'Sacred Texts' Service Embraces Common Ground Among Faiths.
'Sacred Texts' service embraces common ground among faiths
By Andrew Adler
On the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America, several hundred people gathered at a Louisville church to condemn hatred and celebrate some essential truths that unite many of the world’s religions.
Dubbed “An Honoring of Sacred Texts,” the hour-long interfaith service Saturday at Highland Baptist Church declared -- in speeches, song and fervent prayer – an imperative for peace. Nearly every available seat was filled, and the voices -- whether from pew or pulpit -- were articulate and determined.
“It’s a significant way to remember what unites us among faith traditions and cultures,” said Maria Price, who attended the service. “On a day like 9/11 that’s important anyway, but all the more important when we have individuals in the name of Christianity seeking to claim ultimate truths and who actually do deeds that are divisive.”
Price was alluding to Gainesville, Fla., pastor Terry Jones, who had vowed to burn a copy of the Koran on the anniversary but later canceled that plan. His intention, however, spurred Louisville’s faith community to organize the Highland Baptist service.
“Here in Louisville we don’t burn sacred texts. We honor them,” Terry Taylor, executive director of Interfaith Paths to Peace, told his listeners.
On a table just in front of him were examples of those texts: Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, Sikh, Hindu, Baha’i. One by one, representatives of each faith stepped up to the pulpit to read aloud for a few minutes. Songs were offered in English and Arabic.
“See the divine in others,” sang Michael Kessler, a Louisville composer and musician. Voices United, a melding of western and sub-Sahara African vocalists, swayed to the tune of “Anta Adhimun” and “Do Unzibula.”
The Highland Baptist service was one of several events organized around the 9/11 anniversary. Louisville’s urban firehouses held commemorative ceremonies, raising flags to half-staff at the very minutes – 9:59 and 10:28 a.m. -- that the first and second World Trade Towers fell in lower Manhattan. Those flags will be flown each year only on Sept. 11.
Some 341 New York City firefighters were killed in the attacks.
“I know they’re way up there, but they’re still our brothers, they’re family,” said Jonathan Scrivner, a sergeant with Truck 7 at 1025 Rubel Ave. “I know you hear that cliché around our department, but we’re family throughout the whole country. My heart goes out to every one of those members and their families.”
As the flag hung in the stillness, Askia Muhammad sat quietly at the rear of Highland Baptist, a copy of the Koran beside him.
Contrary to views held by various extremists, Muhammad said, “Islam teaches religious tolerance more than any other religion.”
“I think it’s important for people to know that the Koran teaches this,” he emphasized. “A lot of people don’t know that when you come (across someone) who doesn’t believe in Islam, one of the verses says, ‘Turn away from him and say Peace.’ How can you find something more tolerant than if I turn away from you and say ‘Peace’ if you don’t believe what I believe in?”
With Judaism, Christianity and Islam all emerging from a shared, monotheistic impulse, there was much common territory to be claimed.
“Love thy neighbor as thyself,” Mitzi Friedlander read from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, echoing a tenet that arcs from Leviticus to Jesus. “Let us cast away the deeds of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.”
Henry Harris, a member of Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church on Brownsboro Road, attended the service “to show unity in response to a lot of the hatred I’ve been witnessing this week. The guy from Florida spurred me on because of his hateful choice.”
Sitting next to him, Nancy Harris – who observes the Baha’i faith – said that “our hope this morning is that we want to know more about what is truly important to the heart of the holy one.”
Thanking his hosts for “getting me to the church on time,” Amarjit Singh Chopra read from a Sikh text that declared, “the Lord’s name is the truth.” An excerpt from the first chapter of the Koran, which devout Muslims recite 11 times daily, instructs one to “Ask our merciful God for the guidance, the strength and the light to stay on the right path.”
After organist Austin Echols and the congregation closed the service with “This is My Song,” Taylor stood under the pulpit, shaking hands and encouraging further exchanges.
“The better we know each other, the more peaceful our community, our nation and the world is,” he said. “I find more and more that people who say hateful things about other religions don’t know those people. When they meet them and talk to them, they find out they’re just like the rest of us.”
By Andrew Adler
On the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America, several hundred people gathered at a Louisville church to condemn hatred and celebrate some essential truths that unite many of the world’s religions.
Dubbed “An Honoring of Sacred Texts,” the hour-long interfaith service Saturday at Highland Baptist Church declared -- in speeches, song and fervent prayer – an imperative for peace. Nearly every available seat was filled, and the voices -- whether from pew or pulpit -- were articulate and determined.
“It’s a significant way to remember what unites us among faith traditions and cultures,” said Maria Price, who attended the service. “On a day like 9/11 that’s important anyway, but all the more important when we have individuals in the name of Christianity seeking to claim ultimate truths and who actually do deeds that are divisive.”
Price was alluding to Gainesville, Fla., pastor Terry Jones, who had vowed to burn a copy of the Koran on the anniversary but later canceled that plan. His intention, however, spurred Louisville’s faith community to organize the Highland Baptist service.
“Here in Louisville we don’t burn sacred texts. We honor them,” Terry Taylor, executive director of Interfaith Paths to Peace, told his listeners.
On a table just in front of him were examples of those texts: Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, Sikh, Hindu, Baha’i. One by one, representatives of each faith stepped up to the pulpit to read aloud for a few minutes. Songs were offered in English and Arabic.
“See the divine in others,” sang Michael Kessler, a Louisville composer and musician. Voices United, a melding of western and sub-Sahara African vocalists, swayed to the tune of “Anta Adhimun” and “Do Unzibula.”
The Highland Baptist service was one of several events organized around the 9/11 anniversary. Louisville’s urban firehouses held commemorative ceremonies, raising flags to half-staff at the very minutes – 9:59 and 10:28 a.m. -- that the first and second World Trade Towers fell in lower Manhattan. Those flags will be flown each year only on Sept. 11.
Some 341 New York City firefighters were killed in the attacks.
“I know they’re way up there, but they’re still our brothers, they’re family,” said Jonathan Scrivner, a sergeant with Truck 7 at 1025 Rubel Ave. “I know you hear that cliché around our department, but we’re family throughout the whole country. My heart goes out to every one of those members and their families.”
As the flag hung in the stillness, Askia Muhammad sat quietly at the rear of Highland Baptist, a copy of the Koran beside him.
Contrary to views held by various extremists, Muhammad said, “Islam teaches religious tolerance more than any other religion.”
“I think it’s important for people to know that the Koran teaches this,” he emphasized. “A lot of people don’t know that when you come (across someone) who doesn’t believe in Islam, one of the verses says, ‘Turn away from him and say Peace.’ How can you find something more tolerant than if I turn away from you and say ‘Peace’ if you don’t believe what I believe in?”
With Judaism, Christianity and Islam all emerging from a shared, monotheistic impulse, there was much common territory to be claimed.
“Love thy neighbor as thyself,” Mitzi Friedlander read from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, echoing a tenet that arcs from Leviticus to Jesus. “Let us cast away the deeds of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.”
Henry Harris, a member of Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church on Brownsboro Road, attended the service “to show unity in response to a lot of the hatred I’ve been witnessing this week. The guy from Florida spurred me on because of his hateful choice.”
Sitting next to him, Nancy Harris – who observes the Baha’i faith – said that “our hope this morning is that we want to know more about what is truly important to the heart of the holy one.”
Thanking his hosts for “getting me to the church on time,” Amarjit Singh Chopra read from a Sikh text that declared, “the Lord’s name is the truth.” An excerpt from the first chapter of the Koran, which devout Muslims recite 11 times daily, instructs one to “Ask our merciful God for the guidance, the strength and the light to stay on the right path.”
After organist Austin Echols and the congregation closed the service with “This is My Song,” Taylor stood under the pulpit, shaking hands and encouraging further exchanges.
“The better we know each other, the more peaceful our community, our nation and the world is,” he said. “I find more and more that people who say hateful things about other religions don’t know those people. When they meet them and talk to them, they find out they’re just like the rest of us.”
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