Interfaith Dialogue in Birmingham
15th January 2012 - by Nathalie Marytsch
On Thursday 12 January, we – Nathalie Marytsch and Mauricio Silva - attended a lunch-time meeting with Bishop David Urquhart, the Anglican Bishop of Birmingham, and the Director of Interfaith Relations for the Anglican Diocese of Birmingham. The attendees were representatives of various missionary groups, churches and agencies which engage in interfaith work across the city of Birmingham. Of course, we represented Columban Lay Mission.
Bishop David addressed the meeting on ‘Evangelism amongst people of other faiths, issues facing Birmingham, issues facing the church in Birmingham’. He spoke of the need to develop stronger relationships among Christians working cross-culturally, recognising the variety of ways in which the Gospel may be witnessed in our multicultural society. He called the group to appreciate each others‘ ways of doing mission . Also, he stressed the sense of belonging to which Christians are called to, and the danger of splintering into isolated movements and groups. He identified some of the challenges which Christians face, especially in working among Muslims.
A couple of interesting features of this meeting caught our attention. First of all, we found ourselves comfortable among a group comprised mainly by enthusiastic, middle-aged, missionary couples which, like ourselves, have opted to live and serve cross-culturally in Birmingham. They certainly do a lot of work in the service of promoting good relations among neighbours. Someone spoke of ‘partners in the Gospel’ to define the people present and this is how we shall think of them from now on.
Secondly, and connected to the first point, the meeting awoke in us the keenness to explore the bigger picture of cross-cultural mission in the city and to reflect on what is distinctive about what we, as Catholics and Columbans, bring to God’s mission in Birmingham. This poses many challenging questions to us, and, as we embark on finding clues, we realise we are not alone in this.
Nathalie and Mauricio Silva-Marytsch are Columban lay missionaries from Chile, working in Birmingham.
