Newtown Interfaith Council continued one conversation and opened another during its first meeting of the year.

Members of three communities of faith attended. Congregation Adath Israel representative Steve Bamberg, Love Has A Home Here Founder and Pastor Bill Donaldson, and Newtown Congregational Church Pastor Matt Crebbin spent just over an hour in the library of the Congregational Church on January 13, checking in with each other and resuming discussions the council had started late last year.

Crebbin suggested a few guest speakers for upcoming meetings, including local officials and leaders the council would like to begin or resume collaborating with. Crebbin said the recent passing of a Newtown High School student led him to thinking about making resources available to students as they go through grief.

“We’d worked in the past with the school district, to make clergy available if needed. If there’s an incident like this, it could be helpful to let clergy know, and to let clergy be available,” he said. Counselors are often available as well, which Crebbin noted.

“It’s not that only clergy should be the only ones available, and it’s not to force anything on anyone, but to remind the schools that we’re here. Very often kids who are impacted are kids who are in our circles and/or just may be looking for someone to talk to,” he said. “It’s just to give them options and recognizing that sometimes in these moments, their religious and spiritual life is not an afterthought for some people.”

Donaldson agreed, saying kids “in general are having such a hard time these days.

“We should make ourselves available in general,” he added.

Bamberg said “it’s a terrible time” to be a kid, adding, “I don’t know how they do it sometimes.”

All three men either knew the young lady in question, her family, or have connections within their faith communities, they noted. While the dialogue last week was prompted by the recent student death, Crebbin said he would also like to see faith leaders invited to meet students in non-emergency times. To have local faith leaders go in and talk with students, “people who are part of a religious tradition that kids were looking at or learning about, might help break down barriers or build relationships.

“It’s one thing to talk about Islam and another to hear from someone who practices that, or Judaism, and other faiths,” he said.

School Lunch Debts

The discussion shifted to school lunch debts, which the council had also touched upon in recent months.

In response to a question from Bamberg, Crebbin said he and others are “still very much looking into what we might do.”

Guidelines at different levels make it challenging for some families to qualify for low-income support.

“There is a challenge of families that may not qualify at the federal level for school lunches, but local supplemental funds may offer some money,” Crebbin said. “We also know there have been changes in a number of the programs, especially at the federal level, which has made it more laborious, which means people don’t even apply.”

Students need to eat, however, which has led to “some school lunch debt in the district,” he said. Local school officials are “working to figure out what to do about that,” he added.

Bamberg suggested the district and/or families may not want religious organizations to be involved, creating another challenge for the good intentions of the council members.

Community Gatherings

Also during the Tuesday afternoon meeting, Donaldson proposed a new series of public events for this year.

“Considering everything that’s going on, people might be struggling,” he said. “Let’s put it out as an open meeting with the council, an offering for anyone who wants to come and talk. It could be topical or not, but it would make us available to the public. Maybe they go to church, maybe they have a community, maybe they need or want a safe place to just come and talk about whatever — a spiritual issue or something else.”

Donaldson noted the fastest growing demographic is “spiritual but not religious. There are a lot of people out there who don’t have a community. They don’t identify with or focus on any particular faith.”

The men discussed different approaches, and potential locations.

In response to a question from Bamberg, Crebbin said the gatherings would differ from events at any place of worship by organizers announcing up front that “people of all faiths, and no faiths, would all be welcome.

“One of the things about the challenge of religious communities is, it’s one of the few places people can actually go and talk and encounter other people beyond family, or going to a kids’ basketball or baseball game,” he continued. “People have places they can go, but they can’t really talk about certain things.”

The council members agreed they would like to draw people together who would be willing to listen to opposing opinions with respect for those speaking.

“If you put people in from opposite poles, many times it works,” Bamberg said. “Once you accept somebody as a person as someone you can talk to, then you can discuss the bigger things. With everyone online, people don’t meet people.”

Donald said making personal connections “is a really big piece of what’s missing.

“We could make an effort to get out there and create a space for that connection to talk about something, whether spiritual or whatever,” he said.

The three agreed they would like to see the gatherings become a regular offering, not “a one and done,” as Crebbin put it. No specifics were set last week before the meeting concluded but the men agreed the subject, along with others raised earlier in the hour, would continue to be worked on.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.