Dear friends -
Who knew a meeting would turn into the most beautiful storytelling event I've ever attended?
That's what happened at last week's Naperville Interfaith Leaders Association meeting. Our monthly meetings are usually focused on either something beneficial for the community (presentations on affordable housing or from local first responder teams) or ways our faith practices overlap (wedding traditions, prayer practices). On any given fourth Tuesday anywhere from ten to twenty folks gather over lunch - now hybrid: sometimes the Senior Imam from Naperville Islamic Center, Dr. Rizwan Ali, and a few members of Islamic Community, a handful of pastors for the mainline Christian denominations, Rabbi Marc Rudolf from Congregation Beth Shalom and Bernie Newman as well as a few other congregation members, faith leaders in one or two of the local Hindu temples, a leader from the Baha'i tradition, a Sufi shaykh - we have a rich variety of faiths in the Naperville community.
Our topic, bumped from September when it would have been a live-tour from the lighthouse where Tom and I are keepers, was Light and Faith. I had a five-minute pre-recorded tour to share and then talked about some of the history of lighthouse keeping. And then we opened up to various faith traditions to share about light in their faith - from the lights of Hanukkah to the light our own Praveen Kannan shared from the Hindu tradition of enlightenment and prayer to the first parts of creation to holy scriptures about radiance and divinity, story after story was shared. In the bleak midwinter, light was shining everywhere. It was moving and lovely.
Come hear more about being light and salt in the world in worship on the 5th. After all, shocking as it is, Jesus himself says we are the light of the world.
See you Sunday,
Jess