As I watched President Barack Obama speaking in Cairo a feeling of hope began to rise in me. I thought, “Yes, and how do his words play out in my neighborhood, in my city, in our region? He’s laying out a world view for us. Let’s bring it on home.” While the President focused specifically on relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims, I think and hope he meant to broaden the scope of his remarks to include all religious traditions and perhaps even the growing number who have begun to identify themselves as “spiritual” but not belonging to any particular tradition and thus broadening the goal to reach all those who subscribe to the one rule of which he spoke – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

As I reflected on the President’s vision and heard him say, “. . .I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country—you more than anyone, have the ability to re-imagine the world, to remake this world.” I remembered a conversation with students--Kayla, a Jew; Meaghan, a Quaker; and Adam, an Orthodox Christian, and eight youth from Serbia--that was part of a Youth Dialogue which took place at Congregation Shaarey Tikvah this last April. InterAct Cleveland was invited to join in partnership with the U.S. State Department and the Cleveland Council on World Affairs with the Serbians to provide a place that would allow the youth to “re-imagine,” as Obama said this morning, the challenge of how to make a positive difference in their community through the lens of interreligious diversity. These young people said, “Why can’t we let go of the past hatreds and divisions? When I get home, I want to create more tolerance in my hometown.” And though they were educated on different continents, spoke a mixture of languages, claimed a variety of histories and unique religious backgrounds, a core energetic thought was growing in each: “I—no, we--cn enrich our homes for the better.”

There is value in religious diversity and the strength that it can bring to a community. But it is also true that a type of “narrow diversity” promotes division, mistrust, and misunderstanding.  The interreligious community that is and is becoming in Greater Cleveland can stand on the common ground of cooperation and compassion, and bring our unique strengths and gifts to the challenges that continue to confront us. We must not be seduced by the arrogance of “being right” or the trap of defining ourselves primarily over and against the other. Yes, we have a past, a sometimes painful past. The current local divisions are evident. But, can we begin to walk toward reconciliation? Can we risk coming to know one another more personally, and to continue taking small steps toward trust? Can we take an example from our youth and join in re-imagining together? 

InterAct Cleveland, an interreligious nonprofit organization, works across the lines with our 40 organizational members and friends of local Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and Unitarian Universalists traditions to strengthen our religiously diverse Greater Cleveland. Through our belief in “dia-practice,” or the idea of realizing your religious beliefs through intentional dialogues and service alongside others, we help our communities create and maintain mutual interest, respect, and peace. Our work crosses the geograprahic, ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious divisions reaching out to those who find themselves in impoverished and homeless circumstances. This is our neighborhood, our city, and our region and we must work together to eliminate the stereotypes, the misconceptions, and the human frailties that plague our achievements and good work.  I ask you to please support us as we accomplish our goals for this and the next generation. 

Sister Donna Wilhelm, ssj-tosf
Executive Director
InterAct Cleveland