The term “bilateral dialogue” refers to the process of dialogue between two specific traditions e.g. Muslim-Hindu, Jain-Jewish, Baha’i-Taoist, Sikh-Buddhist.
“Bilateral dialogue” can also refer to the effort of a given faith community to learn more about another tradition or about numerous faith traditions. Example: a synagogue sponsors an education program for its youth members to learn about Sikhism. Or a Hindu temple sponsors a seminar series enabling its adult members to learn about various religions.
Reflective Structured Dialogue: A Dialogical Guide to Peace–building
This 76-page interfaith dialogue guide blends Scripture (Islamic and Christian) with family systems theory to offer specific guidelines, techniques and practices that can help bridge religious, ethnic and other kinds of identity divides. It was designed to help facilitators bring together Christians and Muslims in workshops, dialogues, mediations, meetings, interventions or mentoring groups. Although designed for use within the Nigerian cultural context, it is applicable within many other cultural contexts where faith is a critical factor, and where identity differences divide a population, resulting in community rupture or violence.
Interfaith Toolkit for Christian Congregations
This toolkit contains a multitude of resources to enable Christians to engage with other faith traditions. Included among the kit’s many features are “how to” resources, guidelines for multifaith prayer, brief introductions to world religions, reflective materials on interfaith relationship-building and guidelines for bilateral dialogues e.g. Muslim-Christian, Jewish-Christian, Buddhist-Christian.