Many within the Christian world
dispute on whether the various denominations should be in a dialogue status.
However, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, when explaining about dialogue with
different religions, he gives a valid answer to this dispute, explaining:
“Dialogue does not imply denial
of religious faith or betrayal of religious affiliation. Instead, it signifies
a shift in our mind-set and a change of attitudes, what in spiritual language
we call ‘repentance’ – or, as we have already seen, in Greek, metanoia, which literally means seeing
things through a different perspective. This is why dialogue is the start of a
long and patient process of conversation, not a fundamentalist drive toward
conversion or some legal exchange of ideas like a contract. It is a way of
learning how to listen in order to hear, so that Muslims can feel welcome and
safe in Christian countries and so that Christians can feel welcome and safe in
Muslim countries; so that both Jews and Palestinians may feel welcome and safe
in the Middle East; so that all minorities in all places can enjoy the same
rights and privileges as their neighbours”[1].
[1]
Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch, Encountering
the Mystery, (Doubleday, New York, 2008), p. 216
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