Greetings and peace be with you jaybird; and welcome tot he forum from another Christian,
I believe we can all do something to build greater interfaith relations, we are all created by the same God and the same God hears all our prayers. I like stories like this one, our Bishop prayed in a mosque recently and was invited to speak, this was his message....
MESSAGE TO MEMBERS OF THE ABU BAKR MOSQUE
Dear Friends, I thank you for the huge joy and privilege of visiting your
beautiful Abu Bakr mosque today. I am Bishop Philip Egan, the Catholic
Bishop of Portsmouth. Originally I come from Manchester and so I do ask
your prayers for the people of that city, after the terrible bombing last
week. But I live in Portsmouth and our Diocese is a big one. It has
235,000 Catholics. It covers the south coast along to Bournemouth and
stretches north to Reading and Oxford. So on behalf of all Catholic
Christians in this region, I offer you today our sincerest greetings and
prayers for a Happy Ramadan. Ramadan Mubarak!
This morning in Rome, our Pope, Pope Francis, has just sent a special
message to all our Muslim friends across the world, to assure you of our
prayers during this time of fasting, prayer and charity. The theme of his
message is Care of our Common Home. For as Catholics, we are deeply
concerned about the damage our modern lifestyles are causing to the
environment in which we live, and also the disorder these lifestyles bring
to our families and human relations. Both Muslims and Catholics believe
the Earth is holy; it belongs to God. It’s His work and so we must treat it
with respect. So let us pray that the ecological crisis humanity is facing
will call everyone in the world to a profound interior conversion, and to a
renewed care for the Earth, our common home.
Let me add one more thought. Great Britain is a highly secular society.
Yet you and I, Muslims and Christians, we are people of religion, faith and
spirituality. We believe in God, and we believe that every human being is
called to know Him, serve Him and love Him, to worship Him and to
respect Him, and to find in Him ultimate happiness. It’s our task to
witness to this in society, so that other people, those who say they have
no religion, those who say they’re not sure, those who are lost or on the
margins, can find their way home to Him. This is why I’d like to ask you
to pray also for us Christians, as we pray for you. Together, we have an
important task in society and so we need to be strong, solid, authentic in
our religion: in a word, holy. Indeed, it’s crucial for the well-being and the
future of our land, and something to think about as we prepare for the
General Election next week.
So thank you for listening. Thank you for your kind and warm welcome.
Thank you for giving me the enormous joy and privilege of saying these
few words to you in your Abu Bakr mosque. Ramadan Mubarak! Please
pray for me, and for the Catholic community here in Southampton and
across our whole diocese. We are praying for you
http://www.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk...2-BoP-Message-Abu-Bakr-Mosque-Southampton.pdf
Blessings,
Eric