The Cathedral actively pursues interfaith dialogue and collaboration, particularly among the three Abrahamic faiths.
Women’s Interfaith Book Group: Daughters of Abraham
This group of women—lay and ordained, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim—meet monthly for two hours to deepen their knowledge of their own and other Abrahamic faith traditions. By reading and discussing books—fiction or non-fiction—that teach us about each other’s faith traditions, and then sharing how we practice our respective faiths, we hope to increase our respect for all Abrahamic religions and build a trusting and intellectually stimulating interfaith community of women.
Books are chosen by the leadership team and from the booklist on www.daughtersofabraham.info. The group at the Cathedral College is connected to eight groups that have formed in the Boston area since September 11, 2001.
There is no cost to join and anyone may join who is able to commit to regular attendance. The program is designed for those who are already active members of a particular faith community, and not for seekers of a religious tradition. The group does not engage in religious debate, conversion, or controversial political issues.
The Abrahamic Roundtable: An academic discussion of the Hebrew Bible, Quran, and Christian Testament
Washington National Cathedral’s Abrahamic Roundtable was initiated by Bishop John Bryson Chane, who hosts and invites 15 scholars and congregational leaders to meet four times a year to explore what the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam each tell us about a particular topic that is challenging the practices of all traditions at this time. The first series of the Abrahamic Roundtable initially convened in December 2003 and met six times before concluding their discussions in spring 2006. The discussions focused upon what each tradition’s scripture says about the reception of the stranger and produced a useful educational document, The Abrahamic Family and the Other.
The topic for this series of discussions that began in November 2007 is The Abrahamic Family and Creation: how each faith tradition understands God’s role and our responsibility in creating and caring for our environment, the land, and all of God’s creatures. The hope is the group will develop a unified statement concerning the environment and how an interfaith community can be a reconciling voice that will offer the moral guidance and hope that is urgently needed in each of our faith communities.
Contact the Rev. Dr. Carol M. Flett at ccinterfaith@yahoo.com.