The objective of the interfaith dialogue for the Anglican Communion is not theological agreement, but the development of trust and a better understanding of the human condition in other cultures. For Anglicans in provinces or countries where Christianity is a minority of the population, it can be a “dialogue of life,” said Bishop Alexander John Malik, primate of the Church of Pakistan (United).
 
Bishop Malik spoke during a media briefing at the Lambeth Conference Monday on the day’s indaba discussion group theme: “Engaging a Multi-Faith World – The Bishop, Christian Witness and other Faiths.” He noted that the importance of interfaith dialogue often depends on whether a person is part of a faith community that is a majority or minority of the population.
 
“Many Christians feel that [interfaith] dialogue is a betrayal of mission and evangelism, which it is not,” he said. “Dialogue has helped us to help other people, especially in terms of transforming society, and we do it through education, through health care, through programs of poverty alleviation.”
 
Bishop Malik said that Muslims often assume that Christians hold views in sympathy with actions taken by the United States government. These and other actions in the West, such as the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad in a Danish magazine, make dialogue more difficult for Christians in places where Muslims are a majority of the population.
 
“Dialogue for us is a daily business,” he said. “It is always a very small minority that disturbs the relationship.”
 
Interfaith dialogue was also the subject of a Lambeth Conference media briefing that  morning during which a report titled “Generous Love: the truth of the Gospel and the call to dialogue” was made public. The report, by the Anglican Communion Network for Inter Faith Concerns (NIFCON), was meant to guide the bishops’ indaba group discussion Monday.
 
“The whole idea that you can’t speak about what is on your heart or witness because you are in dialogue is a strange one,” said the Rev. Canon Guy Wilkinson, secretary for interreligious affairs for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Learning to live peacefully and fruitfully within a given area “is not just a Christian issue, but one for all religions,” he added.
 
At the 1988 Lambeth Conference, when the Anglican Communion committed itself to interfaith dialogue, it was a foreign concept to most Anglicans in North America.
 
“Few subjects have more obviously grown in urgency and significance in the last few years than the whole area of relations between the great historic faiths of the world,” said Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in a foreword to the booklet. “Many Christians are torn between wanting to affirm the importance of dialogue and not wanting to compromise their allegiance to the one Lord and Saviour to whom they proclaim as the desire of all nations.”
 
The Roman Catholic Church set out some theological parameters as the basis for “a faithful and generous approach to other faiths” in the 1960s. Since then, however, “the situation has moved on, both in theology and in practical relations between communities,” Archbishop Williams said. The booklet is an attempt from an Anglican point of view.
 
“A theology of interfaith is not a theology of religion,” Canon Wilkinson said. “Christ comes into the world to engage people of all beliefs.”
 

Steve Waring

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