An ecumenical Christmas
My friend Dianna, who was born in Bethlehem, sent me a video last week that shows the huge wall the Israelis have built in the Holy Land. The clip depicts it like a giant concrete snake dividing the town where Christ was born from nearby olive groves.
War tourism in the occupied Palestinian territories means that leading street artists from Britain moved this month to Bethlehem to paint on the wall and highlight the apartheid going on. According to a story I found online in an Australian newspaper, there’s even a mural in the town depicting an Israeli solider checking a donkey’s ID card. People are booking trips to see these murals.
I believe, as the late Dr. Charlie Taylor used to say, that we are all more alike than we are different, but a 400-mile, 24-foot-high monstrosity surpasses the Berlin Wall in dividing people. Some 800,000 Palestinians live behind this concrete divider.
What the world needs this Christmas is an overflowing of ecumenical spirit. Only recently I heard a young mother, who is Roman Catholic, speak about how her congregation had outgrown its church in my hometown. She suggested, half seriously, that the Catholics ought to share the largest church in the community with the Baptists.
My gut reaction is she was bang-on. The respective worship services are all at different times anyway. Since it costs $100 a day to heat the Wolfville United Baptist Church, sharing sacred space would also make good sense.
When I took the idea to a United Church minister I respect, she jumped on board immediately. Old churches in our clime are universally expensive to heat, but, more than that, sharing staff under an interchurch umbrella could mean that the clergy are allowed to do the tasks at which they’re best instead of trying to be all things to all people.
Dreaming about what might be, I wish we could do away with ‘winter’ or ‘holiday’ concerts this time of year. Hearing one father bemoan the blah nature of these politically correct events, I would suggest that schools celebrate the wealth of religious calendars around us rather than try to obliterate the dominant faith.
Haven’t we blown it by turning Christmas into a secular celebration of commercialization anyway? Don’t we need a fresh viewpoint?
When it comes to organized religion, the month of December is certainly not limited to Christmas. The year for our Jewish friends, Hanukkah, an eight-day festival of light, is ending.
Coming up shortly, Muslims will begin their Hajj, a spiritual journey that culminates Dec. 30 with one of Islam’s holiest days, Eid Al-Adha. There are those who marked the Winter Solstice Dec. 22.
Buddhists celebrated Bodhi Day Dec. 8 to mark the time when Siddhartha achieved enlightenment. Kwanzaa, the African-American celebration of family and values, begins Dec. 26.
Seems to me December is a great month to build ecumenical bridges between people, and between many different faiths. We need more bridges than walls.
As the great Canadian Jean Vanier said, blessed are you because at all times and at every moment you want to be an instrument of peace; seeking unity, understanding and reconciliation above all things.
