Worship in the Midlands 2018

Worship Midlands in the

For SoMe, a religiouS vocation arriveS aFter a liFetiMe oF experience

Maryland couple ServeS Winnebago reServation With open heartS

nebraSka’S eaSter city pageant celebrateS

60th anniverSary

Special Section • March 25, 2018

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• Sunday, March 25, 2018

WOrShIP In ThE MIdLandS

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

With open hearts, missionaries serve on Winnebago Reservation

By Kevin WarneKe WORLD-HERALD CORRESPONDENT

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KURT A. KEELER FOR THE WORLD-HERALD

Nearly three years ago, Jeff and Kathy Foley arrived at the St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago as missionaries. “We didn’t even know there were reservations in Nebraska,” Jeff said about their search for something to do post-retirement. The mission serves the faith community of the Omaha and Winnebago Tribes. In July, the Foleys will return to their permanent home, six children and four grandchildren in Maryland. that.”

In the end, nothing did, and the Foleys told their six children they were headed to Nebraska. For their service, they would receive room and board. Their responsibilities would be defined when they arrived.

Their children were skeptical. “I think they thought we had this do-gooder idea that we were going to go in and change the world,” Jeff said. “Once they realized that wasn’t our intent, I think they understood. It’s a matter of serving God, and that is giving up of ourselves and letting Him work through us.”

The Foleys arrived at Winnebago in June 2015 and followed Paysse’s advice.

They met the Rev. David Korth, then pastor of the four parishes and executive director of the St. Augustine Indian Mission and School. Kathy had owned a bookkeeping business, and Korth suggested she work as the mission’s business manager.

Jeff had worked for Goodwill Industries

International and the AARP Foundation — in both cases helping people find employment — and Korth suggested he partner with Sister Deana Case and other Missionary Benedictine Sisters in outreach efforts to the parish communities.

Although eager to help and become a part of the community, the Foleys expected their welcome to be mixed. They understood the history between the cultures, including the Catholic church, and that the members of the Winnebago and nearby Omaha Tribes might be skeptical of their motives.

“We’re still in the process of developing trust,” said Kathy. “It takes time, and we’re not there yet.”

Iris Payer, who works in law enforcement in Winnebago, said she was skeptical of the Foleys. “I wondered why they were here. Were they looking for jobs? Then I learned they were here to help.”

The Foleys quickly learned that each day was its own — which made their

work rewarding. Food needs to be picked up and delivered to the mission school?

Call the Foleys. Donated school supplies needed to be moved? Call the Foleys. Sidewalks need to be shoveled before Mass?

“There are a lot of fires to put out,” Kathy said. “A lot of ways to help.”

One sign of progress may be a thrift store based out of Our Lady of Fatima in Macy. To find out how they could best serve, Jeff and Sister Deana formed an advisory committee of Omaha Reservation residents and posed the question. The popup store, which is open twice a month and provides a needed retail outlet for the area, was one suggestion.

Yes, the store provides clothing and household items at a low price. Yes, the store serves as a gathering point, with free refreshments always available. The point is that proceeds generated by the thrift store are returned to the community, Jeff said. “This store is a sign that the church cares.”

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WINNEBAGO, Neb. — It’s minutes before 10 a.m., and Jeff Foley pushes away the morning snow as parishioners file in for Mass at St. Augustine parish in Winnebago. Kathy Foley follows one step behind with ice melt to ensure that parishioners don’t start their worship with a fall.

For the Foleys, who call Maryland home, clearing away snow on an Indian reservation in Nebraska is just part of a life of service they sought in retirement.

They came to Winnebago intending to commit to two years and ended up staying three.

“We were looking for a way to serve the church, and we were looking for a way to serve people in need,” Jeff said.

Their search led them to the Winnebago Reservation, a land marked by poverty and unemployment. They discovered a culture that holds family sacred and clings to tradition.

The Foleys’ search for a place to serve a Native American community began four years ago as retirement approached. The Foleys had considered serving as missionaries when they were in their late 20s — but looked only abroad. Instead, they spent the next 30 years leading marriage encounter weekends in their home parish.

“That was our ministry,” Kathy said.

This time around they knew they wanted to serve on an Indian reservation and turned to the Rev. Wayne Paysse, then executive director of the Black and Indian Mission in Washington, D.C., for direction.

Together, they narrowed their search to reservations in Nebraska, New Mexico and Washington.

Paysee offered the Foleys some advice for their work with Native Americans and for life on a reservation: “Empty your mind and your heart of any preconceived conceptions you have of Native Americans. Go in with an open heart.”

The Foleys, who have been married 43 years, spent four days in January 2015 in Winnebago. They attended Mass at the four parishes they would serve — St. Cornelius in Homer, St. Joseph in Walthill, Our Lady of Fatima in Macy and St. Augustine. The rural setting in northeastern Nebraska served as an enticement rather than a deterrent.

“The bluffs of the Missouri are beautiful,” Kathy said. “We came away excited, very much enthralled with the people we met, and said it’s going to be hard to beat

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WOrShIP In ThE MIdLandS

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

*** It’s now minutes after Mass has ended on that recent Sunday, and the Foleys head downstairs to say goodbye to Sister Frances Betz, who is leaving St. Augustine Mission and School after 22 years of service. Parishioners presented her with a star quilt during Mass (a sign of respect in Native American custom), and the reception in the cafeteria was in her honor.

The Foleys realize that soon it will be their turn to say goodbye. It’s time to return to Maryland, where their children and four grandchildren await. Jeff, 69, and Kathy, 66, said they will miss the friends they have made. They’ll also know that they are better people because of their experience. All the while, they refrain from taking credit for anything they have done or accomplished.

“It’s not about us. It’s not about what Jeff and Kathy have done. It’s about the continuation of the church being present for the people here,” Kathy said. “It’s not our work anyway. It’s God’s work, and God has worked through us. It’s a matter of leaving a place better than how we found it. That’s why it’s so important for us to find a replacement.”

Come June when the Foleys return to Maryland, they hope to

have helped find their replacements.

They are especially concerned that the thrift store remains open.

And whoever follows, the Foleys are confident they will experience the same rewards they did. “When you give, you get a lot more back,” Kathy said.

One of those rewards was meeting a man who is raising his 11 children. He has led a difficult life, Jeff said, “but he always has a joke to tell, and he’s at church every Sunday.

“That’s why we call it an opportunity to come here — to get to know the people here,” Jeff said.

“We knew nothing about the Winnebago and Omaha tribal cultures, or about rural culture for that matter, coming from the Washington, D.C.,” Kathy said. “We have learned so much, and it has been fascinating.”

She has especially enjoyed watching the interaction between tribal grandmothers and their grandchildren. In tribal culture, grandmothers are caregivers, mentors, teachers and spiritual guides. “Their role is very important. They’re charged with teaching their tribe’s unique unique culture, family values. ... We’re eager to return home to our grands and instill similar values in them.”

Sunday, March 25, 2018 •

Jeff Foley’s work with the St. Augustine Indian Mission includes the Omaha Nation Outreach Thrift Store at Macy. Jeff, a lay minister, partnered with the Missionary Benedictine Sisters and other volunteers to establish the shop and give it regular hours.

KURT A. KEELER FOR THE WORLDHERALD

SEarchInG FOr anOThEr BLESSInG Jeff and Kathy Foley had already finished their first year as missionaries when the Rev. Mark Beran was installed as pastor of the St. Augustine parish and the three others in surrounding communities. “They helped me adjust to life here,” he said.

The priest said he understands the leap of faith the Foleys took when they came to Winnebago. “It’s hard to put into words: To have God speak to them and bring them to a place they’ve never been — and to give three years of their lives ... They’ve been such a blessing to us.”

Now, he’s looking for another blessing: A replacement for the couple. The process, he said, begins with a conversation about opportunities.

“What a couple or single person will do once they get here is very flexible.

It depends entirely on the gifts you have to share,” Jeff Foley wrote in a call to serve circulated at area parishes and elsewhere. For more information, contact the Indian mission at 402-878-2402 or visit staugustinemission.org

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Worship in the Midlands Worship in the Midlands is a bi-annual special section of the Omaha World-Herald.

Project editor: Shelley Larsen, 402-444-1143, shelley.larsen@owh.com Designer: Kiley Cruse Copy editors: Chris Christen, Marjie Ducey Contributers: Marjie Ducey, Todd von Kampen, Kevin Warneke On the cover: Keith Winton is an intern at St. Martin of Tours Episcopal Church in Omaha.

Winton, who is currently a software developer, has completed seminary and hopes to be ordained soon. Brendan Sullivan/ The World-Herald For advertising information, contact Dan Matuella, 402-444-1485, dan.matuella@owh.com

Immanuel Lutheran Church Join us in celebrating Holy Week

Christ is Risen!

MARCH 25 PALM SUNDAY

Palm Sunday | March 25

Palm Sunday - March 25

Services 8:15 am & 10:40 am with Communion

9:00 AM and 11:00 AM - Festive Eucharist with Palm Procession and Passion Narrative

8:30 a.m. Worship 10:30 a.m. Worship

MARCH 29 MAUNDY THURSDAY

Maundy Thursday | March 29

Maundy Thursday - March 29

Services at 11 am & 7 pm with Communion

5:30 p.m.

7:00 p.m.

MARCH 30 GOOD FRIDAY

Services at 11 am with Stations of the Cross & 7 pm Service of Shadows

12:15 PM and 7:00 PM - Individual Absolution, children’s First Communion, and Stripping of the Altar

Seder Meal (RSVP*) Worship

Good Friday | March 30

12:00-3:00 PM - Three-hour ecumenical service with choirs, string instrumentalists, and guest preachers 7:00 PM - Candlelit service of readings and Veneration of the Cross

Good Friday - March 30 7:00 p.m.

MARCH 31 HOLY SATURDAY EASTER VIGIL

Worship

Easter Vigil | March 31

Saturday Easter Celebration - March 31

10:00 PM - First Fire of Easter, Scripture Readings, Renewal of Baptism, and Eucharist

10:00 a.m. Easter Egg Hunt 5:30 p.m. Easter Celebration Worship

Service at 7 pm

APRIL 1 EASTER SUNDAY

Easter Sunday | April 1

Easter Sunday - April 1

Sunrise Service at 6:30 am Festival of Services of the Holy Eucharist with Communion at 8:15 am & 10:40 am

7:30 AM, 9:00 AM, and 11:00 AM - Festive Eucharist featuring the Kountze Brass, timpani, organ, choirs, gospel procession and a special children’s message (9 AM)

7:00 a.m. Sunrise Worship 8:30 a.m. Worship 10:30 a.m. Worship

Regular Worship Schedule

*Thursday Seder Meal RSVP to: 402-393-5553 or office@MorningStarOmaha.org

Nursery Available • Handicapped Accessible •

2084386-01

www.kmlchurch.org • 2650 Farnam St., Omaha, NE 68131 • 402-341-7761 •

2085290-01

331 South 85th Ave Omaha, NE www.MorningStarOmaha.org

2015533-01

Wednesday, 12:15 PM • Saturday, 5:00 PM • Sunday, 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM Holy Communion is offered at all weekly services (9:00 AM worship is televised live on Cox Channel 13) Faith Formation Hour 10:00 AM - Full Breakfast served 8:00-11:00 AM Nursery care provided - Free parking in church lots

Easter Breakfast - 7:30 - 10:30 a.m.

Immanuel Lutheran Church, ELCA 2725 No. 60 Ave. • Omaha, NE 68104 402.553.5061 Visit our website at: www.immanuel-lutheran.com

~ Holy Week and Easter at Kountze Memorial ~

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C U RT I S E A S T E R PA G E A N T

Participants practice Scene XV, above, the Road to Emmaus, for the 2015 production of Curtis’ Easter Pageant. At right, the 1971 version of Scene VIII – the Road to Golgotha.

Palm Sunday pageant has staying power in CURTIS, Neb. — They love to tell The Story — and share six decades of tales associated with it — every Palm Sunday in Nebraska’s “Easter City.”

Most of the Curtis Easter Pageant’s founders, having left life’s stage, will watch its 60th anniversary presentation from somewhere above the 20-foot-high cross illuminated from Christmas to Easter atop the hills south of town.

But at 3 p.m. Sunday, more than 100 descendants and newer arrivals will once again be singing in the choir, presenting the pageant’s 17 “living pictures” or making sure all goes as it should.

And Sheila Fink will likely grow mistyeyed with memories of her mother, Lela Russell, a choir member in the inaugural pageant April 4, 1958, in the old gym at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture.

Fink, 66, has left Curtis and moved back a couple of times. She has helped with preshow publicity. And she makes sandwiches •

for the single dress rehearsal the Friday before Palm Sunday — just like her mother, who died in 2006.

“It was just the love she had for the pageant, for the Lord,” that kept Russell coming back, she said. “I get teary-eyed every year because of what the pageant represents.”

“It’s like a fall festival — something that brings us together,” said 26-year-old Tacy Hatch, Fink’s successor as publicist. “People come down here every year from Maywood, Gothenburg, all over the place.”

A few hundred local and regional residents are expected at Medicine Valley High School, the pageant’s home since 1970. Admission is free, with a freewill offering and proceeds from an earlier bake sale covering expenses.

Curtis’ civic and arts groups and churches have rallied around the pageant since the Rev. Frank Hainey, then pastor of Curtis United Methodist Church, coordinated the first edition. He co-wrote the script with Anne Nicklas, who directed the pageant choir. Members of the Curtis Community Chorus and Curtis Little Theatre lent their aid.

“Boosters hope the affair may become an annual event in Curtis as a prelude to Easter observance,” the North Platte Telegraph (then the Telegraph-Bulletin) reported the day of that 1958 performance.

Consider those hopes fulfilled.

“It is very near and dear to me,” says Marsha Gardner, 64, who became the pageant’s living-pictures director in 2011 after a quarter-century as children’s director. “It’s one of the things I have enjoyed working on that is community-based. I just like everything it stands for.”

The first performance — on Good Friday, not Palm Sunday — was supposed to be held at the ag school’s outdoor “Mum Bowl.”

That’s because Hainey and Nicklas based their script on the outdoor Passion Plays long presented in Oberammergau, Germany, and Spearfish, South Dakota.

Thoughts of fickle Nebraska weather moved the show indoors, where it stayed.

Even so, the pageant has twice been detailed

by Mother Nature.

A massive March blizzard rendered western Nebraska roads impassable just before

Palm Sunday in 1980. Gardner said scuttled the 2014 pageant, even tho Sunday fell on April 13.

And the 1963 pageant was called what today’s volunteers call “techn culties.” In fact, “the organist move and the show never got off the grou Telegraph reported in March 1969.

Still, Curtis’ pageant has not only but also received regular statewide Longtime World-Herald reporters T and James Denney frequently high the production. And when the Legis passed an honorary resolution in 19 ing Curtis as Nebraska’s “Easter Ci Charles Thone proudly added his si Organizers kept the Passion Play until 1961, when the late Raphael A organized the first living pictures b famous Holy Week and Easter pain Performers silently hold their posi 60 seconds as the narrator speaks. sings as the curtain closes and the is prepared.

The original 10 scenes gradually to 17, with the key scenes staying c •

By Todd von Kampen WORLD-HERALD CORRESPONDENT

ORLD-HERALD

Sunday, March 25, 2018 •

Participants change scenes during a dress rehearsal for the 50th anniversary of the living-picture Easter pageant in 2008.

JEFF BEIERMANN/ THE WORLDHERALD

Nebraska’s Easter City

d snow also ough Palm

d off due to nical diffived away und,” the . y endured e attention.

Tom Allan hlighted islature 981 declarCity,” Gov. signature. y format A. Yates based on ntings. itions for The choir next scene

y expanded constant:

the Last Supper (based on Leonardo da Vinci’s painting); “Descent from the Cross” (after the Peter Paul Rubens painting); and “The Living Cross,” with the resurrected Christ’s arms outstretched.

Organizers are proud of their props, which include biologically exact thorns for Jesus’ crown and precisely 30 coins in betrayer Judas Iscariot’s purse. When the Roman soldiers’ converted football helmets wore out in 1976, the late pageant business manager Scott Wilkinson found and bought four MGM Studios helmets that appeared in “Ben-Hur,” “Julius Caesar” and “Quo Vadis.”

Gardner said many performers have debuted as children welcomed by Jesus in a living-picture first offered in 1971. Some 20 children will appear this year, with Kathy Hansen serving as children’s coordinator.

Performers have held their roles for years, like the late funeral director George Wetzel, the first and only living-picture Judas until 1984. And the role of Jesus — filled for the first time this year by Kevin Fisher — featured a notable father-son combination over four decades.

The role of Jesus was played 19 times from 1966 to 1985 by Curtis veterinarian Dr. Everett Stencel, who helped lead his community’s late 1980s fight to keep the College of Technical Agriculture open before his 1989 death.

His son Mark — once one of the children receiving Jesus’ blessing — played the role from 1986 to 2005 in honor of his father.

Family ties also explain Hatch’s involvement. The 2009 Medicine Valley graduate turned pages for her grandmother, the Rev. Shirley Carpenter, as she accompanied the pageant choir while serving as Curtis United Methodist pastor from 1997 to 2002.

Carpenter, who died in 2015, wrote two songs performed during those years: “How Could We Know?” for the “Road to Emmaus” scene, and “Jesus’ Trial,” sung in conjunction with Jesus’ appearance before Pontius Pilate.

“She was the most godly woman I’ve ever known,” Hatch said. “Her license plate said ‘JCSRVNT’ forever. ... Easter was her favorite time, because she loved the whole story.”

The “Greatest Story Ever Told” endures — and the people of Curtis still relish telling it.

JEFF BEIERMANN/THE WORLD-HERALD

Jesus, played by Travis Madron, prays in the Garden of Gethsemane in the 2008 Palm Sunday production.

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WOrShIP In ThE MIdLandS

• Sunday, March 25, 2018

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

A religious vocation doesn’t always come early in life. For some people, it arrives after a lifetime of experience.

A tragedy may lead them down a new path, or for others, it’s just the realization that they want to serve their faith and others. • Meet three people who got their calling late. “You never know how long you are going to be here,” says Rabbi Brian Stoller, one of the three. “I had this idea of what I wanted to do in life. I decided to go for it.’’

Desire for vocation stayed with Episcopal seminarian for decades ‘This is where I’m meant to be,’ says software designer who soon will lead a church of his own.

By Marjie Ducey WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD/

Betsy Blake Bennett, archdeacon with the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska, left, and Keith Winton, a seminarian, offer “ashes on the go” for Ash Wednesday. “This is what I was meant to do,” Winton said. become a better priest. He’s found that he loves his work as a part-time chaplain at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

He’ll continue to work as a software designer until he’s able to lead a church of his own.

“I have a foot in both worlds,’’ he said.

“Ultimately I hope to leave the IT world completely.’’

6:30 pm Holy Communion

Alleluia! he is risen!

God for us!

Good Friday 6:30 pm Tenebrae Service

Holy ly Thursday Thurs 6:30 6:30 pm pm Good Friday 6:30 pm Saturday Easter Egg Hunt 10:00 am m

Saturday Easter Vigil 5:00 pm Worship with Holy Communion

Changing Lives...

Reflecting Christ

Additional parking available at Millard North Middle School

138th & West Center Rd 402-334-1999 www.rejoiceomaha.org

Sunrise 6:30 am 83rd and Lakeview Easter Breakfast 7:00 – 10:30 am Resurrection and Holy Fools 8:30 and 11:00 am

Regular Worship Schedule Saturday’s 5:00 pm Sunday’s 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 am

April 1, 2018 • 8 am & 10:30 am

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday 6:30, 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 am Worship with Holy Communion

Easter Sunday Services

5015 S 80th, Ralston www.messiahfamily.com

2084354-01 •

Breakfast at 9 am

Served by the Lord of Love Youth (Fundraiser for their Mission Trip)

10405 Fort St

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lord-of-love.org

2084384-01

Maundy Thursday

8:00 am Worship with Holy Communion 9:30 & 11:00 am Holy Communion Service with Special Music

marjie.ducey@owh.com, 402-444-1034, twitter.com/mduceyowh

2085094-01

Palm Sunday

kind of church.

It’s where Winton feels he can make the biggest contribution.

“It’s a sacred honor to be with people at some of the most wonderful times in their life,’’ he said. “At births, weddings, at times the most joy-filled, and also be there walking beside people at the most tragic.’’

His family has become used to the demands of his new career, especially around the busy Easter and Christmas holidays.

They know, too, that it could involve a move when he gets his own church.

He said it’s been interesting to hear his children explain to their friends what their dad does, because he’s found that many people these days don’t grow up inside any

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Keith Winton couldn’t say no any longer.

Winton had thought about a vocation since his college days in Indiana, when he majored in mathematics and theology at Wabash College. He had a drive and passion to figure out what the Episcopal church was all about.

But the time wasn’t right for him to take a leadership role in that community.

“I wasn’t mature enough. I wasn’t ready,’’ he said. “I had a lot of self-awareness and growing up to do.’’

Winton married wife Lisa, had three children and began a successful career as a software developer. Then about 10 years ago, he decided he was ready to devote himself to full-time service in the church.

He recently graduated from the seminary and is serving as an intern at St. Martin of Tours Episcopal Church at 24th and J Streets. The next step is his ordination as a transitional deacon and then a few months later he’ll join the ranks of the priesthood.

At that point, he’ll be 57 years old. But he was ready to say yes, no matter his age.

“This is where I’m meant to be. This is what I was meant to do,’’ he said. “Finding the right vocation is life affirming and life giving.’’

His studies the past 10 years have given him the skills, training and knowledge to

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OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

Sunday, March 25, 2018 •

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She married and divorced, then became a nun ‘I wasn’t at home in marriage. I didn’t do very well.’ Religious community fills the void.

By Marjie Ducey WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Valeria Lewandoski has a roommate and a dog. And an ex-husband.

She also happens to be a nun.

Lewandoski, 68, was 50 when she entered the Order of Servants of Mary.

Growing up, she thought she might want to be a part of a religious community and was a Francescan affiliate while in college. But there were a lot of changes happening in the Catholic Church, and she didn’t stay.

“When you are young, you have more romantic ideas about a calling and what religious life might be,’’ she said.

Lewandoski went to graduate school for social work. She was employed as a clinical social worker in Chicago and Portland, where she met her former husband. They were married for seven years and remain friends.

“I wasn’t at home in marriage. I didn’t do very well,’’ Lewandoski said. “I feel like being part of a community is more natural for me somehow.’’

Work she did at the counseling center with the Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother in Portland brought her in contact with the Servants of Mary. The order’s compassion revived her feelings about a vocation. She wasn’t a typical candidate, but the order was accepting of her life journey, and her desire to pledge herself to a life of poverty, celibacy and obedience.

Now she lives in a community in Omaha with Sister Linda Hess, OSM, and her dog, Tabor. Three-legged Pancho is Lewandoski’s dog. Both are rescues.

“For me, it’s important to rescue. I love nature,’’ Lewandoski said. “Communicating with other species, it seems like it’s important.’’

Lewandoski said her experiences as a single and married woman helps in her current work for the Servants of Mary.

JULIA NAGY/THE WORLD-HERALD

Sr. Valeria Lewandoski was 50 when she enterd the Order of the Servants of Mary.

She does counseling, spiritual direction and retreat work and book sharing groups at the Servite Center of Compassion at the mother house.

She also enjoys her interactions with the other nuns in her community, which is based on the Marian High School campus.

She’s found where she belongs.

“I feel like I’ve become a better person,’’ she said. “The compassion of the community has rubbed off on me. I’m grateful for that.’’ marjie.ducey@owh.com, 402-444-1034, twitter.com/mduceyowh

Historic church. Fresh ideas. Your spiritual home in Downtown Omaha.

THE LIVING LAST SUPPER

Saturday, March 31 6:30 pm

Sunday, April 1 8:30 & 10:30 am

Welcome Easter with an ancient service of candlelight, scripture readings, and a reception following.

Festival Eucharist w/ brass ensemble; Children’s Easter Egg Hunt at noon.

Nursery available at both services.

2084394-01 •

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FAITH JOURNEY CHURCH - 2920 NORTH 118TH ST - SUITE 104

2084718-01

A LIFE - CHANGING EXPERIENCE

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WOrShIP In ThE MIdLandS

• Sunday, March 25, 2018

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

After 9/11 and a friend’s death, he chose to become a rabbi His work puts him in the heart of the Tri-Faith Initiative

spent nine years as an associate rabbi in Chicago.

When it was time to lead his own congregation, he was thrilled to be accepted

by Temple Israel in Omaha. He’d heard of the work done by former Rabbi Aryeh Azriel, and he was excited about Temple Israel’s participation in the Tri-Faith Initiative.

The campus at 132nd and Pacific Streets is well on its way to completion. The synagogue and a mosque are open, and a church is being built.

“We are just beginning the new phase,’’ Stoller said. “We’re just really beginning now to build the heart of Tri-Faith and develop the vision of what it means to live together as three faith communities.’’

Stoller thinks its message, of different faiths living together in friendship and peace, could change the world.

But just as important to the father of two with wife Karen is the work he does with his congregation, through teaching, counseling and being a community leader.

“Ultimately, it comes down to being with people,’’ Stoller said. “That gives me great joy.’’

By Marjie Ducey WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Rabbi Brian Stoller once dreamed of being involved in politics in Washington, D.C. He achieved that goal, working as a press secretary for a U.S. senator for 4½ years. Then a colleague’s curiosity about his faith steered him down a new path.

Stoller was embarrassed about how little he knew about Judaism. So with the help of his rabbi back in Houston, he started reading about his religion. He was fascinated, and grateful to his colleague for her questions.

“She kindled the spark,’’ Stoller said. “It just kind of set my soul on fire. As much as I enjoyed what I was doing and the political world, I had this sense I wasn’t going to be able to be my fullest, best and highest self there.’’

Stoller thought that someday — far down the road — he might consider becoming a rabbi.

Then came 9/11 and a year later the death of a friend to brain cancer.

“It made me realize how fragile life is,’’ the 44-year-old said. “I was holding this dream close to the vest. I never had the courage up to that point to really pursue it.

I decided it was time.’’

With so little background, he was surprised to be accepted at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, a seminary for reformed Judaism. After graduation, he

TEMPLE ISRAEL

Rabbi Brian Stoller at his installation. He said he loves working with his congregation.

marjie.ducey@owh.com, 402-444-1034, twitter.com/mduceyowh

ST. MICHAEL

Lutheran Church (ELCA)

13232 Blondo Street

402-493-2871

HOLY WEEK WORSHIP SCHEDULE 2084431-01

MAUNDY THURSDAY - 3/29 @ 7:00 PM GOOD FRIDAY - 3/30 - STATIONS OF THE CROSS @ 3:00 PM GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE - 3/30- @ 7:00 PM EASTER VIGIL - 3/31 @ 8:00 PM EASTER FESTIVAL SERVICES - 4/1 @ 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 AM EASTER BREAKFAST - 8:00 - 10:30 AM WWW.SAINTMICHAELLUTHERAN.ORG

UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

St. Paul’s

WALK THROUGH HOLY WEEK

JOIN US TO CELEBRATE THE RESURRECTION!

ST. TIMOTHY’S LUTHERAN CHURCH 510 North 93rd Street, Omaha NE

Easter Worship Times:

8:00, 9:00 & 11:00 a.m.

Breakfast served from 8:30 to 11:00!

10:00 am 5:30 pm 6:00 pm 7:00 pm

MARCH 26 & 28 Walk through Holy Week Easter Stations

9 am - 4 pm

MARCH 27 & 29 Walk through Holy Week Easter Stations

9 am - 8 pm

MARCH 30 Good Friday Worship Service

Holy Week Service Times:

MARCH 31 Bilingual Easter Service

Maundy Thursday – 12:00 noon & 6:30 p.m.

Good Friday – 12:00 noon & 6:30 p.m.

7:00 pm

6:00 pm

(402) 339-3308

www.stpaulspapillion.org

2085495-01 •

2085177-01 •

324 S. Jackson St, Papillion

2084524-01

APRIL 1 Easter Sunrise Service at Halleck Park 7:00 am Easter Worship Services 9:30/11:11 am

Join us on April 8th for Holy Hilarity Sunday!

402.391.1144 www.st-timothys.com

MARCH 25 Palm Sunday - Easter Cantata Casual Family Dinner Walk through Holy Week Easter Stations Glow in the dark Easter Hunt