Interfaith worship service planners receive Human Rights Award

Thanksgiving may be a ways away, but those on the Human Rights and Diversity Commission have recently given thanks. This year, they are honoring four faith communities with a Human Rights Award, for their work planning an interfaith worship service. The interfaith worship service, a celebration held near Thanksgiving, brings a number of different religions to one event, to share prayer, song, food and gratitude.

“Expression of gratitude is so central to every faith,” noted Eden Prairie United Methodist Pastor Mike Miller about the Interfaith Worship Service, “this was kind of our common bond.”

Eden Prairie United Methodist Church, along with Pax Christ Catholic Community, Prairie Lutheran Church and American Muslim Community Center were all honored during Tuesday’s Eden Prairie City Council meeting, along with other recipients of the Human Rights Award (see sidebar). Those organizations were the main planners of the event, which this year also included Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College, Hindu Mandir of Minnesota, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Jay Phillips Center for Jewish-Christian Learning, Minnesota Zen Meditation Center and St. Andrew Lutheran Church.

The idea came about in 2006 when Trish Vanni, a Pax Christi parishioner, offered up the idea. She worked with Donna Kasbohm, who was starting her first year at Pax Christi as the worship and music director.

Kasbohm said Vanni had many contacts in the area, and Vanni did the hard work of inviting all the various denominations and bringing the group around the table for the first annual event.

Needless to say, it worked out well.

“People are very pleased with the whole notion,” Kasbohm said.

Working together

“It was a way for us to say that we want to rise above the brokenness and the bitterness of the world and to say we can be positive and work together,” said Miller.

The first year received a great response, he said. “Last year was as great or better.”

For the second year, the service ended with a meal. Miller noted that a business in St. Louis Park heard about the event and donated huge platters of rice and chicken curry. Add to that, attendees brought along different types of food to share.

The image that comes to Miller’s mind is a patchwork quilt: you have all these different pieces, “but they all, when put together, have a harmony.”

It was a “very amazing experience,” he said.

His thoughts were echoed by Deb Bergstrand, associate pastor for outreach with Prairie Lutheran. She described the event as “a wonderful opportunity to connect with neighbors of other faiths.”

She said she hoped that we begin to see in this community that there are so many people of different cultures and religion, “and that they’re all our neighbors and that they’re all important to respect and get to know no matter how different we are.”

Miller said that the event really illustrates what diversity we have in the community.

“One of the great outcomes for me was to get to know and meet and work with people from other faith traditions,” he said.

One of those he has gotten to know is Saleem Adam, who is on the board of directors of the American Muslim Community Center, which operates out of Pax Christi space. The AMCC was a participant in the first interfaith event, then became an active planner of the second year’s event. Other faith leaders have also been invited to participate in AMCC events, such as the Eid al-Fitr meal, which celebrates the end of Ramadan.

Adam said his community has loved the event “because it brought us very close to other faith communities in Eden Prairie.”

He said it’s helped remove a lot of the stereotypes and skepticism about the Muslims in the community.

Along with understanding, also comes friendships with the other faith leaders.

“It’s been a really heartwarming experience,” said Saleem.

He said they want to continue to do this service every year.

He said their goal is to create more projects where people from all different faiths come together to participate for the common good.

“We want everybody to come forward and participate.”

Miller noted that when he and other planners were invited to the Eid meal at the end of Ramadan, his wife spotted someone she knew from work.

“Here we were making these connections from her work experience and from my church work.”

Miller said he just keeps thinking about “how do we build bridges, how do we build bridges and relationships with people in our community?

“You’ve got to start with what you have at hand,” he added.

“That’s where you begin to build those bridges and you hope that it’s going to ripple out into a bigger sphere.”