3 faiths to talk, build trust at ‘trialogue’
Christians, Jews, Muslims to discuss social justice issues in session today in Canton
The Rev. Jim Hamilton enjoyed taking part in interfaith efforts in his hometown of Chicago, so when he moved to Baltimore in 2014, he looked forward to checking out local programs in the same vein.
But the events he attended struck the Episcopal priest as more factually informative than inspiring.
“The imams, rabbis and pastors who spoke at these evenings were knowledgeable, and that was valuable,” says Hamilton, senior pastor of the Church on the Square in Canton. “But I kept wishing they would take a more relational approach.”
Now Hamilton is part of a team doing just that.
He’s one of three clergy members working together to lead the Interfaith Trialogue, a program sponsored by the Baltimore Jewish Council that aims to establish common ground among Christians, Jews and Muslims.
Today he’ll direct the third and final event of the series — a community dialogue about gentrification, white flight and related issues — at the Church on the Square.
Imam Tariq Najee-Ullah of the Muslim Community Cultural Center of Baltimore and Rabbi Jessy Gross of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore will join Hamilton in addressing the topics from their own faith perspectives.
The event, scheduled for 2 p.m., is open to the public.
“With all the things we’re dealing with right now” — he names President Donald Trump’s travel ban against seven mostly Muslim countries and fear of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement among immigrants — “we need to establish foundations of trust,” he says.
Howard Libit, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, says the group has been committed to interfaith activity since 1939, when it was founded in response to growing anti-Semitism in Europe.
“Early on, there was this recognition that we all have to work together for the common good,” Libit says.
The council has sponsored trialogue programs, often featuring lectures by professors or religious elders, over the past two decades.
But organizers decided more recently to change their approach to target a younger demographic.
Hamilton, Najee-Ullah and Gross met and realized that they had a common vision for interfaith work: It should be relational and experiential, involve people in conversation, and explore how faith communities can come together to address social challenges.
The three met regularly for meals and conversation throughout 2015, the year Freddie Gray’s death sparked unrest in Baltimore and added fuel to a nationwide debate about police brutality.
Hamilton says the Church on the Square, a joint venture between the Episcopal and Lutheran denominations he helped to launch three years ago, is a promising venue for today’s conversation on gentrification.
It’s an issue with which his Canton neighbors are familiar, he says, as the neighborhood has seen striking demographic change over the past two decades.
But it’s just one of many related subjects that could come up at the gathering, Hamilton says, all of which can likely be better addressed by believers in search of common ground.