Every month as part of my report to the session I tell them how many home visits, how many hospital visits, how many one on one contacts I have made in the previous month and then report that I participated in so many (usually over two dozen) meetings, some more interesting than others.

One I went to this weekend was among the more interesting. There were two major Islamic conventions meeting in town over the weekend, the Islamic Circle of North America and the Muslim American Society. Kathleen was invited to attend the Interfaith Dinner and I attended as her guest. Kathleen’s invitation came from Dr. Reza Mansoor, a cardiac surgeon at Hartford Hospital and by Abdul, a summer student in her Clinical Pastoral Training program at the Hospital who is director of the Islamic ministries certificate program at Hartford Seminary. It turned out that the Master of Ceremonies was Dr. Ali Antar, a professor at Central Connecticut State University who I know through the Peace movement.

The main speakers were Heidi Hadsell, the Presbyterian President of Hartford Seminary, and Dr. Ingrid Mattson and Yeheskel Landau, both of whom are professors at the Seminary whom I have met on other occasions. All the speakers were interesting as they talked about Interfaith Understanding and the table conversation was interesting as well. Heidi challenged the group to go beyond talk and do something together to address the problems of our city. A committee will be carrying this idea forward; they seemed to be talking in terms of social service such as soup kitchens. No one mentioned that the Interfaith Coalition on Equity and Justice already embraced Christians, Jews and Muslims and was working on addressing the underlying causes of poverty and oppression in Hartford and the greater Hartford area.

I unilaterally declared Monday July 3 a staff holiday for our Office Manager and myself (the only staff who normally work on Monday) so Ruth could have a long weekend and I could have two days off in a row. We ate lobsters on Monday for a New England Fourth of July meal, and some wonderful smoked pork ribs for a southern Fourth celebration on Tuesday.

Saturday Kathleen and Alice Evans and I went to the Presbyterian Promise Board meeting in Waterford followed by a picnic at the home of Cheryl Molina, former PresPromise board co-Chair who lives on the Niantic River. Beautiful setting and good company!