As the United States and Israel’s war with Iran continued to rage, with the violence spreading to Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries, Holy Redeemer Parish in Washington, D.C., hosted an interfaith peace meal for Jews, Muslims and Christians on March 26.
“I felt called to do something… to celebrate our oneness in faith, going back to Abraham,” said Father David Bava, Holy Redeemer’s pastor, as the evening gathering opened in the parish’s lower church hall, attended by about 60 people from those three faith traditions.
The priest read words recited by Pope Francis during the pontiff’s 2021 trip to Iraq, as he visited Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, who is regarded as a common father in faith for Jews, Muslims and Christians: “It is fitting that we come together here, back to our origins, to the sources of God’s work, to the birth of our religions, to pray together for peace as children of Abraham.”
Father Bava then said, “This meal is held in that same spirit.”
The gathering was titled “Celebration at the Table of Abraham,” and featured readings from the Book of Genesis and the Quran about Abraham and Sarah welcoming three strangers and offering them a meal in their tent. The peace meal at Holy Redeemer included Matzo ball soup, flatbread, lamb, baked whiting fish, spinach quiche and vegetables, followed by dessert. As they ate, the participants had time for fellowship to talk with one another.
As the interfaith gathering opened, the priest said, “We come to this table as Abraham’s children – Jewish, Muslim, Catholic – to offer one another that same welcome. We do not erase our differences. We bring them as gifts. We come to learn from one another, and to share what is most precious to us: the faith that God is one, that God is merciful, and that God desires peace among all peoples.”
He noted the confluence of three holy seasons for those faith traditions -- that Muslims had just commemorated Ramadan and that the next week would mark Passover for Jews and Holy Week and Easter for Christians.
As he explained the spirit of the gathering, Father Bava noted that the Second Vatican Council’s landmark 1965 declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions, Nostra Aetate (Latin for “In Our Time”), “called Catholics to recognize that Jews, Christians and Muslims all belong to what can be called the tradition of Abraham.”
Father Bava said that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs has built on that document’s foundation for decades, “affirming that our shared work for peace, justice and the common good is not despite our differences, but through our shared roots.”
He said the meal was especially timely with what “our brothers and sisters are experiencing in the Middle East, in the world and in our society.”
The readings and format for the gathering were drawn from USCCB resources, Vatican II documents and the interreligious witness of recent popes.
After a candle was lit, representatives of the three faiths read passages from their sacred books. Daniel Spiro, the co-founder and president of the Jewish-Islamic Dialogue Society of Washington, read the words, “Blessed are You, Lord our God, who has brought us together in peace.”
Father Bava noted that members of the faith groups were coming together “for this table of encounter and friendship.”
In interviews before the gathering, participating religious leaders reflected on the importance of the three faith groups coming together for dialogue at this time.
“We’re seeing expressions of behavior toward others who we see to be ‘the other,’” said Imam Dr. Talib M. Shareef, the president of Masjid Muhammad, Inc., the Nation’s Mosque in Washington, D.C.
He said this is an urgent time for such an event, as the war with Iran is being seen on the world stage, with some perceiving it as Christians and Jews allied together to fight Muslims.
“Muslims are being killed, Christians are being killed, Jews are being killed. That underscores how important it is for us to come together,” the imam said. He added, “We should be coming together for the betterment of mankind, not the destruction.”
Imam Shareef retired after serving for 30 years of active duty with the United States Air Force, including during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. He noted that when he served in the U.S. military, he was willing to give his life for his country, and “I would still sacrifice myself” in that service.
The imam said he hoped the impact of the gathering would spread in the broader circles of people from those faiths in working for peace.
“Peace is the hope of every human soul, regardless of race, religion or nationality,” Imam Shareef said.
And the leader of the Nation’s Mosque expressed gratitude toward Father Bava and Holy Redeemer Parish for opening up the lower church hall for that community’s Friday Jumu’ah prayers while construction has been underway at the nearby mosque.
“Our Catholic brothers and sisters welcomed us. We’re neighbors,” he said.
Daniel Spiro from the Jewish-Islamic Dialogue Society of Washington is a member of the Hill Havurah Jewish congregation in the nation’s capital. In an interview, Spiro also underscored the gathering’s importance.
“Interfaith dialogue and engagement is one of the few antidotes we have to living in a world of hate, polarization and war,” he said, adding that what’s happening in the world today “is a complete breakdown of trust, and the sense that ‘the other’ is the true enemy.”
“We have to change this dynamic. We can’t unless we’re willing to dialogue with each other and enter into conversations with people who don’t share our views, and see their humanity,” the retired attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Spiro added that “We say in my group that Jews, Muslims and Christians are first cousins in the family of Abraham.”
Later after offering a Jewish blessing before the table meal and fellowship, Spiro said, “We may disagree, but we can learn from each other.”
In another interview, Yusuf Saleem, a leader from the Nation’s Mosque who participated in the gathering, emphasized, “We’re one humanity.”
Beforehand, Karl Kennedy, a lifelong parishioner of Holy Redeemer who was among the volunteers assisting in the set-up for the meal, said Catholics have more in common with people from other faiths than they have differences. “This is a great way to (form a) bridge with Islam and Judaism,” he said.
That point was echoed by Janet Rollins, another lifelong Holy Redeemer parishioner volunteering at the meal. “We can at least sit down together in peace,” she said.
Praising the leadership of her pastor and the spirit of her parish, Rollins added, “We’re all about community. We’re trying to uplift our community. So many people of different faiths and walks of life are moving into this area. We’re just trying to reach out to those we can.”
Among those attending the meal and joining in the fellowship was Ana Renata Dias, a native of Portugal who serves as the director of public outreach and initiatives for the Focolare Movement in North America. She said such gatherings are important at this moment, when there are so many wars in different parts of the world.
Dias noted how Pope Leo XIV in a recent audience with the general assembly of that international Catholic movement “asked us to continue working for peace.”
“Being here today is a concrete expression of what the three faith traditions can witness (to) together,” she said, adding, “We have to give concrete witness of what it means to be family.”
After the meal, Imam Shareef led the Muslim participants in night prayer.
Representatives of the three faith groups offered testimonies, including Scott Wright, a Holy Redeemer parishioner and a member of Pax Christi, an international Catholic peace movement. Wright, a Pax Christi USA ambassador of peace, described traveling to the Middle East during Israel’s war with Hamas, praying for peace at the border of Gaza and hearing the sounds of sirens and bombings, and packing food for families in Gaza. Members of the delegation met with Israeli families whose loved ones had been killed by Hamas terrorists, and they met with Palestinian families whose loved ones had been killed by Israeli Defense Forces.
For the closing prayer at the interfaith gathering, participants recited a prayer that Pope Francis and religious leaders prayed together during that pope’s visit to Ur in 2021, noting that Abraham is “our common father in faith” for Jews, Christians and Muslims. The prayer urged peace for victims of war and violence, encouraged care for the earth, and help for those “forced to leave behind their homes and lands.”
After the prayer, Father Bava said, “We go from this table as pilgrims on the same road. We will walk it together.”
Then the priest noted how St. Francis of Assisi in 1219 held a dialogue with a Muslim sultan in Egypt during the Crusades, and Holy Redeemer choir members led participants in singing the “Prayer of St. Francis,” which includes the words, “Make me a channel of your peace.”
In an interview afterward, Imam Shareef said the gathering “represents a model for us to embrace our shared identity as humans and to value our intrinsic nature to live together intelligently and peacefully in the spirit of universal kinship.”
