New PG Courses in Inter Faith Engagement at Queens

Find out about the new Post Graduate Certificate in Inter Faith Engagement available at Queens Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education beginning this Autumn. You can take it as a stand alone PG Certificate or go on to develop it into a Post Graduate Diploma or  MA in Theology and Transformative Practice concentrating on Inter Faith Engagement.

For details download leaflets about Post Graduate Certificate in Inter Faith Engagement and see how it fits into the MA in Theology and Transformative Practice.

Engaging Buddhism

Vietnamese Zen Monk Thich Nhat Hanh a leading teacher in the Engaged Buddhist Movement

Some of my first inter faith engagement was through an interest in Buddhist Meditation as a spiritual practice. In 1989 as a relatively fresh Christian I undertook as part of my Lenten Discipline that year, a course in Buddhist Meditation run by the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order ( now known as the Triratna Buddhist Order)  in Leeds. When later I was at Theological College my interest in Christian engagement with other faiths had developed and I was able to attend inter faith courses in Birmingham run at the old College of Ascension by it's then Prinicipal Andrew Wingate. One of those I attended was a three day programme on Christian - Buddhist relations. My interest in Christian - Buddhist engagement was also encouraged as I entered parish ministry, my own Vicar during my curacy practisced Buddhist meditation and we incorporated times of meditation alongside our reading of the Daily Office and I encountered congregants in my first incumbancy who had Buddhist interests or were partners of Buddhists.

Throughout this exploration - which became a little eclipsed post 9/11 with my engagement with Islam and also Judaism -  the work of Thich Nhat Hanh (known as Thay to his followers) a Vietnamese monk who had been friends with Thomas Merton was an inspiration and challenge to me. I remember reading his beautiful little book Living Buddha, Living Christ on one of my ordination retreats. More recently I have felt an urge to return to Thay's work and  to engage once again in more regular meditation practice as a part of my own spiritual discipline, particularly as a way of maintaining and developing compassion and awareness in my work.

Last month Thich Nhat Hanh was visiting Ireland and Britain on a speaking tour details of the talks with some recordings can be found here. An excellent resource  on Thich Nhat Hanh  and his teachings on what has become known as Engaged Buddhism can be found at  the On Being website Brother Thay: A Radio Pilgimage with Thich Nhat Hanh and links to Shambhala Sun's many articles on Thich Nhat Hanh can be found here. A wealth of resources on the wider Engaged Buddhist movement can be found at The Network of Engaged Buddhists not least of all the informative and comprehensive booklet What is Engaged Buddhism?

A Word in Time - Biblical Reflections

The Methodist Church Web Site runs a daily Bible study reflection called A Word in Time  based on a reading of the day from the Methodist Prayer Handbook. This week the commentaries are provided by myself and Annie working together looking at Sunday's reading from John 20:19-31 and then working our way through Exodus 14.21 -17.13. There is a space to post comments and responses.

Greenbelt 2012 - Saving Paradise

I was invited to submit 2 or three talks for the Greenbelt Festival talks programme this year. I decided to submit the two below and learnt some weeks ago that they have been accepted just had to wait until my name was officially announced on the festival website before publishing details here. This years theme is Saving Paradise.

Maybe see you there.

'Talk of other faiths by Christians often ends up in arguments about who gets into heaven! In two talks Ray will explore a different route to paradise - how opening ourselves to the treasures and challenges of other faith traditions can help us deepen our relationship with God and enhance our spirituality as Christians. Drawing upon personal stories, theological reflection, the bible and the scriptures of other traditions he will argue for a path of radical humility in our engagement with other faiths rooted in the practice of Christic vulnerability.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly.....

Learning about humility from Muslims through experiencing Jihad, about Communion from Sikhs after visiting a Gurdwara,......through these and other personal stories, stories from the Christian tradition and scriptural reflection, Ray will explore how, challenged and inspired by our neighbours of other faiths, we can grow in radical humility, experience personal transformation and deepen our practice of the virtues of faith, hope and love.


But then we shall see face to face.....

Fasting with Muslims at Ramadan, joining Jews in synagogue and home as they welcome and celebrate Shabbat. How does opening to relationship with Judaism and Islam affect how we understand ourselves and our hopes for God's future? In this talk drawing upon personal stories and theological reflection Ray will explore the possibilities for developing our faith if we engage creatively with the continued vibrancy of Judaism and the flourishing of Islam.

Honouring Jesus, Honouring Jews - Keeping this week Holy

Revd Stephen Barton Secretary of the Birmingham Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews gave an excellent sermon on the title above this morning at St George's Edgbaston and is running workshops on the same theme at 6.30pm Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week at the church.

The following is an extract from the beginning of the sermon you can download the full sermon in PDF document here
 

It is good to be with you for today and the first half of Holy Week. I offer some reflections on the meaning of these days, which I hope will provoke further thinking and discussion.

This year Passover and Easter coincide. Holy Saturday will be the first day of Passover. Last year I attended part of the celebration of Passover at the Progressive Synagogue – there is a communal meal, the seder, on the second night of Passover. This was a week before Holy Week. On taking my leave, Jean, a Jewish friend wished me well for Easter and added, “I hope you will give us an easier time than most.”

Jean was of course referring to the history of Christian “contempt” of Judaism and the Jewish people, especially as expressed in Holy Week prayers and hymns and sermons.

Jean reminds us that when we talk about Jews we are talking about a living people. The Church has often caricatured Jews as essentially a people of the past. But these are our neighbours. 

 

Some of you will have people in your lives who are Jewish: friends, colleagues, family. Their Jewishness may or may not be expressed in a form that we would call religious, but all belong to a people who have for centuries been aware of Christian attitudes towards Jews. Christian congregations no longer leave Friday prayers to go attack the local synagogue, but it is still easy to meet Jewish people who remember school playground accusations that they had killed Jesus.

I wish to begin this Holy Week by welcoming Jean and all our Jewish friends and acquaintances among us. Let us walk along the road of this week, as it were, in their company. Let us see what happens, what we notice, not about them, but about ourselves. If I had a title for these few days with you, it would be Honouring Jesus, Honouring Jews: Keeping this week holy.

Today we mark the beginning of this week. I have two questions: Who was there? And Why does it matter? READ MORE

The Last Week - Reflections and Resources for Holy Week

Annie and I are off to St George's Edgbaston on Palm Sunday. Revd Stephen Barton who is secretary of the local Council of Christians and Jews and my colleague Mukti Barton's husband is preaching. He is also delivering a series of reflections for Holy Week at the church on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings based on Marcus Borg's and John Dominic Crossan's book The Last Week. Revd Julian Francis the vicar and one time colleague here at Queen's recently wrote about their plans for Holy Week in the Parish Magazine.

One of the key areas in which anti-Jewish Christian attitudes to Judaism can surface, is, of course, in the storytelling and liturgies associated with the passion of Christ i.e. in Holy Week and on Good Friday. Specifically, this often revolves around perceptions of Jewish responsibility for the death of Jesus. Despite the obvious historical fact of the Roman occupation of Judea and Roman responsibility for Jesus’ execution, still the gospel accounts leave room first for other conclusions, and secondly, thereby, for the expression of anti-Jewish sentiment. There are complicated, multiple dynamics at issue in the death of Jesus. Yet this issue is one that returns year on year for us to think about and reflect on humbly. Every year we have the opportunity to revise our thinking, and take fresh steps to try and ensure that cherished Christian devotion does not have to be at the expense of causing further hurt and driving a deeper wedge between Christians and Jews in the contemporary world.

In response to some of these matters, I have asked the Rev Stephen Barton, a retired priest in the diocese, to come and share some thinking on Jewish-Christian issues in the passion story, both on Palm Sunday, and on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings of Holy Week. Stephen has a real desire to scrutinise Christian attitudes to Judaism in the interests of achieving more secure and respectful relationships in the present. As part of preparing for his visits to us, we have selected as one of our Lent books ‘The Last Week’ by Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan published by SPCK © 2006. I commend it as a very good introduction to these issues. Stephen will draw on material from the book in what he brings to us.

You can read a review of The Last Week here and a reflection for everyday of  Holy Week based on a reading of the book here

Often during Holy Week Christian Churches consider having a 'Christianised' Passover meal on Maundy Thursday and I notice that the Iona Community has one such litugy on offer this year  - a very good article by Revd Ann Fontaine at Epicopal Cafe argues strongly against such practice as an insult to our Jewish neighbours in Say No to Christian Seders and Rabbi Bruce Kadden takes a similar line in A Christian's Guide to Passover. Both articles refer to a piece in Biblical Archaeolgy Review which argues against the consensus in the Church that the last supper was a Passover Meal.
 
On wider issues related to the Celebration of Holy Week and inter faith relations check out the many resources and links  at Etz Hayim/Tree of Life Website

Previous postings on Holy Week on this site which might be useful include Good Friday Reflection from last year and Good Friday Intercessions from 2009

ISLAM AWARENESS WEEK - In Conversation with Julie Siddiqi of Islamic Society of Britain

A version of the following article appeared in this weeks Methodist Recorder

Julie Siddiqi Executive Director of the Islamic Society of Britain

As a local Minister in Leeds in an area that included four mosques within easy walking distance and more recently as a resident in an area of Birmingham my wife likes to call ‘Islamically rich’, I have for over 13 years experienced living alongside Muslims and have experienced ordinary folk witnessing to their faith. One instance of this witness is the practice of the holy month of Ramadan (the month of fasting). When living alongside Muslims you notice Ramadan, as people take on a different pace of life that is very appealing and counter cultural to our need to be busy. Other times, friends have gently and unconsciously shared their experiences of the simple rhythm of five times a day prayer that punctuate a Muslims daily life with an awareness of God. Recently however; it has been the experiences of generosity and hospitality of neighbours who love to share their food with us and who, in our first Christmas in or new home in Birmingham, welcomed us with presents and greetings, that have most humbled and touched us as a family.


It was drawing close to Muslims, who shared such simple practices of fasting, prayer and hospitality, whilst working in Health Care, that drew the Home Counties born and secularly raised Julie Siddiqi to embrace Islam 17 years ago. She didn’t rush into things though: ‘It took me a long time to realise that Islam was the way of life for me but in 1995 I converted’. Marrying Nav a year later, they now have four children and Julie has long been involved in community work which for the last 8 years has centred on the work of the Islamic Society of Britain (ISB) and she is currently Executive Director. ISB runs Islam Awareness Week (IAW) which is taking place for the nineteenth time this week. Julie is regularly interviewed for newspapers, Radio and TV, and says ‘All this is a blessing from God and I feel very lucky to be given so many opportunities every day and to work with so many great people from all backgrounds’

So what is IAW? Julie says that it is rooted in ISB’s original commitment to express a ‘British Islam’. ‘We encourage and help our members to understand their faith in the context of Britain. The ISB has played an important and positive role for British Muslims and some of our innovative projects have broken new ground and generated much needed intra-community dialogue and debate.’

Islam Awareness Week is about taking this vision of a ‘British Islam’ into the wider community to challenge misconceptions and prejudices. She adds ‘It is a great platform for bringing people together and, where necessary, helping people understand what the faith is about. But our focus is much broader than maybe the name itself initially suggests. Islam has a rich heritage of helping others, being good to neighbours, charity work, sharing, equality and justice. We like to find projects that bring out those qualities and many of our members are involved in food sharing, supporting homeless people, interfaith events and lots more.’

In local areas, members of ISB work with partners from other faith communities and community groups to put on events to raise awareness. In Birmingham this year events include a dialogue with Christians on Islamic understandings of the love of God, a discussion on Islamic understandings of the Universe, an opportunity to experience a traditional form of Sufi devotion, but also several occasions of free food distribution sometimes in partnership with local churches.

The importance of Islam Awareness Week can be seen in the recent launch of ‘Tell MAMA’, an initiative supported by Police and promoted by the group Faith Matters. It seeks to record and challenge the rising phenomenon of anti – Muslim hate crime. Julie says ‘Sadly, we hear stories of so many Muslims being the target of attacks, whether they are verbal or physical. We hear about Mosques being attacked too and when planning permission is submitted it usually faces hostility and backlash.’ 'Tell MAMA' is an attempt to raise awareness about these attacks and prejudice and to record the incidents. Julie adds ‘This country has a good record of dealing with prejudice and we need to make sure people come together on this issue more and more.’

This year’s theme of IAW is Love, the official website says:

In Islam, love is the basis of our relationship with God. Love is to care, to be kind, to be gentle, to help, to respond, to bring happiness, to relieve suffering, to be patient, to forgive, and the Quran teaches us that God is the best in all these things and more.

As Christians we can engage with IAW as a witness to our experience of the love of God and sharing that love with our Muslim neighbours at a time of growing intolerance and prejudice.


Ray Gaston is Inter Faith Tutor and Enabler for Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education and The Birmingham District of the Methodist Church. He was in conversation with Julie Siddiqi Executive Director of the Islamic Society of Britain.