Exploring World Religions in Maine

The Center for Post-Holocaust Christian and Jewish Studies at the University of Southern Maine has received a grant that will support a series of discussions on the impact of the three major world religions interacting in Maine.

The center will use funding from a planning grant from the Maine Humanities Council’s New Century Community Program, a statewide cultural initiative, to create a series of symposium sessions on the topic, “The Children of Abraham Down East: The Impact of Islam on Jews, Christians and Community in Maine.” The symposium will be held during the spring of 2002 at USM and other local locations. Programming for the symposium will be planned during the fall, with participation in the planning by members from across the span of Maine’s religious communities, according to Abraham Peck, director of the USM center.

In addition to exploring questions about the beliefs that unite or separate Jews, Christians and Muslims, Peck said, it is hoped that a permanent interfaith trialogue among the faith communities will develop and serve as a model for Portland’s new multicultural and multireligious society.

“America and Maine are in a period of transition to a more pluralistic society,” Peck said. There are more Muslims in America than either Presbyterians, Episcopalians or Jews, he points out, and religions considered “foreign” can spark acts of bigotry. This is a good time, he said, to have a community discussion about the new American religions and how they are becoming integrated in American society. “The symposium is an opportunity to open discussion of the interaction of religions and democracy, the new church and state issues in America and Maine,” Peck said.

The symposium will include programming in USM’s Gloria S. Duclos Convocation for 2001-2002 on “Diaspora: Meanings of Home.”

The Center for Post-Holocaust Christian and Jewish Studies is a non-profit educational program at USM in cooperation with Bangor Theological Seminary. For more about the center and about the upcoming symposium, call Peck at USM at 780-4284.