A Personal Perspective
by Rev. Barry King

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Why an Interfaith Ministry?

I have now worked in the Interfaith Ministry for almost 25 years. When I started in the ministry, the idea of an interfaith community and the notion of a personal connection to Spirit was a mystery to most and an affront to some. Today, it is gratifying to see that there has been a positive change towards embracing diversity and towards a more inclusive positive spirituality.

There is, however, still much to do. One of the reasons, I dedicated myself to the Interfaith Ministry because of the intolerance and misunderstanding of other spiritual paths I saw and experienced in my search for a positive form of spiritual practice. This intolerance of other ways meant that there were loving souls who worshiped the God of their understanding and because of this, they lived in fear. These people lived in fear because their faith has taken them along a different path. They were persecuted because they understood God differently. These people could have been you or me. They loved their children. They were kind and considerate and lived on the whole a Spiritual life. If we have learned anything, it should be that enough wars have been fought in the name of God’s Love and that enough souls have suffered at the hands of those who would "save" them because they are different. The message of the interfaith ministry is a simple one, “The paths are many paths, the truth is one - love thy neighbour.”

God is Love

It has always seemed inconceivable to me that people should suffer because they worship and love God. It is so sad that some souls feel that they need to fear God or that they need to instill in others a fear of God. I believe that to fear God is to pervert a basic truth - “God is Love. A loving God does not punish those who seek understanding and who are doing their best to meet the challenges they have chosen in this life. It is the nature of the spiritual seeker to challenge their perception of the world that they live in to grow in understanding and awareness. Much has been accomplished by those challenging the universally accepted truths of their time. We are the benefactors of truth seekers throughout the ages.

I am pleased to say that the notion of an Interfaith community is much more acceptable today than it was 25 years ago. It is true that many still have a difficult time understanding how a Ministry can exists which embraces all traditions. We celebrate the ceremony, symbols and articulations of God’s message of love through all traditions. It should also be noted that we encourage our members to reject the negative thought forms grounded in the physical such as intolerance, hatred, jealousy, greed, fear, etc.. These are by nature not spiritual qualities and we believe they should have no place in spiritual practice.

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