All in Good Faith

Author(s): Jean Potter, Marcus Braybrooke
Publisher: World Congress of Faiths

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All in Good Faith
South Africa, there were some Muslims, Christians and Parsis as well as Hindus amongst his co-workers. They used to sing hymns together from different traditions. The practice was continued at Tolstoy Farm and at the ashrams that Gandhi established after his return to India in 1914. Indeed Gandhi said of the Sevagram ashram that ever since the ashram was founded, not a single day has passed to my knowledge without this worship' (3). When Gandhi came to London in 1931, he conducted daily prayers in which people of several religions took part. Towards the end of his life he used interfaith prayer meetings as an important way of quelling communal bitterness and violence. Indeed he was assassinated on his way to such a prayer meeting.
In Britain, Unitarians were probably the first to include in their services readings from other scriptures besides the Bible. As early as 1924, Will Hayes published privately for his Chatham Unitarian Church A Book of Twelve Services. The services were universalist in conception and expressed Hayes' belief that the religion of the future would be a world religion. A later service, 'Every Nation Kneeling', was used quite widely, especially at occasions of the World Congress of Faiths. From the first days of the World Congress of Faiths, Will Hayes worked closely with its founder, Sir Francis Younghusband (4).
The World Congress of Faiths
At the 1936 World Congress of Faiths, the final session included readings from the scriptures of the world. A booklet was published of hymns which were sung on occasion during the Congress. The choice of hymns is interesting. Whilst taken from the Christian tradition, they were chosen in the hope that many members of other faiths also would feel able to sing them. They were 'Pour out Thy Spirit from on high', 'Gather us in', 'God is working his purpose out', 'Lord while for all mankind we pray'. 'Turn back, o man', 'To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love'. 'Gird on Thy Sword' and 'The God of Love'.
In Britain, it was the memorial service for Sir Francis Younghusband, the founder of the World Congress of Faiths, which was one of the first public services in which members of different religions read from their scriptures. It was almost certainly the first such service to be held in an Anglican Church - taking place at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on the 10th of August 1942.
By the early fifties, an 'All Faiths' service had become a regular feature of the World Congress of Faiths' Annual Conference. Then, in 1953, in response to Queen Elizabeth Il's request at the time of her coronation that people of all religions should pray for her, a public service was
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