My Neighbor's Faith: Sikh Center of San Antonio

They let us borrow these hats to cover our heads.  Notice the skull and fire.  Very modern.

We first met up with the Sikh Center of San Antonio about 2 years ago on what they call Infinite Wisdom Day, an interfaith religious conference where a variety of religious perspectives are given in relation to a specific topic.  The topic at the time has to do with the global economic situation with a focus on poverty.  Most people just trumped the values of their religion, or irreligion in the case of the Freethinkers.  I remember being impressed both by the Catholic and Sikh speakers, who both stayed on topic and said something worth listening to.  The Sikhs also prepared a dinner free to everyone.  It was delicious.

Today, we arrived for lunch.  We didn't intend to go to the service, only because we weren't certain whether or not we would be welcome.  It turns out that we would have been.

We walked into the building to find a shoes piled up on our left in bins, and also on the floor.  I looked around at the bare feet and removed my shoes.  Sarah and Alex followed suit.  We noticed that everyone had head coverings.  We had read about this beforehand.  Sarah opined that we should both bring some kind of head covering with us, while I thought that it probably wouldn't be a big deal.  The man who greeted us as we entered instructed me to allow him to put a covering on my head.  Sarah and Alex again followed suit.  (Sarah was right).

I asked why we wore head coverings when entering what most Christians would call a sanctuary.  The man explained that it was a tradition that respected the sacred.  The tradition is common to a variety of religious traditions in the East.  I wonder what cultural conditions lead to that understanding of respect.  In the West, we often remove head coverings to show respect.  We take our hats off at the table.  We tip hats as a greeting.  Regardless of how it's done, doing something with your head is a symbol of respect among humans - take note Paul Ekman!

We walked into the sanctuary.  Alex and I sat with the men on the right.  Sarah sat with the women on the left.  When I visited a mosque years ago, the women sat in the back.  This wasn't the case here.  We all sat on the floor listening what seemed like a reading alongside a meditative prayer.  It was in Punjabi, and I didn't understand a lick of it.

Sanctuary: Notice there are no chairs.  In the far back, you will see their holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, covered by a cloth and surrounded by flowers.

We sat on the floor.  I later learned that everyone sits on the floor to signify equality - Sikhs believe in the equality of all humans, regardless of race, gender or social class.  In the front, to the left a lectern stood on the floor.  Typical, this reflects a view of equality between clergy and laity.  The ceilings in the building were low, which tends to reflect a view of God being accessible to the people, of directly through prayer.  I can't say if those things are true for Sikhs, but I expect that they are.


Front and center, elevated was a book covered and surrounded by ornate decorations or some significance.  I later learned that these were their scriptures, which they treat "like a living guru," a man told me.  The book was large and slightly elevated in a way that suggested absolute beauty more than absolute authority.

After the service ended, we were invited to a free communal meal.  We walked into an adjoining room that was covered with long rectangular cushy rugs, on which about 100 or so people were sitting all over the room.  In between each rug was a tiled space.  We grabbed plates, plastic wear and sat down.  It was amazing to see.  Community members were walked around with curry, rice, apples, bananas, water, and tea, serving each other.  The food was amazing!  It was healthy.  It was vegetarian.  Is the Sunday meal special in this way or do they always eat vegetarian?  Was this a way of being inclusive?

Part of the free communal lunch

Aside from the cultural artifacts, what stood out to me was that the community was welcoming, but not quite evangelistic  They didn't seem to think that their message was the only message with the ability to enable humanity to commune with God, but they were proud of what their tradition had to offer and willing shared it.