Guidelines for Inter-Faith Dialogue
The following Guidelines for Interfaith Dialogue were produced October 1988 by the Ecumenical Office, Anglican Church of Canada.

These guidelines are offered to Canadian Anglicans as they seek to reach out to their neighbours of other faiths. Our approach has two separate, but inter-related aspects: dialogue, which includes growing in our knowledge of each other and a mutual sharing of spiritual insights; and common action which would involve joint efforts to deal with issues related to life together in society, but might also include activities of a devotional nature.

(more…)

Guidelines on worship involving Christians and people of other faith traditions
Prepared by a Task Force of the

Faith, Worship, and Ministry Committee of the Anglican Church of Canada

approved by the Council of General Synod

1. Historical
Anglicans are increasingly invited to participate in worship with people of other faith traditions, in the context of a multi-cultural society and also against the background of growing dialogue with representatives of some other faith traditions. Guidelines for inter-faith dialogue were commended to the Church by the General Synod in 1986.[1] Inter-faith dialogue is a long process and it is not always easy for a number of reasons: it lacks the definable goal of corporate union which characterizes Christian ecumenism; it is not an appropriate forum for Christian evangelism (with which it is sometimes confused); the histories of the various faith communities have sometimes included distortion,  mutual condemnation and persecution; sometimes it is hard to find a common language to speak of the divine; cultural presuppositions may be confused with religious practice and thought by both Christians and others; some Christians question the need for dialogue when the real agenda is, for them, conversion. These and other difficulties should be acknowledged. Our dialogue partners face the same problems. Dialogue must be open, honest, and realistic, and we should not avoid difficult issues simply to avoid disagreement. Mere sentimentalism can, in the long run, be destructive of good relationships.

(more…)