Friends,
At a congregational meeting after celebration on Sunday November 11, Montclair Presbyterian Church voted to declare itself a “Peace Church.” The vote came after two years of classes, conversations, and a lot of wordsmithery as a group of us crafted a statement that is even now earning praise from the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, an organization tasked with encouraging Presbyterians around the country to talk about peacemaking issues. I’d be happier to report that our declaration is among the top three such statements in the denomination if it were not for the fact that so far there have only been three such statements adopted by congregations. But still, ours is a good declaration; we have a right to be proud of what we accomplished. [To read the final version of our peace church declaration, follow this link.
The good thing about being the third Presbyterian Church to declare itself to be a peace church is that it feels to me as if we are on the leading edge of an important movement nationally. Ultimately, I don’t know what that denomination-wide movement will look like, but we can shape what being a Peace Church will look like for us at MPC, and to that end, I’d like to extend an invitation to the congregation. I’d like to invite you to come to Spain with me.
Specifically, I’d like to invite you to join me in Cordoba to learn about the convivencia, a period of time when Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together in relative peace in the parts of Southern Spain ruled by various Muslim kingdoms and Caliphates between the year 711, when Muslims began their conquest of southern Spain, and the year 1492, when Isabella and Ferdinand united the Iberian peninsula under Catholic rule. The convivencia was neither universal nor complete in Muslim Spain—the good will shared between the three religious communities waxed and waned over time, depending upon which government was in control and which locality was being controlled—but it was always better to live as a religious minority in Muslim Spain than anywhere else in medieval Europe.
On our trip we will learn about what made the convivencia successful and we will learn about the enduring spiritual contributions each religious tradition made to the Western spiritual landscape. If all goes well, our traveling companions will include folks from Kehilla Synagogue and The Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California. Hopefully, this course of study and joint travel, will embody the kind of peace we committed ourselves to pursuing when we declared ourselves to be a peace church.
Many of the details of the trip (details such as when we will go or how long we will stay) have yet to be worked out, and if you send me an email expressing your interest in learning more about the trip, I will invite you to join in the planning process. What I do know is that we will stay in a monastery near Córdoba, and that our guide and teacher will be a friend of mine named Daniel Muñoz. Daniel is an Anglican priest who is a professor at Spain’s largest Protestant seminary. Until recently, he and his husband ran a retreat center in the Sierra Nevada (the one in Spain), where I spent time last Summer. Daniel is a fantastic teacher, he embodies a deep spirituality, and he has a great sense of humor. You will like him. [To learn more about Daniel’s work as a workshop leader and facilitator click here
Again, this is all in the planning stages. But I’d love for you to come to Spain with me, and I’d love for your input as the planning of the trip takes shape.
God’s Peace,
Ben