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A Delightful Evening Event at the Mosque by Sr. Jane Abeln, smic
Sr. Joanne Riggs, SMIC collaborated on a
fine program jointly sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate
Conception and the Women of the Islamic Center of Passaic County. On March
27th evening, over
fifty women [and a few men] of Christian and Muslim traditions gathered at
the Broadway mosque to hear Sr. Suzanne Golas, a Sister of St. Joseph of
Peace [CSJP] on the theme, “The Sacredness of Creation: The Gift of Water.” Sr. Suzanne shared an
intriguing tie-in leading her community to prioritize the earth-issue of
water: their houses are on US and Canadian coasts, England, Ireland, and
Scotland, and at the Jersey Shore retreat center. (It was during our ’06
Chapter at that last site that we SMICs also chose to focus on water in our
effort to grow in eco-friendly understanding and action.) In Sr. Suzanne’s
representation of her community at the UN, she speaks of appealing to the
faith communities for stewardship of our holy earth.
She spoke of the
Christian positions, including key references: Water is the most frequent
image in Scripture, especially God and Jesus Christ as Living Water. Water
is the source of life. The Koran affirms the references. Christian Scripture
begins (Gen. 1:2-3) and ends (Rev. 22:17) with reference to water. 72 % of
the earth’s surface is water, captured in the blue-planet photos of
astronauts viewing earth from space.
We laughed when Sr. Suzanne cited that a baby is
95% water at birth, a person in his/her prime in the late 20’s is about 65%
water, but after that we begin to lose cell-tissue water and “shrivel.”
Our Muslim sister, Mediah, supplied the word
amana which describes the Koran’s
concept of basic stewardship, humans accepting the responsibility—or not
accepting it, as only humans have the power to do. It alarmed us to hear
that Mexico City has earth cracks widening toward making it soon
uninhabitable, and that our state of Arizona imports much of its water
because of heavy consumption.
We broke to pray in our separate groups. The
Muslims prayed in the main area of the mosque. The Sisters of three
communities [SMIC, CSJP, and another pair of Sisters of St. Joseph] with
Catholic and Christian laywomen went upstairs. We introduced ourselves
before we prayed Vespers together.
When the whole group
reconvened, we received a paper with many ideas for “Actions for our Ocean
Planet,” such as personal conservation with our running water, a brick in
our toilet tank, and not buying into bottled water. The Muslim women smiled
because they had gotten bottled water to share with a special kind of pizza
at hospitality time, but we understood this gesture that warmly welcomed us
for our concluding time of sharing.
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