All too many of the inter-faith meetings I attend are “business” meetings – more to do with the business of keeping inter-faith organizations going than with the heart of inter-faith. And what is that heart?
St Ethelburga’s
Yesterday I sat with a small group of people, embraced in the spiritual peace of St Ethelburga’s – a church destroyed by an IRA bomb and rebuilt as a Centre for Reconciliation and Peace – as we offered our thoughts and reflections on The Spectrum of Inter-Religous Engagement, a document that will reflect what the St Ethelburga’s team have learned about inter-faith work.
St Ethelburga’s is on Bishopsgate, in the heart of the City of London, one of the world’s financial centres that is reeling under the impact of the credit crunch and that is following from it. To take the short walk through the thronged streets between Liverpool Street station, to locate this small church between its giant glass and steel office-block neighbours, to pass down the narrow passageway at the side of the church and to enter St Ethelburga’s, is to make a rapid journey from the world of money and materialism – a quintessentially late 20th and early 21st century world – to a timeless world of spirituality and encounter and love within the walls of an ancient building destroyed and rebuilt. As the St Ethelburga’s website explains:
Having survived the Great Fire of London (1666) and the Blitz (1941-3), St Ethelburga’s was devastated by a massive IRA bomb on April 24 1993. It has been rebuilt in a new form, reinstating its medieval exterior, whilst creating a remarkable new meeting space to serve as a Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.
The first church of St Ethelburga the Virgin in Bishopsgate was built around 1180. The present building was probably founded around 1400, making it one of the oldest medieval buildings in the City of London. When built it was the biggest building in Bishopsgate – now it’s the smallest.
St Ethelburga’s, the Bible and the Qur’an
St Ethelburga’s has been associated with translations of two sacred books, the Bible and the Qur’an:
- in 1604 the Rector William Bedwell was selected to be one of the translators of the Authorised Version of the Bible (“King James version”)
- in 1861 John Rodwell, Rector of St Ethelburga’s, published the first reliable version of the Qur’an in English
It’s a wonderful place and I highly recommend a visit.
The Spectrum
Since St Ethelburga’s re-opened in its new role six years ago, much has been learned about the practice of inter-religious engagement. Much of this learning will be summarized and codified in The Spectrum, which will be a resource for new and existing inter-faith groups, particularly local groups.
The distinctive characteristics of the St Ethelburga’s approach include:
- the breadth of possibilities for inter-religious engagement – not just inter-faith dialogue, but other approaches too;
- ideas about the creation of shared space;
- the use of innovative process, such as story-telling methods and experiments with shared devotional time.
Models of inter-religious engagement
Yesterday afternoon our group, chaired by John Arnold, former Dean of Durham Cathedral and now a trustee of St Ethelburga’s, gave close consideration to the draft document, including an outline of 14 modes of inter-religious engagement and a list of dialogue and facilitation models that are used at St Ethelburga’s, including:
- appreciative inquiry
- world café
- open space technology
- philosophy for communities
- public conversations model
- consensus decision-making
- fishbowl dialogue
The group included Simon Keyes, St Ethelburga’s Director, Justine Huxley, who is the Centre’s inter-faith projects co-ordinator, Stephen Sashoua, Director of the Three Faiths Forum, Rebecca Brewin from the St Peter’s Centre for Meditation and Peace in Kennington, Atul Shah from Diverse Ethic, myself and a couple of other souls.
Positive discussion
As a Bahá’í, I found the positive approach to considering the merits and potential weaknesses of the document very helpful. Everyone around the table found ways of building on each other’s contributions and the result will surely be a resource of great value to those of us who are committed to inter-religious engagement.
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