INTERFAITH WEEKEND, TURVEY ABBEY, 19-21 MAY 2006

[Report by Sr M Catherine Barker, Chester]

 Representatives from the local (Bedford, Milton Keynes, Northampton) Buddhist, Baha’i, Christian, Jewish and Hindu faiths spoke around the theme of “Prayer and Activity”.

Buddhist Perspective

The first speaker, a Buddhist, Tom Shaw, was a railway signalman and a prison chaplain. He was anxious to stress that the Buddha was an ordinary man, not a god. Tom traced the life of the Buddha, rather like a fairy-tale in its way, ending with the beginning of his life as a teacher “Suffering I teach and the way out of suffering”. He then went on to speak of Meditation as one of the hallmarks of Buddhism, both in its practice of sitting meditation, using the breath for instance; and in mindfulness meditation which may be practiced in ordinary activities such as washing up, or listening to people. In times of great difficulty, bowing and prostrations—submission to that which IS—can be particularly helpful. In normal circumstances, meditation is somewhat like gardening in that it provides the right conditions for growth.

Baha’i Perspective

Malcolm Lee traced the history of the founder’s son, Abdu’l Baha, who was only nine at the time of his first visit to his father imprisoned because of his new religion, around the middle of the 19^th century. The family were exiled and the father imprisoned, first in Baghdad, then in a penal settlement in Acre, Palestine, where he died in 1892. Abdu’l Baha himself was only released at the age of 67 when the Ottoman Empire collapsed. He devoted the rest of his life to promoting his father’s teaching.

            He insisted that his followers pray three times daily and gave them a choice of 3 obligatory prayers. Here is the shortest: I bear witness, O my God, that Thou has created me to know Thee and to worship Thee. I testify, at this moment, to my powerlessness and to Thy might, to my poverty and Thy wealth. There is none other God but Thee, the Help in peril, the Self-subsisting.

Abdu’l means servant. His father Baha’ull’a encouraged him to take responsibility for the Baha’i community. In Acre where he was a prisoner he was allowed to move freely within the town after his father’s death, and distributed bread among the poor. He used to say that the essence of faith was fewness of words and an abundance of deeds, and “blessed Is the man who dwells among men in kindness” Ecumenism is a marked feature of the Baha’i faith. “The founders of the world’s religions are manifestations of God and they have brought teachings needed by their particular age.. The Scriptures of all religions are a gift of God to mankind.” The Baha’i helped to found the United Nations and have a special consultancy status within it.

Hindu Perspective

Bharati Taylor then explained the Hindu ethos. The name ‘Hindu’ comes from the river Indus, and its followers actually call it Sanatan Dharma, the eternal Way. They believe in one sole God who had many forms and names: as Brahma he is Creator, as Vishnu he maintains the world in existence and becomes incarnate to lead it back when it strays from perfection. There have been nine incarnations, varying greatly, but 11,000 years ago he became Rama, and 5,000 years ago Krishna. The Ramayana saga describes the feats of Rama (the feast of Divali celebrates his triumphant return to his capital) and the Mahabharata contains the Bhagavad-Gita, which describes the feats of Krishna. Shiva is the form of the destroyer-God who when the world becomes too corrupted for reform, performs his dance of destruction.

            Part of the talk was a description with visual aids, of the morning puja in the home. She also had many of us “drawing” sacred symbols with coloured powders on boards. Ms Taylor is a prison chaplain who serves the Sikh community and has been reading their Scriptures with them. She gave us copies of the Ten Articles of Faith drawn up by Vivekananda in preparation for the World Congress of Faiths held at Chicago in 1893.

Christian Perspective

Br John drew on his experience as monk and superior as well as on the Rule of St Benedict. D Columba Stewart’s words set the tone: “We cannot know others if we do not know ourselves, but we cannot know ourselves without the help of others.” Turvey Abbey was actually founded in 1980 from Cockfosters to regain a contemplative dimension to monastic life, having become rather bogged down in parish work. But work and prayer of course go together. Caesarius of Arles says “A cleric, no matter how learned, should earn his living with his hands, and every cleric should learn a hand-craft.” He admitted feeling irritated if he has to leave the oratory to answer the door, but in fact, he almost always finds the people at the door a blessing. St Augustine assures us that a person who leaves the church to go home does not cease from praising God unless he turns aside from a holy life.

Jewish Perspective

Rev Jonathan Gorsky, well-known and always welcomed in Turvey, gave two talks which are here combined and summarised. He assured us that for the Jewish people too, the question of how prayer related to the wider world is problematic. His talk on prayer and activity was cast in the idiom of the architecture of the yeshiva (named from the Hebrew ‘to sit’), in particular the location of the windows. The rabbi in this story said they must be both large, and situated low enough to give easy access to what is happening outside, and if the religious life is compromised by seeing the world outside, then heaven help you! However, you do not actually carry out your religious life in the market place, as the interest of the market place would sweep you away altogether. There are other architectural aspects to houses of prayer and study. Where for instance are prayer to be led? From the lowest level – De profundis. The third important point is that we pray with others. At least prayer has a communal aspect; we are not self-centred, “we truly find ourselves when we pray together”. This is from Rabbi Isaac Kook, a universalist who kept his vision in truly difficult circumstances. He saw the contribution of every type as precious, and he wrote in the Fourfold Song: We are different and we sing different songs. There are those who sing the song of their own life and there are those whose songs are only of their community. There are those of us who do not find ourselves in either of the first two groups. There is another who reaches toward more distant realms and goes beyond the bounds of Israel to sing the song of man, and yet another who rises towards wider horizons until he aligns himself with all existence, and sings his song with all God’s creatures.” Rabbi Gorsky finds considerable tension between reality and aspiration in the Synagogue today and a reluctance fully to engage with the world. He finds in the State of Israel a kind of turning away from the world, but sometimes there is a fragility in his own engagement with it—problematic but vital—so he cannot condemn those who turn their backs on it, but only repeat his warnings.

            The weekend contained opportunity for questions after each talk and the closing session was a plenary discussion group.