Old Testament scholar to moderate two evenings of learning about our neighbors

Published 11:28 pm Tuesday, February 20, 2007

The Worship Committee of Dalton First United Methodist Church is sponsoring “Conversations Among the Children of Abraham: Jews, Christians and Muslims” on Monday and Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of the church. The public is invited.

Old Testament scholar Carol Newsom from Emory University will guide the evenings’ exchanges.

Members of the community are invited to take advantage of this opportunity to get to know their neighbors and learn about their faiths.

Newsom will moderate conversations with representatives of these three faiths: Joe Peabody, pastor of Dalton First United Methodist Church; Rabbi Elaine Schnee from Dalton’s Temple Beth El; and Imam Rijiad Thabata from Dalton’s Islamic Center.

Monday night, each of the participants will have 15 minutes to talk about their religion. The audience will then have the opportunity to write out questions for the speakers.

Tuesday night, Newsom will moderate a discussion among the religious leaders using questions submitted by the audience.

Newsom received her master’s in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School and her doctorate from Harvard University’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. She was named a Charles Howard Candler Distinguished Professor by Emory in recognition of excellence in research and teaching.

She has been a member of the international team of translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls since the mid-1980s when she became the first woman named to the team. She has been interested in the ways in which women are portrayed in the Bible and the manner in which the Bible has come to be interpreted by women. She co-edited, along with Sharon Ringe, “The Women’s Bible Commentary.”

Schnee has been at Dalton’s Temple Beth El as rabbi, teacher and preacher since 1997. She graduated with a master of science in health and physical education from Brooklyn College. After teaching high school, she worked as a chaplain at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York and as a Torah reader and teacher at several locations.

She worked and studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City, as well as at the C.W. Post College of Long Island University where she took graduate courses in Hebrew and psychology. She is president of the Southeast Region of the Rabbinical Assembly.

Peabody has served on the staff of Methodist churches since he was 18. College and seminary years were spent at Emory University, and he received his doctor of ministry from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky.

Peabody came to Dalton First United Methodist Church in 1978 as associate pastor. Before returning to Dalton in 2003 as senior pastor, he served several churches in the state.

Peabody is currently on the North Georgia Conference Board of the Ordained Ministry. Nationally he is vice president of the Council on Evangelism and an advisory trustee for the Foundation for Evangelism.

For more information, call the church office at (706) 278-8494.