Faith: Learning from people of different faiths, places can build connection
My family and I had a period of our lives that we refer to as “the time North.”
For five years these folks that were born and raised in Phoenix (me) and Dallas (my husband James, and my older children Luke and Liora) lived in Glen Ellyn outside of Chicago, and then in Amherst, Cleveland. It was a different world for us.
We came from places where if the temperatures dropped below freezing you should keep your faucets dripping, to a place that was built for extended periods of below freezing weather. What is essential and what is not was a little different than what we had experienced before.
We learned to NOT keep water in our cars in winter (it will freeze and burst) and to always have a pair of gloves handy. I experienced a 4th of July wrapped in blankets with socks on my hands trying to keep warm. And we learned the beauty of the Great Lakes, and trees after newly fallen snow.
We learn new things from being in new places and experiencing new things. Living in a new state or country, trips to foreign places, conversations with those whose lives and beliefs are different from ours, give us glimpses into different ways of being in the world, and we are richer for it.
We learn that we are better and can do more together when we are connected.
It was my calling as a priest in the Episcopal Church that brought us to those places and to those experiences. My calling also brought us back to Texas, to Austin, and to being the rector, or head of congregation, at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. We are the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement, as The Right Rev. Michael Curry, head of the church, likes to remind us — a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the third largest Christian community after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox communities.
We proclaim we are better and can do more when we are together and connected. It is not always easy — we sometimes struggle to understand each other, but we and the world around us are better for it.
I have helped solve a tricky water issue in Malawi, Africa. Now that it is resolved, a maternal health center has been opened in a remote village. The experience taught me about water issues and solutions that are different than what we use here. A group from Malawi was able to come visit us in Austin, and could see what different challenges and joys we experience.
St. Matthew’s has a plaque on our building that proclaims, “A House of Prayer for All People” and we try to live into that.
Recently St. Matthew’s was able to host Congregation Beth Israel for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur— their High Holy Days — after an arson damaged their sanctuary. It was a remarkable opportunity for our people to reach out in love and invite Congregation Beth Israel’s Jewish community to gather together in person and online.
At St. Matthew’s we value people being their authentic selves as they grow closer to God and one another: Learning and being strengthened, so that we can help make the world around us a better place.
The entire greater Austin community is invited to join with us as we gather for the 38th Annual Day of Thanks. We are excited to be back in person for this fantastic interfaith service with music and prayer.
The Rev. Catherine (Katie) Wright is the rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, a wife, mother and aficionado of the outdoors. Doing Good Together is compiled by Interfaith Action of Central Texas, interfaithtexas.org.
iACT’s 38th Annual Interfaith Day of Thanks Service & Celebration
Everything is Connected
3 p.m. Nov. 20
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive
Free and all are welcome
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Faith: Learning from people of different faiths, places can build connection
