Prophetic Witness Today
Several residents and staff of Project HOME spent much of last weekend participating in a remarkable gathering in Philadelphia. It was the “Heschel King Festival” – over 400 persons attended the two-day festival, which featured speakers, panels, music and poetry, all exploring the friendship, public witness, and legacy of two important American religious activists, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Project HOME was one of over fifty community groups that co-sponsored the event. Our Executive Director, Sister Mary Scullion, co-authored an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, drawing attention to why these two figures are important to our day. Long-time staff member Will O’Brien participated in a panel discussion on “Spiritual Politics in an Age of Global Materialism, Selfishness & Corporate Tyranny.”
Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel worked together in the 1960’s on behalf of racial equality, economic justice, and peace. Rabbi Heschel marched alongside Dr. King in Selma, Alabama, demanding voting rights for African Americans. King supported Heschel, who was one of the first religious leaders in the U.S. to speak out against the escalating war in Viet Nam. Their partnership was known to their co-workers, but was not well known to of the public outside of the movements they inspired.
“It was a tremendous event, very moving and very inspiring,” said Louis Thompson, a resident of our St. Elizabeth’s Residence who is active in Project HOME’s advocacy efforts. "It triggered a lot of good ideas in me and in other people.”One of the keynote speakers was Dr. Vincent Harding, civil rights historian who was a friend and close associate of Dr. King. (Dr. Harding visited Project HOME in 2006 and gave a presentation.) In addressing the question of what Dr. King would have us do today, Dr. Harding shared a core commitment of King, which was his choice to “identify with the poor.” He was clear that King would likewise call us today to “stand with the poor, the broken, the powerless, the victims of oppression.” Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine, who studied with Rabbi Heschel, was another speaker. He urged the gathering to “Go for your highest vision of the good.”
Karen Orrick was one of several staff members who attended the festival. She reflected: "For me it was helpful to be around a group of people who were calling for a bigger world, a more connected humanity, where no one gets shut out. The Heschel- King festival brought together many people envisioning a society where caring, kindness, and responding to one another and all life forms as embodiments of the sacred was central. It was also clear that many people saw our different justice movements as deeply interconnected. The struggle for immigrant rights and low wage workers as the future of our democracy was noted, as was environmental justice and sustainability along with ending hyper incarceration and the prison-industrial complex."
