Love rises from the ashes

The scene of All Saints during the fire.
Firemen responded from a 40 mile radius.

We are pleased to offer this post from Tom Smull, who is working to restore All Saints Catholic Church after tragedy. From the flames of hatred, a plume of love has risen:

When an arsonist set fire to the unique Byzantine All Saints Catholic Church in Stuart, Iowa in 1995, we had no idea what the future would hold for the building.

One of the most interesting things that happened was the creation of the Learning Museum of Religious Tolerance housed within the restored building that is now a community cultural center. The Museum is a series of interactive video clips in two viewer-activated kiosks. The videos were produced with the guidance of religious experts and feature brief historical information, but more importantly, feature young people in the area explaining their own faiths shown in the videos. The world’s eight major religions are covered and viewers can select from topics such as important holidays, sacred texts and tours of places of worship.  

All people featured start their tour of their place of worship by saying their name and that they practice their faith a short distance from the Saints Center. The idea is to show that even within Iowa, there is a broad diversity in religious practice. The Learning Museum and the Saints Center are careful to point out that we are not religious experts and don’t promote any religion in particular, just that we believe the more understanding, the less chance for acts of hate such as what occurred at the Saints Center. To book a tour of the museum, go to http://www.saintscenter.com/

Tom Smull
Project Restore Foundation