2009 Interfaith Ecumenical Thanksgiving Celebration - Update

Each year the Columbia Interfaith Council has a thanksgiving celebration and I have attended the last three. Here are some pictures from the last one which was held this past Sunday on the Mizzou campus in the Memorial Union. Make sure to check the previous post for the video.

Leaders from the Jewish and Hindu communities.  

Imam Abdullah Smith from the Islamic Center of Central Missouri

 Reader from the local Newman Center.

Pastor of Bethel Church.

Children performing a traditional dance from the Shanthi Mandir Hindu Temple and Community Center of Mid-Missouri.

Representatives from the Baha'i faith.

UNITY

 

BREAKING BREAD TOGETHER

 

 

 This year was probably the biggest and best Thanksgiving interfaith event yet even though there was a holiday parade scheduled downtown at the same exact time.  Representatives from the Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Baha'i, and Jewish faith traditions were all present to celebrate together.

Isn't it interesting that when people of faith come together in the same room the differences melt away and the humanity comes forth.  All of us share the same hopes and fears.  We tend to forget that when our sectarian differences, our own woefully inadequate understanding of the divine, gets in the way.  

Interfaith Thanksgiving 2009

I will post more but I wanted to get this video up as soon as possible.  Here is the video for the Interfaith Thanksgiving celebration held on 22 November 2009:

Eastgate Plaza at Night

Where else can you get food, liquor, health food with various assorted related sundries, access the services of UPS, and visit heaven?  Nowhere that I know of except the "Eastgate Plaza."  anchored by Eastgate IGA. Located conveniently less than two miles from my home and nearly all of that downhill.

The view facing east from across the street. Eastgate IGA is hidden by the bank disguised as some kind of art display.

 


Coming into the parking lot a surprise awaits you, and you would think that this surprise was larger and more populated.  Sadly, neither seems to be the case.

Has that sparse "zen" look.

 

Looking east  from Heaven you see the UPS store.

Sometimes you just can't do another WalMart run and that is when Eastgate shines. Eastgate also does a lot of barbecue and has somewhat of a busy lunchtime clientele. 

 

Going in.

Coming Out.

Barbecue and Liquor

This Clovers is smaller than the main store but nonetheless a convenient outpost for clean and organic living.

Rachel Miller - Child Holocaust Survivor

This is an older story which I did not run because I could not find the photographs. I have nearly thirty thousand digital images and sometimes the pictures get lost.  At any rate,  I apologize for the delay, but it does not diminish the poignancy of the message which was delivered on April 24th of this year. 

Rachel Miller came to share her story as a childhood holocaust survivor speaking at a very full house at the local Hillel center.  We even ran out of chairs!  It was a fascinating, and very different, story than those I have heard before.  I took my youngest daughter, another Rachel, and it was amazing the affinity, and even physical resemblance, that those two had.

Rachel Miller and my own Rachel

Rachel Miller addressing the audience.

 

 The presentation in progress.

 

A view of the crowd in the full building.

 

Here is an excellent video that KETC, in St. Louis, ran about her story.  God bless you Rachel Miller and thanks for sharing your story:

Kosher In Columbia Revisited

Back in August I ran another story on keeping kosher in Columbia.  Fortunately it continues to get easier all the time and I have even found several new sources of kosher food such as World Harvest which sells otherwise impossible to find kosher canned beans.

Last weekend we attended a bat mitzvah celebration in St. Louis and on Sunday we went to Kohn's Kosher Market to replenish our meat supply.  Meat is the only thing you really cannot get here.  The last post on this topic showed a shipment we had just received by Federal Express, and we had pretty much gone through most of it.   This time we were in St. Louis anyway and saved a lot of money by picking it up at the store in person.   While there we had a great lunch and I was particularly pleased with the buffet which I had never had before. So, here are some pictures from that trip.

Now here is a question though.  When are we going to get a Chabad House?