Pope Hopes to Strengthen Christian-Muslim Dialogue

Pope Francis is to celebrate his first Easter vigil on Saturday after praying for peace in the Middle East and stronger Christian-Muslim dialogue at a torch-lit ceremony for Good Friday.

The newly elected Argentine pope will preside over a mass at St Peter’s Basilica from 1930 GMT, baptizing four adult converts — an Albanian, an Italian, a Russian and a U.S. national.

The ceremony will wrap up a series of intensive preparations leading up to Easter Sunday – the holiest day in the Christian calendar – by the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years.

Tens of thousands of people are expected at mass on Sunday when the pope will issue a special blessing from the same balcony of St Peter’s Basilica where he appeared on the night of his election.

Giovanni Maria Vian, editor of the Vatican’s official daily Osservatore Romano said seeing the new pope during Easter helped explain the timing of his predecessor Benedict XVI’s resignation.

“Thanks to the timing chosen for this decision, his successor has managed to make the start of his service as successor of St Peter coincide with this most important celebration,” he wrote.

“It is in these crucial liturgical days that we have heard the strength of the voice of a pope who has come for the first time almost from ‘the ends of the world’ as he himself said,” Vian wrote.

“In all his life as priest and bishop he has always shown a special concern for material and spiritual peripheries,” he said, underlining the pope’s Holy Week message of bringing the troubled Roman Catholic Church closer to the needy.

Francis marked Good Friday with a traditional ceremony at the Colosseum in Rome, presiding over the re-enactment of Jesus Christ’s last hours.

“Christians must respond to evil with good, taking the cross upon themselves as Jesus did,” said Francis, who followed the ceremony from under a canopy overlooking the 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheater.

FULL ARTICLE FROM AL ARABIYA 

Is the Lenten Season Awkward for Muslims? Not at Georgetown University

I’ve often heard that the Lenten Season is the most awkward time between Christians and Muslims. This is probably because the end of Jesus’s (PBUH) story is one of the major differences between our two religions. In Islam, Jesus ascended directly into Heaven and was not killed while the Romans crucified another man who was “made by Allah to appear like Jesus” (Quran 4:157-158). For many Muslims, engaging with Christians around the time of Easter is especially challenging because the Christian belief in Jesus’s crucifixion is central and frames much of Christian identity.

However, since Muslims and Christians often find common ground in Jesus’ teachings, I believe that a holy period focused on Jesus provides opportunities to reinforce the commonalities between our faiths. Indeed, attending Georgetown University showed me the enormous potential for interfaith dialogue about common values during the Lenten season.

Georgetown is a Jesuit-Catholic institution, but the university greatly supports other chaplaincies and actively encourages other religious groups to host their own events during the Lenten season. For example, virtually all chaplaincies (and even some secular organizations) host spring retreats which emphasize personal reflection and spiritual growth. Retreats are part of the university’s Ignatian heritage, but people of all faiths (and non-faith, as well) are invited to engage with the Jesuit value of Contemplation in Action. Also, Georgetown hosts a large number of community service and interfaith events designed to bring the campus together around Jesuit values ofWomen and Men for others and Community in Diversity. Although these principles are officially part of Jesuit spirituality, I have found many similarities between them and my personal values as a Muslim. Through Georgetown’s many forums for inter-religious dialogue, I have grown stronger in my own faith.

Dr. Kenneth Cragg: Emmaus Furlong – Bible Study Guides for Christian/Muslim Dialogue

This past November (2o12)  Dr. Kenneth Cragg passed from this life to the next at the ripe age of 99.  A prolific writer and speaker, Dr. Cragg dedicated his long scholarly career to the development of positive Christian-Muslim relations. Honest and  compassionate,  he left a rich  legacy of deep philosophical and theological reflection on issues that both unite and divide the two faith communities with his copious writings.  He was, said the writer of his obituary in the London Telegraph,  ”a distinguished scholar who, more than anyone else in the 20th century, helped Christians to a deeper understanding of, and a wider sympathy for, the religious faiths of Muslims and Jews.”

One of his  favorite tasks was leading studies for expatriate Christians and missionaries who served in the Middle East to help them gain a more sensitive and informed understanding of their Muslim neighbors.  In honor of his memory we offer to you a series of study guides he used for these teaching sessions recognizing that there are few who achieved his ability to find those points of contact that allow for honest dialogue between the two communities.  They can be found by clicking on the tab at the top of this page, or by clicking on this link. 

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

Islam in America: A Christian Perspective

A good video resource to introduce Christians to our Muslim neighbors in America.

Christiane Amanpour: Retracing Bible’s ‘Story of a Family’ (with video clip)

For most of my career, I have covered one religious conflict after another. From the Middle East to Sarajevo, Afghanistan, to Iraq, Rwanda to Somalia, the bloodshed often had something to do with religion. Jews, Christians and Muslims in some combination would fight one another to the death.

But the three Abrahamic faiths mean more to me than war and suffering. Judaism, Christianity and Islam have come together during some of the happiest and most important moments of my life. In fact, my son Darius is the embodiment of these three faiths in one. You see, I grew up in Iran, the child of a Christian mother and a Shi’ite Muslim father. I attended Catholic church in Tehran right up until the Islamic Revolution. The man I married is Jewish-American, and we were wed by a priest and then under a Jewish chuppah. And now, the blood of these three great peoples runs through the veins of my son.

And it turns out, all three of these traditions trace their stories back to the biblical patriarchs. That’s why I spent this year exploring the history and the mystery behind some of the oldest stories ever told and traveling to places where Abraham and Moses, King David and Jesus are said to have walked. We tried to learn what these stories likely meant to the ancient peoples who took such care to pass them down through the generations, and what they mean to us now. We searched for actual evidence of these stories and discovered that though they have, at times, divided us, they nevertheless still have the power — as our ancestors surely hoped they would — to heal us and to guide us today.

FULL ARTICLE AND VIDEO CLIPS FROM ABC NEWS

Christians and Muslims Seek Common Ground in Cincinnati

For the past five years, a small, dedicated group of Muslims and Christians has been meeting in Greater Cincinnati, debunking myths and dissolving stereotypes, one personal relationship at a time.

The local Muslim-Christian Dialogue confronts tough topics head-on, says organizer Bill Lonneman of College Hill. “Even open-minded people are coming in with fears and concerns about terrorism. We don’t shrink away from addressing those issues.”

Dozens of such groups have been meeting for years across the nation and around the world, but co-organizer Karen Dabdoub thinks many Greater Cincinnatians would be surprised to learn that such an organization has been quietly at work here.

Without the group, “I think there would be a lot more distance between people of different faiths in our community,” said Dabdoub, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Cincinnati.

One issue the group confronts: Mainstream Muslims respect Christians and Jews as fellow “people of the book” who also believe in a holy text and one God, Lonneman said. Yet Muslim extremists, who make up a small portion of the Muslim population, draw the lion’s share of attention for their violent acts, he said.

FULL ARTICLE FROM CINCINNATI.COM 

Christians & Muslims Affirm Common Values at Beirut Meeting

BEIRUT —

Muslims and Christian leaders from across the Middle East and Denmark wrapped up a three-day conference on religious understanding Thursday in Beirut by highlighting values, such as mercy, respect and caring for the weak, which both faiths share.

The conference, entitled “Building Greater Understanding between Christians and Muslims,” was organized by the Muslim-Christian Contact Group of the National Council of Churches in Denmark and the Arab Group for Muslim-Christian Dialogue. It was supported by the Danish Foreign Ministry.

Reading the final statement, Reverend Riad Jarjour said the conference “had enhanced understanding between Muslims and Christians by focusing on common values which overcome religious and cultural differences.”

The statement said that during the conference, participants discussed issues of faith, common values, religious freedom, coexistence and dialogue between cultures.

Taking part in the conference were Muslims and Christians from Denmark, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iraq. A follow-up conference will be held in Copenhagen Sept. 25-28.

Jarjour, who is general secretary of the Arab Group for Muslim-Christian Dialogue, said that participants agreed on a common message based on a number of principles.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE 

New Resource from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America on Christian-Muslim Relations

The ELCA has just published a series of eight brochures to help foster positive dialogue between Christians and Muslims in our local communities.  The brochures are free and downloadable.  Here is the link:

TALKING POINTS 

Jews, Christians, Muslims meet to promote neighborliness

More than 200 people from the Presbytery and other Christian denominations, the Multi-faith Peace and Justice Alliance, several Muslim mosques, and Jewish temples from the area participated.

Rev. Dr. Thomas T. Peters, First Presbyterian Church of Stirling, Imam Adel Barhoma of the Islamic Center of Morris County in Rockaway, and Rabbi Benjamin Adler of White Meadow Temple offered opening prayers.

There were presentations on “What is Neighborliness and Being a Good Neighbor” by Imam Mohammad Qatanani, Islamic Center of Passaic County, Guillermo Lopez-Acosta, commissioned lay pastor atRidgefield Park Presbyterian Church and WhartonUnited Community Church, and Rabbi Adler.

The crowd attended the dinner in the Fellowship Hall, broke bread together and chatted. The menu included 15 types of soup, bread, salad and main dishes to accommodate all three faiths.

The purpose of the dinner was to give participants the opportunity to network and develop relationships showing that their faiths encouraged loving one another.

FULL ARTICLE FROM NORTHJERSEY.COM

Muhammad Liked Christians, Muslims Should Too

by Dr. David Liepert

I have a lot of great friends from a variety of religions, best evidenced by the outpouring of support, affection and prayers when my wife had major cancer surgery last month.

I was truly touched when I received word of prayer services in churches, mosques and synagogues literally from around the world. Words cannot express the depth of our gratitude for all your earnest kindness. My wife was particularly moved to learn that across her birth country of Pakistan and the Middle East, food was donated and hungry people were fed in her name. God bless you all.

But my agnostic friends also deserve a shout-out. Because even though they weren’t sure whether their prayers could do any good, they were in there with me throughout all the same, doing everything they could think of to help out too, as far as I’m concerned doing just as good of a job honoring God’s commands that we look after each-other as everyone else did, even though they’re not even sure whether God exists or not!

However, it’s the prayers I want to talk about.

Because although my Muslim and Jewish friends didn’t feel it necessary to clarify exactly which God they were praying to—because everyone of us knows we pray to the same one—many of my Christian friends; respectfully, kindly and to my mind tragically, felt they needed to assure me they were praying to the God of Abraham rather than to Jesus, because they thought I’d be offended otherwise.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE AMERICAN MUSLIM