Newtown Interfaith Council conducted its latest meeting June 2 with members convening at Sticks & Stones Farm. Bill Donaldson, founder and president of Love Has A Home Here, hosted the meeting at the organization’s Huntingtown Road base.

Local faith leaders and representatives continued discussion of a mission statement. The topic had been opened during the group’s previous meeting, on May 5.

Ways of addressing topics that are divisive, an interfaith vigil hosted by Trinity Church two nights after the country’s most recent mass casualty school shooting, and the challenge of being a truly interfaith group were also on the agenda.

Joining Donaldson on June 2 was Eman Beshtawii, of Al Hedaya Islamic Center; Wesley Johnson, The Gathering Community Church; Pastor Lori Miller, Newtown United Methodist Church; Pastor Rob Morris, Christ the King Lutheran Church; John Woodall, Baha’i Faith; and Reverend Andrea Kestner Wyatt, Trinity Episcopal Church.

Reverend Matt Crebbin, pastor of Newtown Congregational Church, participated via Zoom link.

A Unique Space

Woodall introduced a concept he called “the space that is uniquely available to us, not the physical space only but what Newtown Interfaith Council occupies in town.”

Woodall feels the council is “really the only gathering of diverse membership that can speak to the principle of what it means to be engaged in any of the conversations going on in town,” he said. “We’re kind of the holders of principled discussion. In that context, it reminded me of a principle in the field of conflict resolution. Step one is to separate a position from the principle that motivates the position.”

Woodall said “a great example” of this is “what you’re seeing in the gun debate.

“We’re for sensible gun laws, but they think it means ‘You’re going to take all our guns away,’” he said. “The principle is everyone wants safety, but then we argue over positions. We fail to see that there are elements of principles that are motivating all of us, that we share. So the opportunity is lost to explore other positions that maybe we had never thought of.

“I think in the country, that’s what’s happening: rigid stances that are preventing principled dialogue,” he said.

The ensuing conversation covered previous attempts by the council to host programs that would invite open conversation on topics. Woodall wondered if the council could “facilitate a discussion about discussions — how to have a principled discussion,” he explained. “Then those skills could be used in any conversation.

“There are certain principles that we are holding up,” he continued, “and those principles imply certain elevated ways that we should be relating to each other.”

Johnson noted that he, working as the Board of Education Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Coordinator, is part of the group working with C.H. Booth Library on a Community Conversations series on race. The second in that series, he mentioned, did include local leaders of faith.

Johnson said he feels a tension “with holding this unique space that becomes a bridge to a safe and a brave space for diverse aspects of our community.”

“I think if we are going to be the holder of that collective body, then there are messy conversations and spaces that we will enter,” he said. “How do we stay above the fray of politics, but not be afraid to enter into messy spaces?”

Crebbin said that even the phrase “‘open conversation,’ in the current political climate, can be seen as ‘closing conversation.’”

Some people will recoil at the introduction of a topic, he said. They will close down and not go near some topics, he said. He pointed out that prior to 12/14, the council was facing similar challenges.

“We were sitting down and just saying ‘Can we talk? We are such a divided nation,’” he said. “It’s not a new construct for us to be wrestling with this idea of open discussions on difficult topics.”

Morris said that while he agreed with some of what was being said that afternoon, he also feels “there are a lot of people who are very wary of such types of events.

“My take on this is, that they feel ‘Yes, it’s being framed as a discussion, but I really feel like it’s just being set up as a presentation of “this is what all right thinking people should think.”’ And that’s going to be a turnoff to anybody.”

Uvalde Vigil

Wyatt has received mixed response to the May 26 vigil at Trinity Church, which was done in concert with Newtown Action Alliance (NAA), an organization founded after 12/14 with a mission to reduce gun violence “through legislative and cultural changes,” according to its website.

Johnson complimented Wyatt, who he called “a respected religious leader in our community,” for creating “a phenomenal expression of unity in our community.”

He further applauded her for taking the step of including NAA, regardless “of what this political organization is, or what people perceive it to be, or who they think it is.

Woodall said there was confusion by some in the public in that the vigil was said to be hosted by Newtown Interfaith Council, but not all members of the council were part of the planning discussion.

By including NAA, said Woodall, who also helped plan the vigil, “there are some people who will interpret that event as a stake in the sand. That’s not necessarily what we intended, but that’s what they will interpret.”

Following the vigil, attendees were invited to walk quietly from the Main Street church to the headquarters of The National Shooting Sports Foundation. Of that, Woodall said the council must do better with its symbolism.

“We gotta be really clear publicly, everybody’s gotta be completely clear in their mind what we stand for, what our principles are, so when we do a symbolic gesture, everybody gets the same symbol,” he said.

The walk from the church to the national headquarters of a firearms trade organization, he said, “was not seen by a lot of the town as a peaceful, benign gesture. It was seen as a hostile act.

“No one in that march felt hostile, but it was interpreted that way.”

Wyatt told those in the room that she went on instinct in planning the vigil with NAA.

“I went on instinct as a mother, as a bereaved mother, and as somebody who has been burying people for 25 years,” she said. “We needed to create space for the massive grief that we were having — continue to have, but especially what we were having last week — so my primary instinct was hospitality.”

She apologized, she said, if her actions were seen as moving too fast, without the rest of the council.

“But I do believe the town needed someone to open their living room,” she said. “That’s really all I was doing. I was not creating a political moment, and I was not making a political statement.

“I was simply trying to offer hospitality,” she added, her voice breaking. “I think people needed it. I heard a lot of stories from a lot of people in town who were touched by that, and needed somewhere to go. I don’t know if there were other public spaces that opened up.”

Wyatt said that by opening interfaith space, “and partnering by inviting a different community group to speak, maybe that creates a space that is unaffiliated. There’s so many people who don’t do religion any more, and so if you create a space for those people to come, and feel safe to grieve, that’s my motivation.”

Donaldson said the idea of finding peace is his motivation behind Love Has A Home, which hosts interfaith/interspiritual services for those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious.

“Anybody can be comfortable here,” he said.

Miller agreed with Wyatt, saying, “grief was prevalent last week. I think anger was also prevalent. What I’ve heard people say — and we tend to say this after every shooting, even though things don’t really shift — is that this one felt different this time. Folks in my church said that, and I had colleagues in the Methodist world ask about that.

“I know I went last week grieving, and very angry, and I very much appreciated the space,” Miller told Wyatt.

Turning toward Wyatt, Johnson told her, “What you did was brave, and bold, and prophetic.”

Crebbin also offered support, telling Wyatt that “there is no perfect event. Inherent criticism will come. It is important to lead with your heart on a sense of what is right.

“We’ve been criticized and we’ve been applauded for what we’ve done and what we haven’t done,” he added.

The Interfaith Challenge

The meeting also included talk about the difficulty of the group to be truly interfaith. Woodall noted there are a lot of ministers that will not attend council meetings or events if he is there.

“They don’t want to be in a room with the Baha’i, or a Muslim, and Jews is stretching it for some,” he said. “I don’t want to exclude them. I’m not offended by them. I want to have a door open for them.

“And that opens another conversation: How do we get those ministers back, the ones that won’t come? What would be the context in which they would feel comfortable?”

Crebbin agreed, saying in his experience, he too has found some who will not have anything to do with some faiths. The council — which only adapted the formal name Newtown Interfaith Council in recent years — has been around in various forms, he said, for a few decades.

“The group started in large part to build relationships,” Crebbin said.

“Years ago,” he said, “it was very casual. Very often, ministers and pastors were just meeting over coffee.”

Morris said the hardest challenge for a truly interfaith council would be to determine when it is time to stop discussing where each member stands, and when it is time to take a stand.

“What’s the mechanism for determining where that standing place is?” he asked.

Wyatt said she sees challenges for the group after months of not having a regular meeting time or place.

“That’s big,” she said. “I’m getting a lot of people asking, ‘Where is the interfaith council? What are you guys doing?’”

Miller said one of the inherent issues of being in the interfaith group is that “we are members of the body, but we are also very strongly people that represent a faith tradition.”

It is important to clarify, she said, when someone is speaking for themselves and when they are speaking for their congregation, or even their faith.

Those present agreed to continue working toward a mission statement.

Johnson suggested formally blocking out some time, “and just work that out.” Those in attendance agreed to have a facilitated conversation with a third party, someone who could offer objective input.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.