A Brief History of Pluralism in Sharon

The town of Sharon, Massachusetts has a long history of social activism, setting the stage for a community open to pluralism. Before the revolutionary war, Paul Revere was active here, mining iron ore to manufacture cannon balls for the colonists. During the war, Sharon’s very first hero, Deborah Sampson, disguised herself as a man and joined the Continental Army. She served for 17 months as “Robert Shurlieff,” was wounded in 1782 and was honorably discharged in 1783 eventually receiving a veteran’s pension from the U.S. Congress.

During the 20th century, Sharon had an aggressively active “fair housing and equal rights commission,” at least as far back as the 1920s. This group, supported by town clergy and other town leaders, led the effort to bring families of diverse religions, racial, and ethnic backgrounds into the community. By the end of World War II, Sharon had become host to a large number of Jewish families from Boston and Mattapan. In the 1960s, members of the local clergy group actively supported Martin Luther King, Jr.,  accompanying him on trips to the South and to Congress to lobby for civil rights legislation.

In 1965, prior to the inauguration of the METCO Program, Sharon began a summer school camp and educational program bringing African-American students into the community. The Sharon Public Schools joined the METCO Program in 1967 and since that time has supported the integration of METCO students from the Boston area into the community. This action brought an increase in the number of African-American families moving into the community.

In the 1980s and 90s, Father Bullock of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church was an inspiring force in the community – fighting discrimination of all kinds, including that among gays and lesbians. He described Sharon as a “living laboratory” for small town interfaith relations. In the early ‘90s he led the clergy group in extending an invitation to the Islamic Center of New England (ICNE) to build a new center in Sharon.  The successful establishment of Sharon’s ICNE has brought even more diversity to Sharon since the center has members from the Middle East, Pakistan, India, East Asia, and from African-American and Caucasian communities.

Father Bullock is also remembered for inspiring Janet Penn to found Interfaith Action, Inc., now known as Youth LEAD, Inc., to bring teens together to share faith experiences and to plan events which unite our diverse communities in action for the betterment of the town, the nation, and the world. Interfaith Action, Inc. built on the work of David Blocker, a Sharon resident, who brought the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) program “No Place for Hate” to Sharon in the late 1990s.  In 2007, Janet Penn was the founding member of the Sharon Pluralism Network. Originally sponsored by Interfaith Action, the network has since become a separate non-profit in its own right.  Youth LEAD and SPN work closely together sharing events, often by having teen leaders moderate discussion groups with adults.

The clergy group, now called Sharon Interfaith Clergy Association, continues to be a guiding force in the community, meeting monthly, working separately and together to create a safe and peaceful community. The different religious groups have sponsored a variety of outstanding community events, including “Sharing Sacred Seasons.”   The original Sharing Sacred Seasons were sponsored by Temple Israel to bring together the Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim communities to break fast during the two years in which their holiday periods coincided.  In recent years, ICNE has hosted several large Thanksgiving programs along with iftars (Muslim breaking of fast during Ramadan).  The Unitarian Church hosted the 2010 Thanksgiving Day program with a meal at the Congregational Church.   In 2011, Rev. Jim Robinson of the Unitarian Church also initiated the Adult Interfaith Group, with the support of Youth LEAD teens.  This open group meets monthly to learn about and discuss the different religious traditions practiced in Sharon.