54 CURRENT DIALOGUE July 2013 Editorial Clare Amos 2 Tributes to Pope Shenouda III and Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim 3 Dialogue Is a Means of “God-Given Discovery” Rowan D. Williams 5 Anglicans Appreciated: Reflections of Anglican Interfaith Engagement in a Catholic Journal Michael L. Fitzgerald 9 Cooperation, Conversion and Christian Witness: The Continuing Conversation Clare Amos 19 Conversion and Religious Belonging: The Story of a Resource Book Christine Lienemann-Perrin 20 Report of the Consultation on Christian Self-Understanding in the Context of Hindu Religion Gana Nath Dash 27 Report/Communiqué on Christian Self-Understanding in the Context of Indigenous Religions 41 Minjung Theology and Minjung Buddhism in the Context of Korea Eunkyu Micah Kim 44 The Roman Catholic Church and the Letter of the 138 Muslim Religious Leaders Maurice Borrmans 54 A Quest for Just Peace in a Multi-Religious Context: Nigeria in Focus Lesmore Gibson Ezekiel 73 The Lasting Legacy of John Harwood Hick Perry Schmidt-Leukel 78 Kenneth Cragg: An Appreciation 83 Book Reviews 91 ISSN 1814-2230 Current Dialogue can be found on: www.oikoumene.org/en/programmes/interreligiousdialogue/current- dialogue/magazine.html 1 Current Dialogue 54 July 2013 Editorial In the last issue of Current Dialogue, I mentioned the then forthcoming arrival of our new colleague Rev. Dr Peniel Jesudason Rufus Rajkumar with responsibility for interreligious relations especially with Hinduism and Buddhism. It has been a joy to work with and alongside Peniel in the six months since he began work here at the World Council of Churches – both of us of course getting very busy with preparations for the forthcoming WCC Assembly taking place in Busan, South Korea from 30 October – 8 November 2013. Interreligious concerns will have a significant and visible presence at the Assembly, including a dedicated physical space for interreligious welcome and encounter called Inn-Spire. It has been agreed between Peniel and myself that we will share the editorship of Current Dialogue with each of us taking responsibility for one issue of the journal each year. You won’t have to wait very long for Peniel’s first issue, because we have decided to bring forward its publication date from December 2013, to coincide with the opening of the Assembly. There will be an appropriate focus on East Asia and East Asian religions in that issue of the journal. The present issue of Current Dialogue is a bit of a mixed bag – though I hope an interesting one. Because of the four-year gap in publication of the journal (from February 2008 until December 2011), the first three issues for which I was responsible had to play “catch up”, publishing reports of conferences held in the years between 2008 and my own arrival at the World Council of Churches. Finally, with this issue, much of the content relates more directly to activities that have taken place since my arrival at the WCC. This includes a consultation on Christian self-understanding in the context of Hinduism, and another, smaller one, which explored the topic in relation to indigenous religions. The Christian self-understanding process is drawing to a conclusion and there will be an overall document published in time for the Assembly. We also include this time two papers which (partly for reasons of length) had to be held over from the issues that looked at Christian self-understanding in the context of Buddhism and Islam respectively. This issue opens with a brief reflection given by Dr Rowan Williams, when Archbishop of Canterbury, to the Christian-Muslim Forum of Britain. Typically it marries profundity and simplicity and offers a refreshing insight into what dialogue can and should mean – a willingness to continue the conversation. I am also very grateful to Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, formerly President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and then Papal Nuncio in Egypt, for his article which explores some aspects of Roman Catholic and Anglican interaction and mutual influence in the field of interreligious dialogue. It was initially given as a paper at a conference held in December 2011 at Lambeth Palace to mark 100 years of Anglican interreligious engagement, coinciding with the lifespan of Kenneth Cragg. Over the last year a number of key Christian figures who were influential in terms of interreligious dialogue sadly died. These included John Hick and Kenneth Cragg himself. We pay tribute to both these great men through articles in this issue. However, there were also two major figures from the Christian Orthodox world whose role as Christian leaders in the Middle East led them also to play a significant part in Christian-Muslim relations over past decades. These were Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria (died 17 March 2012) and Patriarch Ignatius Hazim of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch (5 December 2012). We have not been able to offer full-scale reflections on these two leading churchmen. However, brief notes of appreciation for these two figures follow directly on from this editorial. I want to offer thanks to various colleagues, whose support of the work of interreligious dialogue in the World Council of Churches is invaluable. In particular, I want to thank Carrie Diaz-Littauer for her work in typesetting and copyediting this issue of Current Dialogue. Clare Amos, Programme Coordinator, Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation 2 Tributes His Holiness Pope Shenouda III As well as his extensive efforts in ecumenism, His Holiness was well respected for his interreligious work. Pope Shenouda often met with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the Grand Mufti of Egypt and other Muslim clerics and leaders from Egypt, and the wider Middle East. He also advocated on behalf of Arab causes in international fora, and took steps towards encouraging tolerance and mutual respect. For over 20 years, he invited prominent Muslim members of the political and wider Egyptian community to an annual Iftar banquet during the month of Ramadan, with the aim of presenting Christian hospitality and fostering greater relations between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. In 2000, he was awarded UNESCO’s Madanjeet Singh prize for tolerance and nonviolence. The award was for “promoting exchange and understanding between Christianity and Islam in today’s Middle East and his [Pope Shenouda’s] deep concern to pursue dialogue with all the great religious faiths and his major role in forging ecumenical links with all other members of the Christian family throughout the planet.”1 (Bishop Angaelos, the Coptic bishop of the United Kingdom) His Beatitude Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim believed that the chief concern of Arab Christians lies in translating Christianity to the Arab world, a Christianity that speaks to the Arab mind and Arab culture, that strives to convey its dogmas in a clear Arabic language that reaches the Arab mind and heart. By this, he did not mean the translation of texts into Arabic. Rather, he meant, “that we arrive at there being a Christianity whose addressee is the Arab person.”Starting out from his view of the concern that Arab Christians have toward the Muslims of their countries, Patriarch Hazim did not neglect the negative side of the history of Muslim-Christian relations. He believed that the most important controversial issue between Muslims and Christians is “Ahl al-Dhimma” – it ensures protection, but is also marginalizing. However, in his view, this issue and many others “Should not prevent Muslims and Christians from cooperating on a grass root level because they consciously realise that they are one before God, that they have the same trust in God's care – humility and submission are the same before God.” Thus, the patriarch believed that Muslims and Christians worship one God and that what gathers them together is this one, unique God who has revealed God’s self in history in Christianity and Islam. In his address to Muslim leaders in Taef, Saudi Arabia, during the Islamic Summit in 1981, he emphasized the faith of Christians and Muslims in the one God. He opened his address by saying, “Like you, Middle Eastern Christians aim for the face of God ... Like you, we long for the Creator of heaven and earth and seek to please God at all times.” He did not hesitate when he mentioned Lebanon and Jerusalem – “where all the servants of God raise up worship to the one, unique, God” – to remind his listeners that mutual respect between Muslims and Christians is based on diversity: “The religions are called in principle to gather human forces to aim at sanctification and purification by divine grace. In Jerusalem, there is an important core for diverse worship and diverse presence, while in Lebanon, there is a deeply-rooted, wide, and profound space for practicing this diversity. In Jerusalem, we seek the face of God, and in Lebanon we seek Him also.” In reality, Patriarch Hazim called for revealing the presence of Christ and the activity of the Holy Spirit, “where it appears to be absent or even rejected.” With his affirmation of the 1 UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize, 2009. See unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001858/185859e.pdf 3 Current Dialogue 54 July 2013 presence of Christ in non-Christian religions, the patriarch emphasized the agreement between Christians and Muslims about God's transcendence. This “divine transcendence” may be the most exemplary point of contact between believers of the two religions, since God remains a mystery that cannot be delved or comprehended and drawing near to Him is not realized except through acts of worship and humility. In this context, Patriarch Hazim warned against falling into various types of “relativism and dissimulation”, into which some theologians who deny the distinctions that belong to each of the world’s religions, can slip.