Promoting Peaceful Coexistence and Common Citizenship

[ 118 ] — INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE FOR PEACE — KAICIID and to make it the dynamic place that it is. Thank you for your generosity of spirit, thank you for telling the stories that you have. Let us continue the conversation, let us continue to be frustrated by one another, and provoked and challenged by one another. Let us con- tinue to be in the same space on the same platform together. Rev. Mark Poulson Secretary for Interreligious Affairs to the Archbishop of Canterbury and National Interreligious Affairs Adviser to the Church of England Rev Mark Poulson was appointed Secretary for Interreligious Affairs to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and National Interreligious Affairs Adviser to the Church of England, in 2014. Prior to this Mark was the Vicar of St John’s Church, Southall for 11 years, where he and his family still live. Southall is an extraordinarily diverse area of West London with flourishing relationships across different faiths and communities, and Mark has been instrumental in fostering these relationships. He has also been involved nationally in the Church of England’s Presence and Engagement Programme as a long-standing member of its Task Group, and sits on the Board of the Church’s successful partnership with government, the Near Neighbours Project. t was in discussion at last month’s meeting in Washington DC of the Alliance of Virtue for the Common Good that I more fully under- stood two scriptural verses, one from the Hebrew Bible and the other from the Holy Qur’an. The Biblical verse is from the prophet Malachi (3:16): “Then those that revered the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord heard and listened. The other is the famous verse from the Qur’an (49:13): “O humankind, we have cre- ated you from a single male and female and made you into tribes and nations in order that you may know one another.” One might ask what is so special about people talking to one another such that God is described as paying spe- cial attention to it; or what is so important about getting to know one another such that it is described as the purpose of human diversity? The answer, of course, is that when we respectfully talk with each other, listen to one another, get to know one another, then we behave differently; while prejudice and bigotry are nurtured by ignorance and alienation. That is why this gathering is so important. That is why sincere interreligious dialogue does promote peace. And that is why we who have the privilege to lead KAICIID are so grateful for your presence and commitment to this path. Dialogue must never be dismissed as just talk, for the talk is the encounter, is the knowledge, is the overcoming of misunderstanding, misrepresentation and hostility. May we be worthy of these charges from our scriptures, to make the world a better place that truly glorifies the Creator of us all — all of us, His children created in the divine fabric. Chief Rabbi David Rosen I Dialogue must never be dismissed as just talk, for the talk is the encounter, is the knowledge, is the overcoming of misunderstanding, misrepresentation and hostility