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[sh'liach k'hilah] outreach (mostly)
On to outreach...
The instructor stressed that "outreach" really means two things to her -- ahavat ger, welcoming the stranger, and kiruv, drawing (everyone) near. Our goal should be to build welcoming communities in general, recognizing that we have a diverse community with different needs. She also scored points with me by saying we need to not neglect the knowledgable, committed Jews in the process, or assume that everyone is a family (with kids). Data point: the NJPS survey in 2000 found that only 20% of Jewish households consisted of two parents plus kids; we (she says, and I agree) under-serve 80% of our households. (She talked about some programs that the Reform movement encourages to aid in all this; we received literature. :-)
We also received some good checklists on the theme of "is your congregation user-friendly?". Some of the points are excessive in my opinion (e.g. they suggest that your yellow-pages ad include a map), but others are things we could definitely be doing better on.
During the conversion class we looked at two texts, Avram's covenant with God and Ruth's conversion to Judaism. I noticed two interesting things here. First, with Avram God is the priority; with Ruth it seems to be more about peoplehood, with God as a side-effect. Second, Avram is given some assurances by God; Ruth is making a leap of faith with no real basis for predicting the outcome. (Will she be accepted by these people?) At least Avram had an invitation. So I guess it makes sense that Ruth rather than Avram is the model for conversion, because most of us don't receive divine invitations to do anything these days, but Avram's story makes a better source in setting priorities IMO. Yeah, we're also a people, but I think God has to come first or what's the point? (I realize this view is controversial with some.)
I found the CCAR guide on conversion to be largely familiar, which isn't surprising. :-) (The guide post-dates my conversion but had clearly been in progress for some years. My rabbi didn't follow it, but he did a lot of the same things and surely had input into the guide.) The format is clever: they have the core guidelines in the center of the page, with commentary, alternatives, and suggestions for implementation around the outside. It sort of resembles a page of talmud, which can't have been an accident.
According to the guide there are six questions a would-be convert has to answer affirmatively before being accepted. (This is a necessary, not sufficient, condition.) My rabbi used those same six but added a single word to one of them when I had to answer them; he added the word "exclusively" to "if you should be blessed with children, do you promise to raise them as Jews?". I approve of his addition. While I'm all for being as welcoming as we can to interfaith families, I have seen too much evidence that a child raised with two religions ends up with zero, and if you aren't ready to raise your hypothetical children as Jews, perhaps you need to rethink whether you'll be able to keep Judaism alive in your home in other ways.
I note in passing that the CCAR resolution on patrilineal descent -- which doesn't quite say what many people think it does -- also requires an exclusive religion for the child. I wonder how widely this one is enforced; the class on education and curriculum brought up the problems of dealing with kids who alternate between your Sunday school and the church's, or who celebrate both Christmas and Chanukah. Of course, sometimes doctrine and poltiics are at odds with each other.
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It's that recent? I hadn't realized.
Once upon a time I went to a "re-creation" mass -- that is, a local Episcopalian priest (who was friendly with the SCA) agreed to perform a 14th-century vespers service (more specifics forgotten) in as historically-accurate a way as he could, as an educational exercise. The two things that struck me were the chant (I knew about chant academically but had not heard it in all its proper context) and his physical placement. He had his back to us the entire time, facing the altar; I initially thought that it was impresonal and elevating the priest in status, which may well be true, but he pointed out that this was also enpowering for the congregation, and having thought about it more now, I can see that. Obviously it was weird for us modern folks, but it wouldn't have been weird in context.
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I hadn't thought about the self-consciousness that can result as you mentioned. I mean, I have felt self-conscious when I've had to be in the sanctuary but I figured that we just because I don't do it often.
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Something similar happens in Jewish prayer. There are places during the service where everyone faces the ark, including the people on the bima. It is not (now) customary to conduct the entire service that way, though, at lease from what I've seen. I don't know if it ever was.
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It depends on where you are. In the O/C/R/R spectrum, I think it's fairly common for the leader to be facing the ark during Shacharit/Musaf in Orthodox shuls.[1] In C shuls, there's more of a mix. The more "traditional" C shuls tend to have the leader facing the ark the whole service, but probably more shuls have the leaders mostly facing the congregation. As far as Reform and Recon go, my experience matches yours (and you have more experience with Reform than I). Another interesting thing is the Sephardic custom of having the leader facing the ark, but leading from the middle of the room, with the seats in a U around him (with the ark in the east). [2] (The top of the U is east).
[1]I don't have tons of experience in O shuls, but every one that I've been to does this.
[2] The sephardic shuls I've been to have not been egalatarian.
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The priest who did the re-creation has since left Pittsburgh. Unfortunate for us; he's a neat person.
Isn't there a church (possibly schismatic?) in Pittsburgh that still does the Latin mass? I don't know if they are otherwise pre-Vatican-II, but if you're curious about that you might want to visit them once and observe, assuming that going to one of their services for educational purposes would not pose a problem for you. (I can see not wanting to participate, but you could still watch.)
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