The Interfaith Community of South County offers hope to thousands in Gilroy and Morgan Hill, especially those who may otherwise feel lonely or vulnerable. The kind of trust and respect members of our community have for one another encourages us to love our neighbor, to love the stranger, and sometimes even to love our “enemies.”
Our interfaith work is not that different from what we saw on the national level on Tuesday, Jan. 21, as our country continued the long tradition (92 years) of an Inaugural Prayer Service at The National Cathedral. Distinct in this service was the offering of prayers led by many faith representatives.
A national prayer service must not be not just one religion imposed upon the nation but must reflect the United States’ intention to allow ALL faiths to be practiced, as a choice. Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish and Native American voices came to bless our nation moving forward with a new presidential leader.
As I watched the beauty of this service unfold, I felt as if I were at one of our local Interfaith community gatherings for prayer. And it was hopeful.
The Episcopal National Cathedral is a “House of Prayer for All People.” They are extremely comfortable with recognizing that God is much bigger than we could ever imagine. There are many paths to the goodness, truth and mercy of a loving Creator of all humankind. The gathering was to pray for unity without uniformity; a “unity that serves the common good.”
Those of us whose religions are rooted in the Abrahamic traditions will have recognized the prophetic, pastoral voice leading the nation to unite under some common understandings of what it means to be “one Nation under God.”
Bishop Mariann Budde offered her reflections by considering three basic foundations for unity, found in the sacred texts of our various faiths:
• Honoring the dignity of every human being as children of God;
• Honesty in private conversation and public discourse; speaking truth, even when it may cost us;
• Humility, which we all need because we all make mistakes. We must humble ourselves to admit our mistakes and correct them; we need each other to be the nation we are called to be.
Of these three pillars the first one named is foundational to all. Without honoring the dignity of every human being, our country will never truly live in to its claim, E Pluribus Unum: Out of Many, One, the motto of the United States proposed by our first Congress July 4, 1776, ratified in 1782, and emblazoned on our Great Seal.
Respecting the dignity of every human being is foundational to the faith Bishop Budde professes and which I share. It is the capstone of the promises made in every Episcopal Baptism, a Baptismal Covenant that is renewed at least once a year and lived every day.
Coming out of our shared sacred texts, this foundational principle is exactly why we are called to accept all people as equal, as our Declaration of Independence proclaims. Without respecting the dignity of every human being, we cannot be the United States.
How do we accomplish this? Our Nation needs this message, calling ALL of us to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8). This pastoral message is intended for our whole country and people of God would say the whole world.
We cannot be distracted by fear and threats of disunity; we are called to continue our community building to fulfill what God intends for the common good, because we are all beloved.
The Rev. Mary B. Blessing, a longtime resident of Morgan Hill, is the Episcopal Priest of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real. She is an active member of Interfaith Clergy Alliance of South County.
