Faith Sharing In Dialogue

In last week’s Shalom I made a slight mention of one level in our practice of interreligious and ecumenical dialogues. I was referring to what we call faith sharing as a form of dialogue.

For the past 45 years or so we Catholic bishops, Muslim ulama, Protestant bishops and pastors of the Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC) have been practicing four levels of dialogue. These are dialogue of life, dialogue of collaboration, dialogue of experts, and dialogue of faith-sharing. I was referring to this last level in my Shalom column last week. I used the expression “slight mention” to mean “not explained well.”

Presuming mutual friendship already developed, a Catholic, Muslim and Protestant BUC partners can make the practice of sharing freely and respectfully how they pray, meditate, and respond to the demands of their respective faiths leadership roles. There is no doubt that this practice will be of great help in promoting human fraternity and cementing social friendship which is the bottom line of dialogue.