Column: Fasting, feasting, singing, praying all ways to celebrate faith
“You shall complete the number (of days) and you may glorify God for his guiding you, and that you may be thankful.” — Quran 2:185
Observed at the end of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr is the most solemn festival for Muslims. Among those who will celebrate it is Kiandra Browne, member of the highly successful Indiana University women’s basketball team. Always eager to talk about her newfound faith, she says this month’s Ramadan “has been a blast,” as has her stay in Bloomington, where she first embraced Islam.
Hailing from Montreal, Canada, a very Catholic region, her religious quest took her to Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Christian school, smack dab in the middle of the “Bible Belt.” But her move to Bloomington in 2020 continued her interest in interfaith perspectives, and after much study of the Quran and other sacred texts, she converted to Islam with great joy and excitement.
Of Ramadan Browne says, “I love the discipline of fasting, prayer and community.” Her discovery that “there is only one God” enables her to realize how much we all depend on God. Ramadan “refocuses your self-discipline” (something also much needed on the basketball court). She gladly wears the hijab head-covering and appreciates her team’s and fan support. Active in the local Islamic Center’s activities, she anticipates the Eid al-Fitr Festival in a few days.
Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. It is observed on the first day of the Islamic month of Shawwal, but the exact date any community celebrates it can vary because the arrival of Eid al-Fitr depends on the sighting of a crescent moon in the evening sky after a new moon phase.
Also looking forward to a festival is the area's small Mennonite community. Mennonites just love to sing, and whether unaccompanied or with instruments, singing fills their worship. Not so for Muslims. Leading Sunday's Hymn Festival will be another person with great faith — Adam Tice. A 2002 graduate of Goshen College in Indiana, and later of the Mennonite-Anabaptist Seminary in Elkhart, Tice’s new music is now found in many contemporary hymnbooks, and in the new Mennonite hymnal — “Voices Together,” of which he was one of the editors.
A music critic from another denomination says “in Tice’s texts one can truly hear an echo of the voice of God that calls Christians — and all of us — to worship, love and service.” The director of music at Presbyterian Princeton Seminary, Martin Tel, says this of his colleague: “Tice is a cherished voice in the choir of ecumenical congregational song. Concerns of hospitality, peace and justice are woven throughout this hymnal, appearing at a time when the world is confronted by polarized politics, tribalism and war.”
The Hymn Festival starts at 3 p.m. Sunday in the sanctuary of First United Church, a church committed to ecumenism, and comes after a time when singers and choirs have been unable to meet. That will be followed by a time of simple sharing together —something Muslims, Mennonites and their guests will all enjoy in the next few days after a very long absence from such events.
His recent hymn says it well:
"There is in every person capacity for (love, grace, trust), hope!
"If not to give, then to receive,
"If not to grasp, then to believe.
"God’s vision calls each one of us and leads to hope!"
— Adam Tice, 2015