My hopes and concerns regarding interfaith encounter...:

- Increase knowledge and understanding

- Make new contacts

- Renew Inspiration

- That as part of the Sri Lankan reconciliation forum we reach out with the love of Christ and that alone in trying to build bridges with the conflicting communities

- To allow our own ethnicity to take second place in our relationships with others

- That we would experience the rich spiritual depth in the religion of others

- That the "relational" paradigm will take priority in our encounter with people of other faiths

- "Christianity" in itself becomes a religion in some (or many) respects. So we need to come away from "religious circle" and talk!

- That this work should be taken to the children in schools who don't even know that this work exists.

- Interfaith encounter ought to be more public - Interfaith projects ought to be nationally enforced

My concerns regarding interfaith encounter...:

- Being honest that dialogue means open to the possibility of conversion on each side and recognizing the cost of conversion.

- That as Christians we do not take away the centrality of the message of the cross

- How to engage those who are afraid of interfaith encounter to overcome their fears and get involved?

- How do you equip interfaith practitioners to face and confront real differences (in theology / perspective / ideals / goals etc.)?

- Taking so much for granted! You have not heard from Christians who live in multifaith societies outside London, e.g. India or Africa etc.! -  Those who have been converted to follow Jesus in the Bible from "other side" will have more to share! - Too liberal!

- In London the African and Caribbean Churches are growing exponentially, but how they engage with other faiths is not on the agenda. How can the centre encourage black church leaders to creatively engage with the interfaith dialogue?

- That more could be done to improve the public face of interfaith encounter

I'd like to discuss further...:

- How the political context of a friendship influences the extent to which evangelizing can or should take place

- The fact that where we were born / live is fundamental eg. if I lived/born in Pakistan I would have probably been raised as a Muslim

- Who is working more widely then Christian / Muslim encounter - especially with young people?

- Limitations of an evangelical point of view   

- How can the gap between the academics of scriptural reasoning practice and the ordinary member of a house of faith be best bridged effectively?   

- How to protect those who take part in dialogue from criticism   

- More on the academic issues - so many of us are starting from praxis and theology is trying to catch up!