MOUNT KISCO, N.Y.--There is one house of worship in Mount Kisco that is celebrating both holy holidays this weekend. The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Westchester is observing Easter on Sunday and holding a Passover Seder on Tuesday night.
The fellowship houses a wide diversity of thought and theological backgrounds; Jews and Christians make up the majority of the congregation, but there are also Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Wiccans. The whole group together includes believers, atheists, and agnostics.
We believe its more important to be a community together than to agree, UUFNW Reverend Michael Tino said.
The Easter story presents Unitarian Universalists with an annual theological quandary. Tino said it is a very interesting and sometimes problematic holiday, especially since Unitarians came about because they were a Christian sect that rejected the doctrine of the Trinity.
The Unitarians broke from the aspect of Christianity that sees Jesus as divine, rather than human, and, along with the Universalists, who rejected the idea of hell, merged in 1961 to create a dual religion whose members did not believe in a single doctrine, but did share the values of tolerance, fairness and the validity and sanctity of others.
Tino said the congregation will hold their service in a way that looks at the story of Easter more as a metaphor that can provide meaning to everyone. We try and celebrate it respectfully and understand how different sorts of Christians around the world celebrate, he said.
We will be talking about communion, crucifixion and resurrection, but we will be talking them about as metaphysical things.
The Passover Seder on Tuesday will also involve making meaning in this way.
The Seder dinner, which will be led by Tino and two Jewish women from the congregation, is based on the Haggadah, a traditional Jewish text, but when we have people in our community for whom Passover is an important cultural holiday then it becomes important for all of us as a community.
Many families of interfaith marriages join the fellowship, Tino said, because they feel that it is important for them to understand their religious heritage and pass both sides down to their children.
They want them to grow up understanding how to live as moral ethical human beings with principles, guidance and a tradition to belong to, Tino said, but not thinking that they have the only right answer.
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