In the entrance to聽MORSL's drop-in centre, there is a beautiful painting by educator and artist Juss Kaur, who also serves as the volunteer Sikh chaplain in MORSL's multi-faith team. It is entitled聽The Vein of Gold. Gold "veins" both frame and interconnect symbols representing various world religions together, suggesting shared sacred truths, unity, and a loosening of barriers between faith groups.
Since 2011, religious communities have been marking聽聽(WIHW, Feb. 1-7). This initiative started in 2007 when Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan initiated the writing of an open letter to Christians called聽聽The writing involved 138 Muslim scholars and clerics. The letter speaks about shared values between Muslims and Christians, especially commandments to love God and one鈥檚 neighbor as a strong foundation for peace and dialogue. In 2010, King Abdullah II of Jordan proposed the idea of a dedicated interfaith week during the United Nations General Assembly, and was unanimously adopted. The hope of this special week is to leverage faith's potential to help create peace and positive connections, much like what is represented in Kaur's painting.
While the goal of interfaith dialogue should never be forced agreement and differences should be understood and respected rather than ignored or dismissed, interfaith collaborations have immense potential to foster unity and help people. Interfaith projects often succeed and make a positive difference when communities come together to do tangible service together, activities are grounded in shared humanity and spiritual values rather than ideology, and the experience helps to build trust.
You can find World Interfaith Harmony Events happening around the globe on the聽.
