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A call to all people of faith – pray and act for peace in the Holy Land

7 October 2024 (originally published on World Council of Churches website)

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay has called on all WCC member churches and partners, and all people of faith and good will, to pray and act for peace in the Holy Land.

On this day in 2023, Hamas launched a brutal attack on southern Israel that became the catalyst for a year of escalating and widening conflict in the region.

During this attack, numerous atrocities were committed in utter violation of the most fundamental principles of international law and morality, with some 1,200 people being killed – including many young people attending a music festival, as well as children, women and elderly people in several civilian communities in the region – and 251 hostages being taken, of whom 97 are still being held one year later. While understanding the long history of occupation and oppression that preceded these events, the WCC has condemned the attack on innocent Israeli civilians.

The enormity of Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza is shockingly unacceptable. It has exponentially compounded the violations and suffering inflicted on innocent civilians, with more than 41,700 people killed – including over 16,000 children – a further nearly 100,000 people wounded, and over 10,000 missing and presumed dead underneath the rubble, according to health authorities in the enclave. Around 1.9 million people – 90% of the population of Gaza – have been forcibly displaced from their homes, many multiple times, and almost half a million people are facing catastrophic food insecurity, while Gaza’s critical infrastructure, medical and education services, housing, economy, farmland, and fishing fleets have largely been laid to waste. Israel’s war in Gaza has made the territory unliveable, and has given rise to claims of genocide which have been judged by the International Court of Justice as plausible.

Moreover, during this period violent attacks and other violations by illegal settlers and Israeli security forces against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem have risen sharply. Extremist elements in Israeli society have, among other things, escalated their threats against and attacks on Christian communities, clergy, churches and institutions, in most cases without criminal sanction.

Israel’s war in Gaza and its violations of the sovereignty of neighbouring States have also massively amplified tensions in the wider region, resulting in increased military confrontation on multiple fronts, intensified exchanges of fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and for the first time directly with Iran. As a result, the toll of death, destruction and displacement is rising for yet more communities in the region. In Lebanon, the death toll from two weeks of Israeli attacks on Beirut, Bekaa and southern Lebanon is estimated to have already surpassed 2,000, and more than one million people have had to flee their homes. Israel’s ground incursion into southern Lebanon, and the missile attacks and other hostilities between Iran and Israel, now threaten an even wider conflict, setting the whole Middle East region ablaze, and compounding the existing threats to global peace and stability.

One year after the attacks of 7 October 2023, Israel and its adversaries seem locked in a deadly spiral of violence, accelerating by the day, which risks throwing the whole region into intractable conflict with profound humanitarian and security consequences for all its peoples. In this context, the already grave threats to the future presence of the indigenous Christian communities of the Holy Land are reaching an existential tipping point.

If the modern history of the Middle East teaches one clear lesson, it is that there is no path to sustainable peace through repeated cycles of armed conflict and continuing occupation and oppression, but only to increasing antagonism, hatred and extremism on all sides. The only solution is to break the cycle of violence, to refrain from more killing and destruction, and to engage in dialogue and negotiations for a peace founded on justice and equal rights for all. Israel, Iran and all conflict parties must commit immediately to a ceasefire on all fronts. Hamas must release all the remaining hostages immediately and unconditionally. Israel must release Palestinian political prisoners and move swiftly to ending its occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people in the territories occupied since 1967, and guarantee equal human rights for all people in its territory, regardless of race, religion or origin. And all members of the international community must end their complicity in sustaining conflict, occupation and oppression in the region.

The alternative is a real and present threat to the lives and future of all people in the region, and to justice, reconciliation and unity in our fragmented and fragile world.

Today, the World Council of Churches calls on all its member churches and partners, and all people of faith and good will, to pray and act for peace in the Holy Land, extending solidarity to all people affected and threatened by the escalating violence in the region, and urging all those responsible for providing and using the weapons of war to turn away from violence and towards peace. Today our prayer is that the desire for peace and justice will overcome the continued obsession with war and violence.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9

Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay
General Secretary
World Council of Churches

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Ecumenical Patriarch addresses “The Need for Dialogue Today”

(originally posted on WCC website, 10th October 2024)

On 7 October, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Notre Dame University in Sydney, Australia. He then delivered an address entitled The Need for Dialogue Today.”

“It is indeed through dialogue that knowledge in general is cultivated; that the academic disciplines, such as the sciences, can be advanced; that human horizons can be broadened; that feelings and emotions can be exchanged; that relationships can be cultivated; and that truths can be revealed and recalled. Consequently, from within a Christian framework, dialogue is not merely a tool for human interaction, but more so, a reflection of divine reality.”

The Ecumenical Patriarch continued by reflecting that dialogue within the world ought to underscore the importance of mutual understanding.

“The Ecumenical Patriarchate has long championed the principles of dialogue as pathways towards healing and reconciliation,” he said. “However, we are not to downplay, let alone deride or dismiss the uniqueness of our interlocutors when we are engaged in dialogue.”

In fact, he noted, we need to appreciate – if not embrace – their difference.

“Far from destroying unity, dialogue has the potential of enriching our experience of unity,” he said. “In the final analysis, we are always in closer proximity to each other in more ways than we are distant from, or different to, one another.”

The Ecumenical Patriarch noted that there is incomparably more that we share with each other and resemble one another, than what may separate us, if only we began to see the other with new eyes.

“It is precisely in our dialogical exchange with others that we can do this; that is to say, only to the extent that we are able to look into the eyes of another person, do we discover the unrepeatable, exceptionally distinct person in each one of us as well,” he said. “In conclusion, our prayer is that we may all continue to act together in open dialogue and mutual solidarity; reinforcing our common humanity in all that we do and, in this way, committed unreservedly and always to finding possibilities for solving tensions and enmities, strengthening peace in the world.”

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Yom Kippur 2024

Yom Kippur (‘Day of Atonement’) is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. This year it will be from sundown on October 11th until sundown on the next day. The Jewish community spend 25 hours without food or drink, engaged in prayer and reflection.

Alongside the related holiday of Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year), Yom Kipppur is one of the two components of the High Holy Days of Judaism.

In an article in the Washington Post entitled ‘The thin joy of the new year, the horror of the one just concluded’, Ruth Marcus writes that ‘all the apples dipped in all the honey in the world cannot erase the bitterness of the year just concluded or offer reassurance of a year to come that will be any less painful or precarious.

She quotes from the prophet Jeremiah, in a passage used in the liturgy for Rosh Hashanah, ‘a cry is heard in Ramah – wailing, bitter weeping – Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, who are gone’.

(So much wailing – for Jewish people, for Palestinian people, for our global community)

She writes:

‘We weep, we must weep, for all the children. Because it is also true: No fast can be easy when so many Gazan children are dead and maimed. Their fates are something I will mourn, and for which I will atone in synagogue this week, because our sins are collective as well as individual”

On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Jewish people listen to the piercing sound of the shofar, the ram’s horn. It is usually understood as a wake-up call, to jolt us out of complacency and ponder our deeds.

‘This year for the first time in my life, this teaching doesn’t work’, said Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt. ‘We’re already awake. We’re on edge, and we’re shaken to our cores. This year, the shofar sounds more like wailing to me – a ritual that captures the utter sorrow and pain and unimaginable loss of this year. The shofar is a representation of the wordless anguish that hovers over us and in us. Anguish that we cannot turn away from. Anguish that we cannot close from our ears or our hearts. But it is also our teacher… What if this year the shofar is a call to us from thousands of years ago asking us to find another way forward, to end the sacrificing of our children and to cling to life?’

An excerpt from the article by Ruth Marcus in The Washington Post, 8th October 2024

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The Knotted Gun

The original sculpture of The Knotted Gun also known as “Non-Violence” was created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd (1934-2016), a friend of John Lennon’s family. He created it after Lennon’s tragic death as he wanted to honour the singer’s vision of a peaceful world.

In 1988, a bronze version of the sculpture was unveiled in front of the United Nations’ headquarters (donated by the Government of Luxembourg)

Replicas have been placed in more than 30 strategic locations around the world including Beirut (Lebanon).

This week Beirut has suffered ‘unprecedented’ bombardment” with a series of gigantic blasts that reduced six buildings to rubble.

Military activity in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan and other places around the world use more than guns but the ‘knotted gun’ remains a powerful call to de-escalate violence and the weapons of war which jeapardize international peace and security and sustainable development. And new and emerging weapon technologies including autonomous weapons and drones pose a challenge to global security as do nuclear weapons as has been threatened more than once in the Russian-Ukraine war.

How many resources are wasted on military spending, which sadly continues to increase! I sincerely hope that the international community understands that disarmament is first and foremost a moral duty. Let us keep this clearly in our minds. This requires courage from all members of the great family of nation, to move from an equilibrium of fear to an equilibrium of trust.
(Pope Francis, St Peter’s Square, 3 March 2024)

There are many from Lebanon who now call Australia home, who watch from the safe shores of Australia and look with dismay, concern and shock at what is happening in Lebanon to innocent civilians.

Prayer (adapted from here)
O God, you hate nothing that you have made and tenderly call your creation into reconciliation with you, that we all may have life in abundance.

Forgive us for the times when we have ignored your call to follow in the way of the reconciling Christ. Turn our hearts to make us more attentive to the needs of those who suffer as a result of war, oppression, displacement and poverty.

We pray particularly for the civilians in Lebanon who suffer the consequences of military bombardment, and who now face a catastrophic crisis.

Sustain them in the power of your Holy Spirit and inspire them to hold onto a vision for peace, and your promise that “Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest”. (Isaiah 29:17)

Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer. Amen.

Prayer (adapted from here)
God of refuge,
hear our prayer
as we hold the people of Beirut
in our hearts at this time.
Fill us with compassion
and move us to reach out in love.
In your mercy,
bring comfort to those who mourn,
healing to those who are injured,
shelter to those who are homeless
sustenance to those who hunger.
Lead us in your ways
so that together we may bring
the light of new hope
wherever there is destruction and despair.
We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

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Pastoral Statement on the Middle East conflict

Pastoral Statement on the Bombings in Lebanon and the Conflict in the Middle East (see full statement here)

Week of Prayer for Peace in the Middle East from 29 September to 5 October 2024.

Rev Charissa Suli, President of the Uniting Church in Australia

24 September 2024

It is with a heavy heart that I reach out to you regarding the tragic events unfolding in Lebanon. On 23 September 2024, devastating airstrikes in southern and eastern Lebanon claimed the lives of over 492 people, leaving more than 1600 others injured and displacing many countless families. As violence escalates in the region, the situation has deeply affected the lives of people in Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine. This ongoing conflict continues to cause immense suffering and loss on all sides.
As we grapple with this news, we are reminded of the deep connections we have within our Uniting Church family. In the past 24 hours I have heard from people in the Uniting Church community grieving for their family, friends, and loved ones back in Lebanon. We hold them in our prayers, standing in solidarity as they process pain and uncertainty.

In these troubled times, we turn to the Word of God for peace and hope. These words of Jesus remind us:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” (Jn 14:27).

This peace, a gift from Christ, transcends the fear and violence that so often consumes our world. Let us hold fast to this promise, even in the darkest moments.

Let us unite in faith, praying for peace in this region, and for all those affected by the destruction and suffering. Now is a time when we must come together, transcending the boundaries of faith and tradition, to pray for an end to this violence and to support all who are affected. By standing together in solidarity and compassion, we can weave the threads of love that bind us as one human family.

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‘Something’…

 …that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
2
 Corinthians 5:19.

The word ‘ecumenical’ is often linked to the word ‘movement’ so that the two seem inseparable.   The word ‘ecumenical’ is the adjective, to the noun ‘movement’.  It implies that among other movements there is a distinctive element that distinguishes it compared to other movements.

I quite like the way the Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘movement’. It is a group of people with the same beliefs who work together to achieve something.  There is the element of certainty ‘with the same beliefs and an openness ‘to achieve something’.

We can say that in the Ecumenical Movement we are united in a common faith in the Risen Jesus Christ. Our faith calls us into discipleship and into the life of Christian Communities. We understand together that ‘in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.’ 2 Corinthians 5:19.

This is an element of our ‘same belief’ and part of the basis of the spirituality of being ecumenical. The noun, ‘movement’, suggests that out of this common faith we come together to do something.

In the past the fear that this something was the creation of one super church!  This has never been, and still is not the goal. Seeking to achieve something together is a way of realising that as churches we are ‘better together’. We express and live out our faith in different ways.  We identify these differences when we compare ourselves to each other. No one Christian tradition is the complete fulfilment of God’s vision for the Church, and we know we have much to learn from each other.

When we are together, our voice is clearer, our witness is strong, and our differences recede.

The NCCA Board is in conversation about the ‘something’ to be achieved in the coming years. We want it to be realistic, positive, clearly Christian and a source of hope. Such a something is identified not only though the sharing of ideas, it is also the product of us praying together and affirming our common hope in Christ. We invite your prayers in this journey.!

Rev John Gilmore

NCCA President

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World Suicide Prevention Day – September 10

Many of us have been deeply impacted by the suicide of a friend, a loved one, a colleague.There is no single cause of suicide, and no simple solution to prevent it. World Suicide Prevention Day aims to raise awareness and reduce stigma, and confirms the message that suicides are preventable.

“Millions of Victorians have trouble from time to time with their mental health. Just because your mental health is your own, that doesn’t mean you have to manage it by yourself”.
(Uniting Vic/Tas)

The triennial theme for World Suicide Prevention Day for 2024-2026 is “Changing the Narrative on Suicide” with the call to action “Start the Conversation“. This theme aims to raise awareness about the importance of reducing stigma and encouraging open conversations to prevent suicides. Changing the narrative on suicide is about transforming how we perceive this complex issue and shifting from a culture of silence and stigma to one of openness, understanding, and support.

The call to action encourages everyone to start the conversation on suicide and suicide prevention. Every conversation, no matter how small, contributes to a supportive and understanding society. By initiating these vital conversations, we can break down barriers, raise awareness, and create better cultures of support.

This theme also emphasizes the need to prioritize suicide prevention and mental health in policy making, calling for government action. Changing the narrative requires advocating for policies that prioritize mental health, increase access to care, and provide support for those in need.

Many of our churches have specialist services for people living with mental health issues, as well as community agencies such as:

Lifeline – 13 11 14
Beyond Blue – 1300 22 4636
MensLine – 1300 789 978

Data on the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare website states there are 3000+ deaths by suicide each year. The Victorian Government developed a suicide prevention framework (2016-2025) which committed to halving the suicide rate over that timeframe. It will be interesting to review the data to see if this framework has achieved its goals.

On the eve of World Suicide Prevention Day, the Royal Commission into Defence & Veteran Suicide Defence delivered its Final Report. We know there is a huge toll on mental health for many in the Australian Defence Force. The ADF has religious chaplains from many denominations and religious traditions.

An ADF spokesperson said the force accepted that “a person’s religious and spiritual belief system is a significant factor in their overall wellbeing. Defence aims to provide the best care it can for its people and chaplains play a pivotal role in providing this support to ADF members”.

Prayer
God of the valleys
God of the shadows
God of the pit of despair
We claim your Holy Presence everywhere.
When we see hope dimly,
You are there.
When we see life fading,
You are there.
When we see life end,
You are there.
We pray this day for all who experience suffering because of suicide.
For the person who is thinking about suicide,
For the person who is recovering from suicide engagement,
For all who fear suicide will touch them,
For all who have known the pain caused by suicide,
Grant us peace.
We pray for the arms of hope to enfold all of us, like a soft blanket wrapped around us, holding our pain, holding our loneliness, holding our inexpressible sorrow.
Hold onto us, God of love, even when we want to let go.
Hold onto us.
Amen.
(Rev Dr Sarah Griffith Lund)

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Aspiring to more than gold

Eric Liddell won gold at the 1924 Paris Olympics. On 15 July 2024, almost 100 years to the day after winning his 400 metre gold medal in Paris, Liddell was awarded a posthumous degree of Doctor honoris causa in recognition of his contribution to sport and humanity. His was a life of inspiration to draw upon. The backstory of the man featured in Chariots of Fire offers a vision of there being a higher duty than one’s own personal success and national glory

ASPIRING TO MORE THAN GOLD AT THE PARIS OLYMPICS
(by Tim Costello, senior fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity)

It is 100 years ago that the Flying Scotsman, Eric Liddell, born in China to missionary parents, won gold in the 400m sprint at the 1924 Paris Olympics. That was obviously well before my time, but the nostalgia stems from the lasting impact on me of the brilliant 1981 film Chariots of Fire that recounted Liddell’s story.
The backstory of this man provides a curious challenge for a secular age that prizes success and competition and winning above all else.

Liddell was a student at Edinburgh University and the fastest sprinter in the UK and went to Paris as Britain’s great hope for gold in the 100m. But he discovered as the British Olympic team left for Paris that the 100m heats were to be held on a Sunday. As a committed Christian he believed that one of the Ten Commandments about honouring the Sabbath meant no competitive sport on Sunday and he provoked a team crisis by refusing to run. How could he let himself and his country down over such a pedantic rule? Surely his first duty was to his nation.
This sort of religion sounds ridiculous to most ears and incomprehensibly heavy on duty to God. But I grew up in a family and church that believed there should be no Sunday sport and I still remember feeling great guilt when for the first time in the late 80s I sneaked off on a Sunday to watch my Essendon Bombers play at the MCG. I strongly identified with Eric’s dilemma.

When Chariots of Fire came out, I was surprised and buoyed by its lionising of Liddell’s sense of duty to God above all else. I saw the film when visiting Oxford in 1981 and remember the whole cinema erupting into booing. That was because Eric’s competitor Harold Abrahams scorned his Scottish counterpart for not being from the finest university in the country (Cambridge).

Otherwise, the cinema crowd was reverently silent, moved and engrossed by Eric’s sense of duty. The audience didn’t miss the irony of the Prince of Wales being brought in to convince Eric to put country before God and to stop being ridiculous and run. This was the same Prince of Wales who, as King Edward 8th, later abdicated and in the eyes of many of his subjects failed his duty to them and the nation.

The plot had a remarkable twist. Eric stayed true to his perceived duty and pulled out of the heats. But then at the last moment his Olympic team entered him in the 400m, not his event nor one for which he had trained. He claimed gold in a world record time of 47.6 seconds. He had fulfilled the duty he felt to a higher calling, willing to sacrifice his specialist event with all his training, but remarkably managed to win anyway. His fierce sprinting British competitor Abrahams ran and did win the 100m for Britain. The team were triumphant.

It’s a true story and a feelgood story that offers a vision of there being a higher duty than one’s own personal success and national glory. It was a strange idea to valorize in a 1981 film and would be even stranger in today’s age of self-promotion, nationalism and narcissism.

My nostalgia is in large part related to those values of having a sense of duty.

I think of Eric Liddell who went to China after Olympic glory to teach and serve the poor. My wife’s Aunt by marriage was from Scotland and knew Eric Liddell both in Scotland and as a fellow missionary in China. She lived to 100 and often talked to me about how Eric was such a selfless, giving man. He died in 1945 at the age of 43 in a Japanese concentration camp in China where he and so many expatriates were imprisoned. And he kept on doing his duty. He organised competitive sport (even on a Sunday) as recreation for the inmates. When he was asked why he did that he answered that he was doing his duty because God knew these vulnerable kids in the camp needed it and Sunday was their only day free from work. He showed he was not a legalist.

On 15 July this year Edinburgh University awarded Eric Liddell a posthumous doctorate received by his daughter, who must have been a very good age herself. It cited that “Liddell’s story remains a beacon of inspiration, reminding us of the enduring power of faith, courage and commitment to others.” His was a life of inspiration. I will draw upon that inspiration again as I enter the Olympic spirit watching our great national champions this year in Paris.

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Chaplains to the Olympics athletes

This year’s Olympic Games are being held in Paris, France – an already-contentious space for religious expression. France’s law –laïcité, loosely translated as secularism – bans ostentatious displays of faith and religious culture in public sectors like schools and government institutions. Established to separate the Catholic church from French politics, laïcité encourages its citizens to not distinguish themselves by their faith traditions. This rule primarily isolates those of faith traditions that require certain attire, such as some branches of Islam.

Numerous official Olympic chaplains from five major global religions – Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist – have been preparing a chaplaincy center in the Olympic and Paralympic Village. They plan to create a safe, supportive, positive and respectful spiritual environment for athletes and all involved that is both respectful of different faith traditions and sensitive to France’s regulations. Muslim and Jewish chaplains are intentionally placing themselves next to each other as a model of peaceful coexistence.

The Olympics first enlisted official chaplains in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Following the terrorist attack against the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 games, the International Olympic Committee recognized a need for care beyond the physical body, and began to put together a team of official chaplains to provide spiritual care to athletes. Olympic chaplains of all faith traditions are seeing to it that athletes are prioritized and cared for, with a focus on familiarity, relationality, and overall spiritual care.

Olympic chaplaincy comes in many forms: through prayer, consoling a losing athlete, offering a listening ear, or sometimes it is, as 2012 chaplain Frankie Mulgrew framed it, “the ministry of hanging around.”

Stuart Weir, the secretary of Major Sports Events Chaplaincy Committee, told Religious News Service that chaplaincy is a critical point of care for Olympic athletes.

“If an athlete understands that they are significant because God created them and loves them, they are free to compete and use the gifts they have been given. They do not have to be successful to prove themselves worthy of God’s love.”

And who better to provide spiritual care to athletes than former athletes themselves? One of the most notable things about Olympic sports chaplains is that some were once athletes, and even Olympians. Madeline Manning Mims won the 800-meter dash in 1968. She was one of the first official chaplains to be invited to the Olympics in 1988. She described, from personal experience, the natural woes of being an athlete and how spirituality can help.

“[I]n competition there is a lot of fear and pain. It’s a part of who an athlete is. And to get through that, to break through that, so that you can produce at your highest level, many of them pray for God’s help”.

American high jumper, Jesse Williams, credits chapels held by chaplains as the driving force behind calming his mind before a competition.

“It’s easy to get lost in the world that we live in and put something like sports before God,” he told Charisma News. “When you go to chapel, you’re humbling yourself and understanding that God needs to go first in everything you do.”

Other athletes may request prayer before an event, attend a chapel service the night before, or simply sit alone in a quiet moment by themselves.

Let the games begin.

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A map of the future?

Kamala Harris is the first US presidential candidate with a diverse personal religious and spiritual history that is now far more representative of America’s multi-faith makeup. It’s been suggested her multi-religious identity is a map of the future.

An article by Yonat Shimron published on Religion News.

Harris would be the first Black woman to be nominated by a major party for president and the first South Asian. She also has a diverse personal religious and spiritual history that is now far more representative of America’s multi-faith makeup.

Raised Hindu by her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a native of Chennai, India, she was often taken as a girl to 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, California, by her neighbor, Regina Shelton, along with Harris’ sister, Maya. As an adult, Harris joined a Black Baptist church.

Meanwhile, the man who would become Harris’ husband, Los Angeles lawyer Douglas Emhoff, grew up in New Jersey attending a Reform synagogue.

Harris’ faith connections have frequently played themselves out in her past four years in office as the Second Couple inaugurated a tradition of lighting Hanukkah candles at their residence, as well as celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

Every past U.S. president has identified as Christian, and that will not change if Harris is elected in November. But as she runs for president, her religious biography will be not only history-making but will connect her to how many Americans practice and encounter faith.

Anthea Butler, a professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania notes, “Nobody grows up in a straight line with religion in America anymore. Few younger Americans have only one religious lineage that they carry on from their parents. Increasingly, Americans choose a different religious identity for themselves and may change course again as they intermarry and interact with, and support, a partner of a different faith.

Brian Pennington, director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society at Elon University in North Carolina and an expert on South Asian religion, notes that his students “have multiple influences that inform their spiritual ideas and identities”.

The term DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) is already being weaponised to disparage Kamala Harris. The implication is that she got where she is only because of her race and gender, not because she earned it. “DEI” is increasingly being used as a harmful, hurtful, and hateful descriptor.

Interesting also to note that the Republican Party vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, is a Protestant turned atheist who married a Hindu woman (Usha Vance) before converting to Catholicism in 2019. He has spoken of how she has made his Catholic faith stronger.

Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America, said the two couples offer, in their own ways, what may be an ascendant view of interfaith marriage. “It’s a positive diversity story for people from different religious backgrounds to be married to each other and to say, my experience with the other person’s faith strengthens my own and makes me a better person. It’s a display of identity being a source of pride and a display of faith being a bridge of cooperation. I think that those are all very important.”