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A Minister, A Priest And A Rabbi

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 3, 2008

The setup is classic: "A minister, a priest and a rabbi walk into a room ..."

The punch line turns out to be a welcome revelation: "They decided to work together to feed the homeless."

The story is simplified a little, but the Greater Brandon Ecumenical Ministries, or GBEM, launched the I Am Hope Cafe through the combined efforts of Protestants, Catholics and Jews.

In early 2007, more than 20 religious organizations met to form GBEM as an action-driven ecumenical partnership. GBEM describes itself as an interdenominational, Judeo-Christian, faith-based ministry designed to provide practical help to the hungry and the homeless.

Since then, hard work, dogged belief and faithful prayer have resulted in a permanent facility, I Am Hope Cafe, on the campus of the First Baptist Church of Mango.

This is an exciting venture on many levels, not least of which is the unity of purpose. I am often amazed at the amount of energy religious people expend attempting to prove other denominations wrong, themselves right or their particular flavor of faith superior. Meanwhile, the homeless remain hungry and the spiritually starving can identify one more reason to stay away from church.

When I showed up for the I Am Hope Cafe open house, I was delighted to find the place swarming with so many generous people representing a variety of faith-based communities.

The atmosphere was festive, and it was clear exactly why we were there. It wasn't about us, our leaders, our particular churches, our interpretations or our political ideas. It was about the heart of what makes faith compelling in the first place. It was about the unconditional love of God and how that love can serve as an impetus to spur each of us to compassionate action.

GBEM's long-range vision includes partnerships that will facilitate fundamental change: in our communities and among the homeless.

"This is just the beginning," one of the speakers told us.

Columnist Derek Maul can be reached at derekmaul @gmail.com.

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