Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 12:12am
A quiet interfaith giant
Column: All Paths
I am always talking in this column about being an interfaith minister. On several occasions, I have told you what it means for me to be an interfaith minister. So I guess I will do it one more time for those of you who missed it.
As an interfaith minister, I have decided to carry forth the good news that there is a seamless thread running through every religion that links us directly to the divine presence of one God. Also, I honor all faith traditions that ask their adherents to move toward a higher consciousness based on love, compassion, peace and understanding. Now, having said that, I guess I should tell you how one becomes an interfaith minister.
Let me start by saying that I always wanted to serve God above and beyond living a good and honorable life. As a young boy in Catholic school, I wanted to be a priest. That lasted until the ninth grade, when I fell in love with a neighborhood girl. I knew at that point that marriage was in my future. So being a Catholic priest was not an option.
Being a loyal Catholic for many years, I never considered joining another faith tradition that allowed their clergy to marry. As time progressed, my views about God, religion, and man's relationship with God evolved. I became more universal, and realized that there was no single faith tradition or path that could claim exclusivity to the absolute truth. With that realization, I felt a great sense of freedom to explore other faith traditions. Little did I know I was developing an interfaith approach, without applying that label to it. I was just doing my thing and loving it.
My interfaith approach allowed me to glean through the various religious traditions and find wisdom that helped me better my relationship with and understanding of God. I am proud to say that even though I was raised in the Catholic tradition of Christianity, I have found words and rituals that helped comfort and bring me closer to God in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, African and Native American spirituality, and Taoism. Yes, I had become an interfaith person and felt even more compelled to serve the Creator on a higher level.
So where does an interfaith person go to serve and bring his/her message to the world and their community? I didn't have the slightest clue. Then the Creator intervened and put me on a path where I would meet a person who told me about a vibrant interfaith community in Silver Spring, Md., called the Takoma Park Chapel, with a charismatic pastor named the Rev. Jim Webb, who graduated from The New Seminary in New York. And guess what? The New Seminary trained interfaith ministers. How cool was that? Isn't God great? So I joined the chapel and soon enrolled in The New Seminary, where I graduated and was ordained.
The New Seminary was founded in 1981, and has ordained more than 2,000 interfaith ministers from around the globe since then. It was founded by Rabbi Joseph Gelberman, the patriarch of interfaith education; the Rev. John Mundy, a former Methodist minister; Father Giles Spoonhour, a leader in the Catholic Church reform movement; and Sri Swami Satchidananda. You can find New Seminary graduates serving in churches all over the world with various faith traditions. They are also working as chaplains in hospitals and in their communities with organizations and agencies that promote justice and equality.
After a quarter-century of interfaith excellence, The New Seminary is thriving and going strong under the leadership of its board of directors, its chairman, Herb Yassky, and its CEO, the Rev. Michael Festa, who continue to find and explore ways to promote interfaith education.
In 2002, The New Seminary was granted special consultative status as a non-governmental organization with The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. This enabled the seminary to take its interfaith message to the global community and promote programs and support initiatives that focus on the shared moral and community values that most faith traditions share. It is the seminary's hope that religion will be seen as a more viable tool for uniting the global community and not dividing it.
I am proud of The New Seminary and its 25-year legacy of interfaith excellence. That's why I am telling you about it. It has made a difference in this world, and it is an interfaith giant. If you want to find out more about The New Seminary, visit its website, or contact me.
— — —
Rev. Jay Speights has an MA in public policy and is an interfaith minister and the main U.N. representative for The New Seminary in New York . You can learn more about his work at the United Nations at The New Seminary website or at harmoniousday.webexone.com. His email address is {email jayspeights@newseminary.org}jayspeights@newseminary.org{/email}. © Copyright 2007 by Jay Speights.
As an interfaith minister, I have decided to carry forth the good news that there is a seamless thread running through every religion that links us directly to the divine presence of one God. Also, I honor all faith traditions that ask their adherents to move toward a higher consciousness based on love, compassion, peace and understanding. Now, having said that, I guess I should tell you how one becomes an interfaith minister.
Let me start by saying that I always wanted to serve God above and beyond living a good and honorable life. As a young boy in Catholic school, I wanted to be a priest. That lasted until the ninth grade, when I fell in love with a neighborhood girl. I knew at that point that marriage was in my future. So being a Catholic priest was not an option.
Being a loyal Catholic for many years, I never considered joining another faith tradition that allowed their clergy to marry. As time progressed, my views about God, religion, and man's relationship with God evolved. I became more universal, and realized that there was no single faith tradition or path that could claim exclusivity to the absolute truth. With that realization, I felt a great sense of freedom to explore other faith traditions. Little did I know I was developing an interfaith approach, without applying that label to it. I was just doing my thing and loving it.
My interfaith approach allowed me to glean through the various religious traditions and find wisdom that helped me better my relationship with and understanding of God. I am proud to say that even though I was raised in the Catholic tradition of Christianity, I have found words and rituals that helped comfort and bring me closer to God in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, African and Native American spirituality, and Taoism. Yes, I had become an interfaith person and felt even more compelled to serve the Creator on a higher level.
So where does an interfaith person go to serve and bring his/her message to the world and their community? I didn't have the slightest clue. Then the Creator intervened and put me on a path where I would meet a person who told me about a vibrant interfaith community in Silver Spring, Md., called the Takoma Park Chapel, with a charismatic pastor named the Rev. Jim Webb, who graduated from The New Seminary in New York. And guess what? The New Seminary trained interfaith ministers. How cool was that? Isn't God great? So I joined the chapel and soon enrolled in The New Seminary, where I graduated and was ordained.
The New Seminary was founded in 1981, and has ordained more than 2,000 interfaith ministers from around the globe since then. It was founded by Rabbi Joseph Gelberman, the patriarch of interfaith education; the Rev. John Mundy, a former Methodist minister; Father Giles Spoonhour, a leader in the Catholic Church reform movement; and Sri Swami Satchidananda. You can find New Seminary graduates serving in churches all over the world with various faith traditions. They are also working as chaplains in hospitals and in their communities with organizations and agencies that promote justice and equality.
After a quarter-century of interfaith excellence, The New Seminary is thriving and going strong under the leadership of its board of directors, its chairman, Herb Yassky, and its CEO, the Rev. Michael Festa, who continue to find and explore ways to promote interfaith education.
In 2002, The New Seminary was granted special consultative status as a non-governmental organization with The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. This enabled the seminary to take its interfaith message to the global community and promote programs and support initiatives that focus on the shared moral and community values that most faith traditions share. It is the seminary's hope that religion will be seen as a more viable tool for uniting the global community and not dividing it.
I am proud of The New Seminary and its 25-year legacy of interfaith excellence. That's why I am telling you about it. It has made a difference in this world, and it is an interfaith giant. If you want to find out more about The New Seminary, visit its website, or contact me.
— — —
Rev. Jay Speights has an MA in public policy and is an interfaith minister and the main U.N. representative for The New Seminary in New York . You can learn more about his work at the United Nations at The New Seminary website or at harmoniousday.webexone.com. His email address is {email jayspeights@newseminary.org}jayspeights@newseminary.org{/email}. © Copyright 2007 by Jay Speights.