FOR A RETREAT OR A ONE-WEEKEND STUDY

Planners will want to arrange a retreat schedule that includes opportunities for free time and relaxed conversation among participants, depending on the nature of the group that will gather. The suggestions below will help planners with the more formal aspects of the program, which need to be envisioned in light of the particular location and objectives of those sponsoring the event.

Pre-study

Obtain or make copies of Interfaith Relations and the Churches for each participant. Ask those who have signed up for the study to read it in its entirety in advance. Tell them that you do not expect mastery of the content but that you do want basic familiarity, as an aid to your study time together. This will enable you to concentrate on biblical reflection and theological questions during your time together, rather than simple review of the paper itself.

Opening and worship

Have name tags available unless your entire group is very familiar with one another. Organize an opportunity for participants to introduce themselves by giving their names and sharing one of the reasons or questions that brought them to this study. Review the general objectives of your time together. Tell the group that this will be an opportunity to explore what is involved in living as Christians with Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, and people of other faiths in today’s world.

Plan a worship service that makes use of Interfaith Living and the Churches, paragraph 35, Matthew 5:1-16, and Matthew 25:31-46 in the context of lifting up Christian discipleship. (See Session I, Exploration and Reflection section.)

Overview

Provide a major session in which a well-organized leader will take the group through the content of Interfaith Relations and the Churches, either as a keynote or a thoughtful guided tour. This could be in the context of the opening worship but need not be. The presenter should be asked to concentrate on the content itself rather than an evaluation of the content. Ask the presenter to note the Trinitarian structure of the major section, Reflections on Theology and Practice, which you will use in your study time together. (No more than 20 minutes)

Mapping

Use the mapping project in Session II. Be sure to do whatever is necessary in advance so that you can get on your map the maximum information possible. Note that the religious situation visualized through the map presents the challenge for Christian discipleship in which we live, i.e., we are called to live faithfully among people of many faiths.

Biblical and theological reflection

Depending on the time available, pick elements from Sessions III, IV, and V that will enable you to look at the themes of community, reconciliation, and human hope as you reflect upon your understandings of God as Creator Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. Make use of at least some of the Experience segments in the Session plans. Pick key passages and questions from the Exploration and Reflection segments. Incorporate questions from the Response segments. Deciding on what to use will be a major task in advance. Plan carefully. Be sure to determine in advance the amount of time you will allow for each element, so that you will be able to complete the work you have projected in advance.

Provide opportunity for participants to raise their own questions, but do not allow questions from the group to dominate your reflection. Announce to the group that your goal for the event is to look at material that will help you assimilate the content of Interfaith Relations and the Churches. They may need to do further study later in order to examine their own questions fully. For such examination, provide information about denominational statements about interfaith relations and bibliography.

Closing worship

Close with a time of worship. A prepared liturgy created from the content of Interfaith Relations and the Churches is available on this web site. You may wish to add an offering of cards on which participants have written the continuing questions they bring before God, the intercessions for others, and/or the commitments they have made for their own acts of discipleship in relation to neighbors of other religions.

If you would prefer, prepare your own worship service. Be sure to include the Marks of Faithfulness, read responsively, as an act of commitment. Seriously consider an act of confession of our complicity as Christians in unreconciled relationships with people of other religions.

Future planning

If you are able, offer an opportunity for those who attended the retreat to go on a later visit to a "congregation" of another religious community in your area. See plans for this activity above.

FOR A DAY WITH CHURCH OFFICERS

In addition to the plans above for a retreat or one-day study, add a time for considering what the implications of the study are for particular Christian congregations—your own congregation, if you are meeting alone. Make specific plans. These may be simply to take the issue of relationships with neighbors to the congregation or to an official meeting of church officers. Or they may be explicit proposals for new programs of the congregation.

If it is appropriate, you might plan a Sunday on which the liturgy based upon Interfaith Relations and the Churches could be used by an entire congregation. This would require careful preparation of a sermon that would introduce the concerns of the church officers to the congregation in homiletic form, using some of the biblical material you studied together.

FOR A DAY OF TEACHER TRAINING

In addition to the plans above for a retreat or one-day study, add a time for considering the teaching role of the congregation concerning people of other religions. Look at the issue of socialization into community prejudices and stereotypes. Ask what you can do to provide your congregation with new information and new exposure to others.

A plan for a visit with another religious community would be important to teachers. This might result in making plans for bringing the congregation’s learners into contact with the same community at a later date. Or it might result in plans for a segment of communicants’ class study to be visiting another religious community and learning about the Christian understanding of our relationships with peoples of other faiths in today’s context.

FOR A JOINT PROJECT WITH A COMMUNITY OF ANOTHER RELIGION

It is important for Christians to talk about their understandings of relationships with peoples of other religions among themselves – making use of Christian scripture and theological resources. An important guideline is that we discipline ourselves to never speak about other people in ways that violate their integrity or our respect for their humanity. Thus, we do not speak about them in ways other than we would be willing to have them hear.

One way to reinforce this attitude is to spend time with others in mutual projects for the well-being of our geographic community and its needs. Following a full period of six studies and a visit, or following a one-day study or a retreat, it would be possible to engage in a joint project with people of another religious community.

Arrange for leaders to meet together to plan, then carry out these plans.

Often groups are able to meet together to share the motivations within their religious community that bring them to community action. What in your scripture calls you to serve others? What is your hope as a result of serving others? What provides you with strength for service when it becomes difficult? Plan ways to share openly concerning thses questions.

Groups then need to discuss in detail what they will do together. Be aware that each group may have prior assumptions about what is to be done and the ways it is to be done. No topic is therefore too simple for sharing, since this will help expose assumptions that may create later difficulties.

Select a project that has a short timeline as your first activity together. If the project you select is complex, plan for at least two persons from each community to be present at each phase. One community or the other may be the dominant participant in particular aspects, but be sure there is an overlap of participation.

Organize a joint committee for oversight. Plan ways for ongoing evaluation at each stage, then plan a final, thorough evaluation. Make sure you leave room in these evaluations for whatever each religious community wants to contribute from the perspective of its religious objectives and insights. These are integral to the thinking of participants.