This summers tour group included teachers, university professors and administrators, a seminary librarian and
research director, legislators, a student, a diplomat,
and an orthodontist organised by The Institute of Interfaith Dialog. (See the complete list at the end of this article). The group visited ancient cities; met with professional organizations, businesspeople, teachers, and students; laughed and chatted with Turkish families; and enjoyed the intriguing and delicious Turkish cuisine. The starting and ending place was Istanbul, one
of the worlds great international cities. (Turkey June 2009)
Built on countless layers of history, the citys skyline is punctuated by minarets as well as
sky-scrapers and apartment buildings (each with its solar water heaters). On its streets,
the group saw every kind of dress, from the most conservative to the most daring, and people
doing business, shopping, enjoying the nightlife, and taking the family for an outing.
In Istanbul, the group wandered through the Spice and Grand Bazaars and visited Roman,
Christian, and Islamic sites, including the great mosques--the fourth-century Aya Sofia,
now a museum but for a thousand years the largest cathedral in the world, the Blue Mosque,
the Suleymaniyeas well as Suleyman the Magnificents Topkapi Palace, where the Holy Koran
has been read for centuries, night and day, without pause, in the room where sacred objects
are stored. Under the city, the group saw the Roman cistern, re-discovered after centuries
of darkness, with two immense columns rising from the heads of Medusa and her Gorgon sister.
Istanbul also offered warm hospitality, as the visitors dined with the family of a member of a
womens group and were hosted by an organization of journalists and writers. During a tour of a
well-known TV station, the group watched the production of a news show and received DVDs of
popular programs.
From Istanbul the group flew to Izmir, ancient Smyrna, founded by the Aeolian Greeks more than
3000 years ago. They visited the ruins of the agora, outside the modern city, and then spent
the evening in one of the first of the famous Gulen Peace and Friendship schools, where boys
and girls who achieve high test scores can get a first-rate education regardless of financial
need (three-fifths of the students in the Izmir school receive aidsome pay no tuition at all).
They heard a student band, just returned from a tour of Europe, play haunting traditional
Turkish music (I like jazz best, one student said with a grin).
A short drive from Izmir took the visitors to Bergama, a mountain city beside the ruins of ancient
Pergamon and for a thousand years a center of carpet-weaving. Local businesspeople provided an
elegant meal, and after a trip to the agora and theatres of Pergamon, the group visited a carpet
maker and exporter who showed his wares and explained traditional fabrics and designs.
Next the group visited the House of the Virgin Mary, high above the Aegean Sea, and the ruins of
Ephesus, where the famous library, wide avenues and mosaic floors make it easy to imagine the
ancient city. Ephesus housed one of the seven early Christian churches of Asia, the recipient
of St. Pauls Epistle to the Ephesians.
The groups next destination was Antalya, resort city and home of the Garden of Religions, where
Christians, Jews, and Muslims worship side by side. Here the Mediterranean sun poured through the windows of a small, lovely mosque while a young imam chanted verses from the Holy Koran for the
visitors. Outside Antalya the group visited the theatre of Aspendos, the best preserved ancient
theatre, where a crew was preparing for the evenings production of Verdis Aida.
From there, a road trip through snow-capped mountains took the group to Konya, a beautiful, busy
city where in the evening musicians played traditional songs in a hill-top park. Here the group
visited the tomb of Rumi, the thirteenth-century Sufi poet whose works are widely read around the
world today. The Mevlana Museum and tomb are surrounded by gardens crowded with roses of all colors, a symbol of devotion. Dinner was on the terrace of a local restaurant, hosted by local business owners.
The next destination was Cappadocia, where the group stayed in an elegant boutique hotel cut into
the living rock outside Nevshehir. A local civic leader accompanied the visitors to the Goreme Open
Air Museum, to see the early medieval rock-cut churches with their intensely colored frescoes.
Cappadocias Hittite history is reflected in the traditional designs painted on the local pottery.
The visitors tried their hand at throwing pots in an underground workshop and watched a demonstration, hosted by the proprietor and his family, who have owned the shop for many generations.
From the natural beauty of Cappadocia the group moved to the wide avenues of Ankara, capital city, where they spent an afternoon in the well-designed Anatolian Museum of Civilizations, which shows the role of Turkey as a crossroads of peoples and cultures from before recorded history to the present time. The group dined with members of the current Turkish administration and of Parliament, one of whom sketched each visitors name in calligraphy while discussing current affairs and Turkish cuisine. When I look at the diversity of people around this table, said one of the visitors, I feel hopeful that people can learn to get along with each other and work together.
The last stop before the return to Istanbul was Sanli Urfa, City of Messengers, possibly the oldest
continuously inhabited city in the world, located in the cradle of civilizationthe Tigris-Euphrates
river valley. In this mainly Kurdish city, the group visited traditional sites such as the Cave of
Job, Fish Lake, and Abrahams Cave, as well as another of the Peace and Friendship schools, where they talked with the principal, teachers, and students. The visitors ate a home-cooked dinner with a
local family, and returned the next day to Istanbul.
Members of this years tour group (in alphabetical order):
- Dr. Young-Ho Chun, Professor of Systematic Theology at Saint Paul School of Theology, and his daughter Helenna Chun, student;
- Dr. Karen Dace, Deputy Chancellor for Diversity, Access and Equity, University of Missouri-Kansas City;
- Jason Holsman, member of the Missouri House of Representatives, and his wife Robyn Lea Boyd, elementary school teacher;
- Jacob Prado Gonzalez, Consulate General of Mexico, and his wife Andrea Ofelia Rios Rivera Melo, orthodontist;
- Kristi Ryujin, Director of Diversity Initiatives, Office of Diversity, Access, and Equity, University of Missouri-Kansas City;
- Kimberly Stanley, Professor and Chair, Department of Modern Languages, McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas;
- Logan Scott Wright, Associate Professor of Theological Bibliography and Research and Director of Library, Saint Paul School of Theology;
- Jake Zimmerman, member of the Missouri House of Representatives.
Trip Reflections:
Dr.Kimberly Stanley - Jpeg Format
