Show i I Tenor pianist in concert Friday CLEARFIELD — Dana and Sue Talrecording artists from New York City will be in concert at 8 pm Friday at St Peter’s Episcopal Church 1204 E 1450 South Clearfield The tenor and pianist have appeared on television and radio worldwide Before the concert there will be an ice cream social at 6:30 pm and a community hymn sing at 7:30 pm on the church lawn Child care is provided ley Baptist Church plans Vacation Bible School LAYTON — The Layton Hills Baptist Church 1332 N Hillfield Road will hold Vacation Bible School July 28 through at the church Aug Meeting time is from 9 am to noon for children ages 4 through sixth grade Activities include Bible stories singing crafts games and refreshments The environment will be geared for learning will be July 26 from 10 am to noon at the church For more information call Buddhists observing festival of Obon The Ogden Buddhist Church 155 North is observing the annual festival of Obon a memorial service for the dead The memorial service has been observed by Buddhists for more than a thousand years The service pays tribute to beloved ones who have passed away before them giving observers a chance to give thanks for their lives which were given and protected by the deceased Ogden's Obon observance begins today at 3 pm with chicken teriyaki box lunches offered for sale and at 6 pm the public is welcome to the Altar tour The colorful Obon dancers gather at 8 pm on the church parkinfc lot to begin the dancing A special church service is planned at 11 am Sunday with the Rev Miyaji speaking about the shinjin — the Enlightenment of Buddha ‘The Soundwaves’ in concert Sunday ROY — A concert by “The Soundwaves" is scheduled Sunday at Roy Christian Church 4347 S 1900 West at 7 pm The concert is free and open to the public For more information contact Dennis VVhisler at Teenage singers to give concert LAYTON — On Friday the Rosewood Lane Church of the Nazarene 455 Rosewood Lane Layton will host the SALT Singers in concert from They are a group of 17 teenagers Alberta Canada Calgary The concert is scheduled for 7 pm and is open to the public For more information call duly 19 1986 ' t H ft Interfaith pairs gain popularity in modern world By Charles W Bell New York Daily News She is Catholic He is Jewish And they are getting married It happens a lot these days The difference here is that she is Caroline Kennedy the daughter of the first Catholic president of the United States and by all accounts a devout Catholic herself To some she is a role model of modern Catholic womanhood Like everything else in her life her marriage has created enormous public interest and there are people who believe that her example will make marriage outside one’s faith even more acceptable and widespread “I doubt that” says Harold Himmel-far- b the immediate past president of the Association for the Sociological Study of Jewry “Intermarriage is so common now that I don’t think there’s a family in America that doesn't have someone married to somebody of another faith" This thinking does not ease the opposition of Orthodox and Conservative Jews the most vociferous critics of intermarriage or the disquiet of the Catholics who share the Vatican’s general disapproval of such marriages Will the highly publicized wedding of Caroline Kennedy to Edwin Schlossberg today in Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in Centerville Mass on Cape Cod affect the argument over intermarriage? n “Not much" says Rabbi James director of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee “Nobody is thrilled at the idea of intermarriage" Rudin says but such marriages are no longer the strict taboo of years past “I suspect most people will agree that what they do is their private business" Ruth Doyle director of the Office of Pastoral Research for the Archdiocese of New York agrees “This is something that is much more accepted now" she says The big reason is that marriage between people of different faiths lost its novelty years ago Another is a more tolerant attitude toward intermarriage although observant Jewish parents overwhelmingly oppose it and even nominal Jewish families feel uneasy about it It remains a touchy subject both among religious leaders and the families of the couples involved For exam Associated Caroline Kennedy Press and Edwin Schlossberg in Florida in 1983 Christian churches vary considerably in their views but the Catholic Church which once demanded written pledges to raise all offspring as Catholics has relaxed its policy Now the Church requires only that As a matter of policy Orthodox and Catholic spouses declare they will conConservative rabbis do not take part in tinue to practice their faith and to interfaith marriage ceremonies Reform to do all in their power to have rabbis who represent the most liberal promise any children baptized and raised as wing of Judaism may or may not — Catholics Church laws also require pernationwide experts put the number mission from the local bishop before a who do at about 100 Catholic marries a The Jewish community perceives in“It’s not a question of approving" says one parish priest who has conducttermarriage as a threat to the continuation of the Jewish people For that ed several interfaith marriages “It’s a reason conversion to Judaism is the question of tolerance of understanding and accepting the special problems inonly response to intermarriage that satisfies the Jewish community volved" A recent study of intermarriage indiStatistics are difficult to pin down cates a significant number of For example Harold Himmelfarb says partners do convert to Judaism (It a study in the early ’70s estimated that also indicated only about 3 percent of one of every three Jewish men married Jewish spouses convert to the faith of outside their faith “These figures were their mates) disputed however" he says "Now staAn study of intermarriage by tistics indicate that someone in about 25 percent to 30 percent of all Jewish the American Jewish Committee determined a few years ago that about one of homes has married outside their faith" It is not likely that Caroline Kennedy every five spouses had conwill convert although one rabbi noted verted to Judaism but that overall mixed marriages tend to weaken Jewish she was given a Jewish cookbook at a identity and practices among Jewish shower “We can dream can't we?" he said with a smile partners ple Caroline Kennedy who has dated Schlossberg about five years was supposedly worried that her grandmother Rose Kennedy would not accept her marrying a Ogden Church News 5 |