What’s Our Next Step?

Congregations Can Encourage Us All to Meet the Neighbors

IN OUR COVER STORY this week, we are focusing on next steps after the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the tragic end of the war in Afghanistan and a rise in COVID-sparked hate crimes. Please read this interview with Atlanta-based interfaith scholar Dr. Deanna Womack. Her new book, NEIGHBORS, is a custom-designed guide for individuals and small groups in congregations to encourage fresh interfaith relationships in communities nationwide.

A Chorus Calling Us to Community

Bill Tammeus reaches out through Goodreads, Newsweek and TV

JOURNALIST and AUTHOR BILL TAMMEUS is calling on Americans this autumn with an almost identical post-9/11 message of “unplugging extremism” by connecting with our neighbors to form healthy communities. Bill shares this message through his new book, Love, Loss and Endurance, and through his multi-faceted media appearances nationwide.

In our Front Edge Publishing column, this week, Editor David Crumm has links that show how Bill’s outreach begins from a solid base online in vital sites like Goodreads. Then, we’ve also got links to Bill’s latest appearance in Newsweek and on TV. Take a look at how one authors engages in the national conversation. There are valuable suggestions here that you might want to follow, as well. Of course, we know that most of our readers are not authors (yet) but your own outreach could include getting involved in Goodreads and helping other authors spread their messages by adding your own reviews.

LARRY BUXTON on ‘The Soul of America’

THIS WEEK’s LEADING-WITH-SPIRIT video by Larry Buxton asks viewers to reflect on our calling as Americans, and as people of faith, at such a troubling milestone in our history. Larry’s inspiring videos also are great to share with friends as well!

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HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS

Yom Kippur

RABBI KRAKOFF: ‘Perfect Time to Concentrate on Relationships’

What a timely convergence! In a week when our ReadTheSpirit cover story is balancing a post-9/11 call to community conversations with coverage of the Jewish High Holiday of Yom Kippur, Rabbi Joseph Krakoff hits this same theme in his holiday message that was published this week in The Jewish News in a story by Karen Schwartz.

Of course, Krakoff is a nationally known voice for healing family and community relationships in his dual role as a rabbi—and as Senior Director of the Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network. He also is the author of two books that encourage such healing conversations: First, there’s Never Long Enough, a volume illustrated by Michelle Sider, then there’s Now What? A Guide to the Gifts and Challenges of Aging, a book for which he served as a consultant and co-author.

The Jewish News story begins: “Reflecting on relationships is a part of the High Holidays every year, but it’s taken on a new meaning in the context of this past year. The isolation brought about by the pandemic is challenging people to recalibrate and ask themselves what really matters at the end of the day: To reflect on what they can release and what overall relationships they can reengage with in a meaningful way.” You can read that entire story here.

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STEPHANIE FENTON: Yom Kippur, the holiest day

HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS columnist Stephanie Fenton writes about Yom Kippur, which is often called the holiest day in the Jewish year. She also reports on the mix of in-person and streaming services, this year, since many synagogues will not be filled to capacity this year due to the pandemic.

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WANT TO SEE ALL THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS?—It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just visit  InterfaithHolidays.com

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Lucille Sider on Spiritual Resilience

We Are Caregivers

THIS WEEK, in her series of columns about overcoming the traumas that millions of us confront in life, Lucille writes about confronting her best friend’s life-threatening cancer and then the overwhelming demands of becoming a caregiver. AND—in addition to this column—Lucille will be visiting with readers this week on September 14, 2021, via Zoom. You can learn more about that Zoom opportunity at the end of this column.

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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:

1. REMINISCE—Ed McNulty writes, “Writer-director Lisa Joy blends film noir with science fiction in this tale set in a near future Miami whose streets are being flooded as climate change causes the ocean to rise. Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) is the jaded detective whose specialty is the past.”
2. COME FROM AWAY—”The horrific events that occurred 20 years ago on 9/11 reveal the evil depths that humanity can sink to, but this filmed version of David Hein and Irene Sankoff’s Broadway play celebrates the heights to which humanity can rise.”
3. THE FATHER—Ed writes about the acclaimed film by French director Florian Zeller, co-starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman.
4. DAYS OF GLORY—”Co-writer/director Rachid Bouchareb provides a very different perspective on World War II in this tale centering on four North African Muslims who enlist to free what they regard as their fatherland, France.”
5. THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US—”Kate Winslet stars as Alex Martin and Idris Elba as Ben Bass. She is a daring-do photographer willing to take risks, whereas he is an overly cautious neurosurgeon, so their different temperaments fuel the conflict when the story kicks into high gear.”
6. RESPECT—”Director Liesl Tommy and writer Tracey Scott Wilson’s film biography of Aretha Franklin certainly deserves our respect—and gratitude. Covering about 29 years of the singer’s life, it begins with her as a 10-year-old rousted out of bed to entertain her father’s guests to the recording of her greatest hit album, Amazing Grace.”
7. PIG—”Director and co-writer Michael Sarnoski’s film about the reclusive supplier of truffles to Portland Oregon’s upscale restaurant presents Nicolas Cage with a role that rises far above what the actor has sunk into for a couple of decades.”
8. CODA—This 2021 American coming-of-age comedy-drama follows a hearing teenage girl who is a child of deaf adults (CODA for short). The movie is a remake of a French film and currently has a 96 percent approval rating from film critics—including Ed McNulty in his review.
9. LUPIN—”The French writer George Kay has created a truly thrilling escapist adventure series with more than a touch of social commentary. He has taken a classic series of French novels revolving around Arsène Lupin as a “Gentleman Thief” and transferred them to a modern day outsider.”
10. EROICA—Ed McNulty reaches back to 2003 for a wonderful film about the arts, Eroica. In short, it’s a carefully reconstructed drama about Beethoven debuting the piece that people at the time considered a milestone in music history—a unique delight in moviemaking..

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