British Methodists to take part in interfaith Habitat project
|
Beth Ann Brick |
July 6, 2006
By Kathleen LaCamera*
EDINBURGH, Scotland (UMNS) — Methodists will travel to the Republic of
Kyrgyzstan in July as part of the first-ever British interfaith Habitat for Humanity
project.
The 16-member team includes Edinburgh-based Christians, Muslims and others
who are volunteering two weeks of their time to build much-needed housing in
the former Soviet state.
Laurent Vernet, a marketing professional and a member of the Nicolson Square
Methodist Church in Edinburgh, said he hopes the trip will be an opportunity
to see love, compassion and interfaith relations in action.
“I hope to have a spiritual and human experience by helping others,
not only with money but with time and sweat,” Vernet told United Methodist
News Service.
With summer temperatures in excess of 100 degrees
Fahrenheit, the team will no doubt be sweating buckets as it helps construct
environmentally
friendly
reed and clay housing for residents in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek.
The homes will provide cheaper, better-insulated and safer places to live
for families who sometimes pay up to 50 percent of their income for heating
costs during harsh winter months.
The Rev. Peter Clark, Nicolson Square’s
minister, has played a key role in putting the trip together. A former building
design
professional, he has
longstanding ties with the Habitat organization and has been involved with
several of its international projects.
Clark noted that few people even know Kyrgyzstan
is a country bordered by China and Kazakhstan. “It’s a country that’s totally landlocked,
with no mineral wealth and little arable land. Soviet subsidies that once helped
support the population have long gone,” he explained.
Working together
|
A UMNS photo by Kathleen LaCamera Zoltán
Homoky (from left), Ahmad Hussein, Bonnie Jeanne MacDonald and the Rev.
Peter Clark are members of the interfaith Habitat for Humanity team.
|
Zoltán
Homoky (from left), Ahmad Hussein, Bonnie Jeanne MacDonald and the Rev.
Peter Clark are members of the first-ever British interfaith Habitat
for Humanity team. The 12-person team includes members of Nicolson
Square Methodist Church and its next-door neighbor, the Central Mosque,
in Edinburgh, Scotland. They will travel in July to Bishkek, the capital
city of former Soviet-ruled Kyrgyzstan, to build environmentally
friendly reed and clay housing. A UMNS photo by Kathleen LaCamera. Photo
# 06743. Accompanies UMNS story #406. 7/6/06 |
Habitat for Humanity has been working in Kyrgyzstan — where 40 percent
of the people live below the poverty line — since 1999. An estimated
166,000 are without adequate housing.
Clark and the interfaith team believe Kyrgyzstan is the right place for the
group to do some good work and engage with a completely different culture,
and for members to get to know one another in the process.
“When you are a Muslim, you have a responsibility to help other people.
This seems a noble project,” said Bonnie Jeanne MacDonald, a Ph.D. student
and worshipper at the Edinburgh Central Mosque, located next to the Nicolson
Square church. “Time is the most valuable, more so than just giving money.”
She and her husband, Ahmad Hussein, are taking time out from their research
to participate in the trip. MacDonald said this is a particularly important
moment for religious people to stop pointing the finger at one another and
work together.
“We want to say to the people of Kyrgyzstan, ?no, you’re
not forgotten’ and also ?we’re people of different faiths
working together,’” she said.
“We will be trying to make a difference and will need to respond and
rely on other members of the group. ? It will be a humbling experience,” Hussein
added.
He admitted that some in the mosque community were wary of a mission trip
with Christians, especially because of past experiences in which Christian
mission sometimes included efforts to convert Muslims.
But, he said, “When I heard about the trip from my wife, I was interested.
We realized we could open people’s minds and our own concept of interfaith
dialogue.”
A strong relationship
Next-door
neighbors for the last 14 years, the Nicolson Square Methodist Church and the
Central Mosque have a long history of working cooperatively in Edinburgh’s
city center.
That relationship has also made them a target.
In recent years, racist slogans have been spray painted on the Nicolson Square
church’s
front doors and obscene material put through the mail box, criticizing the
church for its good
relations with the mosque.
The experience has strengthened relationships
between the two communities, and the Habitat project offers one more opportunity
for
both to serve God and
God’s people together.
“The biggest teaching of Jesus is to love one another and this is a
way to express that love to the people in Edinburgh and to the people of Kyrgyzstan,” observed
Joe Lambert.
He said he was a “slightly reluctant” recruit but was persuaded
by the enthusiasm of others. As the volunteer church treasurer for Nicolson
Square, he has a keen sense of how much congregations spend on maintaining
their buildings. That’s motivated him to help others who have far fewer
resources to build the homes.
All team members have been involved in fund raising
for the trip, which will cost nearly £22,000 ($47,000) or £1,650 ($3,000) per person. One
of the most successful fund-raisers was a multicultural family “Food
Fayre” held at the Central Mosque on a sunny June Sunday afternoon. More
than 400 people came to sample a wide range of culinary delights, raising upwards
of £1,300 ($2,400) for the trip.
Hope for future trips
Team member and student Zoltán Homoky said he likes the idea of not
just talking about interfaith relations but doing something concrete. He first
heard about the trip during a talk by Clark at the Central Mosque and immediately
thought “I fancy some of that.”
Homoky said he particularly wants to “glimpse the soul” of
people in a place where, under former Soviet rule, religion was suppressed
(70 percent
of the population is Muslim). He also said he hopes the trip will be the first
of many, serving as a pilot for future shared humanitarian projects between
faith groups in Edinburgh.
Organizers feel the same way. Beth Ann Brick,
a Nicolson Square member who led the fund-raising effort, is unable to make
the Kyrgyzstan
trip because
of work commitments to the company she runs in Edinburgh. Originally from Wisconsin,
she is a longtime fan of Habitat for Humanity and said she “feels a bit
sad not to be going.” She, too, expressed hope that this trip will open
the door to more projects in the near future. For information about the trip, visit http://www.hope-into-homes.org.uk/.
*LaCamera is a UMNS correspondent based in England.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
|