wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Christian-Muslim relations: series of dialogues

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

>For immediate release - 11/08/2008 15:15:27

"A COMMON WORD" LETTER SPARKS A SERIES OF DIALOGUES AMONG
CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS

A recent dialogue held in late July at Yale University in the
United States brought together Muslim and Christian scholars,
intellectuals, academics and religious leaders from the United
States and around the world. The event was one of a series of
dialogues organized in response to the October 2007 open letter
"A Common Word" sent by 138 Muslim scholars to Christians around
the world. The letter invited them to dialogue about what they
viewed as the common parts of their respective faiths.

Rima Barsoum, programme executive for Christian-Muslim relations
at the World Council of Churches (WCC), participated on behalf of
the international ecumenical Christian body. The National Council
of Churches in the USA (NCCUSA), the Roman Catholic Church and
the World Evangelical Alliance were also represented.

"The participation of the WCC and the NCCCUSA highlights the
ecumenical dimension of interfaith dialogue," Barsoum said. "The
Yale conference and other events provide an opportunity for
Christians to share their perspectives and theological resources
for engaging in interfaith dialogue." 

Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan, the architect of
the "Common Word" initiative said: "The intention in sending out
the 'A Common Word' missive was simply to try to make peace
between Muslims and Christians globally." 

"It was and is an extended global handshake of religious
goodwill, friendship and fellowship and consequently of
inter-religious peace.”

As a handshake the letter has found willing outstretched hands
across the Christian world from the Vatican to the WCC and the
World Evangelical Alliance.

Since the letter was released, churches, councils of churches
and Christian leadership from the Roman Catholic, Orthodox,
Protestant and Evangelical traditions have been working with
Muslims to organize a series of dialogue events and consultations
which are scheduled through 2010.

>Next steps in dialogue

The WCC together with the Christian World Communions, the World
Evangelical Alliance and the Roman Catholic Church, is initiating
an intra-Christian consultation in October 2008 to explore
questions related to Christian self-understanding in relation to
Islam motivated by the invitation of "A Common Word". 

"The consultation plans to explore how churches and Christian
communions can best respond in an ecumenical way to a new era in
Christian-Muslim dialogue and new opportunities for cooperation
brought about by the Muslim letter," said Barsoum.

This consultation emerged from an ecumenical process of response
to "ACommon Word" which the WCC started a month after the Muslim
letter was received last year. This process includes the release
of a document last spring called "Learning to Explore Love
Together. ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=5690 )" This document
encourages WCC member churches to be in dialogue with Muslims in
their local communities. 

Another event to be held at Cambridge University hosted by the
Archbishop of Canterbury will bring together the top leadership
in the churches and the Muslim world to discuss "A Common Word"
focusing on its scriptural and hermeneutical aspects. 

Similar Christian-Muslim consultations are planned at the
Vatican in November and at Georgetown University next year.

At the Yale conference, which was called "Loving God and
Neighbour in Word and Deed," the 140 Muslim and Christian
scholars and religious leaders gathered focused on fundamental
issues bringing Christians and Muslims together: the love and
unity of God and the love of neighbour. The group also discussed
how Christians and Muslims practice the love of God and love of
neighbour in facing the challenge of world poverty.

"This dialogue has been a positive and helpful start but the
process must continue and deepen," said Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe,
international director of the World Evangelical Alliance.

"Many Christians from all corners of the world have responded
favourably" to "A Common Word", acknowledged Prof. Miroslav Volf,
director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, and the
co-organizer of the conference. The goal of the present
conference, he said, "is to contribute to the historic task of
reconciliation between Muslims and Christians world-wide, to help
us transition from clashes to mutually beneficial co-existence."

In a statement released after the Yale conference, the group
called on Muslims and Christians to affirm the unity and
absoluteness of God. They also recognized common beliefs that
God's merciful love is infinite, eternal and embraces all things.

The document recognized the rights of all to the preservation of
life, religion, property and dignity and that neither group
should misrepresent the other. 

"An agreement on the love of God and neighbour does not erase
differences," Volf said. "It enables people to accept others in
their differences, leads them to get to know each other in their
differences, and helps them live together harmoniously
notwithstanding their differences."

Among the practical outcomes of the Yale conference was a plan
for setting aside one week every year where Muslim and Christian
religious figures are urged to emphasize the good in the others
tradition. 

Full text of the Yale statement (pdf):

http://www.yale.edu/faith/downloads/Yale_Common_Word_Conf_2008_Final_Decl.pdf

More information about the conference on the Yale Divinity
School website:
http://www.yale.edu/divinity/commonword

WCC programme on inter-religious dialogue and cooperation:
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/programmes/interreligiousdialogue.html

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.