Related Video
Recent Photo Galleries
 |
 |
 |
 |
A Call to Reconciliation
 |
"We are saddened to see our Muslim neighbors, friends, and colleagues so misrepresented. They are part of the rich heritage and religious tapestry of New York City, and they have done much to contribute to its well-being."
Statement from the Collegiate Church of New York Published Friday, September 10 in the New York Times
We are blessed to be part of a particular community called the Collegiate Church of New York with almost four hundred years of continuous ministry in this city. We gather not only as individuals, but as communities through which we can impact the world around us. We are drawn together by Jesus’ calling to love one another, and we share a common vocation of pursuing peace with all people (John 13.34 and Hebrews 12.14). It is from this basis that we, as a community of believers, offer the following comments on the controversy that has been generated by the proposal to develop a Muslim Community Center in lower Manhattan.
We live in the midst of God’s marvelous mosaic. New York City and its environs is a place of cultural diversity and religious pluralism. The positive and inclusive nature of the Christian faith compels us to respect all people, listen to diverse viewpoints, and work in partnership with those who seek peace and the good of our community. While we pursue the path to truth and life through Jesus Christ, our Christian tradition and our American heritage promote the freedom of all people to seek their own religious paths and to worship however and wherever they wish.
We also recognize that there are deep wounds that still remain from the terrorist attack on our city on September 11, 2001. We honor the courage of first responders and advocate for appropriate health care benefits to address their ongoing medical issues. We grieve with those who suffered losses of loved ones on that day, and we acknowledge that the space formerly occupied by the twin towers holds a sacred place in the hearts of all Americans.
As we watch the fury over the community center intensify, we are also grieved by the mischaracterization of people and positions. A prime example is the way the Muslim leaders involved in this initiative have had their intent, beliefs, and character maligned. We are saddened to see our Muslim neighbors, friends, and colleagues so misrepresented. They are part of the rich heritage and religious tapestry of New York City, and they have done much to contribute to its well-being. Islam, like Christianity, is a large and diverse faith, and one cannot use one experience or expression of Islam to stereotype all Muslims, nor can all be indicted for the acts of a few. We also deplore the portrayal of Christianity as anti-Muslim through the desecration of their sacred text. Our faith calls us to respect others and to strive to represent them fairly. Doing so does not eliminate the space to disagree; it speaks to how we represent ourselves and others with integrity in the midst of disagreement.
The polarizing nature of the debate has left us listening solely for whether people are “for” or “against” the community center. The voices in the middle are being crowded out by extreme positions on both sides. In order to cultivate room to learn from one another and to create greater understanding among all concerned, we believe any engagement of this issue must be based on the following:
First, we call for civil dialogue where the rights of all people are respected. We recognize that the current controversy, in many ways, represents a conversation that we as a people never had after September 11. Moving forward, we pledge ourselves to be engaged in settings and venues where interfaith dialogue and cooperation is fostered throughout the city and beyond. We call upon all those who would exploit this situation for their own personal agendas through demagoguery and the demonization of others to cease their rhetoric and extend their ears and their hearts to all.
Second, we commit ourselves and encourage others to learn more about Islam. If the current controversy has shown anything, it is the great misunderstanding about the faith of Muslims.
Third, we commit ourselves and encourage others to learn the facts surrounding the proposed community center. No reasoned discussion can occur unless we have a common understanding of what is being proposed.
Fourth, we commit ourselves and encourage others to build relationships of trust between those carrying divergent positions in this controversy. A lack of trust prevents us from listening and learning from one another, and there will be no successful resolution without some measure of trust between those involved.
Because of who we are and who we are called to be, we celebrate a vision of cultural diversity and religious tolerance, a setting where we can learn about one another, participate across lines of race, faith, culture, and socioeconomic condition to be faithful to our calling in this city. Therefore we are committed to work with the organizers of Park51 and all concerned parties as a reconciling agent so that there is a new way for the residents of this city and all Americans to move forward into a new future in which civil dialogue leads to healing and understanding.
Rev. Michael S. Bos, West End Collegiate Church
Rev. Dr. Michael B. Brown, Marble Collegiate Church
Rev. Robert Chase, Intersections International
Rev. Dr. Jacqueline J. Lewis, Middle Collegiate Church
Rev. Charles D. Morris, Fort Washington Collegiate Church
Casey R. Kemper, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer • 917-880-6724 • reconciliation@collegiatechurch.org
Comments
Nine Years After
Nine years ago today, I watched from a few blocks away as the second plane disintegrated into the South Tower and a huge fireball rose perversely against a beautiful blue sky. Everyone aboard United Airlines Flight 175 perished and pieces of the plane landed on the site of the proposed mosque.
A moment later I saw two people falling from the building. I stood watching for a few moments, literally immobile to the relentless sequence of terrible events, and I saw three more people fall from the sky. By 9:03AM it was clear that hundreds of people had died and that many more were going to die. That more people (emergency workers, firefighters and police) would actually enter those towers to save lives will never be lost to me or my family.
Nine years later, my thoughts and prayers are that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s project will serve effectively as a community center, mosque, and a memorial. Whatever becomes of its programming or physical design, its space will always memorialize the people who were in those planes, and in those buildings, and in the sky.
Ironically, a street named Church Street figures prominently in the mosque's proposed future. In the city of churches, Church was the street address for the Twin Towers, and it will be both pathway and neighborhood for anyone who may actually choose to walk from Ground Zero to the new mosque or vice versa. The street itself is on property first owned by a minister of the Dutch Protestant Reformed (Collegiate Church) minister in the 1640s.
By 1700 the minister’s farm had become the property of nearby Trinity Church. Located today on the minister’s farm is St. Paul's Church where President George Washington was inaugurated; St. Peter's Church which happens to be the city's oldest Roman Catholic Church; and the city's first African American house of worship – Mother Episcopal Zion Church (which is no longer standing).The Church Street neighborhood also included the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on Liberty Street, which was crushed on 911.
Adjacent to St. Peter's stands the tall steel cross which workers salvaged from the destruction. The Ground Zero Cross, as it is known, was placed there as a symbol of perseverance, strength, and courage.
Extending a hand to Islam may be considered by some to be “about as Christian as you can get.” It is a wonderfully conciliatory act toward peace.