Interfaith, Ecumenical and All that Jazz

In the last week, I have attended two Coalition of Religious Communities meetings, an Interfaith Roundtable lunch meeting and…er…well it’s been a lot of meetings. But it has been a great experience getting together with people from all different faiths and denominations.

The most memorable example of that was the Interfaith Roundtable Luncheon that I attended with my coworker a couple of days ago at the Beehive House, which was originally the home of Brigham Young. It was about forty representatives from every faith you could imagine: Quaker, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Methodist, United Church of Christ, Christian Scientist, Mormon, African Methodist Episcopal, Lutheran, Episcopalian and some I had never even heard of! This group formed before the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to organize chaplains for the event and kept meeting in the spirit of fellowship (and free lunch on the Mormons!) and has organized an Interfaith Week which grew into a Month every year since then to celebrate and acknowledge the diversity in Salt Lake City. Also, it was a neat group of people and I am very glad I was able to tag along and meet a lot of them!

This week, I kept switching gears between the Mercy-type tasks and the Justice-type tasks. It was wonderful to see both sides of that, with one day being spent packing meals for clients and directly providing them with a three day emergency supply of food and then the next, exploring different denominations’ stances on immigration for our upcoming Las Posadas procession. A lot of them said wonderfully similar phrases about affirming the humanity of each individual and treating everyone with respect and love, regardless of what documents they have or don’t have. I also got to survey a good selection of our clients about current issues such as payday lenders, tickets for panhandlers, Medicaid, and finding housing and employment. This was for our Poverty Summit coming up on October 1. I also had my first trip to the State Capitol to attend a Rally for Medicaid. I did not realize until writing all of this down just how much has been going on the past couple of days. No wonder I feel like I need an IV full of espresso. Or just more prayer. Possibly a combination of both. Phew! Good stuff!

In other news, I am feeling slightly more settled in here. I have a bit of a routine and I now have more thoughts like “Man, I need coffee!” and fewer like “What in the Sam Hill am I doing?!” Now I need to focus on making those routines semiproductive things like blogging or emailing or exploring the city either by walking or public transport and perhaps fewer episodes of television shows. Of course, I could always say that television is self care and that some mindless entertainment is good for de-stressing! But I know what will be excellent for de-stressing: Sam Weller’s Bookstore! I encountered that Mecca for booklovers on my way back from turning a form into a City office. I had heard of it before, but I had no idea the wonders that awaited me: three floors of new, used and rare books on any topic imaginable, a coffee shop that had real Cafe au Lait (and called it by its proper French name!), those sliding ladders to get to the top shelves that you can actually climb on and move around, beaten up armchairs just waiting for a lazy Saturday afternoon! I cannot wait to return, especially after they move closer to my apartment! I definitely look forward to exploring more of Salt Lake City, especially since I heard that they have British style tea rooms with clotted cream and scones and everything!