INTERFAITH AT WORK.(Roundtable for Religious Leaders)(Panel Discussion)

A priest, a rabbi, and a judge walked into a bar. Well, not a bar, actually--it was too early in the morning, for one thing, and the Red Hook Community Justice Center doesn't serve booze. Also, there were three priests (two Episcopalians and a practitioner of voodoo) and quite a few judges, including Stephen Breyer, of the United States Supreme Court. Additionally, there was an imam, a Buddhist monk, a couple of Baptist ministers, and representatives of the Sikh, Hindu, and Native American (Snipe Clan, Onondaga Nation) communities. Who would deliver the punch line? Tough to say. Justice Breyer, introducing himself, did elicit a small laugh by dryly stating the obvious--"This is a mixed religious group"--and adding, "We have a mixed religious group in my family: I'm Jewish, Chloe is Episcopal, and Joanna is Anglican." (Joanna is Breyer's wife, and Chloe, his daughter, was one of the Episcopal priests in the room.)

This convergence, which took place the other day, was prompted by a "Roundtable for Religious Leaders," jointly sponsored by the New York State Unified Court System and the Interfaith Center of New York, an organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding among the world's diverse spiritual constituencies--or, at least, judging from all the robes, frocks, hats, collars, beads, and scarves, to exhibiting a vivid array of vestments. Even without any Wiccans, Mormons, or Scientologists on hand, the turnout was impressive. Walter Beebe, an Interfaith Center board member, declared the event "the culmination of what we've been trying to do for years."

For some, just getting to Red Hook had been a triumph. Reverend Darius Pridgen, of the True Bethel Baptist Church, in Buffalo, had flown in to J.F.K. and then suffered through a meandering two-hour cab ride that still had him fuming. One of the judges sympathized--she'd got a little lost, too--and wondered if Reverend Pridgen had used Mapquest. "It's terrible," she said. The reverend might have been better off hitching a ride with Dr. Muhsin Alidina, of the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center. "We're on the Van Wyck Expressway, as you come from J.F.K.," Alidina said. "You can't miss our dome."

Rabbi Emanuel Weiser, a Hasid who had come from Williamsburg, said, "I use G.P.S. No wrong turns. It tells you, 'Turn right, turn left.' I picked up Erol and we had no problems." He was referring to Erol Josue, the Haitian voodoo priest, or hurgan, who lives, preaches, and plays music (his influences include Boney M, Michael Jackson, and Chicago) in a Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone. Weiser's wasn't the only carpool, either. Timur Yuskaev, a Muslim program ...