the Middle East but also from Northern Ireland and South Africa. The program also has a two-week component of living together in the summer -- in this case, together in a New York campground -- followed by programming throughout the remainder of the year. The on-site aspect involves dialogue, multifaith education, and communication skills building. The year=long aspect involves internet access. Presbyterian Katharine Henderson (pictured) has played a key role in this program and continues to do so.

TO TOP

A ministry of presence in prison and out

Parole Empowerment Partners

The New Mexico Council of Churches (NMCC) Congregation and Community Outreach program (CCONM) involves congregations in the lives of at-risk youth. The NMCC program's objective is to divert youth from involvement / re-involvement with the juvenile justice system, including reduction of multigenerational cycles of incarceration. It recruits and equips members of faith communities to serve as volunteers with community-based partners. Its Parole Empowerment Partners (PEP) program links youth about to be paroled with mentoring teams -- two or more persons, often from a single congregation -- who will support the youth toward accomplishment of his/her goals for completion of parole. The youth who have requested mentors and the volunteer team agree on goals and then work to accomplish them in a systematic way that empowers responsible decision-making. PEP provides training and ongoing support during the period of six to twelve months when someone from the team is in touch with the youth at least once a week. The CCONM coordinator is Presbyterian Daniel Erdman (pictured).

Camp New Happenings

Camp New Happenings, an ecumenical ministry sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Illinois, in 2008 will provide "the smallest victims of crime" -- pre-teen children of prisoners -- with an opportunity to have a week-long outdoor experience in which there is mutual giving and caring. The publicity speaks of children of prisoners as being "invisible," with no government entity taking any responsibility toward them. Episcopal diocese across the country are hoping to do something about this in collaboration with other faith communities.

Man-to-Man

Man-to-Man, known as M-2, recruits, screens,and orients men who are matched with prisoners at the South Dakota State Penitentiary or one of its satellites, whom they visit regularly. The South Dakota Council of Churches sponsors the program, which asks church-affiliated men to engage in visits in a spirit of friendship -- not as counselor, preacher, or businessman but simply as a friend. They commit to visiting with one prisoner until he is "out the gate' through parole, transfer, or completion of a sentence. They visit for roughly an hour each time, several times a month, if possible.

Don Klassen, coordinator of the program, says, "M-2 sponsors are valuable because they have found forgiveness and are at peace with God, with others, and with themselves, and are willing to offer forgiveness to others.

TO TOP

Interfaith camping

Youth in the U.S. often experience camps as a venue for faith development. Newer communities in the U.S., such as Hindus, have adopted camping as a means for providing fellowship and education. (For example, read a story of camps run by several religious communities in the Detroit area.) It is in this context that interfaith camping should be viewed.

Learning from being in a workcamp setting together

Thirty college students took a Jewish-Muslim Alternative Spring Break together by traveling to New Orleans, setting up a camp site together, then joining to work on flood-damaged homes. In the weeks before the trip, the 15 Muslims and 15 Jews had learning sessions together led by a Jewish student center project coordinator and a Muslim chaplain. They looked at identity and tradition, opportunities for alliance, and personal goals for the trip. Once in New Orleans, they shared in making the kitchen of their campsite kosher; on the Friday of the trip, Muslims prayed with Jews sitting behind them; they all relaxed on the Jewish Sabbath the next day. Since the return from the trip, the Jewish students have joined the Muslims in working toward a paid position for their chaplain and a permanent prayer space in the university setting.

This information comes from the web site of the KOACH College Outreach project of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, in an article by Lindsay Katona, who helped coordinate the trip.

See the description of the interfaith youth camp in the Tacoma area of Washington state.

TO TOP

School learning experiences

Bringing together two religious groups from two high schools

Two graduates of the Unity Program in which students of New York's Al-Iman School (Muslim) and the Abraham Joshua Heschel School (Jewish) participated created a ten-minute video from interviews with their educators and classmates. The program was developed by Abraham's Vision, a conflict resolution and transformation organization. The high school program engages students through experiences based in their home school, interschool gatherings, and field trips. Students engage in internal dialogue as well as in dialogue with previously unknown persons of another faith community. The students and educators have learned that, in their interactions, they must give attention to the marked differences in each community's styles of formulating and articulating thoughts.

See the building blocks on which Abraham's Vision are based. The general curriculum outline is posted online but gives little sense of the programmatic interactions involved in it. See the Abraham's Vision web site, which is rich in its information content. Read the student blogs for insights into what has affected them.

Seeing knowledge about religion as necessary

When Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center was called in to help the schools in Modesto, California with an issue confronting them, he suggested that the word "tolerance" would be problematic since it seems to imply acceptance. Instead, Haynes simply worked to get agreement on a principle -- that all students, regardless of belief or lifestyle, have a right to be safe at school. A short time later, a small group of teachers developed a religion course for ninth graders with methods motivated by the same spirit. And, in the San Joaquin Valley -- home of religiously conservative Christians but now also of people of a variety of religions -- the Modesto school district made a world religions course a high school graduation requirement.

The Modesto experience suggests some strengths others could emulate:

• Provide teacher training. The biggest problem in teaching religion is not parent objection or the law, but the feeling of teachers that they are not prepared. Not only are Modesto teachers given 30 hours of instruction but they are also provided with occasional means for getting together to share what they are doing.
• Understand that neutrality can mean more than silence. Modesto seeks to adopt fairness by allocating the same curricular space to each religion, with an optional section of the curriculum on non-believers.
• Work with parents and religious leaders. The district asked religious leaders to review what they had prepared.
• Consider the course something that is needed, just like history.

Researchers have now identified what they consider some flaws: not enough attention to the negative aspects of religion; no guest speakers.

This information comes from Teaching Tolerance magazine, Fall 2007. See also the ABCs of teaching religion in schools: maintain neutrality, keep it academic, teach about the faith behind holidays, focus on respectful inquiry.

TO TOP

Dialoguing with one another

The Jewish-Muslim Dialogue Group of Los Angeles, California is dedicated to compassionate listening, which it describes as its "method and goal." They say, "We listen compassionately to the person telling her or his story. Where they were born, what it was like growing up, when they first became aware of 'the other side,' how they've interacted or fought with them, what if anything has changed them, and more." Their plan is to meet once a month, each time in a different home, to listen to one person's story. When they have listened without interrupting and the story is complete, they ask questions about things they have not understood or about things about which they would like to hear more. Afterwards, they share food and chat. The group has presented on their web sight useful brief material on compassionate listening and compassionate speaking, guidelines for presentation of one's story, and the difference between dialogue and debate.

TO TOP

Meeting and empowering neighbors

Speaking Across Differences  

"Speaking Across Differences brings Arab and Muslim new immigrants and citizens into dialogue with long time residents of other faiths and ethnicities. The intention of the program is to encourage people to make a "disciplined decision to listen to what somebody else has to say." It is an initiative of the Dialogue Project, whose founder-director is Marcia Kenney, a former executive director of the Jewish National Fund.

When 150 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Brooklynites gathered for a Speaking Across Differences program, they broke into pairs after they had eaten and chatted together. There followed a structured conversation:

• What is your first name? Tell your partner something about its language of origin, its meaning, and your personal story related to it.
• If you are a longtime resident, what was your first encounter with an immigrant (or what is changing in the neighborhood)? If you are an immigrant or new to the neighborhood, what early experience with long-time residents (or about coming to the neighborhood) can you share?

Partners were each given two minutes to respond to the questions. Afterward, several members of the audience told others about the experience of their partners. Next, a theater team played their own stories plus stories of others from the group.

The Dialogue Project says that dialogue is "a balance of advocacy and inquiry." Advocacy they define as reasoning with supportive data. Inquiry, they say, involves a suspension of reason that exposes one's mental models and gives another person a window to one's self. They say good dialogue requires each person to contribute, even if with only half-formed ideas; in a good dialogue, participants stay with it even when their beliefs are challenged.

“Hear Our Stories, Know Our Names”

“Our society tends to be more and more separated by economic class,” says Dolores Vail, [Maine Council of Churches] Economic Justice Program Director. “What is lacking is a meeting place where we can find common ground. That is the beginning of loving our neighbors as ourselves — recognizing people as being ‘our neighbors’ in the first place.”

The Maine Council of Churches’ drama about homelessness, “Hear Our Stories, Know Our Names,” written and performed by Mainers who have been or are homeless themselves, fulfills this need by bringing people from widely different backgrounds together, helping us recognize one another as neighbors. It is a first step to building sustainable communities in which no one is hungry, cold, jobless, or homeless. The Council’s goal is to bring this important story about homelessness to every part of the state.

More than fifty congregations have made possible over thirty performances from York to Bar Harbor, seen by thousands. Betty Wurtz, of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick, was part of a collaborative effort by seven churches that brought a performance of the play to the Theater Project in Brunswick. Betty describes this experience as one that was particularly meaningful. “Most intriguing of all is hearing people who are homeless speak with their own voices about their experiences. I helped make the performance in Brunswick happen and that was most meaningful to me.” Betty believes that coalition-building is one of the Maine Council of Churches’ most valuable contributions to the state. “Working together, the Council bridges gaps to make things happen in the Legislature and in the community. When churches and others do this together they succeed, and I appreciate that.”

This article is taken from the Maine Council of Churches’ April 2006 Newsletter, with permission. For more information, send an e-mail. To read a newspaper report, click here.

Amazing Faiths dinners

A book, The Amazing Faith of Texas by Roy Spence, provided inspiration for the Amazing Faiths of Houston project, gathering small groups in homes to share a meal, their faith, and exploration of their common values. A centralized organizational system received registrations of participants, arranged for grouping to achieve maximum diversity, and prepared brief guidelines. Each group had a trained facilitator present who used specially designed dialogue cards, derived from the Spence book, to lead the conversation. Planners recommended a simple meal and indicated the specific restrictions -- no alcohol nor pork whatsoever, a vegetarian option if any meat is served.

The guidelines for the two-hour evening said, "Be prepared to listen more than to talk. When your turn comes, share from your heart. You will not be asked to share anything uncomfortable or too private for you. The evening as a whole, however, might take you out of your "comfort zone."

The Houston project has resulted in Amazing Faiths Dinner Dialogue Initiative, available in other cities. It is expected that two or more organizations in an area will become sponsors. Cities now involved include Washington D.C., Oklahoma City, Chicago, Syracuse, New York. There is a sign-up page on a general web site.

Note: Another small home dinner experience of dialogue --  MultiFaith Tables of Eight -- is described on the web site of the MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio. Yet another organization, Common Tables has established a service whose goal is simple: get different people together, and have them eat dinner. The process is simple. Those wishing to participate sign up by internet, pay a small administrative fee, and are then assigned table-mates from their geographic region. Over the next six months, they dine together, each taking a turn at playing host. The only rule is that table-mates come from different backgrounds.

TO TOP

TO TOP

On this web site

• Local Action: more highlights on things that are happening
• Shared Models Archives: previously published Shared Models

Items marked with are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. For best results, right-click the link (or click and hold for Macintosh), select "save target as" and save the document to your desktop for viewing and printing. Click on the image in the right column for free download of the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

© 2006 Ecumenical & Interfaith Network - PCUSA