CATS IN COMMON

Article sent in July 2006 by Abbess M. Thérèse , St Mary at the Cross, Edgware.

 A couple of weeks ago we received a letter from one of our Buddhist Monastic friends who mentioned that they’d heard that our cat along with their cat would be appearing in the new book ‘Cloister Cats’. Re-reading the letter later, it struck me that now even the cats have entered the interfaith world!

           With this picture of the cats in mind I began to think further: about the fact that inter-religious dialogue now seems to be more topical issue, perhaps partly due to major world events in recent years and the media attention that they have brought, and it is now a common sight to see the leaders of various different religions talking and working together. This is good and necessary and encourages us all, but I realised that for most of us our inter-religious encounters have become part of our everyday life and that the chances are that they would not be of media interest, precisely because they have become ‘normal’.  For example, here at Edgware Abbey, within our wider family of staff, residents and visitors, we have Christians of many traditions and people from the Jewish, Muslim and Hindu traditions all working and living alongside each other.

          Living here at Edgware we are fortunate to be quite close to Amaravati Buddhist Monastery and to be able to visit each other.  Over several years we have built up a good relationship with the Sisters there, finding that we have much in common in our monastic lives and the usefulness and importance of sharing experiences on our monastic journeys.

           As well as our monastic encounters but also important to us is that several times a year our conference centre becomes the Shrine Room for Lama Shenpen Hookam and the Awakened Heart Sangha and earlier this year we had the privilege of meeting Sister Ishpriya and the members of the Satsang and we are also looking forward to welcoming the members of the Buddhist Christian network here in the autumn.

           Perhaps none of these events would make the six o’ clock news but I hope that this steady building of relationships between monastics and non monastics of all traditions at grass roots level is the pattern for things to come and a sign of the Kingdom of God.