September 2022

Germany 2022 Wcc Assembly Chambers 0903 9

Can inter-religious encounters bring peace?

3 September 2022, Karlsruhe, Germany: Participants in the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches were able to take part in a variety of Encounters on the weekend, including a visit to the Gardens of Religion project in Karlsruhe, Germany, a project promoting interreligious cooperation and learning. The 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, taking place in Karlsruhe, Germany 31 August to 8 September.  Photo: Simon Chambers/WCC

Workshop explores how interreligious dialogue brings trust and respect

Can inter-religious encounters and dialogue help address challenges and conflicts? Can representatives of different religions act together for peace?

These crucial questions were raised in a workshop, “Participation and peace through interreligious cooperation,” held in the context of the World Council of Churches 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe.

Workshop participants found that nearly every religion speaks about peace—yet many conflicts have occurred or escalated when one group tries to establish its religion as a superior one.

The past decade witnessed an increase in religious tensions and sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims in India; Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Middle East; and Muslims and Christians in South Sudan and other countries in Africa. In some European countries, violence involving people from minority Muslim groups is behind social tensions and conflicts.

“This workshop is not intended to develop a conceptual analysis on these issues, but to share good practices resulting from two specific experiences: the House of Religion and Intercultural Dialogue in Puttalam, Sri Lanka; and the House of religion – Dialogue of Cultures in Berne, Switzerland,” explained Heinz Bischel, head of department with the Reformed Church Berne-Jura-Solothurn.

Coming together

The idea of the house in Berne came out when migrations brought many different religions into Switzerland, a traditional Christian country.

“We realized these communities, which did not enjoy support from the state, had to come together in houses, garages, and other inadequate places. Why not have a house with a temple where they can practice their religions and engage in interreligious dialogue too?” said Karin Mykytjuk, director of the house. 

The House of religion – Dialogue of Cultures in Berne opened officially in 2014, uniting eight different religions. Since then, it has become a place of encounter and recognition. It has given high visibility to religious minorities and offered a platform for ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, thereby fostering societal cohesion and peace.

A safe space

The idea was cherished by Sri Lankan representatives of different religions living in Switzerland.

The 25-year-long civil war which caused between 80,000–100,000 deaths, according to United Nations estimates, called for an interreligious dialogue that can transform cultural violence into cultural peace, said Sasikumar Tharmalingam, a Hindu priest.

“When the idea of creating a space for interfaith dialogue did not receive a favourable reception from religious leaders in Colombia, the Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian representatives decided to launch the program in Puttalam,” said Fernando Emmanuel, a Roman Catholic priest and one of the leaders of the initiative.

In Puttalam, a 45,000-inhabitant city on the west coast of Sri Lanka, a piece of land was purchased in 2017 and the laying of the foundation stone was celebrated half a year later.

Since its establishment, the House of Religion and Intercultural Dialogue in Puttalam has provided a safe space for representatives of different cultures and religions in Sri Lanka to come together for peacemaking dialogue.

“The encounters have helped forge trust and respect for each other and allowed Tamil and Singhalese young people to be educated on human rights matters,” said Emmanuel.

There was consensus that any process of interfaith dialogue should involve at least three elements: getting to know each other is a fundamental premise to begin grappling with conflicts; healing of wounds in a public and safe space so reconciliation is feasible; and educating the new generations so that prejudices, negative perceptions and stereotypes are eradicated.

From the World Council of Churches

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Interfaith Parish Ministry

By Fr Gerard Mitchell SJ, St Aloysius Parish, Glasgow

imagesJesus in the gospel challenges his host and his friends to extend their horizons and to offer hospitality to people who are not part of their cosy and select little social scene.  He challenges them to move out beyond the familiar, to what is strange and unsettling and messy and foreign to them

How might this be done in the world in which we live today?  One way might be this.

For twelve years I lived and worked and ministered in Southall in West London.  What gives Southall its uniqueness is the fact that, within a one and a half mile radius of the church, some 60 different religious groups meet at least once a week for

congregational worship. It is difficult to imagine the existence of a more multifaith parish anywhere else in the world than Saint Anselm’s Southall. One cannot move more than a few hundred yards without passing the entrance of a church, mosque, mandir or gurdwara. The Sikh community alone has established close to ten places of worship in Southall.

When I first moved there after ten years in leafy Wimbledon it seemed that, suddenly, I found myself in a totally different country. Exotic, novel, strange, different with  crowded and bustling streets awash with Salwar kamiz  and saris, turbans and chunnis of many hues.  On first being driven  along Southall Broadway I found myself thrilled, quite taken by surprise and convulsed with joyous laughter.

All through their lives, many people of faith will, out of choice, never cross the threshold of a place of worship of a tradition other than their own.  It may be for a variety of reasons.  Often, perhaps, it is out shyness or nervousness in the face of something apparently so different and strange.

After so many years of walking the streets of Southall as a pilgrim I must confess that I still did not always find it easy to cross the threshold of the other for the first time.

Perhaps the words of the gospel are particularly helpful in negotiating the way in such circumstances:  when you are a guest, make your way to the lowest place and sit there, so that, when your host comes, he may say, “My friend, move up higher.” In that way, everyone with you at the table will see you honoured. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles will be exalted.

Certainly experience, repeatedly teaches that a warm welcome is extended to the stranger in every place. Of course, there are customs to consider when you visit a place of worship: you must be prepared to cover your head here, or to remove your shoes there, or to do both in another place. A respectful attitude, however, is something you are indeed expected to have.

In other faiths, one encounters differences rooted in ancient traditions, often derived from sacred scriptures, that have nourished the faith of millions for thousands of years. These differences may find their expression in unfamiliar practices, and in rituals which have grown in complexity over the ages. Accepting the other means that one accepts not only that differences may exist, but also that there may be something to learn from them.

On such visits many personal contacts are established, walls of ignorance and suspicion start to crumble, the opportunity to start building bridges of friendship may eagerly be grasped. In a multifaith community like Southall, this demands acceptance of the other on the level of faith. In turn, this requires learning about the other and meeting the other on the level of faith. Much of this is achieved through visits to the others’ places of worship.

There is created between people of faith who accept each other a common bond which helps to weave together the rich and diverse strands to be found in a multiracial and multicultural society. Such experiences often deepen our own faith and help us to learn more about the ways of God with human beings.

As Pope John Paul II used to put it “Interreligious dialogue is ‘not so much an idea to be studied as a way of living in positive relationship with others’ (Pope John Paul II 1990).  It is Listening respectfully, lovingly and openly in the spirit of Christ.  It is emptying ourselves so that the other’s real identity can be disclosed.  It is to imitate Jesus who sees the beauty of the divine image in every person who comes to him.

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