Inter-faith dialogue key to our future…
Perhaps you’re acquainted with him already but if not, I would like to introduce you to Bishop John Shelby Spong. Before I do that though, I’d like to acknowledge that this past Wednesday marked the conclusion of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18th – January 25th, 2017). Around this same time last year local churches were sharing correspondence from their pulpits announcing the forth coming dissolution of The Atlantic Ecumenical Council [AEC] after 50 years (15 February 1966 – 15 February 2016) of service to Atlantic Canadians. Churches were encouraged to celebrate the evolution of ecumenical relationships over the previous 50 years and acknowledge Inter-faith dialogue as a modern day calling. Correspondence sent from AEC President John MacDonald in January 2016 acknowledged: –Ecumenical connections are now well established and Inter-faith dialogue reflects the changing demographic of our Atlantic region. How are we doing on the Inter-faith dialogue front in Southeastern, NB today?
It was the late Dr. Art Oatway (an Anglican person), who introduced me (a United Church person) a number of years ago to a weekly newsletter written by a progressive retired Episcopalian Bishop from Newark, New Jersey by the name of John Shelby Spong. Bishop Spong concluded each of his weekly newsletters by responding to a question from a reader from around the world. I was reminded this week of a question from a reader named Peter from Tasmania, Australia who asked Bishop Spong:
“When Jesus said, “In my house there are many mansions,” was he giving legitimacy to the other world religions like Islam and Buddhism?”
I thought Bishop Spong’s response to Peter provided good endorsement for engagement in Inter-Faith dialogue. Here’s his response:
“Dear Peter,
The quotation you cite is from the Gospel of John and most Biblical scholars doubt the literal historicity of any of the words attributed to Jesus in that text. They do not doubt, however, that this Gospel captures much of the meaning of Jesus in its narrative.
The idea that in the Kingdom of heaven there is room for all is one of those essential themes. Organized religion tends to become narrow in its focus to increase its power and to threaten those who think differently with exclusion from God’s presence.
What we need to hear first is that every religious system is a human creation. For this reason alone no religious system can capture the fullness of God. God is not a Christian, a Muslim or a Jew. All religious systems are designed to help us walk into the mystery of God. Most of us walk via the cultural path into which we were born. It is natural to honor the pathway on which we have found holiness. What we do not seem to understand is that we do not bring honor to our pathway by being negative about someone else’s pathway.
Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism have each produced millions of holy lives. So has Christianity. However, holiness is never found in that religious attitude that assumes that truth itself has been captured in my particular religious system. That attitude, rather, produces religious persecution, religious violence, religious bigotry and religious wars. There is far too much of that kind of religion in our world today.
I urge every person of faith to sink their lives deeply into all that their religious system can be but never to assume that God is a Being who can be known only through that tradition. God cannot be limited and the ultimate judgment about what is finally true belongs to God alone, not to us. So walk in love. Join hands with all those who seek God and a god-filled life. They are not the enemies of your religious convictions. They have simply found the Holy One in places different from ours. You and I must honor that place, for God is bigger than any religious system that any person has ever devised. ~ John Shelby Spong”
Bishop Spong suffered a mild stroke in September of 2016 and has decided to move forward with a more modest work load. A new arrangement has been made for the continuation of similarly inspiring progressive weekly newsletters. For more about Bishop Spong or these newsletters you may enjoy checking out his website at http://johnshelbyspong.com/.
In the meantime, let’s encourage Inter-faith dialogue in our region!