01 November 2020

Planning Ahead for a Moment of Civic Healing

I was asked to write an article for the Union County Clergy Interfaith Coordinating Council November newsletter, which was themed "Reconciliation".


    I am currently in a Doctor of Ministry program at Drew University Theological School.  In our introduction to the Doctor of Ministry course, we were invited to collaborate to create a public witness or liturgy.  This public witness or liturgy had to confront a contemporary issue, give participants time to reflect, as well as provide an impetus and invitation to growth and change.  With five classmates, Revs. David Clark, Laurel O’Connor, Mia Sloan, Tirzah Turner, and Ellen Witko, and myself, Rabbi Joel N. Abraham, we created a Multi-faith Meditation for Civic Healing After the National Election.  It was obvious to us, no matter what the results of our upcoming November election, there would be a need for healing on all sides, and we hoped to provide a template for a liturgical moment to bring people together. 


As Rev. O’Connor stated in the introduction, we strove to invite voices not only of different faith traditions, but also to create a space that would welcome those of different political views, whom might have different feelings at the results, or even if there was turmoil and results were not yet clarified: 


The day after an election day is filled with stark contrasts. Within one national context, there are people who are mourning, and people who are celebrating. There are people who are angry, and people who are joyful. There are people who are confused and disillusioned, and people who are feeling triumphant and victorious. 


One question we asked ourselves when coming to a multi-faith space of healing and hope was “how do we keep this service from being unbalanced?” In our context, we are a mostly Christian group, with a Reform Jewish Rabbi, that does not want to appropriate other traditions’ prayers without their consent or participation.


But that question can be extended even further to political thought and doctrine, so I will repeat it again: “How do we keep a service of healing from being unbalanced?” We want to be clear: difference isn’t something to sweep under the rug in hopes of homogeneity. Whether it’s politics or religion, we find hope in the fact that diversity creates a beautiful tapestry of thought and belief across our landscape.


Our service (the text and video of which are provided in links below) began with a contemplative prayer, and included prayers from African, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian tradtion. The idea was not to be comprehensive, but to provide a model, so that other communities might bring in the prayers of their own members, or those they wished to lift up.  We acknowledged at the beginning that we asked our participants to bring prayers from their own faiths.  We knew that such a practice might make those of different faiths uncomfortable, but made clear that we were presenting and offering prayer, not forcing others to pray with or in the manner that we might offer. We appreciate that it is often easier and more authentic for prayer leaders to use the tropes and words of their own tradition, rather than try to find a neutral medium that avoids offending anyone, but also often fails to inspire.


From the Jewish tradition, I offered two prayers. The first was gomeil - the prayer that is offered upon returning safely to the community by a person who has experienced a traumatic experience - such as illness, or a difficult journey. This prayer gives the one who prays the opportunity not only to give thanks, in front of the community, for having survived, but also gives the community the opportunity to echo that thanks, and share their own gratitude. The second prayer was a prayer for our country. Traditionally, this is one of the only prayers that is expected to be in the vernacular, rather than in Hebrew. The prayer is meant to be transparent - not only to the worshippers, but to the outside community, so that the congregation is known to be patriotic and loyal. This formulation (from L’chol z’man v’eit - the Reform Movement of Judaism’s order of prayer for clergy) combines the calls for justice from the Torah (“Justice, justice shall you pursue.” - Deut. 16:20 and “Proclaim liberty throughout the land.” - Lev. 25:10) which are part of our American lexicon, but also words from the Declaration of Independence (“life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”) while calling for all of us to do our parts to maintain our democracy and thanking those who have risked or given their lives for those values.


The liturgy that we created was a collaborative offering - an offering to the moment that we see quite clearly in the road ahead.  We do not know what will happen in November, but we do know that we face a choice about going forward.  We can come together again as a nation - recognizing that we may live in different Americas, but our dream of equity and justice for all is the same, or we can continue to put our own needs over others, and segment our fragile democracy into shards of former freedom.  The challenge is ours - how we decide to meet that challenge will determine not only our own futures, but those of our children, and those around the world.


As the prayer for the nation that I shared concluded, “We pray for .wisdom and moral strength,that we may be guardians of these rights for ourselves and for the sake of all people,

now and forever.”  Amen.


The video template of this service can be found here - https://bit.ly/2SELuiO - and the texts here - https://bit.ly/2SFXiS7


Rabbi Joel N. Abraham

Temple Sholom of Scotch Plains

UCICC Board Member