Attending for the first time the joint Christian and Muslim evening held by Portsmouth Cathedral and Wessex Jamaat this February has been one of the highlights of my time here in Portsmouth so far. It was a chance to explore two key themes in my religious thinking that I had not until this year as given much time as I hope to now: the amazing commonality between our faiths and relationships with God/Allah, and the importance of sharing links between our faith communities.
Several points in the evening proved powerful for me, but most moving of all was the fact that a cathedral full of believers in (at least) 3 denominations of (again, at least) 2 faiths could all pray together to our God to here our hopes and concerns for our own faith, for our local community and also for the World. It was this act of collective prayer that brought home to me the message that we are all in communion with each other, and praying to the same loving creator.
We also heard readings from the Holy Bible and Holy Qur'an highlighting the shared aspects of our faith, and also used individually designed coloured tiles to collectively create two beautiful lanterns based on abstract designs from both Muslim and Christian artistic traditions. Both this latter act of common creativity and sharing food brought by those attending provided many opportunities to share conversations with new friends from both Christian and Muslim communities.
In all, the evening was a powerful reminder of how important it is to remember the common elements of our religions, and the importance of sustaining understanding and communication between our communities. I will take the memory of this link through my future experiences as a model for how communities such as ours can understand each other and take joy in standing together. I hope I will live to see more of such understanding elsewhere in future.
God bless.
With best regards
Luke Fitzgerald
Organ Scholar at Portsmouth Cathedral