Join Shoulder to Shoulder in a conversation with Amanda Tyler, Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) to explore and unpack what Christian nationalism is, what it has to do with anti-Muslim discrimination, and what we can do about it.

The Virgin Mary/Maryam (PBUH): Bridge Between Muslims and Christians

Through the Islamic Center of Boston, Wayland, MA, Shaheen Akhtar (Muslim Interfaith practitioner), Rev. Cindy Jacobsen of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer (Woburn), and Fr. Carl Chudy of the Metrowest Interfaith Dialogue Project at Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, (Holliston) presented Christian and Muslim views of Mary, mother of Jesus. A stimulating discussion followed that underlined our connections and how faith communities can build bridges of unity amidst our divisions.

​Looking Deeply: Interfaith Dialogue with Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs

The Metrowest Interfaith Dialogue Project, a special project of Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, Holliston, sponsored an evening of sharing across faiths. On Tuesday, December 7, multifaith neighbors gathered around a fascinating conversation and surprising connections with Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs. Swami Tyagananda, head of the Vedanta Society of Boston, presented some central tenants from his recent publication, Looking Deeply on Hindu discernment and our relationships with each other, the earth, and the Divine, or God. In response to Swami’s presentation, Siri Karm Singh Khalsa, of the Sikh community of Millis, and Fr. Carl Chudy presented responses to the presentation through the lens of Sikhism and Christianity. Here is the Christian response from Fr. Chudy.
A Christian Response to Swami Tyagananda’ s Looking Deeply I want to thank Swami Tyagananda for accepting to share his work with our interfaith community and frankly found it a fantastic opportunity to deepen my interfaith literacy around the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Hinduism. This ancient text teaches something at the heart of Christianity in many different forms, and that is the art of discernment or the discrimination between what I understand in Hinduism, the real (unchanging, eternal) and the unreal (changing, temporal).
The description in the introduction of how this understanding begins is all about “looking at everything with care and attention.” (8). As Swami Tyagananda points out, this is not just an intellectual exercise but something at the heart of our experiences that we can become aware of in profound ways. He says: “Everything that we see with the senses and imagination with the mind is the result of misperception. When we look deeply, we clearly see the truth of nonduality.” (9)
Nonduality is a notion in Christian spirituality and prayer that is just recovering from centuries-old traditions that go back to ancient contemplative prayer traditions and cosmologies. Fr. Richard Rohr, Franciscan spiritual master, and therapist are one of those voices today reasserting nonduality for Christians. He says: “Contemplation teaches a different mind which leaves itself open so that when the “biggies” come along (love, suffering, death, infinity, contradictions, God, and probably sexuality), we remain with an open field. We don’t just close down when it doesn’t make full sense, or we are not in full control, or we immediately feel validated. That calm and non-egocentric mind is called contemplative, or non-dual thinking.”
In this sense, Christian nonduality is the ability to hold the tension of opposites, rest comfortably in ambiguity, and resist the temptation to demonization and exclusion. For me, this comes up, particularly in my interfaith dialogue work. Through its many expressions, Christianity has historically tended toward exclusivism, that we are the only real authentic expression of God’s mercy through Jesus Christ, and all other faiths are too, but to a lesser degree.  This exclusiveness reveals a tendency between spiritual arrogance and an open mind to our religious differences that we cannot easily explain.  Holding this tension is crucial to any authentic interfaith dialogue that respects all parties and understands God’s mysteries that are beyond us and our religious traditions. Nondual thinking allows us to remain in that creative tension and explore not only our commonalities but also what our differences may teach us.
This sense of nondualism also arises in our contemplative prayer traditions for what Christian tradition has classically known as “the unitive state,” the highest level of spiritual attainment according to the traditional tripartite road map of “purgative,” “illuminative,” and “unitive.” [[1] Both nondual or the “real me” Both traditions hint at a permanent, irreversible shift in the seat of selfhood and in the perceptual field that flows out from this new identity. The former, nucleated sense of selfhood dissolves, and in its place, there arises a capacity to live a flowing, unbounded life in which the person becomes “one” with God (as the Christian mystic Julian of Norwich famously expressed it) and one with one’s neighbor, flowing in the fundamental matrix of love without the need for either edges or centers.[2]
Finally, the Hindu sense of consciousness reflects the nondual or true self, which is birthless and deathless, pure, and perfect, as Swami Tyagananda shares. For Christians, Jesus Christ was born as the human face of God. Taking the God-made human image seriously, we understand this inner divine image imprinted within humanity as our true self. It is our best self, our kindest, more inclusive self. This is amplified in the boundary-breaking of Jesus reflected in the Christian scriptures who reached beyond his own race and religion and sought out all through stories of the Good Samaritan, pointing to the extraordinary faith of those whom his contemporary faith leaders cast as faithless and far from God: the prostitute, the leprous, the foreigner, etc. The early Christian communities reached out to all of the Mediterranean and Asia up to China in its first five hundred years beyond its Palestinian Jewish roots. In that growing, historical journey toward the mystery of Christ in all things in mysterious ways, we are still living discerning today.
Fr. Carl Chudy, SX
[1] One explanation of the Three Ways states that at the Purgative stage, the beginner is standing in cold water in the wading section of the pool. In the Illuminative stage, the person is in the deep end of the pool and is treading water but has learned how to trust that God will supply the grace needed. In the Unitive stage, the person is in the middle of the ocean during a total tempest. This stage requires total surrender in the face of the infinity and obscurity of a loving God. The prayer at this level is the most faithful, most trusting, and most loving with a love which is agape—a total self-oblation to God in love. (Stages-of-Spiritual-Journey-by-St-John-of-Cross.pdf (christinasemmens.com)
[2] Bourgeault, Cynthia. The Heart of Centering Prayer (p. 46). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

Shoulder to Shoulder, a national multifaith coalition, offers comments on Rep. Boebert’s recent dangerous rhetoric

Responding to Racist, Homophobic, and Antisemitic Incidents in the Local Public Schools

​In light of recent racist, homophobic, and antisemitic  incidences in the public schools of the town of Holliston, school and town officials, along with local religious leaders have been in dialogue about responding with opportunities for community forums in town. The Metrowest Interfaith Dialogue Project, with members deeply involved, will be publishing a statement in this regard and providing online listening sessions during the week of November 14. 
We are holding a listening session for all those who wish to share their own thoughts and prayers in light of these hateful incidences. Join us November 17, Wednesday at 7 pm. Contact us for the zoom link.

    Share with us your prayers, hopes and ideas for healing our communities of hate.

Rabbi Sharon Brous Speaks on Israeli Palestinian Opportunities to Flourish Together in Dialogue

Rabbi Sharon Brous offered this opening reflection on the program, A Better Future for Israelis and Palestinians.  The YouTube link for the recordings of all four sessions can be found here.

Active Bystander's Training 

The Metrowest Interfaith Dialogue Project is collaborating with The Jewish Family Services and Open Spirit Interfaith Center to offer Active Bystander's Training to faith communities and other organizations and individuals. Using the Quabbin Mediation Model, the Training Active Bystanders (TAB) program helps participants recognize when they are bystanders, analyze situations, and evaluate the consequences for everyone involved. TAB heightens bystanders’ power. It teaches how bystanders can interrupt harm-doing and generate positive actions by others. Active bystandership does not mean aggression against the harm doer. It means taking responsible action to help people in need instead of remaining passive and becoming complicit. Bystanders gain the competencies they need if they decide to take action when they witness something they feel is unfair, or wrong, or troubling.

Metrowest Interfaith Dialogue Project in the Local News

Dialogue that Crosses Faiths

Twelve members of faith organizations in MetroWest, including Our Lady of Fatima Shrine in Holliston, work on a regular basis to make their communities more inclusive. They called it the MetroWest Interfaith Dialogue Project (MIDP).
“Our hope is to the honor the religious and nonreligious diversity of our communities and neighborhoods by creating an interfaith community within communities of different faiths. We focus on three goals: Foster opportunities to come together in order to come to know one another and the faiths that inspire us; Gain insight on how much we share in common through our faiths and values; Discover how interfaith dialogue and action can make a difference in our communities and neighborhoods and helps us all flourish together,” he said.