Ramadan, Easter and Passover rarely converge

Our writers prayerfully reflect on our troubled world

AUTHOR VICTOR BEGG pointed out to us that the convergence of these three Abrahamic observances occurs so rarely that we see it only every three decades. Passover, Easter and Ramadan coincide this year—and will next year—and then we won’t see these three converge again until the 2050s. That’s because, as Victor explains it, Ramadan’s lunar cycle moves the Islamic fasting month “earlier” by about 11 days each year. This rare convergence truly makes this an exceptional week in which our writers are sharing spiritual reflections—focused on their hopes for peace in our troubled world and especially in Ukraine. Please, enjoy these columns—and the photographs as well—and share them with friends.

RABBI LENORE BOHM writes Passover’s power to inspire action: This year, we will be thinking of Ukraine (the accompanying photographs show the Brodsky Synagogue in Kyiv).

RABBI JACK RIEMER calls us to Proclaim a Passover ‘Dayenu’ that lifts up the people of Ukraine (with photos of the Kharkiv Choral Synagogue, the largest in Ukraine).

MARKING RAMADAN, Victor Begg reminds us that all of our faiths call on us to be peacemakers (with photos of the Al-Salam Mosque in Odessa).

REFLECTING ON HOLY WEEK and EASTER, Benjamin Pratt draws on illustrations from Ian Fleming’s Seven Deadlier Sins and 007’s Moral Compass (with St. George’s church in western Ukraine).

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And, more timely reflections from our writers

Stephanie Fenton

HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS columnist Stephanie Fenton reports on the Easter Triduum: Christians observe Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday

Then, she reports on Easter, also known as Pascha.

WANT TO SEE ALL OF THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS?—It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just remember the web address: InterfaithHolidays.com

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Martin Davis

Complain about baseball? Not this fan!

‘Let’s play ball!’ writes journalist and author Martin Davis as he enjoys his first baseball game of the season. You’ll find his homage to the start of the baseball season on this page in the Virginia-based Free Lance-Star, where Martin now is Editor of the Editorial Page.

If you enjoy Martin’s columns about sports, then you’re sure to enjoy his new book 30 Days with America’s High School Coaches, available from Amazon in hardcover, paperback and Kindle versions.

His new book was just reviewed by Drew Gallagher, headlined: Interviews reveal insights from those shaping young lives from the sidelines
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Mindy Corporon

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, Mindy Corporon will kick off her annual campaign called SevenDays. Centered in the Kansas City area, this huge effort also shares inspiring ideas and opportunities to anyone within reach of an internet connection. As she describes the goal: “SevenDays overcomes hate by promoting kindness and understanding through education and dialogue.” To learn more, visit Mindy’s website SevenDays.org. You’ll be surprised by the array of stories, ideas, events and inspirational ideas. Mindy is the author of Healing a Shattered Soul.

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Faith & Film

ED McNULTY, for decades, has published reviews, magazine articles and books exploring connections between faith and film. Most of his work is freely published. Ed supports his work by selling the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with discussion guides to films. This resource is used coast-to-coast by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.

Among Ed’s free reviews and columns:

• COMPARTMENT 6—”Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen takes on the strangers on a train genre in this slow moving story about Finnish student Laura (Seidi Haarla) studying in Moscow sometime during a winter of late 80s or mid 90s.”
• 7 DAYS—Director Roshan Sethi is also the co-writer (with star Karan Soni) of this romantic tale of two Americans, Ravi (Karan Soni) and Rita (Geraldine Viswanathan), whose Indian parents want to set them up for an arranged marriage.
• THE BATMAN—”Director Matt Reeves and co-writer (with Peter Craig) have given us an almost three hours long story so dark that film noir looks like screwball comedy by comparison.”
• THE OUTFIT—”Set in the 1950s, director Graham Moore’s film is the story of Leonard, who has been opening up his modest shop in the same seedy side of Chicago ever since leaving London’s Saville Row after WWII.”
• SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE—Netflix now is streaming two dozen episodes of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 2015-19 TV series, Servant of the People. Ed McNulty highly recommends the series, writing: “What a series of visual parables about lifting up the lowly and of the great reversal proclaimed by Jesus in the gospels!“
• FREDERICK DOUGLASS IN FIVE SPEECHES—Ed writes, “Although in just 54 minutes director Julia Marchesi cannot possibly include all of the massive amount of information in David Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Frederick Douglass, she does an excellent job in portraying the man and his great influence upon his times and especially upon President Lincoln.”
• FLEE—”Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s triple Oscar contender about a war refugee is different from other documentaries in that it is 95% animated.”
• WINTER ON FIRE—“I hope that freedom-loving people all over the world will tune in to Netflix’s new documentary. An Oscar nominee for Best Documentary, it provides a fitting prelude to the current violence unleashed by the ruthless land-grabbing Russian tyrant, as well as a fitting tribute to the brave people opposing him.”
• CARRIE’S WAR—“The story is set during the London Blitz when the decision was made to ship the children out into the country-side for their safety and their parents’ peace of mind.”
• WRITING WITH FIRE—”This Oscar-nominated documentary’s title must have been derived from the white hot passion of journalist Meera Devi and her colleagues at their newspaper located in northern India. Khabar Lahariya, which means in English “Waves of News,” is staffed by Dalit women.”

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