May 17, 2011
By Ashley Charlton

Following the success of a recent interfaith youth peace summit in Tennessee, event planners and participants are turning their attention toward their next faith exploration in Alabama.

"We are headed to Alabama for our summer outreach mission with a group of committed teenagers who believe that they can make a difference and change the world," said long-time youth minister Betty Carpenter.

Carpenter was director of the April summit, a 2-day event that brought together 75 high school and college students – among them Christians, Jews and Muslims – to explore a greater understanding of their shared Abrahamic faiths.

"The Youth Peace Summit provides a forum for discovery of the things which bring us together," said Carpenter. "In joining our faiths under this common cause, we empower youth to change the things that keep us apart and a forum to learn what can bring us together."

The attendees' first activity at the Dubose Conference Center, located on the Cumberland Plateau in Monteagle, Tennessee, was a casual panel discussion led by college students from Vanderbilt University, Middle Tennessee State University, and Sewanee: The University of the South. Each discussion leader talked about how their particular faith and beliefs had impacted their lives.

"It's interfaith activities like this that help us understand each other," said Sufia Yosuf, a Muslim college student attending the summit.

Afterwards, Muslim participants watched their Christian peers conduct Compline, an evening prayer service, with the Christian youth later observing the Islamic worship traditions.

"Even among our differences, the weekend was filled with the presence of God," said Keith McFarland, a high school-aged Christian.

The summit continued with small group activities and a question-and-answer session, a time of open and honest sharing interjected with lots of laughter. Most of the participants come from urban centers so a hike along the Sewanee Domain perimeter trail – with its waterfalls, overlooks and a cave – was a special treat. The hike ended at the 60-foot Memorial Cross where the Rev. Joe Porter, a retired Episcopal priest from Sewanee, and Imam Mohamad Ahmed concluded with prayers.

"It was the perfect ending," said Carpenter.

The Youth Peace Summit served as a culmination of the Sons and Daughters of Abraham Project, a two-year-long program developed by Carpenter, who also serves as youth ministry coordinator at Otey Memorial Parish, an Episcopal church in Sewanee. Otey's youth group, Fire on the Mountain, first met the summit's Muslim participants in January 2009 at the Islamic Center of Nashville. Last summer, the Sewanee youth joined their Muslim peers and prepared bagged lunches at the mosque, then delivered the food to locals left homeless by Middle Tennessee's May floods.

The Sons and Daughters of Abraham Project made quite an impression on its participants, including 8th-grade Fire on the Mountain member Emily Masters, whose essay on religious tolerance helped her win the regional 4-H public speaking competition.

In her speech, she described the project as an "opportunity to meet with youth groups of different religions to share interesting information about how we worship and to learn exactly what religious tolerance means."

With the Youth Peace Summit wrapped up, Fire on the Mountain is now looking forward to its next event in Alabama.

"The Youth Peace Summit provides a forum for discovery of the things which bring us together," said Carpenter. "In joining our faiths under a common purpose, we empower youth to change those things which keep us apart."

Episcopal News Service
Ashley Charlton is a young writer based in Sewanee, Tennessee, who runs an after-school tutoring program for local students.