I’m in Pasadena, California this week where I am participating in a
very important event starting tonight with Muslim and Christian leaders
from around the world. About 2 years ago a group of 138 global Muslim
scholars, clerics and intellectuals wrote a letter to Christians
inviting them/us into dialogue over our “common word” of faith. It was
based on the dual command to love God and our neighbor as common ground
for dialogue and understanding between Christianity and Islam. This
overture was an amazing and historic initiative that is causing
reverberations across the world. Nothing like it has ever happened in
our tumultuous history. When the letter was sent, a group of scholars
at Yale Divinity School lead by Miroslav Volf and Joseph Cumming wrote
a response entitled, “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian
Response to ‘A Common Word between Us and You.”
I was one of over 300 Christians who signed the letter, seeing it as
an important step in building bridges and engaging each other in
important conversations at both the local level and between important
bodies of leaders representing each faith tradition. It seems this is
coming full circle for me, both this week and now with relationships I
am building locally in Seattle. I’m sure I will have more to share
after this exciting week but for now I invite you to pray for what God
is doing through the Mosaics Project and for ways to engage my new
friends in these special days in the sunny in Southern California with
the Gospel! I’m excited for what God has in store!
I’ve been eating a few burgers this week too and just thought I’d
share a photo with you all from one of my favorite quintessential
burger establishments in the region. If you want to know more about
what is going on in this dialogue event and some of the developments in
my on-going work, drop me a line at [email protected]. I will
have a brief report sometime next week after this event.