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One in Spirit, One in Mind, One in Heart
Scriptures and Prayers shared among Interfaith Dialogue Partners and Friends in a Time of Trial
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The National Council of Churches is blessed to have friends and colleagues from many religious traditions. These friendships are part of our lives at all levels of the organization, from denominational and congregational leadership to faculty and community partnerships. Among these relationships, the NCC is grateful to have the friendship of interfaith dialogue partners. The NCC has national dialogues with the Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh communities. In these dialogues, we learn about each other’s faiths, discuss issues that affect our communities, and strive to build the kinds of relationships where we can talk with, and even on behalf of, each other in moments of crisis or distress.
Today, as the entire country, and indeed the entire world, faces the coronavirus pandemic, we draw upon our shared convictions to help sustain each other, and our neighbors. We do so as friends in dialogue who, though we cannot meet in person during these days, still meet heart-to-heart, and in our thoughts and prayers. We may be standing alone, but we are nonetheless standing together.
And so, as dialogue partners whose relationships transcend the physical distancing necessary to lessen the devastation wrought by this disease, we offer these scriptures and prayers from each of our traditions, for one another, and for the world. We do so, not as the interfaith community writ large, not in place of the many interfaith coalitions that beautifully bring multiple voices together, but as friends from different communities who are one in spirit, one in mind, and one in heart. May all be blessed by these scriptures and prayers, and with the divine protection and healing that they convey.
Co-convening organizations of these dialogues:
National Council of Churches USA; Fo Guang Shan Hsi Lai Temple; Vedanta Society of Southern California; National Council of Synagogues; United States Council of Muslim Organizations; Sikh Council for Interfaith Relations; The Guibord Center – Religion Inside Out
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