A few weeks ago, I learned how to perform a baptism. This was definitely not something I ever thought I would need to know, but it was a good symbol of a summer* that has already been fascinating and interfaith--I'll explain it below. The main crux is that I am fortunate to attend two international conferences this summer (one already happened, one is next month), and I am working as a chaplain in a hospital. All these things have been quite interfaith-y.
Conference Number One: La Bella Roma
In May, I was brought to Rome for an interfaith conference celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Russell Berrie Fellowship in Interreligious Studies, the great program that sent me to Rome the year after I graduated from college to study with priests and nuns. They wanted to gather a number of active interfaith alumni, to meet one another, learn, network with folks within and outside the program, present on our work, and more. They invited me to present on two of my interfaith projects that were funded through their alumni grant program, and I was so thankful for the invitation and opportunity to travel back to my once-upon-a-time home.
As it was my first time back in Rome since 2014 when I lived there, being back in Italy was incredibly surreal. Highlights included:
1. Seeing old friends
2. Meeting with people who were genuinely interested in my interfaith work
3. Getting together with one of the top folks at the Vatican doing interfaith work with Jews
4. Wandering the city at midnight a few times (only jetlag could make me hip enough to do that so late)
5. Forming closer bonds with other Berrie fellows
6. Usually trips do not feel exactly restful, and it was certainly busy. But it was also my first opportunity since I don't know when to not have heavy obligations always in the back of my mind--I was bringing a carry-on so I did not bring my textbooks or homework, I could not really get things done on the ever-present life to-do list in my bullet journal, etc. It was a week of surprising mental peace for which I am incredibly grateful, and a good inspiration to reinvigorate some of my multifaith work.
Some photos:
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| Presenting on one of my posters |
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| The Berrie Fellows gathered at the Angelicum |
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| The Vatican! Sunshine! And yes, a filter. |
Back a million years ago in December 2015, I attended an interfaith conference in Rabat, Morocco. That was the first meeting of a group called ACWAY, about which I have formerly waxed poetic and will try to restrain myself from doing again here. The short version is that this is a group of more than 100 young people from all around the world who are committed to doing interfaith and intercultural work in their communities. Attending that first conference literally changed my life, because I got to meet young, passionate people with amazing stories and backgrounds from places with which I had limited interaction prior. It was incredible. I am still friends with some of those people today. Every time I run an interfaith project since, I do it under the ACWAY banner. It has its challenges as any group does, but I am proud to be associated with this network.
So ACWAY has had a few conferences since then (in Australia, in Sudan), which unfortunately I have not been able to attend (though I did present with some ACWAY folks in Toronto back in November). But this year, in July, I'm going! Baku, Azerbaijan, here I come. It'll only take 24 hours of travel each way.
I know that not every ACWAY conference will be able to be as inspiring and life-changing as that first one, but I am still excited. To see people with whom I have kept in touch since 2015 but have not seen in person. To explore a new place, which will be the furthest east I have traveled in my life. To meet new people from around the world. To be one of the few (only?) Jewish participants there and live out that incredibly challenging experience. I am hoping there is space in the program for me to share a bit about Judaism during the conference, but that still remains to be seen.
I think the conference could be incredibly rewarding, incredibly challenging, or both. Please send all good prayers/thoughts/vibes you can spare for a successful meeting, as I am definitely excited and also nervous. Let's do this.
The Day-to-Day: Hospital Chaplaincy
This summer, my main obligation is doing CPE, which stands for Clinical Pastoral Education, as a hospital here in Philadelphia. CPE is a program in hospitals/nursing homes that has people of different faith and non-faith traditions serve as chaplains for the patient population. Essentially, most days of the week I go work at a hospital, visit with patients and/or their families, and try to lend support where I can. I still have so much to learn, but I am trying to get better every day.
Now, usually the people in a hospital who need support are not those doing well--it's the families struggling. Someone who just received a bad diagnosis. A person about to lose their beloved spouse when they're both middle age. The family whose matriarch is passing slowly over the course of a week. Or a family that has just lost a baby.
Although I have not yet been called to attend to a family that has lost a baby, this is the reason they taught us very early on the basics of how to perform a baptism: in case we are the only person from spiritual care in the hospital, and we are called to maternity for a baby about to pass, and they cannot get a priest or minister there quickly enough to perform a baptism and it is important to the family that it happen. I've learned that essentially anyone can do a baptism in an emergency, but that person should be a Christian (makes sense). So while I would not actually perform the baptism myself in an emergency situation, I have learned enough to feel confident (as much as one can in the situation) to lead a Christian family member of the child in performing the baptism before the child passes. What a tragic and moving thing to learn to serve the interfaith patient community at the hospital.
Many Christian seminaries require their students to go through CPE, and while it is not required at my school, it is highly encouraged and supported--since once we are rabbis, and honestly even before, people come to us for support. I was excited to participate because I could serve people of many different faiths (we get a lot of Christians, a fair minority of Jews, and then some nones/Muslims/Buddhists/people of other traditions). It has already in these first few weeks been a learning experience in sitting with people in deep pain, leading a group in spontaneous prayer (that took me a little while to feel comfortable doing), having to be socially "on" for hours on end because you essentially go talk to strangers all day, and more.
I knew it could be an incredibly transformative summer, and while I am not nearly done learning all I will learn, my first surprising revelation has actually not really been directly about interfaith work. Because my life is so focused on interfaith dialogue, the community I serve is--wonderfully, and as intended--religiously diverse. It means that I get to speak with my friends and colleagues of all different faiths as they deal with a variety of things. But what it also means is that at times I have struggled to know how to define myself as a specifically Jewish leader. Why become a rabbi? Am I even a Jewish leader, or just a leader who happens to be Jewish? Well, at least at the hospital this summer, I see it a bit more clearly.
The hospital is located near an observant Jewish area of the city, which means the hospital is fairly well set up to cater to that community's needs, around kosher food, Shabbat observance accommodations, and more. And because I have that Jewish knowledge, it means that when we have a patient's family member come in and express concern around being able to keep Shabbat while visiting the hospital, I can comfort them. It means that I can use language more comfortable for Jewish patients when I go and speak to them. It means that--hopefully--the Jewish patients coming through the hospital can feel a little more seen, because they can receive spiritual care from someone who is Jewish. And it definitely means that I can speak to interfaith families from a place of both interfaith and Jewish knowledge. This has been so incredibly rewarding in a way I did not expect, and I am also grateful for this opportunity.
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On that grateful note, I will sign off with a wish that everyone have a wonderful summer if you're in the northern hemisphere, and a not-too-freezing winter if you're down south.
Now go out and love one another.
<3,
Allyson
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*I recognize that "summer" just started. Please know that it seems I will forever be stuck on academic calendars so "summer" for me means vaguely mid-May to the end of August. What can you do.
**The most common response I get when I say I'm going to Azerbaijan is something along the lines of, "What country is that in?" Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority yet not-officially-religiously-affiliated country located between the Middle East and Asia. I know of at least one other interfaith-type conference there in recent months, so it seems they are making an effort to get involved in the interfaith scene. Yay!
