‘Join Us on the Road to Abundance’
An open letter from the Downtown Minneapolis Interfaith Senior Clergy:
Join Us on the Road to Abundance
During this difficult year of 2020, The Downtown Interfaith Senior Clergy have renewed and invigorated our commitment to the well-being of our beloved city and all who live here. We work to ease suffering and pursue justice. Our group meets regularly to share life’s journey and plan ways to aid our collective communities. All our houses of worship are in the City of Minneapolis. We are friends and neighbors.
We are a diverse group: we are interfaith and vary in our religious practice; we are diverse in race, gender, age, and sexual orientation; and, we disagree on issues facing the public. But we are bound by the ethical imperatives of our traditions to live out the prophetic voice of Jeremiah every day: “To seek the welfare of the city…..for in its prosperity you shall prosper”(29:4-7). In this moment, our neighbors of color are dying in greater numbers due to the pandemic and inequities in our health care system. In addition, we live in a time of reckoning concerning racial injustice, and we stand committed to truth and reconciliation.
Our common mission has allowed us to keep our commitment to one another, despite historical divides. Each of our traditions instructs us to engage in civic responsibility. Judaism through Torah calls us to pursue justice, to care for the stranger, the widow, the orphan. The Gospel implores us to serve “the least among us.” The Prophet said, “One who spends the night with a full stomach while his neighbor is hungry, has not believed in me. One who spends the night clothed, while his neighbor has no clothes, has not believed in me.” (Mustadrak al-Wasa’il, v.2, pp.78-79)
We are political but not partisan. For us that means we answer the call to bring a moral voice to the steps of the capitol and influence legislation based on the issues that affect people’s lives. We believe that our ethical report card is determined by how we care for the most vulnerable in our society.
On November 3rd, our country will go to the polls. We invite you to remember both compassion and justice in the voting booth. For we are taught: “If a person sits in their home and says to themselves, ’What have the affairs of society to do with me? And why should I trouble myself with the people’s voices of protest? Instead, let my soul dwell in peace.’ If an individual does this, they overthrow the entire world.”(Midrash Tanhuma)
We have a stake in keeping the world balanced by striving for the values all our traditions teach. Join with us, neighbors!
Signed,
Imam Makram Nu’Man El-Amin, Masjid An-Nur
Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman, Temple Israel
Rev. Dr. Tim Hart-Andersen, Westminster Presbyterian Church
Rev. Dr. David Breeden, First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis
Rev. Jia Starr Brown, First Covenant Church Minneapolis
Rev. Kevin Kenney, Pastor, Saint Olaf Catholic Church
Rev. Judy Zabel, Senior Minister, Hennepin Avenue United Methodist
Imam Dr. Hamdy El-Sawaf Islamic Community Center of Minnesota/Masjid Al-Imin
Rev. Dr. Laurie Pound Feille, Senior Minister, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Rev. Peter Nycklemoe, Central Lutheran Church
Rev. Justin Schroeder, Sr. Co-Minister, First Universalist Church of Minneapolis
Rev. Jen Crow, Sr. Co-Minister, First Universalist Church of Minneapolis
The Very Rev. Paul J. Lebens-Englund, Dean, Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Minneapolis
Rev. Dr. Paula Northwood, Acting Senior Minister, Plymouth Congregational Church of Minneapolis
