I saw the Compass program that was billed as looking at how united the Uniting Church might be. I have to say it was pretty disappointing for an ABC program. Almost narrow enough to be a 7.30 Report exposé.
Darren Wright has written his response, and he says it all as well as I could; so go on over to planettelex and check it out.
A friend/collegue of mine, who blogs regularly on unconventional worship, wrote a small piece titled ‘god as verb, not noun.’ I’ve noticed her write hints about this before, but not yet had a glass of red with her to discuss it in depth. Anyway, this time it provoked two small repsonses from me which I thought I’d put here for what they’re worth.
1.
when are you, god, not where
when are you, god, not what
when are you,
how are you,
why are you,
god
2.
‘I will be that I will be’ not ‘I am that I am’
It struck me that I must be out of touch a wee bit since I almost accidentally stumbled across this monumental document of our time. Either I’m not reading enough news, or this didn’t rate highly enough in the media’s strange priorities. A group of 138 Muslim leaders from around the world and across the various denominations of Islam have come together to reach out to Christians, and this doesn’t get front page priority?
I’ve been concerned about the consistent sabre rattling and conflict creation climate that has been fuelled over many issues - religion not being the least of them. A Common Word, aimed at finding a common ground for productive engagement between Muslims, Christians and Jews is just superb. Each are called to seek commonality in the command to love God and love others.
A wonderful, and equally well written, reply has also been posted here. If you have any interest in interfaith dialogue, please take the time to read and digest both documents. Then think about how you can spread the news of this initiative for relationship and peace between the world faiths.
