ABSTRACT
The Xaverian Interfaith Conference took place at the Conforti Centre in Scotland from the 4th –8th of March of 2019. The confreres of the UK welcomed Xaverian Missionaries from Spain and USA, as well as lay and religious people working within our Regions, members of the Scottish Bishops’ Interfaith Commission, Interfaith Scotland, Pax Christi, other Missionary Orders, visitors and speakers of other faiths and beliefs.
Introduction
The Xaverian Missionaries of the United Kingdom initiated an important gathering of Xaverian Missionaries working or interested in interreligious dialogue from Europe and the United States. The organization of the event brought an intense five days, together with sharing among confreres in an important area of our congregational mission today, along with friends and other colleagues.
The first day was an opportunity to share together on the impact of interreligious dialogue through our Xaverian charism. Fr. Carl Chudy facilitated a conversation that attempted to look at our experience of dialogue through the unique contexts of each of our regions, their challenges, stumbling blocks, and what the future could hold. On this same day Dr. John Stoer of the Catholic Bishops spoke of the important role of Catholic interreligious dialogue in contemporary catechesis and adult faith formation. Finally, Sr. Isabel Smyth, SND, also of the Bishop’s Committee on Interfaith Dialogue, provided an informal and fascinating conversation on the history of the work of interfaith dialogue in Scotland.
The second day provided a wonderful opportunity to hear from Mr. Gary McClelland, Chief Executive of Humanist International Affairs, and the ever-widening experiences of dialogue that includes Secular Humanism and the nonreligious. Mr. McClelland was also an attendee at our first gathering of religious and nonreligious in Coatbridge through our Common Ground Project in 2013. In the afternoon Mr. Hugh Foy, Program Director of Xaverian Missionaries Centre, facilitated a dialogue on the role of dialogue with the expanding role of Pax Christi in Scotland.
The third day, Ash Wednesday, was a day out visiting two important non-Christian communities in the Lanarkshire area. The morning was spent at the Gurdwara or Sikh Temple in Glasgow, and in the afternoon the Lanarkshire Muslim Welfare Society, also in Glasgow. We were kindly welcomed in both of these communities and had an opportunity to have a conversation around the life of minority faiths in the community and their own contributions to dialogue in the community.
The final two days brought to us Imam Javed Ali, Director of the Andalus Institute of Glasgow provided a fascinating presentation on Islam in the European context, as well as an exploration of Catholic-Muslim dialogue through Muslim eyes. The final day provided opportunity for each of our regions to share the work, as well as dreams for dialogue in our respective regions.
The local Xaverian communities, the local church, and the life of non-Christian faiths in our regions showed us both the extraordinary variety dialogue opportunities and the local challenges and difficulties that are also entailed. The close of our conversations looked at next steps for collaboration together.
Participants in the Interfaith Dialogue Conference
The participants representing Xaverian regions are:
United Kingdom
- Fr. Jim Clark, Fr. John Convery, Fr. Patrick Duffy, Mr. Hugh Foy, Fr. Bideri Nyagasza, Fr. John Zampese, Fr. Ian Bathgate, Fr. Eugenio Montesi. Fr. Steve McKend
Spain
United States
- Fr. Michael Davitti, Mrs. Mary Aktay and Fr. Carl Chudy
Special Guests included:
- Dr. John StoerScottish, Bishops Committee on Interreligious Dialogue -Guest and speaker
- Sr Isabel Smythe, SND, Speaker secretary to the Scottish Bishops Committee on Interreligious Dialogue
- Dr Rosalyn Mauchline, Guest Steering Group Pax Christi Scotland
- Dr. Marian Pallister, Vice Chair of The Scottish Bishops Justice and Peace Commission and Steering Group Pax Christi Scotland.
- Fr Bernard Fox, Guest. Columban Missionaries
- Imam Javed Ali, Director of the Andalus Institute of Glasgow
- Mr. Gary McClelland Chief Executive, Humanist, International Affairs
- Ms. Mary Catherine O'Reilly-Gindhart (Intern), Scottish Bishops Committee on Interreligious Dialogue
For further information see attachment
