Would You Share Your Place Of Worship With Others Of Another Faith?

[Kiki-frog]

Apologies if this has already been discussed here. I did a quick search and couldn't believe that no-one had asked this yet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/18/aberdeen-muslims-christians-share-church

I've been mulling this story over for a couple of days, and while I think the Christian priest and Muslim imam must be extraordinary people, I wonder what tensions there might be among their respective flocks?

Joint prayers and then providing food for the needy sounds wonderful. But would any of the believers here be prepared to do the same thing? And would you feel obliged to use the opportunity to try to convert others?

[vulcan42]

This was discussed on the Jeremy Vine programme a couple of days ago with both the Priest and Imam taking part. A number of people phoned and e mailed and the majority were in favour, however, there was one dissenter who was a fellow christian. He didn't like the idea of sharing and said the Priest should be trying to convert them. It seems even the Christians cannot agree on what could be considered a Christian act.

[Noth43]

As an Atheist I'm not particularly concerned who uses the church. I'm in favour of sharing though if it prevents Mosques being built.

[Baldric]

///But would any of the believers here be prepared to do the same thing?///
As I don't have an imaginary friend I can't help with this one.

///And would you feel obliged to use the opportunity to try to convert others?///
I can think of a few on here who would!

[mikey4444]

All this talk about sharing churches makes me remember today about how it was to be brought up as a Catholic in the Britain of the 1950's

When I was about 8 years old, we were having an end-of-term talk by a visiting Friar, as we were just about to go off for the long summer hols.

I distinctly remember him telling us, very sternly, that we should remember that even when we were on holiday, it was our solemn duty to go to Mass every Sunday, without fail. He also told us that if we couldn't find a Catholic church in the place where we were staying, that we could attend, at a pinch, go to a Greek or Russian Orthodox church instead.

But under no circumstances should we set foot in a Protestant church !

My family used to stay on a farm on Dartmoor every summer, so quite where we were supposed to find a bloody Orthodox church in the middle of nowhere was a mystery to me, and also to my Dad when I told him.

As a good Catholic boy, we were taught that life was really simple. There were Catholics, like us and we were, of course, the Good Guys.

Then there were the Jews, who weren't so nice as they murdered Jesus.

And then there were Black People, who we prayed for every Sunday, who believed in all sorts of things, most of them unsavoury. We also took a penny to school on Monday and got a sticker of a black child for our savings card.

Anybody who believed in Jesus but wasn't a Catholic was therefore a Protestant ! I was in my mid-teens before I found out about Baptists, Methodists, etc, etc. I can never recall being told about Jehovah, Mormons, and the other loony tunes.

No wonder life seemed so simple !

[keyplus90]

I am not sure now but at the time of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) a group of Jews and Christians came for a dialogue with him and they stayed in the Masjid (mosque now known as Prophet's mosque) in Medinafor over a week and during that time they practised their religion there.

[naomi24]

Keyplus, the question isn't addressed to Mohammed. It asks if YOU would share your place of worship.

[beso]

In my philosophy, ff anything could be considered as evil it is the practice of worship itself.