Ecumenical service delivers unifying message to students

By KENNY KEANE, Globe staff reporter
Posted January 30, 2003

STORM LAKE - As a way of recognizing the week of Prayer for Christian Unity held last week throughout the world, St. Mary Schools in Storm Lake celebrated an ecumenical prayer service on Jan. 23.

The service was led by St. Mary's educator Derek Kirpalani, a Baptist minister, who said that the idea for the service came from Father Doug Klein, associate pastor at St. Mary Church in Storm Lake.

"He thought it would be very fitting if a non-Catholic were to lead an ecumenical service, involving particularly non-Catholic children in the school family," Kirpalani said. "The theme of the service more than any other was to emphasize the fact that with all of us being believers we have a common bond in Jesus Christ. We should be able to overlook differences.

"I think a lot of times what hurts world Christianity is the fact that we spend time looking at other denominations as competition rather than our brothers and sisters. Christ died for all of us. He shed his blood for all Christians on the faith of the earth, and we tend to forget that."

Students in grades five through 12 attended the service, which was planned by the seventh and eighth graders who also volunteered to sing and created a chorus for the service. Other plans included writing the petitions, making decorations for the altar and enlisting volunteers to read the petitions and the Scripture readings.

"In John, chapter 17, verses 20 to 26, which was the text from which I preached, Jesus said, 'That they may be one.' The proof of Jesus' power in life is the fact that Christians are bonded together by the Holy Spirit," Kirpalani said. "It's important for the children to recognize that common bond and to realize that other believers, even though they may be different, are still believers and are still part of the same family."

One of the seventh-grade, Catholic students, Ryan Drey, who sang in the chorus during the service, said he liked what Kirpalani had to say.

"I thought his sermon was very good," Drey said. "It's important for us to know that, just like the color of someone's skin doesn't matter, it shouldn't matter what faith someone practices. We're all the same."

For seventh grader Jenny Welch, one of those students who practices a faith other than Catholic, she said it was a nice change, especially for the Catholic students, to have a different pastor and a lot of people from different religions practicing their faith together.

"I know it was really different, and I'm not sure if my friends really understood everything," she said. "I think it's just good for them to see something like this. What we did was kind of like what we do at my church, so I kind of knew what was happening. I thought it was good for the Catholics to see how it is at other churches."

Karen Murray, a part-time teacher at St. Mary's who works with the seventh and eighth graders when it is their turn to plan a Mass, said this service was an important source of exposure for the students.

"In our Catholic schools, our kids are very much in a protected environment," she said. "It's basically an entirely Catholic community. They might not even think about the fact that there is this world of non-Catholic people. So it's a little exposure to thinking that there are people out there besides just us."