WORLD religions face what is perhaps the greatest challenge they have ever encountered and that is to preserve their religious and cultural uniqueness without letting it operate as a cause of narrow and divisive sectarianism that contradicts the vision of unity and peace.

Dialogue among the different faiths is a way of conversing and thinking together openly: just like a parachute, the mind works best when it is open. It will dissolve barriers that divide and so revolutionise and change one’s way of thinking by widening the horizons about other faiths and taking responsibility for one’s actions.

The move towards interfaith dialogue encourages building trust, meeting common challenges and addressing conflictive and divisive issues, among other focuses. It can be viewed as a way not only to become informed about the faiths of others but also to rediscover essential dimensions of one’s own religious traditions.

The benefits of removing historical prejudices and enmities as well as the new possibilities for working together for common good ought to be recognised and affirmed.

Interfaith dialogue is an encounter between people who live by different faith traditions, in an atmosphere of mutual trust and acceptance. Dialogue does not require giving up, hiding or seeking to validate one’s own religious conviction.

In dialogue one sees a new and creative relationship within which one can learn about and respect others and also to give authentic witness to one’s own faith. It should be viewed as a common pilgrimage towards the truth, within which each tradition shares with the others the way it has come to perceive and respond to that truth.

In dialogue the walls of religious bigotry, that has been inconsistent with freedom and modern living, can be dismantled.

Now is the time through interfaith dialogue to see whether the healing light of religious vision will overcome the social and ideological issues that underline much of the conflict between religions today.

Noel F. D’Oliveiro
Ipoh

Source: The Sun – January 13, 2010