Living Conversations: An Interfaith Fellowship
Do you live near Loma Linda, California, and seek a small, intimate conversation across faith traditions in an open, honest, respectful manner? I’d like to invite you to the first monthly gathering of “Living Conversations: An Interfaith Fellowship” that I’m hosting at my place this Friday, January 26, at 7-9pm.
The purpose of this gathering is to have spiritual/intellectual conversations between adherents of different faiths on matters of common interest among the students of Loma Linda University and the larger community. Our first guest will be Brian Bascom who teaches, among other things, “world religions” at nearby Colton High School. He is an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (a.k.a. the Mormon church). Most of all, he is a warm, delightful Christian who is one of the most congenial people that I have gotten to know over the past year. Also present will be Samir Selmanovic (featured below) who will launch a full-fledged interfaith community in Manhattan this summer. We will read a passage from the Bible—Matthew 25 in particular—and discuss what it means to await for the Second Advent and to live our lives as followers of Christ. We will also discuss the points of commonality and difference between Adventism and Mormonism along the way.
This is definitely not a traditional Christian “vespers” or Bible study, but an interfaith conversation. It’s certainly not a debate, either. I seek to foster fellowship and mutual learning, even as we challenge each other at times.
So, if you’re interested, please come over this Friday, Jan. 26, at 7p. We’ll have something light to eat (sorry, not a full meal), including dessert. Email me at: jjnam@llu.edu. I’ll reply with directions to my place.
The following is my little “manifesto” about “Living Conversations”:
“We affirm the presence of God in the faith and life of persons in other traditions. We can be open to the diverse ways of being human and recognize that there are diverse possibilities for our own lives. We can be sensitive to persons in other cultures and try to see the world from their point of view, even though we can never totally leave behind our cultural assumptions. We can take a confessional approach and testify to what has happened in our own lives, without passing judgment on others. Loyalty to our own tradition can be combined with respect for other traditions. We desire a genuine dialogue and mutual learning about how God is at work in our lives.
“Thus, our vision for this forum is to have a real, honest, respectful conversation about God and God’s acts in the world. Without debating or trying to persuade one another, we’d like to simply share with and listen to each other for deeper understanding and appreciation of the others. This is certainly not about scoring points for our respective traditions or coming to some kind of a binding consensus. We desire simply that at the end we will have listened deeply to one other and thought deeply about our common plight in this world and our common faith in the Divine.”
January 25th, 2007 at 11:35 am
sounds like fun. Wish I could come. (I live in MD).
January 25th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Dialogue is what we need. We can learn from each other because no one has all the truth about God. Wish I could come. (I live in WA).
January 25th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
A wonderful opportunity to get to know what others believe (without trying to convert them–but wouldn’t it be a temptation?). Wish I were there. Keep it up and broaden the conversations. Wish we had something like that here in Maryland in the shadow of the GC. I wish they were part of such an outreach.
January 25th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
I’ll make the 45 minute trek on I-10 for this one. See you there!
January 27th, 2007 at 7:48 am
Well, Julius, I think I’ll see you later today. Sorry I couldn’t make two trips to LL. You’ll have to tell me how it went over a yummy lunch!