STEP
A Local Interfaith Initiative
If you want to organize an interfaith initiative on your
campus or in your home community, just follow these steps. Invite people to:
Study scriptures
together. This is just like a scripture study group in your own faith tradition,
except each meeting you read scriptures from a different tradition. Persons from
different religious communities can take turns in selecting the readings.
Talk about what
these readings mean to each person. Share your own teachings and listen to
others. Different meanings are to be accepted. No one is to proselytize or
pressure another to accept a certain meaning. The goal is understanding.
Eat together. All
over the world religious groups eat separately. If you have access to the
facilities, invite participants to take turns cooking - each preparing a meal in
her or his own cultural tradition. Or go out, if the restaurants are available,
and try different foods. Enjoy the food and each other.
Pray together. Each
participant can join in, praying in the way that is most meaningful for that
person. This might mean praying or chanting in another language, praying or
meditating in silence, saying a traditional prayer, or praying spontaneously.
There should be no pressure to have everyone join in saying a prayer together.
This STEP
interfaith initiative can lead to friendship, trust, understanding, and even
acts for justice. Why not try it?
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