The Episcopal Church has historically been at the forefront of interfaith dialogue and cooperation. The Episcopal News Service reports on an exiting new ecumenical ministry in Omaha, Nebraska, which includes Episcopal, Muslim and Jewish worshippers. What has the Diocese of Albany done to reach out to our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters? We can learn, as a Diocese and as a Church, from this radical example of brotherhood in faith:
Episcopal Tri-Faith Ministries is the new church which will be sited with Temple Israel and the American Institute of Islamic Studies and Culture (AIISC) in a unique campus featuring a synagogue, a church, a mosque and an interfaith center.
“We are a congregation engaged in interfaith work because of our partnership with Temple Israel and the AIISC,” said the Rev. Canon Tim Anderson, who leads the new Episcopal congregation. “We are accepting in the name of all the partners in the Tri-Faith Initiative.”
The new church is a project of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska, which serves the whole state and has 55 parishes. The Diocese joined the Tri-Faith Initiative in 2006 along with the Jewish and Muslim organizations. “We all trace our religions back the patriarch Abraham.” explained Anderson.
Rabbi Aryeh Azriel of Temple Israel said “I have been amazed and overwhelmed by the strength and leadership of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska. After only five years of dreaming and visioning about the Tri-Faith relationship, we are poised to undertake the construction of a campus, where three faith communities will live in harmony under God’s watching eye.”
“The willingness of the Episcopal Diocese to learn and listen to the other two faiths has played a major role in continuing with this dialogue and advancing the relationship between the members of the three faiths,” said Dr. Syed Mohiuddin, president of the AIISC. “The intentional co-location of these places of worship of the Abrahamic faiths with the Center of Learning (a fourth building serving as an interfaith center) is a feat unheard of in our religious history. It will be a place where we will share our dreams, our hopes and our inspiration in the service of God.”
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