Grant Rissler, Mennonite Central Committee

More than 70 people from churches in Central and Eastern Pa., Ontario and New Jersey gathered Feb. 8-10 to learn more about how to build dialogue between Christians and Muslims at the annual Eastern District/Franconia Conference Winter Peace Retreat, held at Spruce Lake Retreat near Canadensis, Pa.

“My hope for this retreat,” said Evie Shellenberger, former Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) worker in Iran, “is that we can rid ourselves of the blindness we have towards our Iranian neighbors and Muslim neighbors.”

Shellenberger, along with her husband Wally, provided primary input for the weekend, sharing a range of stories showing how their MCC assignment in a student exchange program in Qom, Iran gave them a chance to live a life of dialog with Muslims in that region.

Noting that in three years of living and traveling in Iran no one ever expressed hatred towards them because of their U.S. citizenship, Wally shared that they had a “strong sense that everywhere we went, God had preceded us.”

Through story, Evie shared several lessons she had learned during those years about dialogue, including one from an Iranian professor who told them not to let their Christian faith weaken. “The stronger you are in your faith,” the professor said, “the better our dialogue will be.”

The Shellenbergers suggested that though most Christians in the U.S. do not have the same first-hand experiences, they can counteract hatred between Christians and Muslims if they don’t “feed into conversations that are negative and degrading” towards Muslims as a group.

Also, Evie noted that there are many opportunities in the U.S. to develop relationships with Muslims here at home.

Aldo Siahaan and Muhammed Imam of Philadelphia Praise Center shared a concrete example of how the congregation reached out to Indonesian Muslim community in Philadelphia by opening up their church for Muslims to pray during the holy month of Ramadan. About 80 Muslims accepted the invitation and more relationships were formed when 30 members of the congregation joined their Muslim guests in a meal in the evening.

“This is the way we show our love,” said Siahaan. He shared that one of the Muslim leaders told him that “if we had this type of relationship in Indonesia, we wouldn’t have a problem” referring to outbreaks of violence between Christians and Muslims there.

When a local TV station did a story on the church opening its doors to Muslims, Siahaan said he received angry calls from other Christian pastors who told him it was wrong to allow Muslims “to step on the holy ground” of the church.

Siahaan said that some Muslims have come back to the church since then and worshipped with the congregation.

Twenty youth also attended the retreat and with leadership from Scott Hutchinson, pastor at St. Andrew’s United Church of Christ in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, focused their discussions on the topic “Living with Diversity.”

The annual retreat is organized by The Eastern District/Franconia Conference Peace and Justice Committee. The focus of next year’s retreat will be restorative justice. For more information about other events, please check out the committee website at http://efpjc.ppjr.org/.

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David Landis
dplandis@franconiaconference.org

In the morning I often go into the old Nazareth market to buy fresh pita bread for breakfast, where a small bakery is located on the corner near the White Mosque. The bakery is a maze of clockwork conveyor belts that passes dough through the oven, depositing hot puffed pita balloons onto the tray below, where I can watch them deflate as they cool. The store is run by a hunched-over greying Muslim man with glowing eyes. He speaks English well and is always friendly when I come to buy my daily bread.

The other day when I went to get a pita pizza at the bakery, I decided to take an opportunity to practice my developing Arabic skills. I began with Marhaba (hello), and he responded, Keef halak (how are you doing?). After I replied Mabsut (good), he corrected me by stating that I should say instead, Hamdu l’Allah, meaning “Thanks be to God.”

He asked me how we should respond to this and I ventured, Allah Akbar, meaning “God is greater.” Happy with my correct reply, he went on to tell me that we should first thank God before saying we are doing well because God is greater than what we want or how we are feeling. He reminded me it is because of God that we can do well, as God is greater and we must submit with gratitude.

The White Mosque was originally constructed to foster better relations between Christians and Muslims in Nazareth. A blessing of accountability was given to the mosque, indicating that if a Muslim preacher ever spoke against the Christian community in Nazareth, the minaret would crash to the ground and destroy the building. To this day the mosque stands near the center of the Old Market, where many come to converse, trade, and interact.

I am challenged by the initiative of the Muslims of Nazareth to extend a hand of coexistent hospitality to their Christian neighbors. I am encouraged by the 138 Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectuals who came together in October to unanimously declare the common ground between Christianity and Islam in a historic document entitled, “A Common Word Between Us and You.” Their invitation to the global Christian community is that we take Jesus’ two greatest commandments seriously, to love God and to love our neighbors.

Learning a new language is a humbling experience; one that teaches much about the contexts and cultures of our neighbors’ lives. It is a deliberate decision to learn to love what is unfamiliar and greater than ourselves, which directs our attention to God.

Choosing a humble learner’s approach is the act that begins the process of mutual understanding, the essential initial building blocks of peacemaking through transformational relationships. This is the bridge to taking the next difficult step that Jesus requires of us, to love our enemies as well as our neighbors.

By living in a place where I am required to interact with Jews, Muslims, and Christians on a daily basis in order to go about my life, I am continually learning that indeed, God is greater than our differences. Open and honest relationships, like God, acknowledge and transcend the labels we have constructed to separate ourselves from each other. The invitation to love our neighbors is open and awaiting our participation.

For more information on the letter “A Common Word Between Us and You” sent October 13, 2007 and the Mennonite Church USA response visit: Mennoweekly.org

Photos by David Landis

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Jessica Walter
jwalter@franconiaconference.org

What if your family had to move to a new town? What would you need in this new area? You’d need a place to live, jobs, a new bank, a new doctor, and new schools for your children. You’d also need a way to get around and a map or kind neighbor to show you where things are. What if you were moving to a foreign country because of fear for the safety of your family, with little more than a suitcase full of some clothing and priceless family memories? What more would you need then? Not only a house, but also furniture and other necessary housewares. Not only schools for your children, but also language classes for yourself. Not only jobs and a new doctor, but also caring people who can help you walk through the fear of settling your family into a new country.

These are the questions being answered and the needs being met by Blooming Glen Mennonite Church, Plains Mennonite Church, and Souderton Mennonite Church. These congregations are assisting three families recently resettled in the Philadelphia area by Lutheran Children and Family Service’s Refugee Resettlement program.

Blooming Glen
Blooming Glen has been helping to resettle refugee families in the United States for around four years. According to Patsy Miller, coordinator for Blooming Glen’s ministry, their first two families were Muslim Meskhetian Turks. Blooming Glen is currently helping a Burmese family who arrived in the United States three months ago.

“Working with these families has certainly been a positive learning experience for all involved,” says Patsy. “It has brought us even closer as a church working together to help this family rebuild their lives here in America.

It has also been a joy watching them blossom in their newfound freedom. The Turkish families are still in touch with many of our church members. The sad part for us this time is seeing the family from Burma leave us for Colorado where they are joining family before we have really had time to establish a long term friendship. We will miss this wonderful family and wish them God’s blessings on their new journey in America.”

Patsy also noted that providing support to a very strict Muslim family has been a struggle; one challenge Blooming Glen faced in resettling that family was finding a job for the father where there was no pork in the building. However, she also expressed Blooming Glen’s joy in being able to share Christ’s love to those of other faiths.

“I think that any time we open ourselves up to sharing and learning about each other’s faith, we build bridges of friendship and peace. It certainly has broadened our worldview, learning about the families’ cultures and experiences of living in a refugee camp or as an outcast people like the Meskhetian Turks.”

Plains
Plains has also participated in resettling refugee families over the years, including a Sudanese family in 2000, and currently is supporting an Iraqi family originally from Baghdad.

from left: The Na family. Sha Mi Na, Ray Ha Na, and Kate Landis play on their scooters. Center photo: The Issa family at Plains Mennonite Church’s retreat in the fall.

Steve Landis coordinates the resettlement efforts at Plains and notes that when the idea of helping to resettle a refugee family was proposed to the congregation, people were immediately interested in participating and supporting the family.

“Our friendship with this family and the support we’ve been able to provide feels like a contribution of peace into a situation where violence and hatred continue to destroy or impact many lives,” reflects Steve. “It’s been a lot of work to set up a household for a family of six and help them work through the many challenges that face strangers to our culture and language. However, it has also been very rewarding to be a part of a group that is committed to sharing God’s love with our neighbors and to feel the emotional connections between our Iraqi friends and the church family. ”

Souderton
When Souderton was asked to help an Iraqi family settle into the area, Pastor Gerry Clemmer asked Dorothy Engstrom to coordinate their efforts. That next Sunday, while sharing about the project and asking for volunteers, Dorothy told her congregation that she agreed to serve as coordinator for several reasons: the history of the Mennonite Church and in particular the congregation’s commitment to peace rather than war; the congregation’s continual prayer for peace in worship services and in private prayers since the beginning of the war; and the fact that “even though one congregation can’t stop the suffering and death of the war, it could help one family and thus live out its commitment to peace.”

In fact, Dorothy was attracted to the Mennonite church partly because of “its vision to bring social justice and peace to those who are in need and suffering.”

Souderton has reached out in this ministry of resettlement for several years and has also helped families from Cambodia, Cuba, and Africa. The congregation is “convinced that participating in this ministry is at the heart of what we understand it means to be followers of Jesus and to live by Sermon on the Mount values,” says Dorothy. “Reaching out to ‘strangers’ and those in need of our help is a witness to our commitment to Jesus as well as being the Church beyond what is familiar and comfortable to us. When we are made aware of needs, how can we not respond? It reflects who we are as God’s people.”

Dorothy has been blessed by the enthusiastic response her congregation has shown in volunteering to take care of the needs of their refugee family. It has also provided “an avenue for persons to work together on various teams who may not have known each other,” due to the size of the congregation and two worship services.

“We are also learning a lot about the resiliency of the human spirit as we get to know our family. They have drawn out of us feelings of love, compassion, and caring. With that resiliency comes the reality that our Iraqi family has extended family still living as refugees in Jordan as well as family still in Iraq. Our joy in relating to the family is tempered by the reality that there are an estimated 2.3 million refugees from this war with only about 170,000 approved for resettlement in all the countries of the world.”

“Globally, even though we are helping just one family of six persons, it is one way of lending our voice against the pain and suffering brought about by the war,” says Dorothy. “In some small way, it is a redemptive act in the face of mass suffering, destruction, horror, and trauma.”

Saja and Israa Joda (Issa) learn to fish with Pastor Dawn Ranck (Plains). Dorothy Engstrom (top left) and the Sahul family visit the Freddy Hill Farm.

photos provided by the congregations featured

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Lora Steiner
lsteiner@franconiaconference.org

Church buildings come in many shapes and sizes, but their purpose is always the same: to provide a space for worship, prayer, and gatherings. This fall, Philadelphia Praise Center used its space to build a bridge. The church, located in South Philadelphia, opened its doors to the local Indonesian Muslim community during Ramadan and shared a feast.

Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC) is a young congregation, just two years old, but it has always had an interest in connecting with the local community. Congregational leader Aldo Siahaan, who coordinated the event, says the church has a desire to reach out to “all nations represented here in Philadelphia.”

Aware that the Indonesian Muslim community had no mosque or space of its own large enough for the holiday gathering, Siahaan originally offered PPC’s building to the group in the fall of 2006, but nothing came of it. This past September, he was contacted by Muslim leaders who asked if they could use the building in October, during Ramadan.

Siahaan shared the request with members of the church, many of whom are Indonesian immigrants themselves. The congregation was supportive, and on the day of the gathering, church members prepared food, helped with the sound system, and even directed people to bathrooms. About 30 Christians and 100 Muslims shared the meal.

For PPC member Andrew Liemon, the event was remarkable because it

would have been nearly impossible to have such a gathering in Indonesia.

About 90 percent of Indonesians are Muslim and there’s a long history of conflict between the two groups. Many Indonesian Christians, including about half of the Indonesian community in South Philly, have migrated to the United States because of religious persecution.

For Siahaan, that history makes it all the more important to reach out. “We want to show them Jesus’ love,” he said. “We believe that can affect people in so many different ways.”

Andrew Liemon agreed. “We’re just trying to show our love to them,” said Liemon. “They might have thought that Christians and Muslims would never get along and we just want to break that pattern and let them know that we are here for them.”

Tim Moyer, who attends PPC while he’s at university, was invited to take photos at the gathering. Moyer says he was encouraged to see the church interact with people from another faith.

“It wasn’t necessarily people they agreed with, but they used their space [to show hospitality],” said Moyer, who noted that crossing those barriers can be threatening. “If Christ is inside of us,” he added, “We don’t have to have fear.”

Siahaan says he hopes there will be more opportunities for interaction in the future. “When we become friends, it’s easier for us to show the love of God, it’s easier for us to share the love of Jesus,” he said.

“We just want to do our part,” says Andrew Liemon, “And we pray that God will do his part. There’s nothing more or less than that.”

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