Our Lady of Lourdes hosts interfaith Thanksgiving service

Friday, Nov. 28, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY — The need to thank the Creator – regardless of the name by which that Creator is called – was a common theme among the speakers at this year’s Inclusion Center for Community and Justice’s Thanksgiving Interfaith Service, hosted Nov. 23 at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Salt Lake City.

The Utah Chapter of the Inclusion Center was founded in 1967; it is “dedicated to eliminating prejudice, bigotry and discrimination,” according to its literature. 

Each year the Thanksgiving service is held at a different venue. This year, Ramez Halteh, an Inclusion Center board member and Our Lady of Lourdes parishioner, asked to have it at his parish, he said.

Halteh immigrated from Jordan to the United States 25 years ago, he said; coming from a country where his religion was listed on his driver’s license and he was a minority, he appreciates that in the U.S. “you are valued for what you do and who you are,” he said, adding that he became involved in the Inclusion Center because it promotes tolerance. 

“You have to be very active in doing this, it just doesn’t happen,” he said, “and you want your children to see this.”

In giving the keynote address, Father J.J. Schwall, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, said when people see the tears of those who are rejected, isolated or marginalized, “it is with great sadness to all when we recognize what could be as opposed to what is. … We are given the grace tonight to begin anew … that we might accept and actively look for the other.” 

Accepting people of all faiths and respecting them is an organizing principal of the Beehive State, said Jim Jardine, chairman of Public Affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, adding that he is grateful, this Thanksgiving, for the community’s volunteer spirit and charitable giving. 

People must give thanks despite their difficulties, said Imam Muhammed Mehtar of the Kadeeja Islamic Society. “Every individual is going through some challenge or another in their life … and in the process we sometimes forget to say ‘thank you.’ And when we forget to say ‘thank you,’ we are not hurting the other as much as we are hurting ourself. … When you give thanks for what God has given you – oxygen, food, shelter, health, wealth, safety, security – the Quran says ‘Count as much as you wish, you will never be able to count the great things that God has given you.’ That is something we all believe.”

Despite differences in faith, people have much in common, said Corey J. Hodges, lead pastor of New Pilgrim Baptist Church. “I challenge each of us and all of us to focus on those things that join together rather than on those things that divide us. … I don’t have to put down my beliefs, the tenets of my faith, to respect the beliefs of others. … We can all sit here for hours and debate the differences of our faiths, or we can decide to be a part of this great human family.” 

Other speakers for the evening were Dr. Balamurali Krishna Ambati of the Hindu Temple and Rabbi Ilana Schwartzman of the Congregation Kol Ami. Eleanor Ironlightning of the First Nation was on the program but was prevented from attending by the winter weather.