For the past 20 years, I have worked closely with the Jewish community through the auspices of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Southern New Jersey (JCRC). The JCRC is the voice of the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey on issues of public policy, social advocacy and community outreach. JCRC fosters constructive relationships within the Jewish community and among people of all faiths and cultures. For most of those years I worked very closely with Mr. Alan Respler, a good friend and mentor, who retired a couple of years ago but who is still very active in our interfaith outreaches and programming. I have had the pleasure of working closely for the past few years with the new executive director of the JCRC, Mr. David Snyder, a gifted and talented young man who has a great passion for deepening our Catholic-Jewish ties of mutual understanding, respect and community outreach.
This past week a dear friend and coworker in the ministry of ecumenical and interreligious outreach, Mrs. Patricia Sandrow, was awarded the JCRC Interfaith Partner Award at the JCRC Annual Meeting at the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill. Pat has been a tireless worker in the field of ecumenical outreach as she serves as chair of our Ecumenical Commission here in the diocese. She was involved in every aspect of preparing, gathering and establishing both our Catholic-Jewish and Catholic-Muslim commissions, our Institute for Understanding, the Tri-faith Dialogue and numerous other aspects of our ecumenical and interreligious outreach here in South Jersey. Pat sits as chair of both our interreligious commissions and has worked tirelessly to bring the Abrahamic faiths together for prayer, learning and social outreach. I can think of no one more deserving of this interfaith recognition. Congratulations Pat!
One of the many local interfaith outreaches that the Diocese of Camden is presently involved in is the first phase of Jews, Catholics and Muslims visiting one another’s churches, temples/synagogues and mosques to experience the worship services. We decided as a first step that members of Catholic-Jewish and Catholic-Muslim Commissions, along with some of the leaders of our Tri Faith Dialogue would act as the “test” visitors. Numerous meetings to plan this first phase have taken place. We have provided the participants a basic explanation and description of the service they will attend as well as basic worship etiquette to familiarize them with gesture, vesture and posture. The sponsoring rabbis, priests and imams have been informed of the dates and will be welcoming the participants. We already have a number of these visits planned for the next couple of months.
Some of the participating houses of worship are Beth El Synagogue Voorhees, St. Mary Catholic Parish Cherry Hill, Infant Jesus Parish Woodbury Heights, Temple Emanuel Cherry Hill, Voorhees Mosque and the Anjuman-E-Fakhri Mosque in Cherry Hill. Some of the sites will be celebrating special events and have invited the visiting participants to join in the festivities. St. Mary Catholic Parish is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and the Sunday the participants are visiting will be their parish picnic. Not only were the visitors invited to the picnic but St. Mary’s is providing veggie-burgers for those with religious dietary restrictions. Temple Emanuel is having their annual BBQ the Friday the visitors are coming and they have been welcomed and invited to join them.
A group of our local participants will be attending a unique Mass experience as they join the Black Catholic Ministry Commission of the Diocese of Camden as they commemorate the Martyrs of Uganda on Saturday, June 12 at 2:00 pm at Infant Jesus Parish, 334 Beech Ave., Woodbury Heights. Through the kind invitation of Corlis Sellers, director of the Black Catholic Ministry Commission and member of the Catholic-Jewish and Catholic-Muslim Commissions, participants will experience the commemoration of the 22 men and boys from Uganda whose martyrdom in 1886 is considered the spark that ignited the flame of Christianity in modern Africa. Canonized in 1964, the Ugandan martyrs are revered for their faith and courage. They were martyred as they stood up for their faith and stood against the abuses of then King Mwanga. All from throughout the diocese are welcomed to attend this moving liturgy.
As we develop this visitation process in the years to come we hope to move toward Catholic parishes and Jewish and Muslim congregations getting to know one another for future work together in fields of social justice and charitable outreach. Stay tuned.
Father Joseph D. Wallace is coordinator, Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs, Diocese of Camden.
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