wfn.org | ACNS3393 The Archbishop of Canterbury's Opening Remarks at the

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ACNS 3393     |     LAMBETH PALACE     |     8 APRIL 2003 

The Archbishop of Canterbury's Opening Remarks at the 2nd 'Building Bridges'
Seminar in Doho, Qatar

Your Highness, eminent guests and friends:

My first duty, which I discharge with the most sincere pleasure, is to thank
His Highness the Amir of Qatar for welcoming us to his country and doing so
much to facilitate this meeting. From earlier days when my predecessor was
welcomed here, His Highness has shown exemplary commitment to this dialogue
and has pursued it with an energy and vision characteristic of all he has
done as ruler of this small but rapidly evolving country. He has shown
precisely the kind of enthusiasm for honest exchange and deepened
understanding which meetings such as this are designed to assist, and we are
all profoundly grateful. It is a kind of openness that is also making
possible significant gestures towards the Christian community here and for
that too let me express my gratitude.

I have mentioned my predecessor, and I cannot let the opportunity go past of
paying tribute to the courage and imagination with which he addressed these
issues of mutual understanding across the frontiers of our communities of
faith. I hope to continue such work, conscious all the time of doing no more
than building on foundations which he laid through much labour, much thought
and prayer, and much tireless fostering of relationships in many lands.

For many, a real dialogue about what we specifically believe and the thoughts
we have about our faith ought to take second place to discussions concerning
the practical tasks we can share, whatever our faith - and this is thought to
be especially true at a time of tension. But this dialogue has been conceived
rather differently. Christians are Christians and Muslims are Muslims because
they care about truth, and because they believe that truth alone gives life.
About the nature of that absolute and life-giving truth, Christians and
Muslims are not fully in agreement. Yet they are able to find words in which
to explain and explore that disagreement because they also share histories
and practices that make parts of their systems of belief mutually
recognisable - a story reaching back to God's creation of the world and God's
call to Abraham; a practice of reading and absorbing scriptures and of
shaping a life in response to the Word God speaks to creation.

We are here to discover more about how each community believes it must listen
to God, conscious of how very differently we identify and speak of God's
revelation. It is a significant meeting not primarily because it coincides
with a time of such conflict and anxiety but because it highlights again a
deeper and abiding need - a need which the run-up to this present conflict
has made all the more urgent. Listening to God and listening to one another
as nations, cultures and faiths have not always had the priority they so
desperately need. So this space for reflection is all the more important; it
is both a symbol and an example of this kind of engagement.

In this dialogue, we are not seeking an empty formula of convergence or
trying to deny our otherness; indeed as we reflect on the holy texts we read,
we shall be seeking to make better sense of how we relate to the other, the
stranger with whom we can still speak in trust and love. As we do this -
experience shows us - we learn more of the depths of what nourishes us in our
own faith; and we hope to go from this dialogue better equipped to witness in
a deeply troubled world, to witness to what faith and humble obedience to God
and patient attention to each other might have to offer to struggling and
suffering nations throughout the globe.

___________________________________________________________________

For details about the Enthronement of the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury,
the Most Revd Rowan D Williams, visit http://www.anglicancommunion.org/

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