Talking with our Neighbours
of other Faiths
Why Talk?
Britain is an
increasingly diverse culture where people of many religious faiths live side by
side. So building friendship and understanding between people of different
religions is very important.
Some cities in
particular are comprised of a very multi-faith population. This diversity gives
a wonderful opportunity to understand each other better and share the many values
that people of faith have in common.
All the major religions
have teachings that encourage their followers to find ways to live in peace
with others. Talking with people of other religions is not about compromising Christian
principles or beliefs. It’s about getting rid of misconceptions and prejudices,
looking for common ground in shared values and finding constructive ways to
discuss genuine areas of disagreement.
We’ve been reminded on a
number of occasions in the last few years how people of different faiths have
co-operated together in a very positive way, most recently in the tremendous
response to the tsunami disaster, and previously for the Millennium Event and
Golden Jubilee celebrations.
Why
Cumbria? And what can we do?
But we live in a county
where there are not many people of other faiths. This makes our situation
rather different to that of people in many other parts of the country. We will
find it harder to make opportunities to get alongside people of other faiths.
We may not have had a chance to make personal connections and friendships with
those of a different faith to ourselves. Does this sometimes cause us to be a
bit afraid of such conversations and to be rather suspicious of faiths other
than Christianity? Does it make it hard for us to have a clear view of the
multi-faith experience in other parts of Britain?
Churches Together in
Cumbria seeks to encourage Christians in our county not to be isolated from the
riches of friendship and shared understanding with neighbours of other faiths
in Britain today.
For this reason we offer an annual Meet
Your Neighbour day for members of our churches to visit other communities of
faith in Lancashire. Please contact
Helen Boothroyd, Social Responsibility
Administrator, or Andrew Dodd, County Ecumenical Officer for details of the
next Meet Your Neighbour day:
andrew.dodd1@btinternet.com
Churches Together in
Cumbria is also keen to help ensure that the relatively small number of people
of other faiths who do live and work in Cumbria do not feel isolated. Please
take any chances that you get to talk and share with people of other faiths,
e.g. at work, with neighbours of a different faith, in local shops. Friendly
welcoming conversations and an interest in people’s life and faith will help to
ease isolation and can bring great benefits, both for those of other faiths and
for us. It is also important that we give a warm welcome to tourists of other
faiths who visit the gems our beautiful county has to offer, and help to
provide facilities that will make more and more such tourists feel relaxed and
comfortable here.
Even if you do not come
across anyone of a different religion in your everyday life, you may like to
invite someone of another faith to come to speak to your church about their life
and how this is affected by their faith, and thereby to share in conversation
with them. There are great benefits to our churches in hosting this kind of
meeting: new experiences to listen to, leading to interesting discussion;
enrichment of our knowledge and understanding; and often lasting friendship. A
good way to find potential speakers is through the national inter faith officer
for your Christian denomination. Or contact
Helen Boothroyd or Andrew Dodd for
advice.
Who are
the other faith communities?
The Inter Faith Network links eight other major faith communities in Britain in addition to Christianity: Baha'i; Buddhist; Hindu; Jain; Jewish; Muslim; Sikh and Zoroastrian.
How to find out more
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
has a Churches Commission for Inter Faith Relations (CCIFR), which approaches
inter faith activity from a firm Christian basis, while working in ways that
respect the distinctiveness of the different religious traditions:
email:
ccifr@ctbi.org.uk phone: 020 7898
1477
The Inter Faith Network
for the UK has an interesting and helpful website:
with
valuable contact details and useful guidelines for talking with people of
another faith.
Afraid of getting into an argument? - Or of causing
offence?
We might be afraid to
initiate a conversation about faith with someone of a different religion for
fear of getting into an argument or causing offence. But if we keep a few guidelines
in mind we should be able to have a helpful and thought-provoking conversation
that builds up understanding between ourselves and someone of another faith:
- When asking questions of others about their faith, offer a genuine
personal reason for your query.
- Find out what others actually believe and value, and let them
express this in their own terms.
- Find out what you have in common; what connects you rather than
divides you.
- Respect the other person’s right to express their beliefs and
convictions and to disagree.
We are not all the same
- accept and respect the fact that the religious beliefs of someone may affect
what they eat, what they wear and many of the ways they deal with other people.
Ensure your faith is
presented with integrity - be prepared to say ‘I don’t know the answer to that,
but I’ll find out’.
Take care that everyone understands the
religious terms that you are using - ask ‘Is this clear?’ every so often.
A sense of humour is good, but take care
- jokes on religious topics can cause offence.
Taken from Connect: different faiths shared values,
The Inter Faith Network for the UK, 2004
The Inter Faith Network
has also published a fuller Code of Conduct that give helpful guidelines for
talking with people of different faiths. This is found on the website detailed above,
under the heading ’Dialogue guidelines’. The Code has been endorsed by all
member bodies, including the Churches Commission for Inter Faith Relations and
the various denominations.
You could
also consider how the advice outlined above and in the Code can be used helpfully
in talking with Christians of other denominations, traditions or theological perspectives
to our own.
This is the second in a series of
occasional papers that the Social Responsibility Forum intends to produce to
stimulate discussion and action in the churches of our county focussed on a
variety of social issues. These papers are suitable for use in a house group,
study group or discussion group or by the whole church.
The first discussion paper focussed on the
arms
trade
Further copies of both papers are available from:
Helen
Boothroyd, Social Responsibility Administrator
016977 46567