But as the Clergy Council prepared for the last of its yearlong communitywide dialogues on topics like police-community relations, justice, town government and multicultural education, Pastor Davidson said he was heartened that the dialogues inspired plans for continuing talks by different groups, particularly Teaneck's growing community of Orthodox Jews and blacks.

A typical view in Englewood's minority community is that of the Rev. William McKenith, a leader of the Black Clergy Council of Englewood and Vicinity, who favors integration with equalized busing of blacks and whites: "We must all work together if we are to survive."

Several days later, though, the Mayor joined the New York Board of Rabbis and the African-American Clergy Council in a more pointed demand for justice.

Hoping to counter Mr. Robertson's organization, a liberal group called People for the American Way has organized 25 New York City religious leaders into a Clergy Council.

Beginning in 1807 he was member of the Grand-Ducal Higher Clergy Council of Baden.

Yesterday, in the latest addition to the liberal coalition, eight prominent local religious leaders held a news conference in Manhattan to announce the formation of what they called a Clergy Council to counter the influence of Mr. Robertson's Christian Coalition.

"I have been in the Black Clergy Council since 1986," she said.

The 20-member Clergy Council of Teaneck, which represents the community's churches and synagogues, is organizing a task force to explore the causes of the shooting and draft proposals for the community.

The 20-member Clergy Council of Teaneck, which represents all the community's houses of worship, met for much of the morning and decided to organize a task force to draft proposals to foster communal healing and explore causes of the shooting.

"Matchmakers now stand to gain from our pain," Mr. Jackson told the New York Board of Rabbis' annual Thanksgiving luncheon meeting with the city's African-American Clergy Council in Manhattan.