Different Faiths, One Desire Meet in New York
Fr. Carl Chudy, SX
If you ever heard the joke about a priest, rabbi, and imam who got together, you may find it delightfully surprising that priests, rabbis, and imams, among other religious believers get together with great frequency all over the world, even in White Plains, New York, and that’s no joke. It was here that the Buddhist communities of Shinnyo-en and Hartford Seminary partnered together to see what would happen if different faiths, with one desire where to meet.
The Shinnyo-en Buddhist Temple of White Plains was the gathering point for an extraordinary group of people. In their national training program for sixty five of their youth and young adults, young Buddhists from all over the country, including Japan, came together to strengthen their religious practices and to learn some aspects of interfaith dialogue.
They invited a team of religious leaders deeply involved in interfaith dialogue from Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Sikhism to join them. I had the honor to be part of this team which was coordinated from Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, a graduate theological school that focuses studies in interfaith and intercultural dialogue.
The team (pictured above) consisted of Dr. Scott Thumma, academic dean of Hartford Seminary and coordinator of this project, along with Samsiah Abdul Majid (Islam), Imam Sami Aziz (Islam), Dr. Charles Chesnavage (Catholicism), Fr. Carl Chudy (Catholicism), Dr. Eric Dolhoph (Lutheran Church), Rev. Eileen Epperson (Presyterian), Rev. Dr. Tracy Mehr-Muska (Presbyterian), Dr. Allison Norton (Pentecostal), Rabbi Barbara Parish (Judaism), Rev. Dr. Byron Peart (Pentecostal), Rabbi Shaul Praver (Judaism), and Mr. Jatinder Singh (Sikh).
The Catholic Church and other faiths find a great partner in dialogue with our Buddhist friends from all of the varied sects that comprise Buddhism worlwide. Buddhism is a set of teachings rooted in the teachings of a buddha (awakened one) named Shakyamuni, whose given name was Siddhartha Gautama and who lived on the Indian sub-continent in the 5th-6th centuries B.C. As a practical and philosophical system, it took shape over time as succeeding generations of his disciples developed the teachings further and spread over a wide area.
Shinnyo-en is an international Buddhist community dedicated to helping people realize greater self-awareness, happiness, and harmony for the good of humanity and for a world of peace. The name Shinnyo-en means “a garden without borders”, where all people can bring forth their innate, true nature. All are welcome here, and with sincere effort, anyone can reach enlightenment and find true happiness.
Gathering there with the young Buddhists i was struck by their seriousness and deep devotion to their belief. They explained to me that Sinnyo-en is a way for them to live a path in life cultivating the Four Immeasurable Merits of loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity in the secular world in which they live. We talked to each other of what was most inspirational about our faiths and what we hoped for our communities and the world.
The Vatican reached out to our Buddhist friends worldwide on the Feast of Vesakh last May 2017. It is the most important festival for Buddhists and commemorates the main events in the life of Buddha. For this occasion, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue a letter to Buddhists worldwide shared a heartfelt message of the Catholic Church.
The text reiterates how Jesus walked the path of nonviolence to the very end, to the cross and calls his followers today to embrace his teaching about nonviolence. Buddha also heralded the same message and encouraged all to overcome the angry by non-anger; overcome the wicked by goodness; overcome the miser by generosity; overcome the liar by truth. Therefore the message calls for a common enterprise, to study the causes of violence, combat violence and to pray for world peace while walking together on the path of nonviolence.
It is so important that we prepare our own youth as a Catholic Church, to bring the treasure of their faith to people’s of all faiths and non-faiths. We need to be preparing a new generation of bridge builders across the great divides we have created; across religions, cultures, race, and so much more. The future of peace depends greatly on our commitment to interfaith dialogue.
