Friendship in the Presence of Difference – Study Guide

 

 

 

A new Study Guide is now available for people to think about forging friendships with people of other faiths.

The Study Guide has been prepared by the UCA Assembly Relations with Other Faiths Working Group which includes UCFORUM member Rev Heather Griffin.

The study guide can be obtained online for free from Heather or by downloading from The Assembly site.

The intention of this Study Guide is to open a conversation about the increasing religious diversity in Australia and how we understand our Christian identity in this context. It is also an opportunity to explore how we might respond to the use of violence or fear based on religious difference. As people of God, called to share in Christ’s love, the best way to overcome such messages of fear and hate is by building friendships with people of other faiths. The Study is based on the paper, Friendship in the Presence of Difference: Christian Witness in Multi-faith Australia , received at the 13th Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia in July 2012. The word “friendship” was chosen purposely. It underlines the Gospel call to love our neighbours regardless of our differences and to live with the people around us as “friends”. Genuine interfaith friendship embraces difference rather than allowing difference to create division and distrust. Through this Study, we learn that to live peacefully in the presence of difference is to also be renewed and transformed in our own Christian faith. Friendship in the Presence of Difference is an update to the document Living with the Neighbour who is Different adopted by the Assembly in 2000. These two documents offer guiding principles for the Uniting Church’s relationship with people of other faiths. The Study Guide examines the changed landscape of religion in Australia and the ongoing development in our Christian understanding of how we relate to different faiths.

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