BRIDGE\CRAFT                                                                                VOLUME 5, ISSUE 1, PAGE 2

OPEN HOUSE HOSTS ISRAELI PEACEMAKERS, continued from  1.

and Muslims. The teens from Ramle endure criticism from their peers for their Arab-Jewish partnership work, need the support of other peacemakers.

  While in Cincinnati, peace campers will be doing what they can't do as teenagers in Israel, freely enjoying themselves in places like King's Island. They will also be learning from Cincinnati's richly tumultuous social history: the Underground Railroad, the civil rights movement, the recovery from the 1968 riots, the founding of interreligious social justice organizations, and the recent mediation process which addressed the racial profiling suit. If you would like to know more about the August teen peacecampers or about Open House-Cincinnati, call Tom Ferrell of Open House at 513-683-5539.

Open House is a local organization of Christians, Jews and Muslims devoted to facilitating interreligious dialogue, related in spirit to Open House in Ramle, Israel.

  In September our office underwent a staff transition. Our remarkable administrative assistant, Mary Kay Murrison, transited to St. Bernard's Parish. Through the fall we searched for  the right person and found Carol Metz, a former speech pathologist and past coordinator of New Jerusalem Community, and a very capable administrative assistant.

In this issue we point out the interconnections between Catholicteaching about interreligious  andecumenical dialogue, including Catholic-Evangelical conversations, andco-existence, implementing its results, as in interethnicco-existence work, i.e. 'dialogue in the presence of adversaries', and Christian mission. Christian mission which does not

by Lou Vera

Our world was different in the city of Cincinnati after 4-10-01, the day of the riots. Connie Widmer of Catholic Social Action and I had been in Clifton to speak with Project Amos about their taking on racial profiling as an agenda item. We drove back through the angry crowd in Over the Rhine which would, fifteen minutes later, begin rioting. But the anger could be felt on the streets in many ways in the months prior.  Before 4.10.01 we struggled, along with ecumenical organizations, to alert a wider circle to the crisis of confidence engendered by racial profiling practices. Afterwards, thousands of people entered into Study Circles, the Collaborative process, and activities geared to mutual learning.  The Rev. Billy Graham began to pray for Cincinnati. Within the metro area Christians began to pray for a citywide process of conversion and reconciliation. Ecumenically speaking, the Billy Graham Mission staff tells us that our Archdiocesan collaboration with them is the closest relationship they have ever had with a Catholic diocese.

   Our world was different after 9.11.01. The work of our office doubled overnight. Autumn 2001 remains a blur of fourteen-hour days. As anti-Muslim attacks became physical across Ohio, the faithful responded with support for Muslim brothers and sisters,  Catholics here and across the country responded en masse to calls from the U.S. bishops to engage in Christian-Muslim dialogue. Overnight, a trip to the Cincinnati mosque showed up on parish calendars and speakers from the Cincinnati Islamic Center  were constantly on the road in the fall. Before 9.11.01 we formally trained  Catholics for interreligious and ecumenical dialogue for 5 years; now it's become everyone's mission.

What’s Different Now

VIEWS FROM THE BRIDGE