| Grants available The Love in the Midst of Tragedy offering to UMCOR is making available small grants to help churches in their outreach activities with the Arab and Muslim communities. So far there have been about 200 Honoring Differences requests from around the country, but none from Baltimore-Washington Conference churches. Contact the program coordinator, Marjorie L. Rudolph, at
.net, or at (303) 238-4992. For more information see http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/loveupdate/
otherfaiths.cfm. | UMs and Muslim neighbors build relationships BY LINDA WORTHINGTON
UMCONNECTION STAFF When Trinity UMC in Cumberland turned its sanctuary into a radio studio one evening following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, more than 250 people showed up to learn about the Muslim faith. The informational forum on station WETM engendered so much interest that the manager cancelled the next regularly scheduled program so it could continue, said host pastor the Rev. G. Edward Grove. It was an opportunity for people to voice their fears, said the Rev. Terri Cofiell, pastor of Hedgesville UMC and on a four-member panel. The other panelists included Grove, state Senator John Unger and Aram Hasami, a native to Iran, a Bahai and professor of political science at Montgomery College. We tend to compare the best of ours with the worst of theirs, Cofiell said in a telephone interview following the broadcast. Bin Laden has no authority in Islam to call for a holy war; he was talking in political, not religious, language, she said. Equally high interest in learning about Islam was shown at Foundry UMC in Washington, D.C., last February when dozens of Christians and Muslims gathered for an afternoon of fellowship.  Men, some carrying children, and women wearing distinctive headdresses came from the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Va. They were welcomed by Jim Leader and Jim Vitarello who organized the gathering.
Members of the mosque and church first met last November when 60 or 70 Foundry UMC members visited the mosque just before the Islamic month of Ramadan began. We found that meeting with you was just what we hoped for and we knew we wanted to see you again, Leader said. According to Diana Eck, a United Methodist who wrote the book The New Religious America, the United States has more Muslims than Episcopalians and there are now at least 1,200 mosques in the United States. America with its tolerance for others has become the most religiously diverse nation in the world, Eck wrote. The Rev. Phil Wogaman told the rapt audience at Foundry that the nearly 2 billion Christians in the world are three major divisions: Roman Catholic; Eastern Orthodox and Protestant. No one statement will encompass all Christians, Wogaman said. According to Wogaman, in Christianity the nature of God, especially the love of God, is expressed in Jesus Christ. If you want a clue as to what God is really like, look at Jesus, he said. In reply, Hussain Goal, the mosques community relations spokesperson, spoke of the universality of Islam. He explained that in Islam God, or Allah, is the only object of worship. While Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, is a monotheistic religion believing in one God, theologically we have differences, Hussain said. The Quran is the revelation of God, a gbwc_superusereline for faithful living and it confirms both the Old Testament and the Gospel of Jesus, he said. A desire to learn about the Muslim faith also motivated Bill Paul, a Disciple Bible Study teacher at Mt. Carmel UMC in Pasadena, to invite Emir Mohammad Arafa to visit the church. Arafa serves a mosque in Annapolis. Instead of accepting an honorarium, Arafa presented a check for $1,000 to the church, an offering from the mosques Friday services, to the American Red Cross to aid victims of the Sept. 11 bombing. The class subsequently raised $700 for UMCOR for Afghan relief. They were Muslims helping mostly Christians in New York and we were Christians helping Muslims in Afghanistan, Paul said. In Howard and Baltimore counties, the United Methodist clergy group recently visited the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque on Johnnycake Road. They met with Imam Adam El-Sheik and several women leaders. The visit followed an extensive weekly studies series, which lasted for several months, said the Rev. Sheila McCurdy of Mt. Olivet UMC in Randallstown. The study group used the book A Muslim Primer, which was written by the Rev. Ira Zepp, a retired member of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. |
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