USA, TX: Interfaith Gathering Forced to Relocate When Church Realized What “Interfaith” Means
November 17, 2007
Baptist church closes property to interfaith Thanksgiving service
(The Associated Press)
Organizers of an interfaith Thanksgiving celebration scrambled to find a new location for the annual event after an evangelical Baptist megachurch objected to Muslims worshipping on its property.
Hyde Park Baptist Church notified Austin Area Interreligious Ministries this week that it wouldn’t allow the event scheduled for Sunday at Hyde Park’s sports complex known as the Quarries.
The Thanksgiving event is in its 23rd year and invites Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Bahais and others to worship together. Austin’s largest synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel, has now offered to host the celebration, organizers said…
Muslim organizer Shams Siddiqi said Hyde Park’s decision was unfortunate, but he praised the resulting joint Jewish-Muslim endeavor.
“Symbolically, that’s a very good thing,” he said.
Entry Filed under: Religious Tolerance, United States. .
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1.
in2thefray | November 17, 2007 at 4:07 pm
I’d second the motion that on a symbolic level the new arrangements are better. I’m familiar with ecumenical services as a multi faith watered down type of sevice that has some good to it.Gathering and sharing kind of stuff. These are different than some of the new “interfaith” services which either eventually segregate attendees or causes the groups to get jittery as to what extent they celebrate. All in all good to see people trying.
2.
Abraham | November 17, 2007 at 4:42 pm
This was actually picked up from the Austin American-Statesman where Eileen Flynn broke the story. Check out the links and the lively discussion the blog entries and story have sparked:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/faith/
and
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/11/16/1116hydepark.html
3.
proggiemuslima | November 18, 2007 at 10:47 am
Abraham, thanks for the Austin American-Statesman news/blog links!