Six months of religious visits: part 1

One of my general goals this year is to cultivate spirituality and restorative time for myself. I work at a Catholic college, and many of my coworkers get a lot of of their religious practice. I haven't gone to church much since becoming disinterested in the Methodist church where I grew up, but I thought I could stand to learn about other religions to show me things I like, things I don't like, things I respect, and things I didn't know.

To do this, I decided to visit a different religious sect and practice every month. I have learned tons of stuff so far!

January - Judaism

I started out with this one because it's one of the more familiar ones to me; I know a lot of Jewish people, it's still a Big Three religion, and I have been to a Jewish wedding. I chose a local Reform temple to visit.

The people were amazingly welcoming. I had seen that there were treats and fellowship after the Friday night Shabbat service, so I showed up with pumpkin muffins and was treated royally. A couple took me under their wing and showed me around, explaining the different practices.

I really felt joy in the Shabbat service; I tried to sing along, but I don't know the Hebrew words (there was a hymnal, but I don't know the first thing about pronunciation). The rabbi's sermon was about the federal shut-down, which really spoke to me because of course my husband is a federal employee and has been affected by previous shut-downs. 

I felt very welcome at this temple and felt very light and happy leaving it!

February - Unitarian Universalism

I chose this one for February because the church is right by me and they had a Valentine's Day chocolate-themed pot luck after service one day. I brought cayenne truffles and was again very welcomed.

Unitarian Universalism is probably fairly close to my own beliefs, which is that a lot of things are unknowable, so let's focus on science and love as a way to interpret the world and our relationship to human beings. The people were nice, but it was a little...quiet. I didn't feel the joy that I had felt from the congregation in the Jewish service.

I did discover, however, that the congregation has a Buddhist study group, which I actually began attending. I also told them I'd play flute in a service, but so far they haven't taken me up on it.

March - Sikhism

This one was really cool, and I wish I had pictures. This was the first really unfamiliar religion I had visited, and I learned a lot. A member of the congregation met with me and Dave and showed us around. 

I noticed two big things. Number one, their devotion to their holy book, which is considered to be their quasi-living guru, is fascinating. It is prayed over and recited, and it even has a bed to sleep in at night. The sanctuary part of the church was full of people meditating and praying, listening to the chants. 

The second thing is really awesome - they believe in service to the needy, so much so that they pretty much cook in the kitchen on site all the time to prepare meals for anyone who wants to come. Hospitality is a big tenet. I thought this was a very Midwestern U.S. value that I totally get. I'd love to come hang out with all the Punjabi grandmas and cook some Friday night.

The trustee who showed us around was also very open about the religion and didn't take it too seriously. For a lot of Punjabi people (and most Sikhs are originally from the Punjab region, which is divided between current day Pakistan and India), the religion and the culture are synonymous.

April - Eastern Orthodoxy

I chose to visit a local Russian orthodox temple this month because it was Easter. I was going to actually be in town on orthodox Easter, which is a week after "regular" Easter, but I was able to attend on their Palm Sunday (which is our "regular" Easter). 

I had attended a Greek orthodox wedding and was familiar with the idea in orthodoxy that the service is primarily chanting and singing, not so much a sermon. It was in English, although my friend from law school attends a Russian language one nearby whose winter carnival I have attended. Mmm pelmeni and caviar. 

I didn't stick around too long for this one; I just dropped in rather than having a sort of tour with a local. Still, it was interesting and I got some blessed bread! Nice Easter activity.

May - Islam

This month was Ramadan, so I selected to visit an Islamic worship. There is a local masjid that serves primarily Indian Muslims, and I visited on a random week night prayer near the end of Ramadan.

The women and the men were separated, and I noticed most of the children hung around the mothers. Everyone sat on the floor to eat and break their fast, similar to the floor-sitting that the Sikhs did to eat their Friday night meal together. The prayer was really interesting to watch; I had never seen one before. Also, the saris and hijabs were fabulous.

They obviously could see I was not a "local" and showed me around. They also invited me to the Eid prayer, which could have been on one of two mornings, depending on when the full moon was seen. I actually track moon cycles on my phone calendar now because I am trying out some Buddhist practices, so I was able to tell them that they wouldn't see the moon on the first night because it was full! I was happy to help out.

The prayer was massive and was held at a local hotel. This is apparently the only time I snapped a photo on a religious visit this year.

Eid prayer in Rolling Meadows

It was a totally new experience for me. I had some coworkers at Northwestern who were Muslim and who fasted for Ramadan, but one of them is Bosnian and she doesn't go to mosque much, so I couldn't tag along with her.

Their community outreach chair also found out that I am a trustee at the Palatine Library and she got really excited. I told her that they should reach out to staff to schedule an interfaith event like we did with the Sikh gurdwara last year.

June - Jainism

I chose this one this month because I attended the wedding of a friend of mine who was raised Jain - he said the Jains don't really have a marriage ceremony, so they adopt the Hindu one, so that's what I saw. So I found myself wanting to see what a real Jain event is like.

This may be a little silly, but I didn't really think there would be any Jain organized worship near me. That was silly, because Jains mostly come from India and I live near a huge Indian community. As I looked this up, I realized that the local Jain society's 26th anniversary of their temple was being celebrated the following weekend, so I decided to come to some events.

The temple had some worship events all day, which my contact at the temple said would be in a language I don't understand, so I could pop in, but it wouldn't really be worth sitting there very long. He recommended I attend a talk on veganism, which would be held in English in one of the classrooms. I showed up and some very welcoming people helped me find it; I even sat next to some teenagers who also knit!

I knew that the Jain religion is very serious about preventing harm (ahimsa) to other sentient beings, and the talk was about the harm that the dairy industry does to animals, the environment, and our health. (No one addressed eating meat, because most Jainists are at least vegetarian.) There was a lot of spirited debate, and an adorable little Indian grandma told everyone she could bring them some of her vegan yogurt culture tomorrow if they wanted.

The talk gave a lot more insight into Jainism than I expected, as one speaker grounded his veganism specifically in his Jainist beliefs, emphasizing that Jainism is a religion of reason, and if the dairy industry harms animals, the environment, and our health, then we should reason not to consume dairy. I might even consume less myself! Don't know if I could ever go totally vegan, but I have begun committing more to my Buddhist practice, which emphasizes a lot of the same ideas of non-harm, and of course my arteries could use a break from all the saturated fat.

What's next

My rough plan for the second half of the year is as follows:

• Mormonism (July)
• Hinduism (October)
• Baha'i
• Zoroastrian
• Buddhist 
• Quaker

I tried contacting the Satanists, but they don't accept visitors. 

This has been a really positive experience for me so far, and I look forward to continuing.