A King Day message of aid and interfaith tolerance
By Kristin E. Holmes
Inquirer Staff Writer
Teens filed into St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Ardmore yesterday carrying pans of spaghetti, meat loaf, and chili in a culinary tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The students had baked, boiled, and sauteed. Their commemoration of the civil-rights leader was the gift of nutrition to people who might otherwise go hungry for a home-cooked meal.
"Martin Luther King Day is all about service and just helping," said Talia Baurer, 16, of Wynnewood, "and that this is an interfaith group doing it together is a message of tolerance."
The group of 23 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim teenagers packaged 183 meals yesterday for Aid For Friends, a nonprofit organization that delivers meals to the frail elderly and homebound.
But community service wasn't the only King-oriented aim of the day. Interreligious understanding was also a goal.
The teens are part of Walking the Walk, a Philadelphia-based program designed to foster interfaith understanding. The initiative, begun in the fall of 2005, is a project of the Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia, a five-year-old nonprofit whose mission is to enhance the awareness of diversity.
Yesterday's service project was one in a months-long program involving 86 teens who meet 13 times during the school year. Youth from 23 congregations who are Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Baha'i gather at congregations throughout the region to learn about one another through service and dialogue.
"It takes Martin Luther King Day and makes it into a full-year commitment," said Margie Scharf, project director of Walking the Walk.
The group at St. Mary's was the West Philadelphia "network" of the program. Walking the Walk participants are divided into five groups that meet at congregations across the region.
The other four networks met yesterday in Spring House, North Philadelphia, Havertown, and the Wynnefield section of Philadelphia for projects including making blankets for a homeless shelter and senior center.
"You are the ones who will help us live into King's vision," said Pastor Tim Emmett-Rardin, the West Philadelphia group leader and a Drexel University chaplain.
The West Philadelphia group includes students from St. Mary's, Beth Am Israel Synagogue in Penn Valley, 59th Street Baptist Church in Southwest Philadelphia, and Quba Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies and Masjid, and White Rock Baptist Church, both in West Philadelphia.
After packing the food yesterday, the students participated in several community-building exercises, including designing a multi-faith school.
"I've learned that the kids from different religions and races have more in common than they think they do," said Baseerah Watson, 15, a Muslim who attends Quba Institute.
"Before, we all sat with people from the same congregation. Now, we sit and talk with other people we've met. I think Martin Luther King would appreciate that."