All in Good Faith

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

Page 31

All in Good Faith
who may be hungry not for food, but for music, for poetry, for dance, for expression, for love, for joy, for happiness, for a life of plenty.
Response to a New Situation
It is clear that the number of occasions on which people of different faiths meet in prayer is increasing in many parts of the world. In most cases the wish for 'interfaith prayer' arises out of situations in daily life. It is a creative response to new relationships for which traditional practices do not provide.
Certain distinctions about types of interfaith events are now widely accepted, although the best way of naming and describing the differences is far from agreed.
1.
Services of a particular faith community to which members of other faiths are invited as
guests.
Here guests are present as observers and not expected to participate unless they choose to do so, perhaps by joining in the singing of a hymn. The normal service may be modified to make the guests feel more welcome. For example, explanations may be added. Perhaps one of the guests will be asked to give a message or to read. There are several occasions when a rabbi or an imam or other religious leader has been asked to preach at a Christian service. At a Sikh Gurdwara or a Hindu temple, for example, a visiting Christian minister might be asked to speak.
2. Interfaith gatherings of a serial multi-faith character. These are the occasions described at the Bangalore consultation, following a distinction made by the German churches, as multireligious prayer, whilst an American Presbyterian report calls them 'focused observances' (51). They are what others describe as 'being together to pray'
In these events a member of each faith present is invited to read or say a prayer. Usually the order of contributors is determined in terms of the alphabetical or chronological position of the faith. Although the readings may be on an agreed common theme, each contribution is distinct and there is no necessary assumption that members of other faiths present agree with this. Representatives of each faith make an offering to others of a reading or prayer or song that they wish to share. There
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