Christian/Muslim Dialogue

From the New York Times Sunday, November 18, 2007:
Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to A Common Word Between Us and You
On October 13, 2007, on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, 138 Muslim scholars and clerics sent an open letter to “leaders of Christian churches, everywhere.” The signatories of that letter, titled A Common Word Between Us and You, include top leaders from around the world representing every major school of Islamic thought. The text of A Common Word Between Us and You appears at www.acommonword.com.
A response was drafted by scholars at Yale Divinity School’s Center for Faith and Culture. It was issued and endorsed by almost 300 Christian theologians and leaders. To promote constructive engagement between these major religious communities, planning is underway for a series of major conferences and workshops involving many of the signatories to A Common Word Between Us and You and to the Yale response, as well as other international Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders. Events will be posted at www.yale.edu/faith, where readers can view the list of signatories as well as add there names to the list.

I believe this is exactly the type of open dialogue God is calling the world to be engaged in. Please take the time over the next few days and read both letters. If you have any questions, email me. My goal is that we can hold a forum soon at St. John’s to discuss both letters, as well as discern where we, as representatives of the local church, are called to respond.

Worthy addition to your Christmas card list: When you are making out your Christmas card list this year, please include the following:
A Recovering American soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20307

Help St. John’s financially as you search the web: A few months back I told you about www.goodsearch.com , a web search engine from Yahoo! Unfortunately, it had a few kinks, making it difficult to sign up. Those initial problems seem to have been fixed. You can now add Goodsearch to your tool bar very easily and begin raising money for St. John’s with every search. Here is the process:
-Go to www.goodsearch.com
-Under “who do you search for” put: St Johns Lutheran Church (Redford, MI)
-Confirm that we are the agency you want credited with your searches
-Click on Add Goodsearch to your IE, Firefox, or Mac toolbar
-Start searching
St. John’s will receive one cent for every search you do using this search engine.

Thank you in advance for doing this to help support our missional endeavors.

Solomon’s Porch update: In the last few weeks we have seen impressive showings for our Faith in Film and Family Film Nights. We also had a very successful first coffee house meeting last Thursday, taking up a whole table at First Cup Organic Coffee House in Redford!

Green Reminder of the week: Household waste increases by 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. In the United States, trash from wrapping paper and shopping bags totaled four million tons last year. Think of creative ways to handle all your holiday waste this year. If you have addressed this holiday issue in the past and want to let others know, e-mail me and I will get the word out in future issues of this e-newsletter.

Help me reach my goal: My goal for the end of 2007 is for this newsletter to have 100 readers. I am currently at 82. Is there anyone in your life who you think would benefit from receiving this e-newsletter each week? Send me their email and I will add them to the list!

Prayer Points:
-for the Chrisitan/Muslim dialogue generated by the two documents presented above
-for traveling mercies for all this Thanksgiving weekend.
-for all those struggling with addiction

I pray for the readers of this blog every Friday. How can I pray for you? Let me know at bicyclepastor@yahoo.com