“Water Ceremony” by Salma Arastu

The Audience

Over 300 Christians, Jews and Muslims gathered together at New York’s St. Bartholomew’s Church to celebrate one thing common to the religion, daily life and community of the three Abrahamic faiths: Bread. The Guests arrived to a lovely tableau of a court scene in Cordoba unfolding onstage. It was impossible to distinguish the Christians from the Muslims from the Jews. The guests took their seats at long tables, covered with elegant brown paper tablecloths and set with precisely arranged stalks of golden wheat, baskets of apples and scattered quotes from the Bible, Torah and Qu’ran.