{"id":328944,"date":"2017-02-25T04:00:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-25T03:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/interreligious-friendships-in-england\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:06:29","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:06:29","slug":"interreligious-friendships-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/interreligious-friendships-in-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Interreligious friendships in England"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2017-02-09-Birmingham_03\"<\/a>Birmingham is a multi-ethnic city of central England\u00a0<\/strong>where the presence of different religions and cultures has become a breeding ground for dialogue. The city itself is a laboratory of interreligious relationships based on mutual respect and the discovery of each other\u2019s values. Catholic Archbishop Bernard Longley,\u00a0<\/strong>along with the council of religious leaders of other faiths in Birmingham, is directly involved in the interreligious field and more than once has expressed the desire that the\u00a0Charism of Unity<\/a>\u00a0might bring a contribution in the Church and in\u00a0ecumenical<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0interreligious<\/a>\u00a0dialogue. In October 2015, he made a house available\u00a0to the\u00a0Focolare<\/a>\u00a0in the diocese of Birmingham. Now, members from the community in\u00a0Welwyn Garden City<\/a>\u00a0carry out many initiatives on a bi-monthly basis. They began with the\u00a0Gen Verde<\/a>\u00a0international band\u2019s \u201cStart Now\u201d project and continue carrying\u00a0out many other initiatives. \"2017-02-09-Birmingham_04\"<\/strong>Last January, a\u00a0Volunteer<\/a>\u00a0from the Focolare Movement, who is\u00a0an expert in the field of education,\u00a0<\/strong>ran the first of 4 workshops in\u00a0a\u00a0Sikh school for 70 children between the ages of 7 and 8. The theme was values. \u201cThe Sikhs feel a strong bond with us,\u201d she recounts. \u201cThey say that like\u00a0you, we try to model a society based on the fusion between the human and the divine. They find a harmony in the Movement that helps them to deepen their values and put them into practice.\u201d The project is the culmination of a long friendship.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>For years the Sikh community guided by Bhi Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh has been constantly linked to the Focolare community in Birmingham. The friendship and mutual esteem is deepening.\u00a0\u201cBhai Sahib Ji often tells us that<\/em>\u00a0Chiara Lubich<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>is his inspiration,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>a Focolare member writes.\u00a0\u201cHe keeps a photo of her on his desk.\u201d<\/em> \"2017-02-09-Birmingham\"Sikhs and members of the Focolare recently took part together in an interreligious conference.\u00a0<\/strong>Bhai Sahib Ji presented a project for promoting forgiveness and reconciliation. The event was an opportunity to strengthen friendships between members of different religions and beliefs, who now continue to stay in contact. \"IMG-20170121-WA0000\"<\/a> Still in January,\u00a0Dr Mohammad Shomali,\u00a0<\/strong>Founding Director of the International Institute for Islamic Studies in Qum, invited several men and women focolarini to speak to a group of thirty Muslims at a mosque in on one of the quarters of Birmingham. His desire was to \u201cput together the people he esteems and loves the most: his community and the Focolare.\u201d The Church\u2019s dialogue with Islam was discussed, and the Spirituality of Unity was proposed, along with the presentation of a few experiences of living the Word. Many Muslims remained enthusiastic and want to stay in contact with the Focolare. \u201cThey invited us back on Sunday for the \u2018Visit My Mosque\u2019 event,\u201d they report.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong> They conclude:\u00a0\u201cOver the \u00a0past weeks in which we have made many new friends of other faiths, we remembered a letter that Chiara wrote on November 23,1980 where she said: \u2018\u2026and if there is a mosque, or a synagogue, or some other non-Christian house of worship \u2013 know that that is where you belong\u2026\u2019 It\u2019s a project about building\u00a0the universal family, also among the faithful of\u00a0other\u00a0religions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Birmingham, focolarini animate an elementary school of the Sikh community. The head of a mosque invites them to present the spirituality of unity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}