ATLANTA (ABP) — Devita Parnell had quite a time trying to plan a Baptist-Jewish dinner so it wouldn't land on any holy day of either faith. Between Hanukkah, Christmas, Lent, Purim, Passover and Easter, she had her hands full.
But nine months of planning paid off. Members from Atlanta's Temple Emanu-El and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia finally met Feb. 13 to celebrate their history and strengthen relationships between the faith communities. The American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League also participated.
The event, called “Restoring the Neighborhood: A Baptist-Jewish Dialogue,” is part of an effort on Parnell's part to better represent Baptists to Jewish people in Georgia. Her overtures began three years ago; they mostly involved sending well wishes to local synagogues on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Now she wants Baptists to take the next step.
“The reason we're doing it, in my opinion, is that we want to be good neighbors,” she said. “We want to show those outside the Baptist world and in our faith community that we care about what's going on in the world [and] that we care about our neighborhood.”
More than 60 people were expected to enjoy the kosher dinner of pasta, salad and bread at Temple Emanu-El. Loyd Allen, professor of church history and spiritual formation at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology, and Beth Halpern, who teaches Jewish history at a Jewish community high school, led discussions about the history of each faith. Halpern also works for the Israel Fellows program, which teaches advocacy skills and provides ways to promote Israel.
Rabbi Scott Colbert of Temple Emanu-El said his synagogue has worked with Catholic and Presbyterian churches before, and some American Baptist speakers have spoken at the synagogue, but the dinner is its largest Baptist co-faith event yet.
The lack of success in earlier attempts is not for lack of effort. Temple Emanu-El has invited area Southern Baptist churches to hold joint events or host speakers, Colbert said, but “the answer we always got back is ‘why?'”
“It's just frustrating,” he said. And with “radicalism” creeping into many religions, it's good to have “people in the middle” getting together to talk, he said.
“Georgia is basically a Baptist state,” he said. “Over the years, I have found it very difficult to have a dialogue with Baptist churches, with the exception of a very few Baptist preachers. Nothing has opened up our congregations to each other where our people can get to know each other.”
Along with Jewish representatives, Parnell and Wayne Martin, chair of CBF of Georgia's interfaith task force, started that process with eight “extended-lunch meetings” to plan the event. They wanted the planning sessions to set a tone of understanding and sensitivity that would continue during the dinner.
“We had to be sensitive with everybody,” Parnell said. “We actually had to build relationships with one another. They had to learn to trust us, and we had to learn to trust them.”
They all got along so well that there may be future events together — even construction of a Habitat for Humanity house. In Athens, Ga., for instance, Milledge Avenue Baptist Church, a local Jewish synagogue, and a local Islamic center have already built a Habitat house together. And in Macon, First Baptist has shared seder with a local Jewish congregation. Other area Baptist churches and synagogues have held “wedding events” to learn about the traditional wedding ceremonies of each faith, Parnell said.
“I think we'd hope that individuals — lay people — will really be at this event and that they will build friendships in communities that are ongoing,” she said. “That it will prompt people to continue that relationship and reach out beyond their own comfort zone every day.”
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