An Inter-religious Dialogue – Part 3

I arrived early for the Inter-religious Dialogue. I tend to do that when going to a new place for an unfamiliar  event. When I’m rushed, it’s hard to be comfortable in new situations. A Catholic Sister welcomed me at the conference center and a Muslim woman handed me a program as I entered.

I knew I was in a good place when I saw tulips (spring is coming!) I browsed along the interesting displays from each faith community … a display with their sacred texts and other things important to their religion. At first, I felt like a nosey tourist taking pictures. As I stood there debating whether I should or shouldn’t, I must have looked confused (imagine that) A Jewish man walking by said, “Feel free to take pictures.”

The displays helped me be familiar with the books the well-spoken panelists, a Rabbi, a Priest and an Iman, mentioned as they described their sacred texts. A teen that was there was impressed. Erin said,  “They presented their texts in a very easy to understand way, even though many of us were unfamiliar with them.”

Discussion was followed by a break and then a Q & A time. The moderator selected questions from notecards people handed in during the break. The questions were varied and answered well. I loved it! The only complaint I have about the Q & A was that it was too short and I’m not alone in that assessment. Erin said the same, as did Jamar, a young man that attended. He said, “That was interesting … I would have liked to hear more questions.”

Though there were many notecards the moderator didn’t get to, she did her job well and ended the evening on time, Plus, ending an event with people still wanting more can be a good thing … then they’ll want to come back for more.

The evening was closed by Mr. Elsayed Elmarzouky. Before he prayed, he thanked everyone for coming (overflowing crowd of about 300) and he mentioned that maybe for the next event, they’ll need to reserve the local arena.

Erin’s words about the evening echo exactly what I’ve been thinking … “If more people could hear talks like this, there would be MUCH less hatred between religions. I wish more people would come to functions like this. Although Mr. Elmarzouky was joking, I would be ecstatic if we could fill the Sovereign Center with people for something like this.”

Great event … thanks, A Common Heart! Looking forward to the next one.

My favorite line of the evening was a thought by Rabbi Michelson … “If we would all follow God as we chose and allow everyone else to do the same … the world would have more peace.”

An Inter-religious Dialogue - Discussion of Sacred Texts Part 1
An Inter-religious Dialogue - Questions and Answers Part 2