Project cements interfaith bonds
Habitat task will be biggest in Canada
Richard Reimer and Jason Shine are opening doors to a better life for some Edmontonians. Literally.
During the month of May, Reimer, a Lutheran minister, and Shine, a Baptist minister, both from the Interfaith Chaplains’ Association at the University of Alberta, volunteered at a Habitat for Humanity housing build.
They were part of a crew installing front doors on townhouses under construction in south Edmonton’s Rutherford neighbourhood.
The new homeowners’ “first guests will knock on those same doors,” says Shine, chair of the chaplains’ association. “And they’ll look through the little peephole that I just installed and they’ll open their doors to their guests.
“I feel like I’m really a vital part of making a home for somebody.”
Reimer viewed the work a little more practically.
“I’m a type A (personality),” he laughs. “So I’m just trying to think, ‘OK, is that level, is that not level?’ ”
Reimer’s concern about doing the job right is understandable. Neither he nor Shine are professional builders. But they felt strongly about taking part because Habitat designated May as interfaith build month on the site.
The charitable organization, which builds homes for people who might never own one otherwise, asked Edmonton’s faith communities to provide two groups of five volunteers for each day the build operated in May.
A total of 64 townhouses will be built on the site, making it the largest Habitat project in Canadian history, says Alfred Nikolai, head of Habitat for Humanity in Edmonton.
Christened Neufeld Landing, in honour of Don Neufeld, a volunteer who has given 15,000 hours to Habitat, the project will be completed in 2015. Some of the townhouses could be open as early as this fall.
Interfaith builds are a wonderful way to highlight how faiths can work together for a common cause, Nikolai says.
“It’s going to bring it to more and more people’s attention and more and more churches or more and more synagogues or more and more mosques are going to become involved,” Nikolai says.
Many faith groups were interested in participating, says Julien Hammond, the ecumenical officer of the Catholic archdiocese and chair of the interfaith planning committee.
“In our planning committee, we did have Unitarian, we had a group from the Buddhist community, we certainly were in contact with Sikhs and the Jewish community,” Hammond says. “What we’re trying to do here is to be explicit about saying it’s because of our faith traditions that we are engaging in this building project.”
Previous commitments prevented some faiths from taking part in the event, says Hammond. Still he’s pleased with the turnout.
“This is our second time organizing this thing. Last year 120 people showed up and this year our goal was to beat 120 and ... we had 160.”
Nikolai says the Christian support was strong.
“A whole bunch of Christian churches have come onstream and that’s important, too. They celebrate their religion in different ways, but to do it jointly is wonderful.”
Another interfaith build is planned for next May. Organizers are already looking at how to get more religions involved.
“We can look and say these are the organizations that participated, here are the ones that didn’t,” Nikolai says. “What do we have to do to get the ones that did to come back and what do we need to do to get those that didn’t to come onstream?”
Habitat welcomes all skill levels. Tools, safety gear and training are provided.
You don’t have to be operating a nail gun or installing doors to help, Hammond says. People are needed to make meals and transport them to work sites, lead crews in morning prayers, donate money and educate groups about Habitat’s work.
Volunteers on the interfaith build brought something different to the work site, Hammond says.
“They bring a sense of faith; there’s absolutely a relationship there with God. And I think we’re trying to lift that up and present it as a real motivating factor in people’s lives.”
Richard Reimer echoed that sentiment.
“People are motivated by their faith to serve people who need a roof over their head,” says the Lutheran chaplain.
Baptist minister Justin Shine believes God truly was on-site and in the house at the interfaith build.
“One of my favourite verses says that the eternal word took on flesh and moved into the neighbourhood. For me, that’s the story of (Christianity). We believe that God came to earth as a person and just moved in with us, hung out with us, set up house with us.
“So I think it’s a very Christian thing to do to build houses for people.”