November Chat

Five Minutes with the Rev. Manas Ghosh

Have you attended any interesting interfaith events lately? Do you have any interesting interfaith work happening at the moment?

Well, I don’t know whether you would consider this an interfaith event exactly, but I visited a Hindu temple recently for a Hindu child’s blessing ceremony. It was a wonderful occasion with about 150 people in attendance. I was particularly impressed with their openness to invite me as a Christian minister. They were so welcoming, accepting, and really hospitable. There was also opportunity to have some extended fellowship with those people during the meal after the ceremony, and chat about what they do, and the work they are involved with.

Something else that I’d done is visit the Villawood detention centre. Lately, I’ve been visiting a number of Iraqi and Kurdish Muslim people. These are innocents, you understand, truly homeless people. I’ve been really moved by their hospitality and their friendly welcome. This also gives me a really good opportunity to enter into dialogue with these people. They are traumatised and many are frustrated because they have been there for some time, some having been on Christmas Island and are now in Villawood. To be able to talk to these people, of a different religion than I am, and see and ask how God is working in their life in this moment is really an amazing experience.

When I first met some of them, the first question was ‘Are you a Muslim?’ I responded ‘No, I’m a Christian’. I think this made them a little wary to begin with, but gradually the barrier of religious difference broke down and we are able to converse about that same God that travels with us throughout the different times in our lives. This is really what I would call ‘practical dialogue’. It isn’t happening in a cozy atmosphere in someone’s lounge room or office, it’s happening in a detention centre, in a real-life circumstance.

This is an on-going interfaith activity. The importance of this is that people are coming from difficult situations, and they have a different kind of image about Christianity because in their country, often, they perceive that they have been invaded by the Western Christian countries. Now, to put a Christian person in front of them, it’s a bit of a challenge to build bonds.

The other activity is the International Day of Peace celebration that we hold at St David’s Uniting Church each year. The year was the 6th year of the celebration, held on September 21st. Several different religious groups participated, and we had a very good response from all the different religions. They are so happy that we are able to offer that platform where different religions can offer prayers for peace. There was also a great response from the community. We had approximately 200 people in attendance. People came from all over Sydney. That’s very encouraging. Six schools participated in the service. It also created a little bit of a wave, because I have received phone calls from across various Christian denominations enquiring about the service. They asked for a model, because they want to do it in their churches. A Catholic Sister called me and asked ‘how do you organise such a service?’ ‘What do you do?’ So, it’s really working. It’s also helping other religions to look at the interfaith issue. I had a very encouraging story from a Hindu Priest who comes to the service every year. He takes a scripture class in Western Sydney of about 40 or 50 Hindu students. There, he ran a workshop emphasising the importance of interfaith. It was quite interesting that he’s not only giving teachings from Hindu scripture, but talking also about the importance of coming together to work for Peace.

At St David’s, we’re having a World Religions class. This idea came from the congregation. Some of them asked ‘When we finish the next Bible Study series, can we do a course on World Religions?’ So, that’s what we’re going to do. We have people from St David’s and a neighbouring UC congregation and two Anglican congregations interested in participating. Next Sunday we visit a Hindu Temple.

Are there any particular interfaith related issues you are watching at the moment, for example in the news?

Palestine / Israel and also Afghanistan/Pakistan. I like to get to know what is happening in these two areas through Religions for Peace. They send messages and news updates. I come from India, so I’m also interested to hear what is happening there in terms of interfaith relations. Recently, Rowan Williams visited my home church in India! He had meetings with all the Bishops, but he also had an open air meeting in Calcutta in the heart of the city – like Hyde Park – where every day big meetings are taking place. He spoke to a number of people from all walks of life and all religions and cultural backgrounds. I’m very impressed with that. I found that quite interesting.

Another story I read recently, a couple of weeks ago, was about a Mosque that was set alight in Israel/Palestine. Some Rabbis visited that place and distributed new Qu’rans to the people. They condemned the burning of the Mosque and spoke out for peace between the religions. I found that very impressive also.