We spend five minutes with the Rev. Heather Griffin. Heather is a Minister of the Word of the Uniting Church in Australia and is the Queensland representative to the National Assembly Working Group on Relations with Other Faiths.
How did you become interested in interfaith work?
My interest in interfaith work was kindled by an encounter on the island of Rhodes in 1999, with an old imam. My husband and I, as well as young American couple, were wandering around outside an old mosque looking at the graves etc, when the old imam appeared and, seeing us, unlocked the mosque and beckoned us to come in. It was a hot day and I was wearing shorts and a sleeveless top. I wanted to go in, but was most embarrassed at what I understood to be a gross breach of protocol. I had a cardigan with me so I put that on. The old imam shook his head as if to say “don’t worry”. Dress code was not a concern for him. It transpired that the imam could not speak English but could speak some Italian. The young American could speak Spanish, which had enough words in common with Italian for the two of them to converse. So I asked questions, the young American translated them into Spanish, the imam replied in Italian and the American translated back to English. The bible verse that keeps coming to my mind regarding this encounter is “People look on outward things but God looks on the heart”. That old imam saw our desire to learn and, with all the limitations of language and cultural difference, nevertheless, in his attitude to us, demonstrated the love of God.
It was while I was studying at Trinity Theological College in Brisbane in 2000 that the sectarian violence in Ambon in Indonesia broke out. And in the person and work of our New Testament lecturer, Rev Prof James Haire, who had spent many years at the Theological College in Ambon, I saw the sort of Christian attitude to “the other” that I want, in my own small way, to continue to emulate. His own experiences of sectarian violence in his native Belfast, and his involvement in the peace marches there have led him into the very difficult area of peacemaking in the midst of hatred and violence. His writings and work continue to influence my thinking.
I was ordained in late 2000 and in 2001 became the minister at Holland Park St David’s Uniting Church in Brisbane. The manse was half a block from the Holland Park Mosque, the longest established Mosque in Queensland. When the events of September 11 unfolded, I was in Victoria on leave. However, when, in the next few days, news reports came through of a petrol bomb being hurled into the Holland Park Mosque I knew that we local Christians couldn’t stay silent. So I wrote a letter on behalf of our Church Council expressing our local church’s concern that anyone within our society should treat Muslims like that, and offering our support.
Several months afterwards an opportunity was given to me to speak at a Muslim gathering at Griffith University on “The journey of life from a Christian perspective”. This was in parallel with a Muslim scholar who was speaking on “The Journey of life from a Muslim perspective”. The audience were mostly young Muslims with a few Christians present. What struck me most about the question time at the end of the session, was that the questions coming from the audience displayed the same stages of faith growth as one sees within our Christian community. This time I was reminded of Fowler’s “Stages of Faith” and found myself reflecting on the common human journey.
I have also been greatly impressed by two African movements for peace which are documented in the two DVDs “The Imam and the Pastor” and “Pray the Devil back to Hell”.
My journey led to my involvement with the Queensland Synod’s Interfaith Relationships Committee and the Assembly Relations with Other Faiths Working Group.
What motivates you to continue fostering interfaith relationship?
What motivates me to continue fostering interfaith relationships is the same imperative that leads to my wanting to develop relationships with the many and varied people with whom I come in contact in the course of my everyday life and work.
As a human race, we have many differences and yet so much in common. Our differences, when viewed from the outside, can cause us to group together protectively and to either fear or look down on the other. I want to learn more. I want to understand more. I want to reduce the fear in both myself and others. I want to work for a just peace. And I want to be able to clearly articulate those ideas and attitudes that lead to hatred and violence, which can occur, and historically have occurred within every religion and ideology, and to stand against those ideas. I want to continue to work, however falteringly, to “love my neighbour as myself”.
What do you think are the challenges of your interfaith work in the coming 12 months?
As a full-time minister, one of my greatest challenges is to find the time to undertake the ongoing learning and exploring that is necessary if I am going to more fully understand the other. I believe that we who work within the Christian Church, have a great opportunity to help break down fear in our own midst. If we in the Christian Church can be truly Christ-like and set examples of neighbourliness, if we can work at naming and confessing the origins of our fears, if we can have a strong practical peace-making focus which names and rejects those ideas which are not peace-building then we will be involved in the bringing of the kingdom of God on earth.
There are several good avenues for interfaith work/growth in Brisbane. One is the work of the Griffith University Multi-Faith Centre. Another is the local organisation “Believing Women for a Culture of Peace”. And there are more - local faith groups who bring together people of divergent backgrounds.
I am hoping to be in a part-time placement next year so that I can be more involved in these activities, and, in doing so, perhaps be able to work more purposefully to distribute good accurate information about “the other” in our midst, to our own local congregations.