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     Interfaith work has been a center of my life for some time now; from shadowing chaplains around the hospital, to working at my university’s office of spiritual inclusion, and now here spending my summer with Interfaith Philadelphia.        When others ask me what this kind of work is about, I find many are often surprised when I tell them that outwardly discussing religion and faith is only a fraction of the work we do. I can’t blame their surprise, as I think back to when I first began my study of religion and the world’s faith traditions, I remember myself standing as an outside observer to them. I would spend my time drawing lines of connections between these grand concepts of metaphysics, ethics, history, and culture believing it to be the heart of religious understanding. It worked fine for academic purposes, but I would soon come to understand that theory alone is not comparable to the lived experience of interfaith work.    ...

I was raised a Conservative Jew at a Conservative school. The holidays were a time for family. On Sukkot and Passover, my grandparents and cousins on my mom’s side came to stay with us the whole week. My cousin stayed with me in my room, and became one of my best friends. The culture of holidays and family is energy .  The secular holidays, I celebrated with my dad’s side of my family. My aunts, uncles, and cousins were Jewish and not Jewish. Some celebrated other holidays, too. Thanksgiving was as important to me as my weekly observance of Shabbat, and remains that way. Family is spirit . Every Thanksgiving, I was uplifted and refreshed.  My first Christmas was magical. I was with family friends, and it consisted of: a huge Italian Catholic Christmas Eve dinner, followed by midnight mass, and then waking up early with excitement to see what was under the tree – and found to my surprise that Santa came for me, too. I felt so welcomed in to their home. My own sense of self was...

I love to collect quotes. Maybe it’s hereditary. My father kept a folded piece of paper with favorite quotes in his wallet. I stitched a quote quilt and hung it by my desk. One of my favorite quotes is by Marcel Proust – “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” When I stepped into the role of Walking the Walk Group Leader seven years ago, I envisioned wonderful afternoons of dialogue, meaningful service experiences, plentiful opportunities to learn about other faith traditions, and happy times building community with the amazing teens who had signed up for the program. What I didn’t realize was that I would also be getting new eyes. I would never see the world the same way after each Walking the Walk journey. So what does it mean to have new eyes? For me, it meant some consequential exchanges. I traded assumptions for surprises. There was no “one way” for just about anything. Each faith community was unique, each student was uniq...

     When I decided to attend seminary, I had to accept my call and determine which seminary to attend. Initially, I planned to attend a seminary that taught mainly my faith tradition. At this seminary, I would have the opportunity to interact with students whose faith traditions can also be found in many African American communities. The alternative was to attend a seminary that offered a variety of theological perspectives. I knew that my post-seminary work would include some interfaith work. I have always believed deep down that people of different faith traditions are more alike than they are different. So, what decision did I make? I chose the latter and decided to attend Lancaster Theological Seminary (LTS), a seminary that in 2020 had student representation of 18 denominations. I am so glad I chose a seminary that stretched me beyond my theological comfort zone because it gave me the opportunity to learn from others whose views and practices differ from my own. Thr...

I often feel that when I need it most, poetry finds me. Often, I’m introduced and enlightened to poetry through teaching or friends. I remember reading this glorious little book inspired by William Blake’s beautiful poetry when I was small, and feeling inspired by the worlds and magic his words were able to conjure. But when there is something that is going unsaid inside me, or something I want to put words to but cannot, poetry captures what I'm feeling or experiencing.  When I’ve felt lost or alone, or full of reverence for community or the natural world, I often find that poems hold all that I cannot express with words I might never have found. Mary Oliver or Derek Walcott or Joy Harjo or John O'Donohue  spoke to me, and provided knowledge or love, and most importantly, accompaniment. Their words become embodied and feel like blessings. Every meeting and reading feels deeply spiritual to me, an affirmation of where I am in my life and in the world. This is form that hol...

This spring, as my Jewish, Muslim, and Christian brothers and sisters observe Passover, Ramadan, and Easter, respectively, my Sikh community celebrated Vaisakhi on April 13th. Traditionally, this has been a time for harvest festivals in the Punjab, but we also commemorate the first Sikh initiation ceremony into the Khalsa Panth, a community of initiated Sikhs committed to equality, justice, and oneness as established by all of the Sikh Gurus, beginning with Guru Nanak. It was Vaisakhi 1699 when Guru Gobind Rai, our 10th Guru (spiritual leader bringing one from darkness into light) called for five volunteers from the Sikh community and initiated them into the Khalsa, naming them the “Five Beloved Ones.” Each was from a different caste and, in order to foster unity and demonstrate equality of all, Guru Gobind Rai had all newly initiated Sikhs take on the last name Singh (lion) for men and Kaur (princess) for women, and gave Sikhs their distinct visible identity to instill courage and co...

My dad taught me the old nursery rhyme: with his fingers laced inward, index fingers pointing up, and thumbs meeting, he’d recite, “Here is the church, here is the steeple. Open the doors, see all the people!” He would move his thumbs to reveal the “congregants” inside. Then, he would change the rhyme to describe church on Monday, this time lacing his fingers on the outside of his hands: “Here is the church, here is the steeple. Open the doors, where’s all the people?” Feigning shock, he would shift his thumbs to show his empty palms.  This lighthearted rhyme has taken on new poignancy in the age of COVID-19. Although many houses of worship have remained open throughout the pandemic—often providing food, shelter, healthcare, and other essential services—others remain closed, opting to continue with communal worship via Zoom. Even with confidence in in-person worship on the rise in the United States, six-in-ten American Christians say they will spend another Easter worshiping at hom...