Father Emil. A Presbyterian church in the Washington D.C. area has
helped in the creation of this school and they have received much in return.
Visitors from the Presbyterian Church went to see this school and
were shown around by Father Emil as he described their work providing hope in
an area of poverty and violence. It is a Catholic church but about one half of
the students are Muslim, which got the notice of the visitors. It is also known
as the best school in the area.
During the walk through they passed a required religion class
taught by a nun and noticed that have the girls were veiled as Muslim girls
would be. Hmmm. On the playground they saw the Muslim boys and girls all played
with the other children quite happily.
As they went to the sanctuary Father Emil explained that they
offered mass every day and all students were free to participate. This caused
one of the visitors to blurt out, “Father Emil, are you trying to turn the
Muslim children in Christians? Doesn’t that create major social trauma for
them—tearing them apart from their families. Do their parents really know what
you are doing?”
Father Emil was amazed and said, “I am not trying to convert anyone.
I just want these children to know that God loves them, that their sins are
forgiven on the cross of Jesus who rose from the dead, and that the Holy Spirit
will keep them close to their Savior. I want them to have all the means of
grace they can get because life is hard here. But I would never ask a Muslim to
become a Christian.”
Religion is a given in that area of the world. They are born into
their respective faiths and taught it; it is on their IDs. It is a much different
place that where we live where we really don’t identify ourselves by our faith
or even speak about it much. Just note the lack of religious coverage in the
media, unless it is negative.
What excites me about this school and Father Emil’s vision is that
it moves the message of Jesus beyond religious identifications; religions just
cannot confine Jesus. The teachings of Jesus are applicable to Jews the Muslim
cousin, Buddhist, Hindus etc., along with Christians. In his life Jesus
demonstrated that very clearly by contacting and talking with all types of
people that he was not supposed to. He could not be confined then, despite the
efforts of his religious body, anymore that they can today.
My understanding of Islamic teachings is that they teach that Jesus
was the messiah; they just put a greater emphasis on Mohammed as the last and
greatest prophet.
Despite the conflicts between religious generally by extreme
segments of them, the great religions all teach similar paths of peace and
common morally and care for each other and acceptance of others beliefs.
This school is a beacon of hope for common beliefs despite what
religious affiliations or the lack of them we have. It makes this universalist
happy to see it embodied in a school.
The picture at the beginning of this article of Father Emil Salayta, I believe is the priest
mentioned in the article in Christian Century where I garnered the material for
this piece. He certainly is actively involved in ecumenical work in the
Mid-East, the head of the Tribunal Court of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem,
Co-founder of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation.
If I have the right Father Emil, he points out that there is only
about 1% of population (decreasing from 30,000 in 1944 to 2,00 now) of
Palestine is Christian in a televised interview. You can try this link for an interview with him.
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