As most of you are already aware, violent religious bigotry claimed an innocent life — and significantly damaged the lives of others — in Poway, California, down near San Diego, on Saturday, 27 April 2019. Poway is a community in which I had spent significant time just a couple of weeks before, as part of an effort (spearheaded by the Poway California Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) to further interreligious understanding and mutual appreciation.
More than once, when Steve Vaus, the mayor of Poway, California, has spoken with national and local news media about the tragic Saturday shooting at the Chabad synagogue in his city, he has said something to the effect of “Just a week or so ago we had an interfaith event in Poway where we talked about building bridges instead of barriers. We talked about finding common ground.”
He is referring to an interfaith panel discussion co-sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Poway Interfaith Team — and held in the Latter-day Saint stake center there, only minutes from the Chabad synagogue — titled “What the Tabernacle Means to Us.” The mayor himself attended and participated in that evening’s program. Featuring Brother Yusef Miller (Islamic Center of San Diego), Professor Daniel Peterson (Brigham Young University, representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), Monsignor Dennis Mikulanis (San Rafael Parish), Cantor Caitlin Bromberg (Spiritual Leader of Ner Tamid Synagogue), and, as moderator, Reverend Glen Larsen (Community Church of Poway), the panel was one of the special events held in connection with the two-week-long exhibition of a life-size replica of the Old Testament Tabernacle of Moses on the lawn adjacent to the Poway California stake center.
At the urging of Mayor Vaus, who considers that 11 April 2019 interfaith panel discussion far more representative of the Poway community than the evil committed by a religiously bigoted murderer, an audio recording of the program is now freely available on YouTube:
Interfaith Panel Discussion – “What the Tabernacle Means to Us”
It seems that no video recording of the interfaith panel was made, so the audio recording is accompanied on YouTube by various still photographs taken during the discussion and on the night of the event. The sound quality is pretty good, though. Certainly adequate, so far as I have listened.
Some of you might perhaps find it of interest. Altogether, it lasts about an hour and twelve minutes.
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