Now is the time, we are the people

The next meeting of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative will be held on Friday, Jan. 21, at 10 a.m., at the First Baptist Church in North Adams (use Eagle Street entrance). We will formally accept an offer of space on Eagle Street for our headquarters/operations, and discuss the possibility of soon using the space for service. We also will hold a discussion of food distribution with a representative of the Western Mass. Food Bank. All are welcome to attend. For more information, e-mail northernberkshireinterfaith@gmail.com or call Mark at 664-0130.

Discussions have been moving along rapidly behind the scenes since our last meeting in December, and we will have a packed agenda for our meeting on Friday. In fact, depending how things go, I may suggest having another meeting in two weeks.

On Friday, Christina Maxwelll of the Western Mass Food Bank will be speaking to us and providing information about the food resources in our area. Also on our agenda will be formal acceptance of the space at 43 Eagle St., next to Papyri Books, which some of us toured after our last meeting. (See above photo).

As for the space, it may lead us into our first major service endeavor and serve as a temporary distribution point for food. We would start out slowly, being open a few hours for one day a week and from there build up gradually. The current vision is that participants in the Interfaith Action Initiative would staff this distribution point, building experience, recruiting volunteers and working out policies for a more robust effort to help those in need as time goes on.

The mid-term goal is to find a more permanent, accessible and perhaps centralized place to serve as a distribution point. Local agencies, faith communities, and others would help us in locating a more permanent location. When it is found, a corps of already mobilized and trained volunteers could lead the way in staffing it. Several people have expressed interest to me about volunteering if something like this started. I see this as a potential opportunity to get everyone from teens to college students to senior citizens working together to help those in need.

Over the long run, I see the space at 43 Eagle St. serving as a downtown headquarters and meeting place for Interfaith Initiative, particularly after a food/services distribution operation has moved on to a better site.

On a related note, agency food pantries are in flux now in Northern Berkshire. In fact, preliminary results of our survey of faith communities shows that several churches do food distribution periodically. There seems to be room for more coordination and cooperation.

Please let us know

At the suggestion of Rabbi Jeff Goldwasser, I am now sending our announcements to all clergy in Northern Berkshire for whom we have e-mail addresses. If any of you who have not been contacted yet about the Interfaith Action Initiative’s survey on what local faith communities are doing to meet basic human needs and would like to provide us this information, please send me an e-mail at markrondeau@earthlink.net and I will send you a brief questionaire.

We have enough results at this point to issue a preliminary report, but with things moving along on other fronts I think we can afford to take some more time on the survey before drawing it to a close.

Other business: Vouchers, Louison House

In other important business, I would like here to thank Fr. Peter Elvin, of St. John’s Church in Williamstown, for speaking to us at our December meeting about the voucher system between churches that has been used in Williamstown to help people facing emergency needs. Unfortunately, this is going to be phased out in that town. Whether this can be continued on a wider scale will need to be dicussed in more detail at upcoming Initiative meetings.

Our efforts to work out a cooperative effort with Louison House are ongoing, and I hope we will have a verbal report on this for everyone at a meeting in the near future.

I would like to remind everyone that we have a faith sharing time at the beginning of each of our meetings, and everyone is invited to take a turn leading it.

I’m hoping that during this year we can see what’s going on on the interfaith level in the following communities: Bennington, Brattleboro and Pittsfield. Even if one or two of us go, we can come back and report to the group.

Finally, if I have left anything our, or if anyone wishes to make a comment, please feel free to do so.

That’s all for now. God bless, and hope to see you Friday.

Mark

Interfaith Action Initiative considers headquarters space

The Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative will meet on Friday, Jan. 21, at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of North Adams. (Use the Eagle Street entrance).

At this meeting we will decide whether to accept the generous offer of free use of an 800-square-foot storefront on Eagle Street. Several members of the Initiative toured the space during the Dec. 17 meeting. This storefront includes a bathroom, room for an office and space for storage.

In addition to giving the Initiative a visible presence downtown, the space may be suited to be a distribution hub — though not a storage facility or large-scale services center — for information, food, clothing, and other necessities. All this and more will be discussed at the January meeting.

Also at the January meeting, we will have a presentation of northern Berkshire asset maps by a representative of the Western Mass. Food Bank. This likely will give us a better idea of what needs such a space might help fill and how we could go about it.

By the end of January, the Initiative hopes to have given all northern Berkshire faith communities a chance to respond to our survey on what they are doing to meet basic human needs. We see definite trends in the nature of assistance in our preliminary results, and likely will make our final findings public in early February.

Our talks about providing volunteer assistance for clients of Louison House have moved forward, and a report on this will be on the Jan. 21 meeting agenda.

At our Dec. 17 meetng, we heard from the Rev. Peter Elvin, of St. John’s Church in Williamstown, about the voucher system for people in need which had worked well in that community, but which will stop as the Williamstown Ecumenical Association ceases. Discussing the possibility of continuinig this system on a wider scale will be on the agenda for the Jan. 21 Initiative meeting.

All are welcome to participate in the Initiative. To get on the Initiative’s e-mail announcement list, send an e-mail to northernberkshireinterfaith@gmail.com or call Mark at 664-0130. To learn more about the Initiative, visit our blog at http://northernberkshireinterfaith.blogspot.com

Opportunities Knock

The Dec. 17 meeting will be important. We have some exciting news. There is a possibility that we will get the use of storefront in North Adams. This will be a main item on our agenda. The person who made the offer has expressed interest in this Interfaith effort from the start and will attend the meeting. We likely will take a brief “field trip” to see the space.

On Monday I saw this 800-square-foot-space, with restroom, space for an office and ample storage space and am quite impressed with it.

As for the survey of what local faith communities are doing to meet basic human needs, an analysis of the results so far of our survey reveals several interesting patterns that show more exciting opportunities. For instance, some of the churches we have surveyed have food pantries from which they distribute food on a periodic basis. Two we have surveyed so far actually make trips to the Western Massachusetts Food Bank to pick up food to distribute. While great, these efforts are not coordinated with each other and could be expanded beyond once a month.

At last Friday's meeting of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition (NBCC), a representative of the Western Mass Food Bank expressed interest in working with us on distributing their food through faith communities.

So there is an opportunity for us to be instrumental in widening the availabllity of food through faith communities in Northern Berkshire. The space we will visit could play a part. Many churches in Northern Berkshire already collatorate in the Take and Eat program, delivering Meals on Wheels to the elderly, the ill and shut-ins on weekends and holidays. I participate through the St. Anthony Kitchen at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in North Adams. This new opportunity could allow us to make more food available to families and those who do not receive Meals on Wheels.

I think to be most effective in establising what we can do on food distribution — and other areas such as providing clothing — we should try to wrap up our faith community survey by the end of January. We already have a great start. I hope on Friday to provide a list of communities we have not yet connected with. I think we should give every faith community the opportunity to comment on our survey.

When we have gathered as much information from faith communities as we can, then we can summarize and publicize our findings. I have already produced a three-page informal summary that I used as notes for the Dec. 10 meeting, which I would be happy to share with anyone interested. So producing an analysis we can publicize when our survey is complete should not take long. I will bring my preliminary summary to Friday’s meeting.

I think a positive result of our effort so far has been more of a place at the table for the faith perspective: at the North Adams downtown celebration, at the Coalition discussion of the tattered social services safety net and, upcoming, the new Systems of Care effort that the NBCC is helping start, which I mentioned in the last post. The invitation I received for this mentioned that they wanted to have the faith community represented. With clergy being stretched enough as it is, the existence of the Interfaith Action Initiative allows for greater faith representation at various community efforts and discussions.

I mentioned in the last post the end of the Williamstown Ecumenical Association and the end of its voucher system. It was suggested to me by Rabbi Jeff Goldwasser that we invite someone with knowledge of the voucher program, such as the Rev. Peter Elvin, of St. John's Episcopal in Williamstown. I think this would be a good idea, especially as the nature of this voucher program will necessitate strong clergy involvement if it continues.

I also think we should consider inviting someone from the Western Mass Food Bank, since they are interested in our effort, and from Greater Bennington Interfaith Community Services, which runs a food and fuel fund and a free medical clinic in Bennington.

Also, we should consider going to Pittsfield for a meeting of Co-Act, which is involved in interfaith service (one of their members has came to our last meeting); and perhaps visiting Brattleboro, where there is a strong interfaith effort.

There are a couple of exciting upcoming events to mention. MLK Day in January, which will once again be a community service day. And the North County Christmas Concert willl be held at First Congregational Church in North Adams (at Monument Square) on Sunday. Dec. 19, at 4 p.m. Proceeds will benefit the St. Anthony and St. Vincent de Paul Kitchens (part of Take and Eat program) and the Berkshire Food Project.

Well, there's a lot going on to think — and pray — about.

As always feel free to comment. I hope to see you Friday.

Interesting Happenings, Exciting Opportunities

Interesting happenings, exciting opportunities

Our Nov. 19 meeting was interesting. Though several of our regular attendees could not be present because of the funeral of Edna Rudnick, who worked very hard for our community in many ways during her long life, we still had more than 10 people in attendence.

(Our next meeting will be held at the First Baptist Church in North Adams at 10 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 17. Use Eagle Street entrance.)

At the last meeting, I gave an update on the status of our survey of what area houses of worship are doing to meet basic human needs. As of this writing, Wednesday, Dec. 8, we have results back from 12 Northern Berkshire houses of worship, 14 if you count churches in different communities that have joined together.

Obviously we still have a lot to do, and I hope that after the new year we will have a surge of activity to get this effort completed and published.

Which brings me to an important point. This Friday, Dec. 10, at 10 a.m., at the First Baptist Church in North Adams, the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition will hold a discussion on repairing our fraying social safety net as part of its monthly forum. I would encourage all who are involved with the Interfaith effort to attend.

I participated in two planning meetings for this meeting, and what faith communities are doing and can do to meet basic human needs in our community will be a part of this forum, along with a large contribution to the discussion by Community Action, among others.

I know that heating assistance is going to be a major need this winter, and there are many others.

Getting back to the Nov. 19 meeting, Rabbi Jeff Goldwasser noted that the Williamstown Ecumenical Association has disbanded. They had a sort of group voucher system that was coordinated among the churches and helped people in need. It was thought this could be something our group could possibly continue and expand.

It is worth considering, though I think that there would have to be a strong clergy component, because this is something that would usually or often be coordinated by church/synagogue office secretaries, as calls from those in need would likely go directly to a house of worship. I know that people at times would/will show up at the office and rectories of the Catholic Churches looking for help.

Which brings me to a comment I have heard a couple of times recently: That many people just won’t go to churches to seek help. It wasn’t explained to me why, though I can make some guesses. I suppose some people might expect a judgemental attitude and perhaps attempts to be converted. Speaking for faith-based efforts I have been involved in around here, that isn’t so. But it’s worth keeping in mind as we move forward.

Also Nov. 19, our faith sharing component evolved into a political discussion. It was interesting. Also on Nov. 19, I shared my late grandfather’s French-language prayer book he was given at his first Communion in 1912. Priscilla Northrup shared her thoughts on the expression: “The glory of God is the human being fully alive.”

Anyone with a faith or spirituality-related thought or inspiration or item of interest for the December meeting is encouraged to share.

In addition to moving ahead with our survey, and considering the voucher system idea, we need to continue our exploration of cooperating and assisting area agencies. And discuss the nature of this assistance. My preference remains not to tie ourself to one or two agencies, serving as a kind of fundraising arm. Rather I would see us providing volunteers for special tasks, encouraging wider volunteerism in the community, and possibly sponsoring one-and-off fundraising events.

As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

I should also note that the new Systems of Care effort is looking for the participation of members of the faith community. I have said I will participate. There will be a meeting in January. I do not have the time here to explain what this is about (and I need to learn more myself) but I hope to get into more detail in a future blog post.

As always, feel free to comment on this blog. Or contact me at markrondeau@earthlink.net or northernberkshireinterfaith@gmail.com or at 664-0130 (please leave a message if I’m not there).

Moving forward in several areas

The Nothern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative made progress in several areas at its Oct. 15 meeting.

For one, we are proceeding with a survey of faith communities in Northern Berkshire to determine what services they provide to meet basic human needs, and we already have the results from several churches surveyed by our members.

We hope that compiling this information will help make these services better known, perhaps inspire faith communities or others to fill in gaps in available services, and also promote awareness of the Interfaith Action Initiative.

Though for the sake of moving ahead on the survey I did not contact those members of the Initiative who were not present at the October meeting, they are welcome to participate. We still have numerous faith communities that no one has yet been assigned to survey. So let us know if you wish to help with this.

In our efforts to explore needs in our community and find agencies to help, we now have a committee exploring the possibility of setting up mentoring relationships with clients of Louison House.

Nothing has been determined yet, but this is an exciting step in our effort to find ways to make a difference at a time of growing need. Our effort to explore community needs and find ways to help will continue. I can think of other agencies we might also have cooperative efforts with, including those we have spoken with at our meeting, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Berkshire Food project, among others.

Also at the Oct. 15 meeting, those present voted unanimously to oppose Massachusetts ballot Questions 1, 2 and 3. We composed and sent out a letter to the editor publicly stating our opposition to these questions. Though I do not think the letter made it into print before the election, at least we took a stand.

In addition to community service, the Initiative aims to promote interfaith understanding. To this end, the silent prayer and faith sharing portion of our meetings has really taken off, with people putting their all into meaningful presentations. For our November meeting, everyone is invited to bring something meaningful to share — but if you don’t, that’s fine, too. Just come to the meeting.

(Myself, I think I will give a very brief biography of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, as that is the new name of my church!)

For more information, e-mail northernberkshireinterfaith@gmail.com, call Mark at 664-0130 or visit http://northernberkshireinterfaith.blogspot.com.

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Here’s the letter to the editor about the Mass. ballot questions:

To the Editor:

The Nothern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative — a group of people

of various faiths seeking to serve the community — voted at its Oct.

15 meeting to express opposition to the three initiatives on the Nov.

2 ballot in Massachusetts.

We urge a “no” vote on Question 1, which would remove the 6.25 percent

sales tax on alcoholic beverages and alcohol. This measure, largely

supported by package stores and beer distributors, would take away

state money for drug and alcohol treatment for more than 100,000 state

residents. Nearly every state has in place a sales tax on alcohol in

addition to excise taxes. With a large state budget deficit looming, a

special exemption for alcohol makes no sense.

We also urge a “no” vote on Question 2. This question would repeal the

state law dating from 1969 meant to facilitate low- or moderate-

income housing by streamlining the permitting process for such

housing. The law has resulted in 58,000 homes across the state.

Question 2 would leave Massachusetts without an affordable housing

law. Dozens of individual clergy members across the state have come

out against Question 2, as have the Massachusetts Association of

Jewish Federations and the Massachusetts Catholic Conference.

We also urge a “no” Vote on Question 3, which would reduce the state

sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent. This irresponsible proposal

would take away $2.5 billion in state revenue at a time when local aid

has already been cut by 25 percent in the last two years. This would

mean less money for schools, parks, roads, youth programs and services

to seniors.

On behalf of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative

Corrine Case (Adams)

Mark Lincourt (North Adams)

Sally Sussman (Williamstown)

Al Nelson (Clarksburg)

Learning As We Go

Friends,

OUR SEPT. 24 MEETING

The meeting of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative on Friday, Sept. 24, may have had the most lively discussion yet. This was our first meeting to have an actual printed agenda and to use the visual aid of major points written on an easel during the discussion. We did not get through the whole agenda, but did discuss several possible short-term events.

The item which seemed to take the most discussion was to have an interfaith Thanksgiving service, which would include some type of interfaith worship element. It became apparent that a wide variety of views existed about this. I may be summarizing this imperfectly, but from our discussion and my discussion later with one or two others, I offer this as a summary of views among those present: 1). The desire for a traditional interfaith service with clergy leading the prayers. 2). The stongly held opinion that Interfaith worship services are awkward and ineffective. 3). The desire to have a Thanksgiving peace service, such as was held locally last year. 4). There were also those present, of which I was one, that felt that interfaith worship services can be effective and were also open to flexibility in the type of event we would hold.

However, on reflection and prayer, and discussion with Al Nelson, I decided that there was too much diversity of opinion, with people not willing to participate in events they weren't enthusiastic about. We also felt that there is not enough time to effectively plan such an event.

On a larger level, our overall discussion, which was frank and enjoyable, makes me think that we should concentrate our efforts for now on Interfaith Action (service) to benefit our community. This doesn’t rule possible interfaith involvement in the annual Martin Luther King observance to remind people of his religious motivation. Al Nelson would also like to discuss whether the overall group would accept interfaith events under our umbrella which would be held by a certain faith — obviously this would apply to ALL the faith groups which have membership in our group. Such events would be held in a certain tradition, but obviously everyone would be welcome.

SILENT PRAYER AND FAITH SHARING AT MEETINGS

As for Interfaith interaction on the faith-sharing level — our silent prayer and faith-sharing time at the beginning of our monthly meetings — this seems to be well-received.

Al Nelson handled this very well for our first few meetings. I did the honors at the Sept. 24 meeting, and Sue Walker will lead our faith sharing at our Oct. 15 meeting. (Personally, I put everything I had into my presentation, and enjoyed doing so). I hope that in the months ahead, many more of our members will share from their faith traditions and/or personal convictions.

SURVEY OF FAITH COMMUNITIES

One of the short-term items we discussed was to directly survey the faith communities in Northern Berskhire and find out and compile what types of services and support for basic human needs they offer. This idea was suggested by Al Bashevkin. Sister Natalie Cain, who was present at the meeting, had conducted such a survey in the past when she worked for the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, and we now have the information she gathered.

In addition to compiling this information for the Coalition to help those who are increasingly coming to its office with immediate needs, reaching out to ALL of our faith communities to complie this information would help make us better known.

This will be an agenda item at our Oct. 15 meeting. It seems a relatively easy way to compile information which potentially would be useful to many in helping those in need.

Compiling this information could be divided among us. Some could just find out about their faith community; others could pick a group of churches/other faith communities or a town. In this way, we could quickly gather the information. I imagine we could come up with a concise form to be used in gathering this information from the faith communities.

Presenting this in-person, if possible, would be a good way to also promote our Interfaith effort as we gather information. We could possibly come up with a one-page explanation what we're about, such as we had at the NA Downtown Celebration and give it out on our visit.

When we do have an up-to-date idea of what our Northern Berkshire faith communities offer for those in need, then we could perhaps send out a press release informing people of all that faith communities do for those in need and perhaps inspire some to help fill in gaps. Again, this would be a good way to make our efforts better-known.

‘ADOPTING’ AN AGENCY

We did not get to discuss the adoption of a community agency at our Sept. 24 meeting, so discussing this will be a priority at our Oct. 15 meeting. Right now, Louison House and the Family Life Support Center are in the mix, as is Big Brothers and Big Sisters. We could provide both fundraising and direct, hands-on support. I’d like to make a decision on this soon, perhaps with an ad hoc committee started to get things going with the chosen organization.

I don't want to short-change other parts of our discussion on Sept. 24. We also discussed the shortage of clergy to make hospital visits and how one faith community will know whether or not someone passing through had already gotten help at another faith community in town. And I may be forgetting something.

I hope to have an agenda for the Oct. 15 meeting ready to give out at the meeting.

UPCOMING EVENTS

I do not want to continuously send things from our Interfaith group to people’s e-mail inboxes so that they either get irritated with us or tune out everything we send. So from now on I will be putting announcements people want to get out there on this blog. Those who want to send announcements directly to those on our e-mail list may go ahead — that’s why I don’t hide recipients when I send out Interfaith e-mails.

Here are some upcoming events:

• The postponed discussion of the “Crucified Stuffed Bunny” painting has been rescheduled to Friday, Oct. 15, at 7:30 p.m. at the gallery just east of the Mohawk Theater.

• A Celebration of Catholic Native America will be held at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Mass. on Saturday, Oct. 16, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This event is free for the whole family. Eden Hill is a beautiful place with a beautiful shrine.

• Also, this came in from Robin Lehleitner about an interesting event in Williamstown.

This fall the First Congregational Church of Williamstown (906 Main St) will initiate a new Sunday morning pre-service program called “Forum on Contemporary Issues in Religion.” The specific aim of the Forum is to engage a group of Williams faculty in a discussion of the implications of their academic research for the working out of religious thought in their own lives. The program will occur monthly, beginning on October 17th, and be held in the Fellowship Hall starting at 9:30 a.m., with coffee and tea available from 9:15 on. After a period of dialogue between the interviewer and the morning speaker, the discussion will be opened to the audience. Each program will conclude at 10:20 so as not to conflict with the morning service beginning at 10:30.

The first person to be interviewed in this series will be Dr. Magnus Bernhardsson, a member of the History Dept at Williams. The focus of the interview will be around the unfolding encounter of Christianity and Islam in the modern era. Dr. Bernhardsson holds a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from Yale University, a Masters of Arts and Religion degree from Yale Divinity School, with a focus on Comparative Religion, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Iceland, with a dual concentration in political science and theology.

Speakers for the following months include Stuart Crampton, Emeritus in Physics, who will speak on “Physics and the Idea of God" on Sunday, Nov. 21st; and Denise Buell, professor of Religion, who on December 12th will speak on “Historical Research and the Identity of Jesus." The interviewer for this series is Dr. Charles Fox, who holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion from Harvard University and is an emeritus professor from Empire State College of the State University of New York in Albany, where he taught in the areas of philosophy and religious studies.

Thanks and God Bless,

Mark

As always, feel free to comment. I have a thick hide.

Blog Address Corrected

I discovered yesterday, Oct. 4, when sending out announcements to church and other faith community bulletins of our next meeting, that the URL address to this blog was incorrect, missing the first "r" in "berkshire." Fortunately, the blog program makes it easy to change the URL.

This explains why at least one person told me he had a hard time accessing the blog.