Skip to main content
It is common practice for Unitarian Universalist ministers and their congregations to include in our Letter of Agreement (contract) provision for a sabbatical every five to seven years, accrued at a rate of one month per year, for up to six months. I’m in my ninth year of service with the UU Fellowship at Stony Brook and last year, finally, I felt the time was right to take a sabbatical. So last winter, January through March, I left my congregation to it’s own good governance, with guest coverage for every service I would have led, and emergency pastoral care coverage by various other UU ministers on our island through an exchange program we formed just for that purpose. I had two aims for the use of my time: a combo solo (with spouse) and group-tour trek down the National and State(s) Civil Rights Trail in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, and a deep immersion into Jewish studies. 

In my pursuit of the dive into Judaism, I joined North Shore Jewish Center’s (NSJC) sixteen week Judaism 101 class, studied Hebrew using a four-volume adult self-study course, did some Israeli dancing with my spouse, attended Shabbat services, and read a bunch of books about Judaism and Israel. I am proud to say that I can now read Hebrew—imperfectly, but well enough to follow the prayers in their original language. And I am so deeply grateful for the kindness and welcome showed to me by my interfaith colleagues at Temple Isaiah and NSJC and members of their congregations. 

This coming spring, March through May, I’ll be taking the second leg of my sabbatical, an immersion into Islam. In March, Linda and I will be traveling to Morocco on a 10-day tour organized and led by Omid Safi, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University. In preparation for that trip, I have already joined a small group of Muslim women who gather weekly at the Selden Masjid (Islamic Association of Long Island) to learn Arabic and the fundamentals of Islam. And what a warm welcome I have received: unquestioning inclusion and generous, heartfelt sharing, encouragement, and support in learning from skilled teachers and ready learners alike, not to mention snacks fresh from an Egyptian bakery! 

This is the world I want to live in: a world of open-armed welcome and generous cultural and religious interchange. A smarter world. A better world. A peaceful world. A loving world. 


Rev. Margie Allen, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Stony Brook

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Interfaith Dialogue on Guns in America

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/interfaith-guns-port-jefferson-1.17108637 LONG ISLAND SUFFOLK LI group urges interfaith unity to curb tide of gun violence Several speakers Sunday called for addressing mental health issues, and reducing violence in movies and video games Vivian Viloria Fisher, (from left) Jeff Keister, Marcey Wagner and Burt Benowitz discuss ways to curb gun violence Sunday in Port Jefferson Station. Photo Credit: Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara  By Rachelle Blidner rachelle.blidner@newsday.com    @rachelleblidner  Updated March 4, 2018 9:13 PM An interfaith group of clergy members joined Sunday in Port Jefferson Station to call for more gun control measures after the recent Florida school shooting. Leaders of Muslim, Jewish, Universalist, and other congregations on Long Island urged people of all faiths to work together to reduce the frequency of mass shootings after 17 people were killed in Parkland, Florida, last month...
2 comments
Read more

Make even these days count

One of the most popular features on a local newscast of a small TV station is something rather surprising. It is a feature called- “The Day of the Week”.  Today is…….. Monday!  The station put forth this as a kind of joke at first, but it was so popular that it became a regular daily addition to the morning newscast.  Apparently, so many of us have lost track of what day it is that we need a reminder. During this stay-at-home time, every day seems to blend into the next.  It is truly difficult to remember how many days we have all been quarantined at home, what the date is and what day of the week it is.  Many of us have a few markers that help- jobs that pause for the weekend, celebrations of Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays- special days of worship.  But even with these, the days seem to bleed into each other like a striped shirt washed in hot water. The period that we are in right now in the Jewish calendar is ironically, a time of counting. A time w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Next steps?

At last night's community forum,  Belief and Truth from a Multifaith Perspective: Finding Unity in Diversity , many expressed a desire to continue these kinds of conversations and to take action together for building bridges in our community. These are some of the ideas that were shared for next steps: Find something concrete that we can work on together in our community Come out with a statement to the community about this gathering Have clergy visit other houses of worship for teaching and conversation  Invite people of other faiths or no faith traditions into our houses of worship Bring younger people into our interfaith programs Ask elected officials to talk about this kind of work Identify root causes of hatred and address them Encourage media coverage of our programs What other ideas do you have for next steps? Please share them in the comments.
2 comments
Read more