Grassroots sharing with Muslims

In a world that desperately needs greater understanding of other faiths, a parish mission can provide an opportunity for opening up new lines of communication with people from other religious traditions. That was the view of Fr John Gott, parish priest of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Mytholmroyd, west Yorkshire.  For a recent parish mission, he invited the Imam and other Muslims from nearby Halifax to join in at a special service for St George’s Day, at which prayers were said by both Muslims and Catholics present.

‘We gathered in the ruins of an old Catholic church on a hillside overlooking the valley, and we started by lighting a Palestinian oil lamp which carries symbols of many world faiths,’ he said.  ‘And then we listened to our Muslim friends singing their night prayer, before having prayers on behalf of other world faiths.

‘We gave everyone present a candle, and asked them to light it on the 23rd of each month, and to pray for a better understanding between the faiths.  We also gave each person present sunflower seeds, and asked them to plant them so that their growth would symbolise the fact that we are growing in faith with one another.’

Fr Gott said that bringing together people of different faiths at a grassroots level was a big step in breaking down barriers.  ‘What you’re aware of is the commonality of our faiths, and that’s important,’ he said.  ‘You realise how important darkness and light is in all our faiths – and you realise how water is used the same way in our different traditions, to symbolise new life.

‘There’s been a tendency for people to say that religion causes problems and wars, but here we’ve got a chance to use it as a tool for creating human respect and dignity and for understanding people’s values.

‘After our service we had a social gathering, and again it’s very important to bring people together to share a meal and to talk together.’

How interfaith marriage works

No-one knows how many Catholics are married to members of other faiths – but according to Rosalind Birtwistle of the Inter-faith Marriage Network, the number is almost certainly on the increase. ‘These days young people have more connections with people of other faiths – they are at school together, they grow up together, so of course they are more likely to fall in love,’ she says.

But if marriage is never a bed of roses, couples in inter-faith marriages have additional issues to work through. ‘People think that because they’re not that connected to their faith, it doesn’t matter that much – but usually they discover that it matters more than they realised it would,’ she says.

‘We all rely so much on how things were done in our birth families, and we can come up against some surprises when we’re suddenly dealing with how things have been done in families with very different traditions from our own.’

There are, says Rosalind, two big flashpoints: the wedding itself, and how any children of a mixed-faith marriage are raised. ‘It can be very difficult to please everyone at a wedding ceremony – some couples even end up going off and getting married on their own, but then that can be difficult afterwards when their parents have to cope with the fact that they weren’t there, and the moment has gone forever.

‘Others battle very hard for a particular kind of wedding – I’ve known Catholics who battled to get a church wedding because it was important to them, or who had a civil ceremony and went on to get dispensation for it from the church authorities.

‘Bringing up children can be difficult, especially if you’re married to someone of another faith that requires offspring to be raised within it, as Catholicism does. Some people think they’ll be able to raise their children as members of both faiths, but though that might work for them, the wider world and the faiths involved usually don’t recognise dual-faith children. ‘

Ongoing dialogue with those of other faiths

Being part of an inter-religious dialogue group over a number of years has given Bill Ozanne, secretary to the Birmingham Archdiocese Commission for Inter-Religious Dialogue, a much deeper understanding of his own faith. ‘It’s definitely made me a lot more aware of Catholic spirituality,’ he says. ‘In order to dialogue with others, you have to understand your own faith – and you also have to understand where you are in relation to your own faith.’

Moseley Interfaith Group, of which he is also a part, includes Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Moslems and Zoroastrians as well as Catholics, he says. ‘We’ve been going for about 15 years, and we meet every month or so – always in a neutral place.

‘We talk about joint events, such as a peace walk we’re planning at the moment. And we talk about the things that unite us, such as prayer and fasting and signs of our faith and our belief.

‘Social cohesion is a by-product of what we’re doing, but it’s an important one. We don’t have a joint interfaith prayer, but we always have times of silence together – and we listen respectfully to one another’s prayers. We say we come together to pray, but not to pray together.’

The priest who meets people of every world faith daily

‘Life as the Catholic chaplain at Heathrow is’, says Fr James Garvey, ‘very different from life as a parish priest. However keen some parishes may be on improving their local relationship with those of other faiths, there’s no job in Britain that brings you into contact with such a wide variety of people of other faiths and none.‘

‘I meet people of every faith the entire time,’ he says. ‘Inter-religious work is a fact of life here, and in fact most of the people we deal with in the chaplaincy aren’t Christians or any other faith in fact.’

Heathrow has several prayer rooms, all of them equally welcoming to people of any faith or none. ‘It’s hard to make them atmospheric because we can’t put icons or statues in. But we do our best to make them places anyone can feel able to use – the aim is to be as inclusive as possible.’

The airport has many chaplains – 16 Christian chaplains alone – but some are part-time, while Fr Garvey, as a full-timer, is very much around. He is the lead chaplain in Terminal 1, which means he spends most of his time in that area – a point of contact for passengers and staff alike who need the help of a faith leader. As well as saying Mass in St George’s Chapel for passengers and staff, and being available as a pastoral figure, he works closely with his colleagues on the chaplaincy team. ‘It’s a fascinating job, and it’s very interesting and enriching to be dealing with people from such a variety of faiths,’ he says. ‘Of course there are sometimes difficulties in working closely together, but most of the time we’re able to break down tensions and to work together towards breaking down prejudices.’