What Are We Walking Away From
And What Are We Walking Toward?
By Terence Cozad Taylor
Executive Director, Interfaith Paths to Peace
On Thursday, February 8, I will depart Louisville for a two-week journey of exploration and pilgrimage through the Holy Land in Israel, Palestine and Jordan.
I will be traveling in the company of Omar Attum of Bellarmine University and two members of the Interfaith Paths to Peace board: Mark Isaacs and Bashar Masri.
Mark is an American Jew who has lived in Israel for a year. Bashar is an American Muslim who was raised in the city of Nablus in Palestine. Together Mark and Bashar (with the help of Omar) lead a Louisville organization called Together for Two States, a group of Muslims and Jews who promote a sensible plan for national states of Israel and Palestine that can live side by side in peace, justice, and security.
Over the next 15 days we will be visiting the Vatican’s study center in Jerusalem, the Quaker school and meeting in Ramallah. We will also meeting with individuals and groups struggling in Israel, Jordan and Palestine to find a peaceful solution to the conflict and divisions that plague that region.
On Sunday, February 4th Mark Isaacs, Omar Attum and I attended Mass at St. William Catholic Church. At the conclusion of that Mass the members of St. William lifted their hands and spoke words of blessing to us for our journey (Bashar has already left for the Middle East.. The parishoners of St. William were joined in blessing us by G.A. Shareef of the Islamic Cultural Center, Chris Harmer of the Quaker Meeting, Fran Englander a local independent Jewish leader, and Anthony Redfeather Nava of Kentuckiana American Indian Advocates. Following the Mass many of those present offered us their own best wishes and expressed concern for us as we enter a geographic area that suffers from almost daily violence.
For all four of us, but particularly for me, this trip will be a pilgrimage. This will be my first time to set foot in the Holy Land. But oddly, as I prepare my thoughts have not been focused on visiting sacred geography. Perhaps if I were traveling alone I would be concentrating on visiting the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock and the Way of the Cross.
Not by choice, but rather out of concern, my preparation for this pilgrimage has been concentrated on thinking about the conflict in Israel and Palestine and what we here in the inter-religious community in Louisville can learn from it. I have no illusions that we four have anything we can tell the people we meet about how to solve their problems.
I do have hope that as this group--comprising a Christian, a Jew, and two Muslim--travels together, we will express the feeling that “we” can get along no matter where we are on the planet.
Last summer 50 of us from throughout the nation took part in a five day, 60-pilgrimage for peace and non-violence, walking from the Abbey of Gethsemani in Nelson County to downtown Louisville.
Joe Grant, a Louisville peacemaker who had the original idea for this pilgrimage prepared us for our journey by asking each of us to consider what we were walking away from and what we would be walking toward. The question was posed to us on each day of the walk.
The trip we begin tomorrow literally grew out of that earlier pilgrimage and I am asking myself again, “What are you walking away from and what are you walking toward?”
I’m not sure of the answer to either part of the question. But I guess I am walking away from preconceived notions about what seems to be an endless struggle half way around the world. And I guess I am walking toward a place where my heart will be open to hearing the ideas of people whose lives are filled with fear, anxiety and suffering every day. I guess I am walking toward a place in my own heart where I can feel compassion for all I meet.
And What Are We Walking Toward?
By Terence Cozad Taylor
Executive Director, Interfaith Paths to Peace
On Thursday, February 8, I will depart Louisville for a two-week journey of exploration and pilgrimage through the Holy Land in Israel, Palestine and Jordan.
I will be traveling in the company of Omar Attum of Bellarmine University and two members of the Interfaith Paths to Peace board: Mark Isaacs and Bashar Masri.
Mark is an American Jew who has lived in Israel for a year. Bashar is an American Muslim who was raised in the city of Nablus in Palestine. Together Mark and Bashar (with the help of Omar) lead a Louisville organization called Together for Two States, a group of Muslims and Jews who promote a sensible plan for national states of Israel and Palestine that can live side by side in peace, justice, and security.
Over the next 15 days we will be visiting the Vatican’s study center in Jerusalem, the Quaker school and meeting in Ramallah. We will also meeting with individuals and groups struggling in Israel, Jordan and Palestine to find a peaceful solution to the conflict and divisions that plague that region.
On Sunday, February 4th Mark Isaacs, Omar Attum and I attended Mass at St. William Catholic Church. At the conclusion of that Mass the members of St. William lifted their hands and spoke words of blessing to us for our journey (Bashar has already left for the Middle East.. The parishoners of St. William were joined in blessing us by G.A. Shareef of the Islamic Cultural Center, Chris Harmer of the Quaker Meeting, Fran Englander a local independent Jewish leader, and Anthony Redfeather Nava of Kentuckiana American Indian Advocates. Following the Mass many of those present offered us their own best wishes and expressed concern for us as we enter a geographic area that suffers from almost daily violence.
For all four of us, but particularly for me, this trip will be a pilgrimage. This will be my first time to set foot in the Holy Land. But oddly, as I prepare my thoughts have not been focused on visiting sacred geography. Perhaps if I were traveling alone I would be concentrating on visiting the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock and the Way of the Cross.
Not by choice, but rather out of concern, my preparation for this pilgrimage has been concentrated on thinking about the conflict in Israel and Palestine and what we here in the inter-religious community in Louisville can learn from it. I have no illusions that we four have anything we can tell the people we meet about how to solve their problems.
I do have hope that as this group--comprising a Christian, a Jew, and two Muslim--travels together, we will express the feeling that “we” can get along no matter where we are on the planet.
Last summer 50 of us from throughout the nation took part in a five day, 60-pilgrimage for peace and non-violence, walking from the Abbey of Gethsemani in Nelson County to downtown Louisville.
Joe Grant, a Louisville peacemaker who had the original idea for this pilgrimage prepared us for our journey by asking each of us to consider what we were walking away from and what we would be walking toward. The question was posed to us on each day of the walk.
The trip we begin tomorrow literally grew out of that earlier pilgrimage and I am asking myself again, “What are you walking away from and what are you walking toward?”
I’m not sure of the answer to either part of the question. But I guess I am walking away from preconceived notions about what seems to be an endless struggle half way around the world. And I guess I am walking toward a place where my heart will be open to hearing the ideas of people whose lives are filled with fear, anxiety and suffering every day. I guess I am walking toward a place in my own heart where I can feel compassion for all I meet.
posted by Interfaith Paths to Peace at 11:27 AM
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