"What joy to celebrate
the Atonement with this people who embrace Atonement. What joy to
celebrate the repentance of our sins from A to Z. That's a gift that
Jews and Christians in unity can give our society, the good news of
repentance, and just why that is good news," wrote Pastor Daniel Meeter on his blog Old First.
Indeed, it was a Yom Kippur to remember in Park Slope when the ceiling fell in at Congregation Beth Elohim and Old First hosted the high holy day services.
And in an unrelated incident: a group of bigots from a Kansas Baptist Church (godhatesfags.com) picketed outside of the synagogue on the Saturday morning before the start of Yom Kippur on Sunday.
"What a week," Rabbi Andy Bachman told the Yom Kippur crowd at the church. And they laughed knowlingly. The rabbi held a service on the steps of the synagogue on Saturday, blew a shofar while 200 congregants and Park Slope residents danced, sang, and laughed.
And now we hear from Old First's Pastor Meeter who graciously offered his church to the neighborhood Jews and made a wonderful statement about Christian/Jewish unity in the process.
greater joy for us at Old First that we could enjoy the celebration of
Yom Kippur in our own house. Last night and today our sanctuary, though
still very much our sanctuary, wore different clothes. It was fully a
synagogue, and the chancel became a bema and the altar became an ark.
Look,
I'm proud and a little possessive. I admit that I think of our Old
First pulpit as "my" pulpit, and the big chair behind it as "my" chair,
and yet I can tell you how joyful it was to see "my" pulpit so
thoroughly occupied by the Rabbi and the Cantor as if they owned the
place. And for Rabbi Bachman, last night at Kol Nidre, from his (my)
pulpit, to preach a sermon that I so admired and was inspired by. Yes,
how joyful for us to be for them "Rehovoth."
Of course, every
single scripture they read from the altar and the pulpit is scripture
for us Christians anyway. And every prayer they prayed could be prayed
by any Christian. So for us it was so easy. I am grateful that they did
the more challenging thing of accepting our hospitality.
How
joyful that for 24 hours these guests, these 1200 guests, took over our
sanctuary in order to sanctify the Name of God. What a privilege for us.
Yes,
I am ecstatic, and I guess I will come down from this, but I gotta tell
ya this was for me a high point. And I am so proud of our congregation,
Old First, who takes this kind of hospitality (and is willing to work
for it behind the scenes) as a just plain "given."
Thanks for posting, Louise. The Very Reverend Daniel Meeter is a true friend to us and to all in this neighborhood. His pulpit provided the setting for, what our community universally agrees, was one of the most special Days of Atonement in memory. Our neighborhood is blessed.