Road to faith can take many different turns

Now the executive director of Troy Area United Ministries, Rev. Elia said the Presbyterians "were very socially conscious. At the time, they were involved with the boycott of Nestle and CROP Walk. That spoke to me."

She was attracted to the Presbyterian Church because it was a warm and embracing faith community. "They were open to listening to teens," she said.

To mark the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Jan. 18-25), The Evangelist asked several Christians to talk about how they live ecumenically.

Commonality

Rather than seeing lines dividing Christians, Rev. Elia likes to look at the bigger picture.

"We are all part of the same Christian family," she said. "People express their faith in a variety of traditions. We are stronger together than we are apart."

Changing

While he was growing up, his life was strongly connected to church. "I was pretty serious about church throughout my childhood and youth," he said. "I was in the choir and played music. In my college years, I felt a sense of the call to ministry."

While he attended Yale Divinity School, the ecumenical aspect of ministry began to unfold for him. "Yale Divinity is a non-denominational seminary," he said. "My professors and schoolmates were from many Christian denominations. I experienced a much fuller sense of what it means to be a Christian."

Crossing boundaries

Mrs. Dohring and her husband, a Catholic, had many discussions about religion before they were married. "We both felt strongly about our own religions," she said. "We discussed how we would raise our children."

Now the parents of five, faith plays a big but mixed role in the Dohring household. The children attend St. Helen's School in Niskayuna, participate in school Masses and attend Mass on holidays. The rest of the weekends, they attend Methodist services.

Family emphasis

"Both churches are family-oriented and supportive of marriage and family," she said.

Finding support for marriage and family is important in today's world, she said, because the media give messages that are anti-family. Public policies are also changing that diminish the importance of family.

Both faith communities that the Dohring's belong to help combat this. Said Mrs. Dohring, "The church is our last support of marriage and family."

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