- Investigate the “religious landscape” of your home community and develop a list of contacts interested in building interfaith relationships. Form a dialogue group that meets regularly and responds to issues in the community.
- Reflect on the religious pluralism within your congregation. Are there any interfaith families? Does your congregation have staff members or volunteers from other religious groups? How might your congregation better serve those from other religious groups in your midst?
- Ask people from other religious traditions to tell you about their communities, as regards religious education, worship, etc. If your congregation has already formed some interfaith relationships, are there ways that these might be deepened or expanded?
- Visit another religious group in your community when they hold an open day or offer a community program. Hold a visiting day at your own congregation and invite the wider community for hospitality. Support interfaith pastoral care at a local hospital.
- Find ways, when working on common issues such as poverty, homelessness, education, etc., to work with other religious groups in your local community.
- Study. In your own congregation or with another religious group, design an educational experience or share in a book group.
- In order to build relationships, do business intentionally with firms run by members of other religious groups.
- Support efforts combating religious hate crimes and religious discrimination in your community.
- Support local, national, and global interfaith organizations with your time, your ideas, and your material resources.
- Pray that God may empower you to build interfaith community through your congregation.
Excerpted from Interfaith Peacemaking Curriculum http://abrahamicfaithspeacemaking.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/For-One-Great-Peace-Study-Guide.pdf
Published by Abrahamic Faiths Peacemaking Initiative http://abrahamicfaithspeacemaking.com
Reprinted with permission.