Here's the scenario: New neighbours move in next to you in southern Alberta. Their car sports a Pittsburgh Penguins decal. You are a Calgary Flames fan. How do you welcome them?
Should you: a) tell them it's great to have new neighbours but they should know that every one around them are Flames fans? b) say, wow, how could you have been so mistaken! Of course Sydney is the greatest and you'll patch over all your Flames stuff right away? c) tell them it's great to have hockey fans for neighbours. Joke about the teams but invite them over for a barbecue and help them move in?
Alright, it's a version of three guesses, first two don't count. So why is it so hard to do this when it comes to our other religion (otherwise known as Christianity)?
I pose this because it more or less defines the thin debate at General Assembly about responses from the ecumenical and interfaith committee to a number of overtures received since last assembly.
That was the one where, after a much longer debate and committee-of-the-whole discussion, the mandate of the ecumenical and interfaith committee was changed to officially acknowledge that the church talks to people of other faiths.
This change was (and is) opposed by some who, one is obliged to assume, believe the role of the committee is to evangelize those of other faiths and, secondly, that when a Presbyterian meets a person of another faith, the first thing one should do is talk to them about the "doctrine of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ."
Because that's what happened at assembly. The debate was hijacked and the answer to all the overtures was that assembly affirms this doctrine. Yet no such doctrine of the church is to be found. And, no reference was made to the Westminster Confession or any other subordinate standard.
The church's theologians were aghast. Conversations after the debate suggested that fear was behind the move. Fear that Christianity is watering itself down in accommodation and fear that Muslims are coming into Canada in such numbers that Islam is the country's fastest growing religion.
Meanwhile, as this issue of the Record goes to press, about 200 international religious leaders from the three Abrahamic faiths will be meeting in Madrid hosted by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
In the words of a writer in The National, a newspaper in Abu Dubai, the king's call was "quite timely, given the degree of religious misunderstanding that there is in the world."
That's a bit of an understatement, not least in the Saudi kingdom itself where an Israeli entry visa in your passport is a bar from entering and where all non-Muslim prayer in public is banned.
Or, as The National article diplomatically put it, "Religion has always been a central driver of social and political change, particularly in the Middle East, and any effort to open up interfaith exchanges could be extremely helpful in defusing the potentially serious consequences of conflicts between the different communities."
We live in hope. But, as the author, a dean of a university communications school in the United Arab Emirates, notes: "The Holy Quran urges Muslims to talk to People of the Book (Verse 64 of Al Umran chapter): "O People of the Book! Come to common terms as between us and you: That we worship none but Allah."
And on that, we all agree. Among the Christian leaders will be American evangelist Franklin Graham (son of Billy) and Anglican archbishop Rowan Williams. The World Jewish Congress has said it plans to be at the table as will Rabbi David Rosen, former chief rabbi of Ireland, a member of the American Jewish Committee and an international president of the World Conference of Religions for Peace.
Meanwhile, Presbyterians in the United States agreed at their recent assembly "that Christians, Jews and Muslims may hold different understandings of how God has been revealed to humankind, but all three groups are called to love God and neighbor and care for the poor. That means Presbyterians ought to be in conversation with Jews and Muslims, celebrate religious holidays together and even set aside days to worship together – all to promote understanding, respect and goodwill.
So where are we now?
