Where do a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim break bread together?
There’s a place where the answer to this question isn’t a punchline — it’s a lived reality. Omaha is the site of the Tri-Faith Initiative whose vision of a shared interfaith campus for the three Abrahamic faiths is nearing fruition.
Initiative partners Temple Israel,American Muslim Institute andCountryside Community Churchalready break bread together but will soon do so with all three worship spaces intact. The $20 million Temple synagogue was the first structure built on the campus in 2013. A new $6 million mosque opens there this month. The $26 million church starts construction in June.
Being physical neighbors will not only be symbolic but practical, as the partners’ current interfaith activities will be extended at the shared Tri-Faith Center to start construction in 2018. Building from the ground-up is allowing each group to have additional worship and education space and being in such close proximity affords ready access to each other.
This daring interfaith bridge has received worldwide attention. The endeavor began with a conversation between old friends. Temple Rabbi Emeritus Aryeh Azriel and leaders of Omaha’s Muslim community, including AMI founder Syed Mohiuddin, deepened an already active bond when, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, synagogue members stood watch over nearby mosques to prevent hate attacks.
“That’s where really the relationship forged as a meaningful relationship,” Azriel said.
The reform Temple congregation has a history of fellowship with various faith groups on social justice matters.
Sally ElattaFounder, Agile TransformationsI attended my first event at the Tri-Faith center for a potluck lunch where families from all three faiths got to share their food, stories and learn about each other. Being a Muslim, the event brought me tears. It was surreal to see something like that, to believe that unity and love could overtake hate, fear and judgment. The Tri-Faith Initiative is one of a kind and right here in Omaha. Attend an event if you can.
It participated in Jewish-Catholic, Jewish-Black dialogues. Synagogue members and Muslims already met, sometimes at each other’s respective services, but after 9/11’s stand of solidarity those interactions grew.
Azriel said the Tri-Faith is “mainly about relationships.”
Countryside pastor Rev. Eric Elnes said, “Relationships change things more than theology does.”
Azriel said the Tri-Faith goes beyond the superficial.
“What is needed is relationships. If you don’t visit each other’s home, if you’re not in relationship with people, the dialogue becomes completely nebulous and artificial after awhile.”
The project’s built on mutual respect, not merely tolerance.
“That is the change in paradigm,” Mohiuddin said.
A vision takes shape
When Temple decided it had outgrown its then-site, a discussion began about the three Abrahamic faiths doing more than occasional exchanges. Azriel, Mohiuddin and close Christian colleagues broached their intertwined traditions sharing the same campus as neighbors. Thus, the Tri-Faith launched in 2006.
In addition to Temple and AMI, the other partner then was the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska. Joint interfaith programs ensued. Support for engagement grew within each community via Dinner at Abraham’s Tent events and annual Tri-Faith picnics. It all prepared the ground for synagogue, mosque and church co-existing on contiguous plots of land. The vision called for each new worship-education centers to face the others and for the shared Tri-Faith Center in the commons space to serve as a communal gathering spot for programs, events, activities and, yes, breaking bread.
Temple and AMI voted to move forward with the bold idea. The small Episcopal diocese explored which of its churches could build anew on the campus.
The Tri-Faith moved a step closer to reality when the campus location was found at the site of the former Highland Country Club. The thirty-five acres purchased in 2011 are situated within the 150-acre mixed-use Sterling Ridge commercial development off of 132nd and Pacific Streets. The Tri-Faith is nestled in the southwest portion amidst a gently rolling landscape near what ironically used to be called Hell’s Creek.
Temple moved quickly with plans for its new synagogue. Funds were raised and the building opened in 2013. It marked a dynamic new chapter in Temple’s 150-year history and the first leg of the Tri-Faith experiment to have a brick-and-mortar presence at the interfaith site.
The AMI mosque and education center also completed fundraising in rapid fashion and broke ground in 2015.
The Episcopal Diocese ultimately decided it lacked the resources to participate. That’s when Countryside Community Church, a United Church of Christ member, stepped up as the Christian partner.
“Through our Center for Faith Studies we regularly brought speakers in from either faiths or on topics exploring the intersection between Christianity and other faiths,” Elnes said, “so interfaith association was a natural part of what Countryside was doing. We were identified by the Harvard Pluralism Project as a hot point for interfaith engagement.”
CCC voted to join the Tri-Faith Initiative in 2016. It’s raised most of the needed funds for the new church.
That leaves the $11 million Tri-Faith Center, whose fund-raising is well underway. It’s expected to break ground in a year and to open in 2019.
Monies for the four structures come almost entirely from the Omaha area. Members of all three faith groups have financially contributed to each other’s worship spaces.
“It again reaffirmed my belief that the three faiths are supportive of each other,” Mohiuddin said.
To read the entire story, visit–
https://www.morningsky.com/omaha/posts/omaha-usd52m-tri-faith-initiative-bridges-faiths-in-shared-campus-setting
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Meanwhile, a new North O is rising up, most visibly with the $88 million Highlander purpose-built village on North 30th Street and the $90 million Metropolitan Community College trio of buildings running along 30th from Sorenson Parkway to Fort Street. On the historic corner of 24th and Lake, a multi-million dollar renovation of the Blue Lion Center has made it the new home of the Union for Contemporary Art. The nearby North 24th Fair Deal Village Marketplace has added a restaurant and grocery store and given micro businesses an innovative home via corrugated shipping containers. At 26th and Lake, a century-old streetcar barn has been saved from demolition and will house a jobs-generating new owner.
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