photos ©Jon Parker Lee
"Christian Approaches to Inter Faith Relations: your faith matters!"
A report from CTE's Seminar in preparation for Inter Faith Week held in Manchester on 24th October 2009
Rt Rev Terence Brain, RC Bishop of Salford, opened the day with prayerful reflections. He included this profound and moving prayer by John Henry Newman:
"God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about."
John Henry Cardinal Newman
Keynote talks given on the day:
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The Presidents of CTE sent a message to the meeting.
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The CTE Inter Faith Officer ended the day by thanking;
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The speakers
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Dr Harriet Crabtree, Director of the Inter Faith Network for the UK, who had attended the event.
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Revd Stephen Williams, inter faith officer for the Diocese of Manchester, for his valuable help.
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The Diocese of Manchester for generous administrative support for the day.
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Revd Steven Hughes, Inter Faith Development officer for Lancashire, with whom all the preparatory work had been done.
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Greater Manchester Churches Together and the denominations connected with it for their support
- The Mothers Union for taking care of refreshments.
Adding these final remarks:
We heard Bishop Brain refer this morning to John Henry Newman’s prayer in which he said we all have our place in God’s plan. Each of us has an important place in God’s plan. We need to listen to God so that we be catalysts in our own communities so that many more people in our congregations and parishes can deepen their faith in the context of friendship and exchange with people of other faiths. Today has been a significant witness to ecumenical action together. ‘Human beings fully alive are the glory of God’. Deepening our faith and reaching out to others makes us more fully alive and contributes to human flourishing. In this way we can contribute to the common good and to the glory of God.
Feedback from the day revealed its worth;
Stimulating, well worth attending, very challenging, I was blessed, excellent, a very important and significant group of speakers, a good range of perspectives included, appreciated meditative start leading into the theological approach, well planned and interesting, enlightening, inspirational and informative, useful to have space to reflect on practice, good to be pushed to reflect on what it means to be a Christian involved in dialogue, confidence building for me as a Christian in a new interfaith and multicultural setting, good opportunity to meet others active in inter faith work and also affirming to see how we work ecumenically, much to think about.
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