Now, I don't mind shopping. My wife will vouch for me here. However, last week Keds and I were doing a different sort of shopping. We were religion shopping!
As many of you know, Keds and I are getting ready to start our family and we are tackling the question of how are we going to introduce faith in our family. Since she is Jewish and I am Catholic, you can see the conflict.
Months ago, Uncle Mickey recommended that we shop around and find both Catholic and Jewish faith communities where we were both comfortable. It was a reasonable request. On the Jewish side, our choices are relatively limited - we would need to go Reformed and there are only two Reformed Congregations in town. On the Catholic side, there are a bunch of options, but the key is going to be distance, accent and approach. After all, as my uncle pointed out, there are far more areas of commonality between the two than areas of disagreement. It's just the one big area of disagreement.
So in typical Kraft Family Fashion, we decided now is the time and dove in head first. On Wednesday, we met with the former Rabbi of the Reformed Congregation in Summerlin. On Saturday we met with the Pastor of Christ the King Catholic Community in the southwest part of town. Both were extremely progressive and concurred with my uncle that we need to find faith communities where we are comfortable as a family. While they both clearly preferred that we stick with their respective faith traditions, they were also supportive if we chose the other.
So, after meeting with the men of the cloth, we decided it was time to check out houses of worship. The original plan was to check out Congregation Ner Tamid, the Reformed Congregation in Green Valley on Friday. However, the Rabbi was out of town and the Cantor would be leading services so we opted to pass. We are going this coming Friday, though. I'll let you know how that goes.
However, we did check out Christ the King's 9:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday. Aside from being late, it was a nice Mass. It was nice to be able to understand the priest, his homily was brief and to the point and it was relevant to our lives. In addition, it's not your typical Catholic Church. The congregation sits around the Altar and Pulpit in the round. There are no kneelers. We will definitely give a thorough try-out (4-6 Masses). I just wish it were closer, that's all.
So our quest continues. I'll let you know how it goes.
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5 comments:
I think it is awesome that you are embarking on this journey. Faith can really be a great guideline to help in life. I think being able to come together as a family will be very nice for both of you. Best of luck in finding what works for your family!
This is quite a journey, but that you both are opening the dialogue and doing the research to find what's best for your family speaks volumes.
I agree. Here's to spiritual exploration. *raises glass*
Mel Hecht is a good rabbi. He understands that there's a lot more to being a spiritual counselor than knowing the Torah. As he's a consummate showman, he does a great wedding (mine, for instance). I've never actually belonged to a congregation of his though, so YMMV.
One thing though, Ken- it's "Reform Judaism," not "Reformed."
Jennifer - Thank you. This is definitely something that will make us stronger as a family.
Lora - While I agree it's going to be a journey, would you expect us to tackle this any other way than research?
David - Thank you for the correction. We like Rabbi Hecht. It is too bad he's forbidden from having a congregation within 20 miles by terms of his exit from Temple Beth Am/Sinai.
Good luck. I was baptized in the Episcopal church but slowly got more and more disinterested with religion. I was bored and found it offered me very little satisfaction.
The Missus and I discovered a nondenominational church last year, and I've been more engaged than ever before. It suits me well to not have so many traditions exercised during every service.
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