Roman Catholic Diocese Omaha Ne

A church, a shul and a mosque try a faithful experiment

(Forward) -- Deep in America’s heartland, a Reform synagogue, a nondenominational mosque and an Episcopalian church are all putting down roots on a 37-acre tract of land that once belonged to a Jewish country club. A body of water called Hell Creek runs through the development, over which the faith groups plan to build “Heaven’s Bridge.” “The only other place where such a thing exists is Jerusalem,” said Dr. Syed Mohiuddin, chairman of the Creighton University School of Medicine. Mohiuddin’s organization, the American Institute of Islamic Studies and Culture, is building a mosque on the campus. “Jerusalem is so important to these three faiths. We are sort of reproducing that model.” If the experiment works, the city of Omaha — with a metropolitan-area population of about 900,000, including 5,500 Jews, 6,000 Muslims and 4,500 Episcopalians — will become a beacon of cooperation in a world of interreligious strife. But before that can happen, the three groups still need to navigate fears, stereotypes and bureaucratic hang-ups. The story of the Tri-Faith Initiative began with a simple quest for a parking lot. Temple Israel, the largest synagogue in Omaha, is located in the city’s congested downtown district. On the High Holidays, the Reform congregation borrows parking space from its two neighbors, the Omaha Community Playhouse and the First United Methodist Church. When Temple Israel’s leaders decided to relocate the congregation to West Omaha, where many of the synagogue’s members now live, they reached out to Mohiuddin, who was planning a nondenominational mosque in the same neighborhood. After an unsuccessful bid to the Catholic Church in Omaha, the synagogue and mosque found a willing third partner in the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska.

Visit to Oakland's new Cathedral of Christ the Light ... - Omaha College

Visit to Oakland’s new Cathedral of Christ the Light by PeterMenkin

The Great Continental Divide in the Western States in America defines waterrunning east or west. Not just a geologic formation in its younger age 100million years ago, this awesome and continent defining set of snow-cappedmountains offers the barrier of imagination through which migrating Americanstraveled to come to what are now States like California (38 millionresidents).     

Like a book of facts, the majestic formations that characterized this areaof the world are spiced even by its denizens, its citizens, its friends as apart of the Pacific Rim. In these words, seemingly encyclopedic in theirarrangement and tone, turn to the more man made, the humble, the unusual in theWild West where in a City named Oakland, situated on San Francisco Bay andsharing with its more romantic and celebrated sister San Francisco therecognition that the construction of a modern Roman Catholic Cathedral capturesthe visual and religious sensibilities of the diverse worshipers of what theseresidents, mere humans with a lifetime so short, have built to their God withskill and style and up-to-date techniques for its 600 thousand or more Diocesanmembers use. A holy place, a Benedictine Monk told this writer, a place ofworship, and a House of God this Cathedral of Christ the Light as it is calledwas a work of devotion and love.    

The Cathedral’s altar contains relics, inserted and sealed in the stone. Theholy persons represented are Andrew, apostle; Thomas, apostle; Stephen, deaconand first Christian martyr; Sixtus II, pope from 257 to 258 and martyr;Perpetua, a young wife and new mother martyred in North Africa in 203; Cecilia,Roman martyr of the third century; early Christian martyrs Restituta andSpeusippus; Francis of Assisi, founder of the Order of Friars Minor, theFranciscans (1181-1226); Colette of Corbie, Poor Clare who established manyreformed monasteries (1381-1447); Francis de Sales, bishop and spiritual writer(1567-1622); Junipero Serra, Franciscan President of the California missions(1713-1784); John Vianney, parish priest (1786-1859); Pius X, pope who allowedchildren to receive Holy Communion (1835-1914). Two additional, unusualcontents of the reliquary are soil from Auschwitz, commemorating the victims ofthe Holocaust (especially Saints Maximillian Kolbe and Teresa Benedicta [Edith]Stein) and a rock from Calvary.

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