Muslim Christian Dialogue - Part 2

Read all of Sara Brubacher's reflections: Dialogue 1, Dialogue 2, Dialogue 3, Bethlehem Reflections

Greetings from the very special village of Bethlehem!

First of all, thank you for the kind responses to my last email, they were very uplifting. As perhaps you can tell, it is much more difficult over here to find a time and place to use the Internet, but finally I am able to send you an email about the East/West Dialogue and Peacebuilding Conference itself.

The conference began Sunday night as all the participants from both East and West broke bread together for the first evening meal. It was wonderful to hear about the olive groves and mountains of Lebanon over hummus, maklubi, and all sorts of desserts. As the conference progressed, I found that food and tea often brought the best conversation, whether it was stories about peoples' homes, life, and favorite food, discussions of various Muslim, Orthodox Christian and western Christian views, or laughing together over some small mishap from the day (and then learning the possible cultural variant that could explain it).

The successful aim of the dialogue was to challenge the stereotyped views that the West and East hold of each other. The picture of the West that the East often receives from our movies, media, etc. is one of immorality, faithlessness, and drive-by shootings (picture a normal night on the TV news and Dr. Phil "saving" broken relationships, a popular show here). The Eastern participants, although they knew more about the West than average because they spoke English, were still grateful to see young adults from the West who took their faith seriously, believed in saving themselves for marriage, and wanted to hear, understand, and take back home what the people are really like here. More common to you will be the Western view of the Middle East, one of perpetual conflict and violence, where 9/11 = Muslims = Arabs = terrorists. I will continue to share how this view is also one full of mistakes and misunderstanding.

In the conference were scheduled several times for workshops and dialogues led by Elias Halabi from the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) and Maryanne Mutch from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). We talked about the different ways to define Culture, and how some ways promote stereotypes, while others lead to a better understanding of culture as always changing and encompassing more than the clothing, food, language, etc. that is directly visible on the surface. We then had the opportunity to share from each country what we thought were things in our culture that were under the surface and not well known. Another time we learned about Identity, and discussed in small groups our answers to some hard questions about our own religion/culture's view on different things such as the sacredness of life and the body and how we handle suffering and death. We also had a dialogue about Values, where in mixed groups we read a scenario and had to rank each character from worst to least worst. It was fascinating to see how at certain points there were cultural differences, such as how heavily people condemned a mother's refusal to give advise to her daughter vs. a best friend's betrayal, but also to see how well we were able to explain our reasoning to each other and to compromise when we better understood where we were coming from. Also, most of the time it was not culture that made the differences of opinion, but rather individual ways of interpreting the story that had to be explained to each other. When we went over it as a large group, there was very little difference between a group comprised of mixed East and West participants and one that had only East or only West participants.

We also had the opportunity to visit a mosque and hear from an Imam on the importance of religious tolerance and loving each other as we love ourselves in both words and actions. The mosque was a beautiful structure, with tall arches and sun-filled courtyards. We then visited a Greek Orthodox Church and heard from a Priest about the long history of Christianity and the Orthodox Church in Jordan--"for Jesus might have been born in Palestine, but Christianity was born in Jordan." The church was quite the contrast to the mosque, with every square inch filled with frescoes of Jesus Christ, angels, and the saints. However, in both places the presence and peace of God were tangible. Both the Imam and the Priest witnessed about the religious freedom that has been such an integral part of Jordan's history. The priest exemplified this with a story about when the Caliph Omar visited a church centuries ago. He did not pray inside when he was invited to, but rather on the doorstep, so that in the future the site would not be turned into a mosque because he had prayed there. We also had the opportunity to hear from Prince Hasan bin Talal, the uncle of the current King Abdullah of Jordan, and from the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, their equivalent of the pope. Both were inspiring people who have worked hard for peace and understanding in the Middle East, and who emphasized the important role that religion can play as a bridge-builder between the East and the West.

As wonderful as all of the workshops and speakers were, by far the highlight was meeting and building relationships with such high-caliber people as the participants from both the East and the West turned out to be. For example, my roommate, Sister Catherine, was a Coptic Orthodox nun from Cairo, and one of the most fun-loving people I have ever met. Put her together with Father Joseph, a Syrian Orthodox monk from Beirut who is studying philosophy in Athens, and they will having you rolling on the floor with laughter, thinking seriously about your own commitment to faith, and questioning any previous conceptions of "people of the cloth." One of my favorite stories is when Father Joseph set off the metal detector, a friend asked him what weapons he was hiding under his robes. He answered, "Very dangerous ones, my tongue and a pen!"

Now I have to go, but I will continue at a later point!

I hope that you all are well!

Peace,

Sara