Couple has the interfaith

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This article was published 10/01/2015 (4249 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rabbi Neal and Carol Rose may have left Winnipeg, but their work connecting people from various faiths continues on.

Last week, the couple returned to the city from their new home in St. Louis to receive the Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for the Advancement of Interreligious Understanding.

“We come from diversity, we love diversity, we learn from people of other communities,” says Carol Rose, 70, author of three books.

“I’m a guy who is interested in how people are religious,” explains Neal Rose, 75, who arrived from New York City in 1967 to teach Judaic studies, and later religion, at the University of Manitoba.

After 47 years in Winnipeg, the Roses relocated to St. Louis last fall, the hometown of their son, Rabbi Carni Rose, and his family. Their other four children live in Edmonton, Boston, Jerusalem and Richmond, Va.

This is the first time two people have been jointly honoured with the Lieutenant Governor’s Award since its inception in 2011, says Rev. James Christie, convenor of the award’s community advisory committee.

“It’s one award presented to them as a couple because much of their work was done jointly.”

Past recipients include Dr. Redwan Moqbel, a member of the Baha’i faith; Hindu priest Dr. Atish Chandra Maniar, aboriginal elder Mae Louise Campbell, composer Zane Zalis and former University of Winnipeg president Lloyd Axworthy.

Neal and Carol were part of the Interfaith Round Table for many years, and together led alternative Jewish High Holiday services for three decades.

They also shared their Jewish understanding of the world at retreats and workshops at St. Benedict’s Retreat and Conference Centre, while remaining curious about other rituals and traditions.

“They just bring an awareness of the roots of Christian world, the fasting, the feasting, the Sabbath,” says director Mary Coswin, who recalls Sabbath celebrations led by the Roses at the Roman Catholic monastery just north of Winnipeg.

“I remember her (Carol) saying she never thought she would light the Sabbath candles in a Catholic monastery, and how much that meant to us.”

Their fascination and interest in other faith traditions, combined with Carol’s natural inclination to “collect” people, resulted in more than four decades of interfaith interaction in their Matheson Avenue home and beyond.

“As our family grew, at the Passover or Sabbath (dinner) we had priests, we had ministers, we had yogis and gurus in our house,” Neal recalls.

“It seems a natural kind of thing for our kids.”

And it also seemed natural for the assorted clergy and lay folk they collected along the way, says friend and colleague Rev. Sam Argenziano, who led a cultural and spiritual tour to Italy and Israel with Neal three years ago.

“They’re people of dialogue, and when you dialogue, you’re always trying to understand,” says the priest at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church, where Neal rented office space for his family therapy practice.

The Roses’ commitment to their own faith was enhanced by their interactions with people from many other traditions, says Margaret Hughes, a longtime friend who first met Neal while she attended the University of Manitoba.

“Because they are so deeply rooted in Judaism, they are able to embrace, learn and celebrate other spiritual insights and paths,” says the retired schoolteacher and member of the religious order Sisters of Our Lady of Sion.

Both also studied in the Christian tradition, completing midlife degrees at the former faculty of theology at the University of Winnipeg, and went on to teach courses there.

“I found myself in a position where I had more in common with people from other traditions than I did with people in the Jewish tradition,” says Neal.

“All people are created in the image of the Creator and we all have something in common,” Carol added.

“I believe we are here to learn from each other.”

brenda@suderman.com

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