Interfaith Youth Café: April 18, 2010

Our final Interfaith Youth Café for the school year was held at Zion United Church of Christ on Sunday, April 18. Youth and adults from five different congregations attended:

• House of Peace (Catholics and other Christians from various traditions)
• Society of Friends (Quakers)
• First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee
• Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue (Jewish)
• Zion United Church of Christ

After Pastor Glenn gave us the tour of his sanctuary and a history of their religion, the young people participated in three rounds of interfaith dialog on these topics:

     Round # 1: The Basics of your Faith

     Round # 2: The Role of Ecology in Your Faith

     Round # 3: Small and Large Ways to Bridge Faith and

         Ecology 

Miss Katie from Interfaith Earth Network asked the youth to participate in the planning of an Interfaith Earth event.

Young people made the following comments regarding the topic of faith and ecology:

• The Unitarian Universalists noted that their faith supports a green way of life at their place of worship and emphasizes the importance of participating in programs like Habitat for Humanity and biking more/ driving less.
• The House of Peace youth were impressed with the Jewish National program for planting trees.
• Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue will plan an ecological activity for the summer. They noted that all the faith groups care about the environment.
• The Friends(Quakers) commented that land and water are essentials for mankind; all are all responsible for it.
• The Zion United Church of Christ congregation practices being green, from recycling the jackets of their church programs to using reusable plates and flatware that can be washed. Throughout the summer, their congregation collects used bicycles, tools, and shoes to donate to Honduras.

All religions have plans for their congregation to become more green. The participants discussed their ability to recycle and restore Planet Earth. 

Participants filled out evaluation forms and gave us the following feedback:

What did you like most about your experience today?

• Meeting new people, socializing, the snacks.

• Broad range of good topics
• We feel relaxed, not stressed.
• We feel accepted by all the participants.
• Getting to know more about other faiths and learning more about their traditions for the environment.
• The younger people. I missed the groups not here

What are some of the things you learned today?

• The Jewish National Fund has planted more trees than any other charity.
• Unitarian Universalists and United Church of Christ are very similar in beliefs and traditions.
• Despite the different beliefs in religion, everyone still cares about the environment and wants to do their part to help.
• There are conflicts about how to manage water and what to do with cans.

What might you tell young people in other congregations to encourage them to attend a future café?

• The things you learn here are useful and interesting. You never know what other interesting things you going to find out.
• You learn a lot about the other people and their religions. It is fun and relaxing –it’s a very friendly way to meet people your age. It provides good insights into other religions.
• How much youth are for each other.

What did you wish you had more time to talk about?

• The Jewish National Fund
• General faith differences for longer time period to discuss
• Broad topics are good for us to talk more about.
• Everything

What do you plan to do to work toward a better environment, as an individual or with a group?

• Plant more trees
• Create a program at our place of worship
• Pray for wisdom as to what my role might be
• Habitat for Humanity,
• Attend youth group,
• Carpool or bike to church.

What topics or themes would you like to hear more about… as suggestions for the future?

• Individualism
• The different forms of Respect
• Afterlife.
• Social justice
• God / theisms
• Music and religion
• Art and religion.
• Religious views on world topics.
• More about specifics of life or beliefs

A special “thank you” to Harriet Nuetzel-Nelson and Anne Erbe for preparing three delicious courses of food for us at this event.