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Confluence
… “the flowing together of two or more streams or rivers.”
You can still see the convergence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary rivers forming the Maumee from the St. Joe Boulevard Bridge where General Anthony Wayne built the first fort in the area, which eventually became a trading post for settlers from Europe.
Often called the “City of Churches,” Fort Wayne is home to Christians from a number of denominations – Baptist, Episcopalian, Congregational, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Missionary, Methodist, Assembly of God, Orthodox, Evangelical and a host of independent churches. These churches, and their members, have provided a deep and strong foundation for our community.
Confluence
… “a coming together, a meeting or gathering at one point.”
And increasingly, non-Christians, too, make up the rich tapestry of Fort Wayne and Allen County.
Temple Achduth Vesholom has its roots in Fort Wayne since 1848, the oldest Jewish congregation in Indiana and second oldest Reform congregation west of the Alleghenies. Over a thousand Jews live in our city and celebrate Shabbat there as well as at Congregation B’nai Jacob.
Fort Wayne Muslims, also numbering more than a thousand, gather on Fridays at noon at two masjids for Jumu’ah prayer and five times daily for prayer. They have begun a monthly newspaper, the Fort Wayne Islamic News, and have bought 10 acres in town where they plan to build a school as well as a community center. On a weekly basis, they teach more than 200 students, ages K-12, in Sunday school.
Hindus gather at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall in front of an altar built by Indian craftsman, and they’ve recently bought property on Yellow River Road on which to build a temple and holistic health center. About 250 Hindu families live in the area.
Fort Wayne Sikhs meet in two separate gurudwaras, studying the teachings of Guru Nanak and his successors, especially revealed in the Guru Granth Sahib.
With the influx of immigrants from southeast Asia, who now number more than 5,000, the number of Buddhist monasteries and shrines has risen, with seven temples opening in the last nine years. That includes one for Laotians, two for Burmese and two for Mon, a Burmese ethnic group, and a Sri Lankan group. Also, a couple of small groups meet periodically for Zen meditation.
A small but very active group of Fort Wayne Baha’i’s commemorate the underlying unity of religion, unity of humanity, and unity of the word brought by various messengers, as taught by and fulfilled in Baha’u’llah.
Ethical Humanists, agnostics and others gather at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House to celebrate the creativity of the human spirit and the moral life. Fort Wayne Unitarians traditionally have been very involved in philanthropic, arts and ecological initiatives in the community.
A number of Wiccans and Earth Spirit people individually and in small groups praise Mother Earth and her gifts, observing equinoxes, solstices and nature’s subtle rhythms. Sophia’s Portico is one of the centers of these celebrations, open to people of all faiths.
Native American culture and people remain a ubiquitous presence, reminding us of the history of our region.
“Melting pot” is no longer the image that best represents who we are. “Tapestry” or “symphony” works better – a tapestry is made richer by the variety of its colored threads, and as each instrument plays its proper role, the symphony makes beautiful music.
The same is true for the members of religions in our community who come together as one while still maintaining the culture, rituals and traditions that make them unique and beautiful. In this way, we as an America, and we as a Fort Wayne community, become all the richer, more than the sum of our parts. E pluribus unum – out of the many, one.
Confluence
… the Northeast Indiana Interfaith Alliance. Leaders from the above nine traditions and others in Fort Wayne and Allen County have been meeting to celebrate this rich diversity: to better understand each other; to support each other; and to find areas of cooperation (food, housing and other initiatives that would benefit the community as a whole).
Members from each of the religions and other supporters will meet at the Courthouse Green on Aug. 29. We will move to Headwaters Park, where we will dedicate Fort Wayne as “The City of Faiths” during a Unity Walk from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
Confluence. What better way to celebrate the rich tapestry that we in Fort Wayne have become and are yet becoming? We are Confluence, “the place of coming together,” where we can become one community while still remaining who we are spiritually in our uniqueness.
