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There is so much to write about…the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO…the suicide death of Robin Williams…wars in Israel/Palestine and Iraq.

But to begin the week I want to write about some good news coming out of the Chautauqua Institution in New York.

That’s where Joy and I spent the last week, leading a program for clergy new in ministry. The goal is to help them stay in ministry. Close to 60% of new clergy drop out of ministry within the first five to seven years, an alarming high rate.

The reasons are many, but discouragement and disillusionment top the list. So this program offers a week for two groups of them each year to come to Chautauqua in the hope that the intellectual and spiritual stimulation this amazing place provides will result in a vocational renewal of spirit for them.

One of the key features of the New Clergy Program is its interfaith dimension.

It is a gathering of Christians, Jews, and Muslims who spend a week with each other, always ending the week not only understanding the faith traditions of one another, but as friends and trusted colleagues.

The interfaith dimension is central to this program because it is the world we live in today, what with the Abrahamic branches of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and extending to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and others.

There are some 2.3 billion Christians in the world, 1.8 billion Muslims, 1 billion Hindus, 350 million Buddhists, 27 million Sikhs, and approximately 14 million Jews.

All of these traditions now have a home here in the United States, a radical change from 50 years ago.

Christianity is no longer the only kid on the block, a fact with enormous implications for the future.

That is why what happens at Chautauqua is so important. Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and representatives from other traditions come together to understand their differences and, even more important, their similarities.

The only conversion that takes place is in attitudes. Members of each faith tradition sees that she or he has nothing to fear from the others. Stereotypes promoted in the press, especially of Muslims, are exposed for the distortions they are.

Everyone leaves with a new and/or fresh understanding that even though we may be traveling different paths, our goal is the same – to honor and serve God by living out the ethic of love in our personal lives and in the world as a whole.

In the kind of troubled world we read about every day, this kind of experience is a source of encouragement.

Not everything is going to hell in a hand basket, not all voices are promoting hate, not everyone believes ignorance is truth or bliss, justice is not defeated, only delayed, and in the midst of wars raging there are peacemakers trying to end them.

I believe the clergy who were at Chautauqua this week returned home with more energy for ministry than they had a week ago, and that is a good thing for them and for their congregations.

It is a small thing in the scheme of life, I suppose. We have no reason to think they will change the world, but they can and will change the communities where they serve.

But when you think about it, in the long run that is actually how the world does get changed…one person, one community, one city, one state, one country at a time.

So the week spent with these spiritual leaders was a confirmation of the wisdom of the old adage that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.