Religious harmony can be surprising: Faith Matters clergy column from the Rev. Robert Sichta

Tomorrow is the second Sunday after Easter -- in the Western Christian tradition.

In the Eastern tradition, Easter is still five weeks away.

Fifty inclusive days from those respective dates, both traditions will celebrate their version of Pentecost.

Both of those 50-day calculations last seven weeks and end on Sundays.

Why?

Because counting inclusively is defined as 49 days, with the first day counted.

Confused?

Not yet?

Good, because there's more.

Pentecost is the Greek name for Shauvot -- the Hebrew festival of the Feast of Weeks, commemorating and celebrating the giving of the Law to Moses at Sinai.

If, and it's not a small "if," Sinai is where God gave him the Ten Commandments.

Three more things before we move on: From June 11-13, our Jewish friends will celebrate Shauvot, dates that land between the Eastern and Western Christian Pentecost celebrations; our Buddhist friends will share June 15 with our Western Christian Pentecosters by celebrating Visakha Puja (Please, don't ask); and, our Muslim friends, in their many denominations and sects, will have begun their Holy Month of Ramadan on June 6, five days before Shauvot.

So much for this intermix of celebratory dates for the world's four largest religions.

Now, let's bring it down to Bradenton where, with all due affection for my friends who range from Greek Orthodox priests to rabbis to imams to Buddhist nuns (Let's just say there are more Buddhist than Roman Catholic nuns on the planet and leave it at that so as to save ourselves some embarrass

ment, shall we?), here in Manatee County, we are predominately people of that aforementioned Western Christian tradition.

Not to get too Swedish on you, but it is a tradition rife with a smorgasbord of differences. Every one of which represents endless opportunities to make room.

Last January, we entered into an agreement with a wonderful congregation whose name is Kingdom Life Christian Church. The plan is for them purchase our property over time, following which we'll load our saddlebags and move west, where we'll be looking to put up a new building -- quite possibly in the Lake Flores area.

In the meantime, we've been sharing our building, and our conversations.

We've also been sharing separate conversations, one of the best of which took place at our most recent deacon's meeting.

During the meeting, some concerns were voiced about rubbing shoulders with a congregation whose worship practices were markedly different from ours.

Their music is upbeat and contemporary; ours is traditional.

Their style is informal, and they spend most of their time on their feet.

We are (at least) semiformal, and (mostly) we sit.

And, their interpretation of scripture distinctly contrasts with ours. Thing is, we like our differences. So, how do we maintain our own identity in this mix?

Surely, considering all the differences among the many faiths worldwide, we are able to get along with people who worship within our own Western Christian tradition.

That's when the good stuff happened. That's when we began to recognize someone else's success did not make our church less successful.

That's when one of our deacons said, "You know, we could learn from these folks."

Following which ideas came spewing out about how we UCCers could do better church.

That's right. By simply having a conversation, the Deacons of our United Church of Christ were able to get past the idea their differences with another church should be seen as points of division.

They consciously chose the better path. And by going down that path, they learned making room does not make you less.

Our deacons acknowledged the extraordinary and, during this time of transition, finite, opportunity to learn from someone other than those within their own tribe.

If we can make room within our own small corner of God's universe, who's to say what great things we can do in God's universe as a whole.

Till Pentecost -- whenever it is.

The Rev. Dr. Robert Sichta, Congregational United Church of Christ, 3700 26th St. W., Bradenton, can be reached by calling 941-756-1018 or e-mailing PBKAlpha1@gmail.com. Faith Matters is a regular feature of Saturday's Herald, written by local clergy members.

This story was originally published April 9, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Religious harmony can be surprising: Faith Matters clergy column from the Rev. Robert Sichta ."