PRAY AT ABRAHAM’S TABLE
www.abrahamstable.org
An
Internet Prayer Site
inviting Jews, Christians and Muslims
to pray to our one God
in the urgent search for understanding, hope and peace
for each other and our world.
Purpose & Vision
In
this particular historic moment, when people of “The
Book”— Jews, Christians, and Muslims-- are in
the news for fighting one another, we seek to create a web
site that invites and encourages people of these faiths simply
to pray together.
We
believe that there is one God and Creator of all. We believe
that Christians, Muslims, and Jews walk different faith paths
and follow different sacred traditions. We believe that we
are joined by our love of our God and by our common ancestor,
the God-seeker -- Father Abraham. Like Abraham, we hope to
follow the will of God and to spread our knowledge and love
of God.
www.abrahamstable.org
will allow people of the three Abrahamic faiths to pray--using
prayers from their own religion, praying a common prayer,
lighting a Candle of Blessing, writing a prayerful intention
at the Table of Abraham, and considering taking on a practice
that will advance interfaith understanding. We do not seek
to merge the three religions or to ignore the differences
among them. Rather, we hope to create a prayerful space in
which Muslims, Jews, and Christians can find points of unity
and recognize our shared heritage and love of God and the
call to be peacemakers and hope-givers.
Need & Scope
The
need to build bridges is urgent. This need is apparent in
the daily news as witnessed in the Israeli-Lebanese war of
the past summer, in the on-going war in Iraq, in the events
of September 11, in the continual fear of terrorist attacks,
in the anti-Muslim sentiment in many areas, in the anti-Semitic
sentiment in other areas, in the cartoon controversy in Denmark
and the Pope’s words about Islam -- all set in a world
that is so often set in “us” against “them”
postures.
People
of good will have attempted to bridge the divide between Muslims
and Christians, Muslims and Jews, Jews and Christians in various
ways. We support on-going political and social work to bridge
the differences among these faiths. Our hope, however, is
to contribute to the healing among the Abrahamic faiths by
turning to the root and sustenance of all three religions:
prayer. Our hearts must be softened towards one another, and
only by turning to God in prayer can we hope to have our hearts
changed. Because people of these three faiths often do not
interact socially much less at the level of worship, we hope
to create a “meeting place” on the Internet for
Jews, Christians, and Muslims that is about praying together
rather than debating with or about one another.
Although
there are many needs in interfaith work and many needs for
creating peace among Christians, Muslims, and Jews, we will
address the need for these three faiths to see one another
as brothers and sisters.
At
this point in history we treat each other at times with benign
neglect, at times as “lesser” versions of our
own faiths, and too often with hatred and violence. This web
site will draw people into worship with one another to see
what our faiths share and to recognize one another as children
of the one God.
www.abrahamstable.org
We
seek to create a web site that will lead visitors through
a series of spiritual exercises:
This
site may eventually include other sections, such as guidelines
for hosting interfaith activities, sample interfaith services,
diversity activities, sacred stories from each religion, etc.
Background
Pray
At Abraham’s Table is a new media initiative of Angels
Studio in Chicago, USA. Angels Studio is a creative communications
agency devoted to bringing the races together via mass media
and the digital and expressive arts. See www.racebridges.net.
Angels
Studio is a communications ministry of the international Roman
Catholic Order The Society of The Divine Word (SVD). This
community serves people of faith, or without faith, around
the world, in the belief that there is a rightful and just
place for all God's children at the table of life.
The mission of racebridges.net is to unite people of all faiths,
people of no particular religious faith, and all people of
goodwill to work at the unfinished business of building bridges
across racial, religious and class divisions.
In
the spirit of Abraham, source of Blessings and Hope - we begin.
If we can pray together, we hope we can live together.
Email: comments@abrahamstable.org
