Driving through Williamsburg, residents will see an assortment of churches, synagogues, and mosques.
But now, thanks to a new religious organization in the area those faiths have a place to come together and learn about each other.
“It’s all clearly connected with this heartbeat of the community,” said Meghan Roth Clayton an associate pastor with Williamsburg United Methodist Church. “People are really feeling compelled to connect with each other.”
Roth Clayton is just one of the 12 religious leaders from the Historic Area Religions Together group that announced its formation in August 2017 and had their first official meeting the following April. The group is comprised of members and leaders from various congregations across the area with the goal of connecting and learning about each other.
Rabbi David Katz, of Temple Beth El in Williamsburg, said the concept had been in the works between him and Daniel Willson, a pastor of Williamsburg Baptist Church, since Katz first came to the area nine years ago. It was formed because there was no interfaith council in Williamsburg. But the organization truly came to fruition after the events in Charlottesville in 2017.
“One of the basic principles upon why we’re doing this is that in this society that has become very polarized to blame those whom you don’t know, those who have different practices and believes,” Katz said.
The group also had a vigil in October 2018 to remember those killed during the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue is Pittsburgh.
Lisa Green, pastor at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, said the vigil had about 500 participants from all different faiths and it really showed leaders there is a desire to come together.
Since then, the group has had various different events to promote inclusion, awareness and community spirit.
“I think we’re encouraged in our group to share our uniquenesses and our ties to certain communities,” Green said. “At the same time we share the common bond of wanting to serve the larger Williamsburg community so I think there’s an uplifting of each other that’s unique.”
One of the most memorable events was the group’s Thanksgiving dinner last year. During the service, the group took different aspects of each religion, such as lighting a chalice from the Unitarian Universalism faith, to celebrate what makes all of them different and unique.
“Just the joy that people took in being together and it’s multi-faith environment…just being able to experience that as a community, I think it really showed a strong spirit,” Roth Clayton said.
The group leaders meet at least once a month to share their practices and religions with each other.
But most importantly, they share their humanity.
“It’s not like people are trying to make me feel weird because I don’t believe in Jesus,” Katz said. “I mean, I’m like anyone else. I have a cute dog and a mortgage and I have faith. These are things we can share.”
In the past year of working together, Katz said the group has become close friends even attending baptisms for each other and other forms of faith support.
As the organization moves forward, the leaders want to continue to plan more events that teach others about different faiths and why it matters to connect. This means hosting more Thanksgiving dinners, various celebrations and continuing to meet once a month to learn how to best connect with each other and the variety of congregations.
“That’s the basic principle of this,” Katz said. “We’re in a place where the scale of Williamsburg really works for us and there are a lot of folks who are very connected to their religious communities. But I also feel like there’s something in the nature of Williamsburg where people can end up divided…and so it’s our goal to bring together folks from all different kinds of communities.”
