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In our blog, Sr Isabel Smyth reflects on the recent visit of Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald.

This has been a busy week on the interfaith front. We were very lucky and privileged to have Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald with us this last week in Scotland as the guest of the Scottish Bishops’ Committee for Interreligious Dialogue.

Archbishop Fitzgerald is a missionary, an expert in Christian – Muslim relations and the past president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.  We worked him hard. He gave talks in Edinburgh and Glasgow, gave the Time for Reflection at the Scottish Parliament, met university students and participated in a schools’ conference.

As someone who worked at the heart of the Catholic Church Archbishop Michael informed us of some of the formal dialogues set up by the Church. One was a dialogue set up in 2003 on Exploring Spiritual Resources for Peace which produced a statement read out by Pope John Paul before thousands of people in St Peter’s Square. If such a statement was needed in 2003 it’s surely more needed today, though many people would say that the conflicts between religions are more political than religious. In some parts of the world religious and national identity have become confused. Religion is identified with nationalism and used as a reason for denying civic identity, encouraging conflict and violence. At their best religions teach the way of peace and their scriptures are, as the Vatican document states, important resources for peace but it also acknowledges that scripture has often been and continues to be used to justify violence and war. The document says
”Our various communities cannot ignore such passages which have often been misinterpreted or manipulated for unworthy goals such as power, wealth, or revenge, but we must all recognize the need for new, contextual studies and a deeper understanding of our various scriptures that clearly enunciate the   message and value of peace for all humanity”.

Is this suggesting that scriptural study might be necessary for dialogue? It can be difficult to dialogue around a passage of scripture when one conversant takes the scriptures literally and the other understands it within the context in which it was written. Sometimes literal readings can be negative and cause embarrassment while understanding the context can make a difference. For example to know that the Islamic injunction for a Muslim man to have four wives was given in the context of war when many women and children would have been left unprotected in a patriarchal society makes it an expression of compassion more than oppression, as is often thought. All faiths have texts that are difficult. It’s in sharing them that we come to see them in the light of another’s self-understanding. It was only through dialogue that I came to see that the Christian text which suggests that in Christ Jesus there is no Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or freeman  could be seen as denying Judaism an identity rather than a text about unity and inclusion. Certainly not suitable for an interfaith service!

More than once Archbishop Michael mentioned that were the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue to be set up now he would prefer it to be called the Council for Interreligious Relations as interfaith is more than dialogue. While formal dialogues are important good relations include working together on social projects, living together, establishing good friendships. In the end good interfaith relations depend on friendship and it’s friendship that helps us face the difficult questions and be honest in our conversations. It’s friendship that cultivates the trust that’s necessary for  interfaith encounters to progress and contribute to peace in our world. It’s friendship that will help us develop our own spirituality and engage in the spiritual adventure of our age which is to pass over into the religion of another and come back to our own changed. It helps us be religious interreligiously. And while formal high powered dialogues are important good relations at grass roots level are vital – often, the Archbishop admitted, sustained by local interfaith groups which are often managed and kept alive by interfaith enthusiasts. In a sense enthusiasts are like prophets, witnessing to the importance of interfaith and encouraging the involvement of others. A friend of mine who has recently got involved a little in interfaith admitted that before this she had never met, talked to, had coffee with someone of another faith – and she will not be the only one for many of us still live within our cultural and religious bubbles.

A good number of people met Archbishop Fitzgerald. Many have said how inspired they were by him and impressed to know how much is going on in interfaith relations at a global level. I hope the Archbishop was equally impressed by what he learned of interfaith work here in Scotland. We may be a small country but we are proud of our good interfaith relations and the many opportunities that we have to develop them even more and to make links with the wider world.

Reroduced by kind persmision of Sr. Isabel Smyth. First published on Interfiath Journeys.

In our blog, Rev Matthew Ross, General Secretary of ACTS, describes the work of the organisation.

The quest for Christian unity (not to be confused with uniformity) is based on the prayer of Jesus in John 17:21, making ecumenical relations an indispensible part of ecclesiology. Founded in 1990, Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) is Scotland’s “national ecumenical instrument” – a joint initiative of the Church of Scotland, Congregational Federation, Methodist Church, Religious Society of Friends, Roman Catholic Church, Salvation Army, Scottish Episcopal Church, United Free Church of Scotland and United Reformed Church.

In its work, ACTS seeks to enable the Scottish churches in their common life. It encourages and resources encounters between them in which each participant learns from the other, where difference is explored and respected and where division is healed. 

The overall policy is set at the thrice-yearly ACTS’ Members Meeting, with representatives from each of the nine member churches. In compliance with charity law, ACTS is governed by a board of seven Trustees appointed by the member churches. 

The ACTS office is based in Stirling. It was originally based at the former Scottish Churches House in Dunblane, which closed in 2011. The sale of the building has created the Scottish Churches House Legacy Reserve – a fund that aims to facilitate imaginative new forms of ecumenical work in Scotland.

ACTS aims to be the visible expression of Scotland’s churches commitment to work together. ACTS is very much centred on the churches – allowing institutions and individuals to get to know one another and work together. ACTS also works closely with sister ecumenical organisations, such as Churches Together in Britain & Ireland (CTBI) and international ecumenical organisations.

With the rapid increase in secularisation in Scotland and across the western world, the Church has increasingly moved from the centre to the margins of society. Ecumenical relations must not be about merely coming together in the face of adversity; they are about living out the Gospel. If we cannot work honestly towards reconciliation between denominations and traditions, how are we supposed to show God’s love to a sceptical world? Closer ecumenical relations have undoubtedly played a part in addressing sectarianism, but there is still much work to be done.

All of what ACTS does is within one of three areas:
•    Church and Society / Justice
•    Faith and Order
•    Local ecumenism

ACTS aims to support local ecumenical groups and initiatives through the ACTS Ecumenical Development Group (EDG). It can be as simple as helping put people in touch to learn from each other or even helping to set up a new group, including technical requirements such as advice on charity registration. The EDG also assists with formal reviews of Local Ecumenical Partnerships across Scotland. If you are interested in forming a local ecumenical group the ACTS office is happy to offer help.

A major part of ACTS work is through its Programme and Partner Groups. Member churches nominate people to serve on them and they are supported by the ACTS Programme Officer. Examples include the Scottish Churches Education Group, Scottish Churches Anti-Human Trafficking Group, Scottish Churches Rural Group and Scottish Churches Disabilities Group.

ACTS organises events, conferences, publications, worship materials and brings people together to learn, share and pray. In April 2016, ACTS organised a study trip for church leaders to visit Brussels – with meetings at the European Commission, European Parliament, Scottish Government EU office and the Conference of European Churches. In April 2017, ACTS organised a conference in Edinburgh on the implications of Brexit for the churches.

ACTS is currently undergoing a major external review (by the consultancy Theos, who have also reviewed the sister body Churches Together in England). Whatever changes result from this, the prayer of Jesus in John 17:21 means that the quest for Christian unity through better ecumenical relations must remain a priority for the Church.

Website: www.acts-scotland.org

If you’ve never heard of the Catholic Worker then the first thing to say is that Catholic Workers aren’t any better or worse than any other group of Catholics and don’t claim to be. Neither are Catholic Workers a bunch of Communists revolutionaries or hippy liberals seeking to subvert the Church. It’s also a myth to say Catholic Workers are anti-clerical.

Our group has been visited by Fr John Dear, Sister Megan Rice, the late Fr William "Bix" Bischel and Fr Martin Newell, all of whom have been arrested on numerous occasions for protesting against nuclear weapons, but remain clerics nonetheless.

In reality Catholic Workers are a community of everyday Catholics who are simply trying to live out the Catholic faith in the world by reaching out to the marginalised, oppressed, and those seeking sanctuary. We believe the world needs transformation by prayer and action. We practice the works of mercy and we oppose war and the existence of nuclear weapons. We believe every person is a child of God and should be treated with compassion.

The Church has always rejected the powers of mammon, nationalism, injustice, prejudice, and oppression. These powers have always been rejected by the Church because she confesses Jesus Christ as Lord. Equally, there has also always been a place for conscientious objectors and the various degrees of nonviolence within the Church from the earliest times. Indeed, among the great Saints and martyrs of the Church you’ll find many peacemakers and radicals. 

Here in Glasgow, Catholic Workers regularly gather to read the gospels, share a simple meal and sit in silent contemplation together. Other times we discuss and reflect together and sometimes we go to Mass and pray the rosary. At all times we seek to be open to the catechism under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. At our meetings or out on street corners we pray that Christ is with us. But in truth, the only time we can say with any certainty that Christ is truly among us is when we are in the presence of the poor and homeless at our weekly Soup Kitchen in Glasgow City Centre. Or at our Place of Welcome for refugees which is also situated in the centre of Glasgow.

Nearly all our refugee friends who come to our Place of Welcome for shelter and a meal are Muslims. Some of whom have been displaced by the violence visited on them as a wider consequence of war. We do not use such situations to proselytise the most vulnerable people in our society. Rather, Catholic Workers tend to see themselves as what Stanley Hauerwas calls "resident aliens" in a foreign land and in this sense we have much in common with Muslim refugees.

Our Muslim brethren also pray at our Place of Welcome, we don’t spend time trying to conform Muslims to the gospel, instead we spend more time trying to conform ourselves to the gospel rather than imposing convictions and values on Muslims and homeless people who don’t share our faith. Instead, when a Muslim friend kneels and turns to Mecca, they are no longer a refugee, they are imbued with peace and dignity as children of God.

Lastly, at other times you’ll find us fasting on the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as an act of penance. Or down at Bellahouston Park with our kids and families flying “Kites Not Drones” in communion with other peace activists in other cities who fly kites to highlight the use of drones being used to drop bombs on children. Children just like the ones who come to our Place of Welcome.