Hello, welcome back to When Faith Endures. I’m your host Angelyn Foster.  This season I’ve begun by opening discussions with my most immediate circle of Interfaith friends.  I wanted to start this way for two reasons: First, to discover and build on commonalities that I've suspected were there, and second, to gain experience with this kind of dialogue in a safe space, making it seem to listeners like it’s doable to have these kinds of conversations. 

These objectives were definitely easy to achieve with our next guest, my neighbor Kate Battagline.  Kate’s children have gone to school with my own kids for 12 years.  Kate is a Methodist, and though we’ve raised our kids together, we’ve never really talked about religious belief until this project.  In our conversation we talked about one of my favorite subjects: the singing of hymns.  We also talked about how closely interwoven familial ties are with religious practice, and how grounding a religious upbringing has the potential to be for kids in their adolescent years.   

IN THE GARDEN LYRICS

1 I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.

Refrain:
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

2 He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing;
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing. [Refrain]

3 I’d stay in the garden with Him
Tho’ the night around me be falling;
But He bids me go; thro’ the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling. [Refrain]