Posts Tagged ‘ multi-faith ’

Haifa’s Holiday of Holidays festival embraces differences

December 24, 2011
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Judith Sudilovsky, ENInews, Dec.22. www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5370

Both Christmas lights and Hanukkah dreidels (spinning tops) are appearing as decorations as the northern Israeli port city of Haifa throws a multi-faith party on December weekends.

Now in its 18th year, the Holiday of Holidays — which also includes the recently-celebrated Muslim Eid al-Adha — is meant “to share the differences and honor them,” said Assaf Ron, director of the Beit Hageffen Jewish-Arab Center which organizes the festival along with the Haifa municipality.

This year, Israeli-Arab singer Mira Awad will share a music stage with Israeli-Jewish singer Rami Fortis as well as with other Arab and Jewish bands. “There will be a real European holiday feel to it with lights and Santa Claus and spinning tops. That is the spirit of Haifa,” said Ron in a telephone interview. Police estimated some 60,000 people attended the festival over the 17-18 December weekend.

“We want to show Jews, Christians, and Muslims that we can celebrate our holidays together, we can be together in a big open venue, mix together, and not feel strange or fearful,” Ron said.

Read the complete article here.

‘Ground Zero Mosque’ moving forward

September 12, 2011
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Heather M. Higgins, CNN, Sep.10, religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/10/ground-zero-mosque-moving-forward/

While all eyes are on lower Manhattan, nearly 200 people gathered more than 100 blocks north of Ground Zero on Friday night to honor 9/11 families and to recognize a decade of interfaith work at the Interchurch Center.

“Tonight we want to commemorate the event and we are going to honor 10 families who lost victims on 9/11. Five are Muslim, five are not Muslim, to show that we share the pain, we share the hope, we share the prayer,” said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

He hosted the event, In Good Faith: Stories of Hope and Resilience, along with the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) and the Interchurch Center.

September 11 raised the profile of Islam in the U.S. and, according to Rauf, it caused the Western world to pay attention in a way that made Muslims the subject of intense suspicion. His goal is to build an American Muslim identity and enhance multi-faith dialogue.

The event highlighted bridge-building projects and began with a harmonic recitation from the Quran by Ali Karjoovary.

“We need a national healing around 9/11 and our hope is that we can achieve it,” Rauf said. “And no matter how you slice it, I believe this healing will require the help of religious voices and American Muslims.”

Read the complete article here.

Multi-faith 9/11 prayer vigil calls for tolerance

September 12, 2011
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Mary Grace Lucas, CNN, Sep.11, religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/11/multi-faith-911-prayer-vigil-calls-for-tolerance/

Hundreds gathered in Washington Sunday to share an interfaith moment together in remembrance of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The morning vigil service, planned over months by staff at the Washington National Cathedral, integrated chants, prayers, music and traditions from across the religious spectrum.

The event was one of several organized by the Washington National Cathedral over the weekend.

“We feel like our events say to the world that faith is an element [of commemorating 9/11],” said Steven Schwab, spokesman for Washington National Cathedral.

A reading during the service mentioned the biblical Tower of Babel and subsequent scattering of peoples and languages over the earth.

Other readings, prayers, and reflections contemplated love, conflict, grief, and the idea of finding a single truth in differing viewpoints.

“These attitudes and relationships have a crucial bearing on justice. Justice is not about following the law. It’s about how we treat each other,” said local Hindu leader Dr. D.C. Rao.

“Without understanding and respect, there can be no justice.”

Mercy and tolerance were two other key theme as leaders took the podium to share thoughts on living in a community of vastly different religious and non-religious perspectives.

“Faith is mercy. Mercy is love for humanity. A love for humanity is to believe that human life – all human life – is sacred,” said Imam Mohammed Magid of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society.

Read the complete article here.

Young British Muslims contribute more than you might think

July 6, 2011
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Sughra Ahmed, Common Ground News Service, Jul.5, www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=30025&lan=en&sp=0

Many young British Muslims – who comprise over 50 per cent of the Muslim population in the UK – feel confronted by a world that objectifies and stereotypes them as anti-social or troublemakers who do not contribute to a productive society. In recent years, these youth have felt the need to rise up in response to these misjudgements and make their voices heard through engagement with others.

From grassroots to national and international initiatives building relationships between faith communities, young British Muslims have been hard at work, contrary to what many of us might think. In recent years they have become active members of multi-faith initiatives like the Interfaith Youth Core, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s Faiths Act Fellows, and the Christian Muslim Forum of which Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is the patron.

Read the complete article here.

The Power of Unity: Religious Pluralism in the U.K.

July 6, 2011
By

Mark Goldsmith, HuffPostUK, Jul.5, www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rabbi-mark-goldsmith/religious-pluralism-uk_b_890611.html

Generally though Britain is a multicultural society. The Government’s National Curriculum requires children to experience religious education throughout their school career. This begins, even in places where there are hardly any Jews, with children in most elementary schools lighting Hanukkah candles, learning about Diwali, the Hindu festival and Eid, the Muslim end of Ramadan, together with putting on the school Nativity Play telling the birth narrative of Jesus. It means that the majority of British children, even if religion plays very little part in their own family life, end up knowing a little about all of the larger religious groups in the country.

The national narrative though the experience of children, is that religion is important and that every religious option is of equal value. In the mainstream of British life people are encouraged to be religiously pluralistic. Local Councils and the national government promote and fund inter-religious cohesion at all kinds of levels, from multicultural festivals to local multi-faith fora to talk about local issues with a faith dimension.

Organisations like the Council of Christians and Jews, the Three Faiths Forum, the Scriptural Reasoning Society and the Co-Existence Trust work to bring faith groups together in dialogue. However, they do not count among their activists evangelistic Christians, ultra-Orthodox Jews and Islamist Muslims. There is almost in Britain, a coalition of liberal religion stretching across the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities.

Britain is a comfortable place to come into contact with faiths other than your own. The contact is mostly in the name of community cohesion and does not often get far beneath the surface of just enjoying each others less challenging rituals or volunteering together for a shared community need. Yet, unless your religious outlook requires separatism, you will find that if you look for other people of goodwill in Britain you will find them.

Read the complete article here.

Who says Christians and Muslims can’t live together?

December 30, 2010
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Yvette Khoury, The Guardian – Comment is free, Dec.30, www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/dec/30/christians-muslims-can-live-together

In the rural Lebanon of my childhood, people of both faiths dwelt side by side and helped each other in times of conflict.

I worship Allah and I am not a Muslim. I celebrate eid, and it is not a Muslim festival. I attended al-madrasa, but it was not a Muslim school. How might one explain what some perceive as contradictory terms? Allah, eid and madrasa are the Arabic words for God, festival and school, respectively. Therefore as an Arabic-speaking Christian these terms were part of my childhood vocabulary and so should have retained their apparent meanings. However, Allah, eid and madrasa have in recent times become associated with Islam and Muslims; they continue to be exploited and at times misused by the media.

Consequently, I have begun to feel alienated from the Arabic that was connected to my cultural upbringing. It is not unusual for a language to change and for its words to acquire different meanings over time. Nor am I the only person to feel alienated from her childhood linguistic and cultural associations. What is significant about the development of the above-mentioned terms is that their evolution seems to correlate with the decline of cross-cultural communication, religious tolerance and multi-faith communal co-habitation, ie people of different faiths living in the same community.

Read the full story here.

Multi-faith chaplains to make House of Commons more inclusive

December 27, 2010
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Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Daily Telegraph, Dec.27, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/8224923/Multi-faith-chaplains-to-make-House-of-Commons-more-inclusive.html

Muslim, Bahá’í and Zoroastrian chaplains are to be recruited for the House of Commons under plans by the Speaker’s office to be more inclusive of different faiths. John Bercow has backed the creation of a team of multi-faith chaplains, which will also include representatives of the Hindu, Buddhist and Jainist religions.

Members of the House have expressed surprise at the move, which some have described as “an exercise in politically-correct box ticking”.

It could mean that religious leaders of non-Christian faiths will take part in parliamentary ceremonies, though there would need to be constitutional reform to allow them to read the daily prayers.

At present, the Speaker’s Chaplain is the only person allowed to say the prayers before each day’s sitting and the role has been filled by an Anglican cleric since the office was created in 1660.

The proposal to introduce a multi-faith chaplaincy was made by the current chaplain, the Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, who was appointed by Mr Bercow against the wishes of the Very Rev John Hall, the Dean of Westminster.

Read the full story here.

Multi-faith storytelling and prayers for Thanksgiving

November 27, 2010
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In a remarkable interfaith gesture, Christians, Hindus and Jews came together in Nevada’s capital Carson City (USA) on November 23 and shared stories of “blessing and gratitude” as part of Third Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service.

It was held at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, where the priest Jeffrey Paul welcomed the interreligious gathering with homemade brownies and chocolate. Stories shared included Jewish rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich’s “Curse of Blessings”, Hindu leader Rajan Zed’s “Ungrateful Man”, Roman Catholic deacon Bob Evans’ “Twenty into Fifty Goes a Hundredfold”, United Methodist pastors Dixie and Rob Jennings-Teats’ “Rabbi’s Gift”, Unity minister Larry Schneider’s “11th Box”, and Episcopal priest Jeffrey Paul’s “26 Cent Girl”.

In another remarkable interfaith gesture, Nevada (USA) celebrated its 25th Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Eve Service on November 24 evening at Trinity Episcopal Church in Reno with various religions/denominations coming together to pray.

Christian (various denominations), Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Baha’i prayers and other readings were held on the occasion giving thanks to God. Participants included Episcopal rector Stefani Schatz, Buddhist priest William Bartlett, Jewish rabbi Myra Soifer, Roman Catholic readers Joe Bell and Rocio Grady, United Methodist pastor Judith Bitter, Muslim imam Abdulrahim Barghouthi, Hindu leader Rajan Zed, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints elder Nicholas Frey, Baha’i elder Roya Galata, Robert Petrovich of International Community of Christ.

Letter to the heads of Muslim religious communities throughout the world

September 9, 2010
By

WCC News, Sept.8, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/general-secretary/messages-and-letters/end-of-ramadan-2010.html

Letter to the heads of Muslim religious communities throughout the world on the occasion of ‘Id al-Fitr (end of Ramadan) 1431 H. / 2010 a.d.

Sent to Muslim leaders and dialogue partners on 8 September 2010

Your Eminences,
Your Excellencies,

Dear friends,

On the occasion of your celebration of Eid al Fitr at the ending of the month of Ramadan, in which the Holy Quran was revealed to Prophet Mohammad, we greet you in peace and friendship. May the Almighty God bless you in this significant season!

Religious celebrations such as this provide an opportunity for cultivating relationships of trust and respect, compassion and solidarity within our multi-faith communities. Remembering Christ’s commandment to love our neighbours as ourselves, as a fellowship of Churches all over the world we take this occasion to stand by our Muslim sisters and brothers in interfaith solidarity.

The WCC is deeply concerned about reports that a small church in Gainesville, Florida plans to burn a copy of the Holy Quran on the anniversary of the 11 September attacks. This call has been firmly rejected and condemned by the WCC and its member churches, ecumenical partners, including in the United States as well as by people of faith and good will elsewhere.

Religious leaders have a unique role and the moral responsibility to work towards reconciliation and healing within their own communities and between communities. We are encouraged therefore, by the interfaith solidarity expressed by the churches, religious communities and leaders in the United States, including in the State of Florida.

I experienced such an act of solidarity last week, on the last Friday of the Ramadan, while participating in the Iftar hosted by the heads of churches of Jerusalem for their Muslim sisters and brothers, celebrating al-Quds day together and giving signs of genuine cooperation and standing together strongly for justice and peace. In this way the World Council of Churches remains strongly committed to the dialogue between Muslims and Christians.

As companions on the long journey of interfaith dialogue and solidarity, I look forward in the years ahead to renewing such friendships and to developing many new ones.

Blessings,

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit
General secretary
World Council of Churches

Justice is at heart of HIV commitments, multi-faith conference hears

July 22, 2010
By

WCC News, July 19, www.oikoumene.org/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/justice-is-at-heart-of-hi.html

A multi-faith meeting on the eve of the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna has heard calls for faith communities to keep commitments they have made to promote universal access to HIV treatment, care, support and prevention.  The conference gathered more than 250 people, including leaders of religious groups, networks of people living with HIV and international organizations, under the theme, “Rights Here, Right Now: What’s faith got to do with it?”

Leadership by faith communities in the struggle against HIV and AIDS, “doesn’t come just like that”, said Hany El Banna, the Egyptian-born founder and former president of Islamic Relief. “It comes with responsibility.”  Faith communities, he said, are able to mobilize people at the “grass roots”, in mosques, churches, synagogues and temples. “We shouldn’t be afraid of religion,” El Banna stated. “We should be afraid of ignorance and a lack of knowledge.”