Faith leaders call for love and solidarity
To the Community,
Grace and peace to each of you in this ongoing post-election season. We find ourselves at a crossroads, especially as we reside in an important swing state for our national elections. While votes were coming in, being counted and recounted, and as we all waited, and then waited some more, we found ourselves needing to speak together as faith leaders in our communities.
We celebrate democracy being carried out and that every vote is (being) counted. It is also clear that as the attention grows stronger on our state, indeed, on our county, no matter the outcome of this presidential election, our country continues to be divided as we face the challenge of building the beloved community.
We write to say, there is a path that leads beyond the division and into hope. For we believe, regardless of whether one’s preferred candidate won or lost, our faithful pursuit of love and civility toward one another does not know about winning or losing, but rather about building the beloved community through solidarity and loving accountability. Love does not know about winning, for it never places the other into the category of loser. Instead, love persists, insists, and marches forward down a road where love, justice, mercy, and kindness are the markers of communities of faith.
And so we, the undersigned faith leaders, believe it’s important to march forward along this path, knowing our call to love is a unifying call to stand in solidarity with all people, but in particular the poor and the marginalized, as we proclaim the dignity of all people.
We invite our communities to help us model this, on Sunday, November 22, at an interfaith online prayer vigil via Zoom.
Signed,
Members of the Interfaith Council of Southern Delaware County
Rev. Alex G. Evangelista, Associate Pastor, Swarthmore Presbyterian Church
Rev. Lydia E. Muñoz, Lead Pastor, Swarthmore United Methodist Church
Rev. Sarah Cooper Searight, Associate Pastor, Swarthmore Presbyterian Church
Rabbi Nathan Martin, Congregation Beth Israel of Media
Rabbi Jeremy Gerber, Congregation Ohev Shalom, Wallingford
William J. Oberfield, MD, Providence Friends Meeting
Rev. Joyce S. Shin, Pastor, Swarthmore Presbyterian Church
Rev. Peter Friedrichs, Pastor, Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County
Susan Elliott, ICSDC member
Francisco Burgos, Executive Director, Pendle Hill
Rev. Zuline Gray Wilkinson, M.Div., MSW, Chester
Imam Haneef Mahdi, Islamic Center of Chester
Chaplain Shakur Abdul-Ali, Islamic Center of Chester
Berenice Saxon, ICSDC member
Dr. S. Zakiya Islam, St. Joseph’s University and Muslim Community Representative
Deacon Beth Ann Barkhau, Reformation Lutheran Church, Media
Rev. Jennifer L. Casey, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
The Venerable Amy Miller, Touring Teacher/Buddhist Nun, FPMT, Inc.
Pastor Wayne Matthias-Long, Reformation Lutheran Church, Media
Pastor Alina S. Gayeuski, Reformation Lutheran Church, Media
Rev. François Lacroix, Pastor, Wallingford Presbyterian Church
Sr. Jean Ustasiewski
