Whatever you start others will continue.

Tuesday, May 25th 2010
By Krishna and Noah :)

Today was our mid-week day of rest. In the late morning, we traveled a short distance to Germantown to St. Vincent de Paul Church for a Catholic mass. Lynn, a lay leader at St. Vincent’s met us and gave us a quick tour of the church and introduced us to Father Richie Rock. Lynn explained us her tenants of Catholicism. Father Richie Rock told us his experience of being a Catholic priest and his decision to push back upon the larger Church and the teachings of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Both Lynn and Father Rock further told us how Catholicism has shaped their lives.

After a Q and A session with Father Rock, Lynn led us to a chapel where a mass took place. It was surprising to see that besides the eleven people from our AB crew and Rev. Nicole, there were only five other people, who may have identified themselves as Catholics. This could have been due to the fact that it was a normal weekday and many others were at work, but what was surprising was the fact that mass would still take place every day at the set time regardless of the number of people present. As non-Catholics, we were a little bit lost during the mass as we did not know the proper call and response; however, Lynn and Sister Judith provided explanation.

After the mass, we headed to the dining room, where we had our lunch (peanut butter and jelly sandwich (for vegeterains) and Tuna (for Noah and Kim)). At the lunch, both Lynn and Sister Judith shared their stories with us and how through a structured religion they both found personal meaning and reconciled their beliefs with those of Vatican. Throughout the day, most of the participants in the AB crew noted how inspired they were with these two women.
In the mid-afternoon we were introduced to a non-profit organization housed in St. Vincent de Paul Church called Face-to-Face. We met with the executive director of the organization, Mary Kay, who told us the importance of service in her life as well how the organization helped shaped the lives of those in need. She also spoke about the importance of empowering her clients with personal interactions. We toured their facilities, including a Health Center, Legal Center, Art Studio, and Washeteria. We then spent the afternoon playing with and tutoring the elementary-aged kids in their After School Program.

We returned to Mishkan Shalom around six . After dinner ( Noah made excellent wilted spinach with garlic and oil- it was amazing), we watched a documentary – Pray the devil back to hell – that focused in Women’s peace movement during Liberian Civil War. The movie highlighted the inter-faith coalition of Muslim and Christian women in the country to advocate for peaceful ending and democratization of their country.

The movie was followed by a Reflection session, where the group discussed the message of the movie and how putting aside faith and coming together to fight for common ground was important in achieving the desired goal. Some of the quotes that stood out in the documentary were:
“Bullets do not distinguish between Muslim and Christian.”
“We are the ones that we have been waiting for.”
“Words are more harmful more than bullets.”
After this, a reflection on Catholic encounter took place. Although some Catholics believed that St. Vincent de Paul church was one of the most liberal churches of Catholicism, others believed it was a welcoming and what they were missing from their Catholic faith. All in all, we found it to be an inspiring day and we look forward to tomorrow’s adventure with our continued service with New Jerusalem Now and our introduction with Baha’i faith.