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Wednesday, October 24, 2007
World Pilgrims of Atlanta: Starting out
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A group of 23 religiously mixed pilgrims from metro Atlanta — Christians, Jews and Muslims — head off Sunday night on a trip of a lifetime. They’re going to Jordan, and some will be going on to Israel, but it’s the traveling arrangements that make this an unusual trip to the Holy Land.
The sponsoring organization, World Pilgrims of Atlanta, is throwing the Georgians of different religions together and getting them outside their comfort zone. The pilgrims live together, changing roommates and meal partners every few days. They follow each other to mosques, churches, synagogues and holy sites of the three faiths. And they discuss their religious traditions while traveling in places where faith is often a flash point for violence.
The trips began as a way to inspire understanding among Jews, Muslims and Christians in Atlanta after the 9/11 attacks, said Jan Swanson, the program director of World Pilgrims, in an AJC story by Christopher Quinn.
Before the World Trade Center attack, she was working for the Christian Council, an Atlanta ecumenical group. While there, she used to get a few calls a year from churches asking her to find a speaker from another faith. “After 9-11, I started getting about 40 calls a month,” she said. People were looking for answers, for understanding.
“If we want to create a world where there is peace, we have to understand each other and have to be able to step with ease from one matrix to another. We have to be able to relate to people who are different from us without judgment and enmity,” said Tayyibah Taylor, one of the pilgrims
As part of the trip, three pilgrims - a Muslim, a Jew and a Christian - have been invited to send in reports from the road to this blog. Our three intrepid (and fledgling) bloggers will be:
Tayyibah Taylor, who lives in the North Druid Hills area and is editor of Azizah, a national magazine for Muslim women.
Rev. Jill Ulrici, pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Buckhead and a PhD candidate at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur.
Audrey Galex, a member of Bet Haverim synagogue, director of volunteer services for the William Bremen Jewish Home, and an Atlanta mother of three.
We don’t know yet what they will find. It’s an experiment for everyone involved. Call it a leap of blogging faith. Come back regularly for reports from our pilgrims about where they are what they are doing.
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