Perhaps the experience of estrangement, or relational death, brings us closest to comprehending death. Then, too, perhaps the experience of forgiveness is the best sign of life beyond death. Ethical deliberation has been painfully changed for Dr. Roger Gench by his relationship with Jews and the challenges posed by the Holocaust. Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin described the Jewish pursuit of ethics not as abstractly philosophical, but as embodied in stories. Stories define the identity of selves bound to a community, and, as is the way with stories, raise problems of interpretation.
Personal needs can conflict with communal needs.
She is challenged by the Christian emphasis on a personal relationship with God as a balance to the Jewish affirmation in the covenantal relationship of God with the people Israel. The enthusiastic response to this series indicates a deep yearning for new opportunities that make a living conversation among Christians and Jews possible. In large measure, it was this desire that influenced the inter-congregational design of the Genesis project.