November 16, 2014.
Dear Friends,
We will gather together for our Badaliya and Islands of Peace Institute Faith
Sharing on Sunday, November 16,2014 from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm at St. Pauls Church
in Cambridge, in the small chapel located in the Parish Center. Please join
us in person or in spirit as we encourage Interfaith relations and pray together
for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East and especially in the Holy Land.
In recent weeks the news has focused daily on the conflicts and violence in
the Middle East, including in East Jerusalem and the West Bank in Palestine.
Those of us who are believers from all three Abrahamic faith traditions turn
to one another in our effort to understand the nature of the conflicts and the
meaning for those who are suffering daily in these countries and ask what meaning
any of it has for us?
After our last gathering in October one of our Muslim members asked, "What
do you say to non-believers?" As Christian and Muslim believers we look
at the world and our neighbors from the perspective of our own faith traditions
and seek answers. We have questions for each other given that some of the violence
and brutality is being perpetrated in the name of religious conviction, usurped
to gain political power and control over territory and others.Throughout the
Middle East the lives of Christians and other minorities are being so blatantly
threatened that the only escape is to leave everything and seek refuge in other
countries. The numbers of refugees in this part of the world has reached unimaginable
numbers and created a crisis in itself. How are we to respond? Does our effort
to share our faith experiences and traditions with one another and pray together
for peace and reconciliation help?
We can all agree on the fundamental value of human life and our shared humanity
and even that we are called to love our neighbor. But we must go further and
ask the question as it is posed in the Gospel. "Who is my neighbor?"
Perhaps he is of another faith tradition or no faith tradition at all. And perhaps
his religious perspective or political views are abhorrent to me. Jesus is clear
in His perspective; "Forgive them for they know not what they are doing."It
is easy to love your friends but what about loving those who persecute you for
your religious beliefs and practices? We are invited today to ask our many questions
of one another and to listen with open hearts and respect for one another. How
do we speak to an unbeliever?
Unity as a human concept is ephemeral and given the vast amount of diversity
not only in our created natural world but in the amazing reality that every
human person on earth is distinctly different from every other, the following
effort at coming together to counter adversity is surely the work of the Holy
Spirit. In Washington, DC a week ago, the leaders of major Muslim and Christian
organizations in the United States formed a Coalition to protect religious minorities
in Arab countries and promote peaceful coexistence at the invitation of The
Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation.They have formed this coalition with
the stated long term goal "of defending and protecting indigenous Christians
and other religious minorities in Arab countries by restoring the historical
coexistence of Muslims and Christians and other religious groups as part of
the fabric of Arab and Muslim civilization." These are people of faith.
In the statutes of the original Badaliya Louis Massignon wrote:
"We must more than ever live each day among our Muslim brothers at this
time when disagreements and growing hatreds risk cutting us off from them, which
would cause distress for Eastern Christian communities who would cease to be
able to show the Muslims that Christ loves them, through us, who want to love
them at any cost, and "mingle with them like salt".
There is much for us to question and reflect upon together as we pray ever more
fervently for peace with justice and reconciliation, in our time.
Peace to you.
Dorothy