Parishioners of St. John the Evangelist, Center Moriches, and students from Our Lady Queen of Angels Regional School, perform a skit about Jesus’ vision of peace.
Catholics share Jesus’ vision of peace at interfaith gathering
Parishioners of St. John the Evangelist, Center Moriches, and students from Our Lady Queen of Angels Regional School, perform a skit about Jesus’ vision of peace.
Center Moriches — Students, athletes, actresses, and businesspeople get stuck on a train, where they start a discussion about Christ and His message of peace — but soon realize that the train’s conductor is Jesus himself.
That skit, featuring parishioners of St. John the Evangelist Church and students from Our Lady Queen of Apostles Regional School here, was part of a Jan. 30 presentation for members of various faith communities commemorating the anniversary of the death of Mohandas (known commonly as “Mahatma”) Gandhi.
The event was hosted by the Shanti Fund, which works to promote peace through education, and the Long Island Multi-Faith Forum, founded by the Long Island Council of Churches and Auburn Theological Seminary to promote understanding and tolerance of different faiths. The evening included songs, poetry, dinner, and presentations by the different groups represented on how their faith continues to embody Gandhi’s vision of peace.
Father Walter Kedjierski, pastor of St. John’s, who worked for years with Bishop William Murphy on interfaith relations and served with the board of the Long Island Multi-Faith Forum, encouraged his parishioners to be a part of the interfaith event.
“I see this as a bridging together of a whole host of people from different faiths, different cultures, and different viewpoints so that we can come closer to our goal — a deep desire for peace among all people,” he wrote in a letter in the parish bulletin.
Christine Longo, a St. John’s parishioner, noted that she wanted “to promote peace and harmony between religious communities through an understanding of them. I was eager to present Christianity in a unique way, through a skit about who Christ is and how he is working through us all.”
The forum was a good opportunity to “meet your neighbors and become familiar with the beliefs, customs, and traditions that shape their lives,” she said, as well as “discover what we share in common, how we differ, and how we all contribute to life on Long Island.”
“When our pastor asked me if I could put together a half-hour presentation on Christianity for the forum,” said Tim McHeffey, who wrote the script for the skit, “we had a golden opportunity to show, to teach, and to move people.”
As the characters in the skit stop being upset that they’re stuck on the train, they realize “we are not in control, but players in God’s world, in God’s good time, on God’s schedule.”
McHeffey’s 18-year-old-daughter, Catherine, played the role of an actress who played the role of the Blessed Mother and realizes what Mary went through at the foot of the cross. “That’s what a lot of us good Catholics do,” he noted, “not think about it,” but he hopes those who got to see the presentation “will think of what Jesus really did for us.”
Catherine agreed, saying she hopes the audience “learned something new, and that they realize Jesus really is always with us.”
“No matter how diverse we are,” added Longo, “we share a common theme of promoting peace and harmony. I’m glad I went to promote that because God knows we have so much dissention nowadays. I am hopeful that (members of the other faiths) got an appreciation of who Jesus was, what he did for us by dying on the cross, and how he continues to be part of our daily lives. I hope they realize that we are advocates of peace and harmony among all peoples.”
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