Muslims and Jews, Catholics and Lutherans, Buddhists and Baha’is, Hindus and Unitarians, working together in common service; it is an example of acceptance and cooperation that the world needs now.
I am in my 15th year of involvement as a Chaplain in Multifaith Services at the University of Victoria. The current list of chaplains includes all those listed above as well as United and Anglican, Baptist and Christian Science, and has at other times included Presbyterian, Sikh, and Wiccan.
Each member of this diverse group commits to a brief document titled “Guidelines for Multifaith Dialogue.” The guidelines describe that together we “assume the essential goodness of the other,” “relate with respect,” “speak from our own tradition/practise,” “suspend assumptions,” “focus on inquiry and reflection... to gain insight and perspective,” “release the need for an outcome... be open to new understanding;” within common values of care, respect, fairness, honesty, humility, clarity and sensitivity to the beliefs, histories and practises of one another no matter how different they may seem.
And together we work in partnership with and with the support of the University of Victoria, including the “Interfaith Chapel,” guided by a new Memorandum of Understanding negotiated between the University and the spiritual communities, all for the purpose of best serving the campus community.
A diverse multi-faith partnership with a secular organization to serve a common good for over 30 years – that was easy! If it was, it wouldn’t be so rare. It requires a continuing “dialogue” and “understanding” with all the care, respect, fairness, honesty, humility, clarity and sensitivity we can offer. It has its share of struggles. And it is worth it!
On most weeks, the Interfaith chapel hosts Learning to Meditate, Catholic Mass, Muslim Prayers, Yoga Mindfulness Meditation, Ecumenical Holy Communion, Zen Meditation, Sacred Ecology, Grief Support, Rosary Meditation, Christian Prayers, Drumming Circles, Wisdom Jesus Learning, Baha’i conversations, along with events at neighbouring Hillel House and Luther House, as well as meals, retreats, lectures and other on and off campus gatherings for students. And there is more that we strive to do together. It is a challenge and it is a joy.
It is important to describe all of this because it is one significant expression of effective working together in our diversity. This diversity, religious and spiritual, ethnic and cultural, is too often declared a threat in our time. People are encouraged and at times incited to fear and react to these differences. This is not how it needs to be.
This diverse multi-faith partnership with a secular organization to serve a common good is a model for a different, a better way. Like the Victoria Mutifaith Society and interfaith organizations and partnerships for refugee sponsorship and in response to poverty and homelessness – to name other examples, this working together in our diversity is a model for how we see and meet as neighbours, next door and around the world. It is a different way of acknowledging, being challenged, and celebrating our diversity, as we work together for the common good that our world needs now. It is worth it and a joy!
What multifaith, multicultural, diverse group of people could you join or gather or support in work together for the common good now?
Rev. Lyle McKenzie is pastor of Lutheran Church of the Cross of Victoria and part-time chaplain in Multifaith Services at the University of Victoria.
You can read more articles from our interfaith blog, The Spiritual View, HERE
