All in Good Faith

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

Page 73

All in Good Faith
grown closer, they often spoke of praying together, and did share times of silent prayer at the beginning of their meetings.
At this conference reasons given in support of inter-faith worship were that for most faiths in worshipping the One God (albeit by different names), Creator of all, participants share in an expression of a common spirituality, a common search for truth, an inspiration for common action, an affirmation of a common humanity and of common ethical values.
On the other hand, it was recognized that all religious communities should be allowed to clarify and safeguard their own beliefs and convictions about the character and purpose of God and about their own sacred scriptures.
The conference concluded that coming together in worship was not something to be undertaken lightly, but that there was a need for people to prepare themselves to understand others and remove any fear that they will lose anything as a result. People needed to know themselves and each other very well before this stage could be reached.
Subsequent to this conference, Wolverhampton Inter-Faith Group started a United Service of Prayer for Peace which now takes place in January each year.
Worship in One Faith Tradition
The practice of groups being present as visitors at a time of worship according to one faith tradition, in the worship place of that faith, as mentioned by the Wolverhampton Group, had been experienced by several groups.
Many felt that this was the ideal way to start to get to know about the worship of different faith communities, for it gave the opportunity for members to broaden their understanding of and respect for different forms of worship and enabled relationships to be deepened. The host community should make clear to the visitors what might be required of them in the way of dress (covering head, arms and/or legs, removing shoes etc) positions for worship (sitting on floor, standing for long periods, men and women separated etc) and in how much of the words or action they would be welcome to join. This information should be provided prior to the visit to avoid potential embarrassment. Conversely the hosts must accept that certain words or actions might not be acceptable to everyone, and no-one should be made to feel that they must participate when they would prefer to remain as an observer. Moreover, it should be
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