CREEDE HINSHAW: The possible pitfalls of interfaith gatherings

Pope Francis travelled to Kazakhstan this week to attend an interfaith conference. I am impressed. The pope is 85, his knee is very sore and it’s painful to get around. I don’t know how long it takes to travel from Rome to Nur-Sultan, the Kazakh capital, but I could invent a dozen good reasons why I might not want to make such a trip.

On the one hand, I’m impressed with religious leaders, at whatever level, who want to extend peace, create understanding and foster dialogue among various religions. We’ve got more than enough problems in the world, and any degree of mutuality must provide imperceptibly to the health of the world community.

I salute the Muslims, Hindus, Shinto, Jew, Buddhists and Christians who gathered, translators in tow, to speak and pray together as best as they could. The meeting was made somewhat easier by the absence of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has steadfastly held to Putin’s shameful justifications for the invasion of Ukraine. Gee, I wonder how it makes a person feel to know that one’s absence simplified a meeting.

On the other hand, the temptation is to dismiss such a meeting as a big waste of time. Those who are true believers in their own faith group usually want nothing to do with those who try to extend an olive branch to others. The small-minded in our world can’t grasp what possibly could happen in such a conclave. I am reminded of the meeting within the Christian tradition when Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli couldn’t even agree to receive holy communion together because of their fierce disagreement over the nature of the bread and wine.

I’ve been involved with a few interfaith groups in cities large and small. It is hard work; it often feels like nothing is being accomplished, and it is easy to skip the next meeting because there is always something more immediately pressing. Few people put a high value on interfaith dialogue and friendship. It’s not that they’re opposed, it’s just near the bottom of a lengthy list of priorities.

Many smaller south Georgia communities couldn’t have an interfaith group, anyway. About as “inter-faith” as it gets is a gathering of Methodists and Baptists, with a few Catholics and maybe some Presbyterians sprinkled in for good measure. Those ecumenical groups face the same challenges of the interfaith groups: how to understand each other and how to cooperate without denying the faith claims of one’s own tradition.

I confess to having never resolved the tensions between wanting to create a larger community on the one hand and working harder to strengthen my own congregation on the other. There are only so many hours to devote to any one emphasis, and to be devotedly ecumenical or interfaith is unavoidably done at the expense of the local faith community.

Congratulations, Pope Francis and the other attendees. I appreciate your global vision and desire for mutual love. You are better people than I.