New prayer service draws diversity of faiths

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Friday, May 7, 2004.
By NORMAN SHOAF
Valley Press Religion Editor

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PALMDALE - "I prayed for you." Antelope Valley College President Jackie Fisher said that message is the most meaningful he has received, and he has received it from multiple people in a life full of challenges and chances.
Fisher was the keynote speaker at the Antelope Valley Interfaith Council's Mayors' Interfaith Prayer Service, which drew about 100 attendees Thursday evening at Poncitlan Square.

The Interfaith Council organized the prayer service after its members felt unwelcome in years past at prayer breakfasts in Palmdale and Lancaster.

Fisher, who lost both his parents and found himself homeless at a young age, detailed the powerful part prayer has played in his life, from his youth working in the agricultural fields around Bakersfield through becoming a star athlete in college, forging a successful career in firefighting, earning his Ph.D. in educational management and taking the reins of Antelope Valley College last fall.

As he wrung success from every challenge - "You work for things - you don't wait for things to come to you," he said - Fisher said the prayers of loving people had been vital at every step.

"I pray we'll all continue to work together" in the Antelope Valley, Fisher said, and he invited the Interfaith Council to again use AVC facilities as they have in the past.

The prayer service was a mosaic of diversity, including Buddhist chants, Hebrew blessings, Muslim scriptures, Bahai poetry, Orthodox Catholic entreaties to God and invoking of Wiccan gods and goddesses.

Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford was on hand to present a proclamation of the National Day of Prayer from his city; Mayor Frank Roberts followed suit from the city of Lancaster.

Ledford spoke of the value of the right of every American to follow one's conscience and worship as one chooses. The freedom to pray - a right some have died for - is one of America's chief blessings, Ledford said.

Ledford congratulated the Interfaith Council for "giving all faiths an opportunity to come together and pray … that's what community is all about."

Roberts called the prayer service "the start of something great." Noting that the purpose of the National Day of Prayer is to unite all Americans, Roberts praised the Interfaith Council for encouraging "diversity and commonality" and promoting "inclusive prayer."

"It's very important for the National Day of Prayer that it be inclusive," Roberts said.

Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Norm Hickling, deputy to Los Angeles County 5th District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, told attendees, "If you look at the flag, it's different colors and different shapes, but they all come together, just as we've all come together."

Interfaith Council President Don Welsh, minister at Lancaster's Center of Light, introduced council members who shared prayers and messages based in their faith traditions: Nichiren Buddhist Michele Chavez; Al Johnson of Unity Church of the Antelope Valley; Chaplain Abdul Wahab Omeira of the Islamic Center of North Valley; Elder Priestess Lisa Morgenstern of the First Pantheistic Center of the Antelope Valley; Christian Scientist Valerie Elliott; Deborah Shelton of Lancaster United Methodist Church; Rabbi Rick Schecter of Congregation Beth Knesset Bamidbar; Bahai Simone Zulu; Archbishop Bernard Price of the Mar Thomas Orthodox Catholic Church; and Reverend Maxine Schiltz of Revealing Truth Center.

Omeira commented that Islam's holy book, the Quran, tells us God made us to know each other, not despise each other. If God had wanted us all to be the same, he would have made us the same. But he desired our differences, Omeira said, so that we could come to know him in different ways."

"Thank God," Shelton said, "for making us diverse and giving us more than one road to him."

The spirit of the ecumenical gathering was perhaps best expressed by a bumper sticker spotted in the crowd. Decorated with the symbols of multiple faiths, it read: "My God loves your God. Don't let anything get in the way of love."

nshoaf@avpress.com