he now joins the Muslims’ Friday prayer at a local mosque. The group began their twice-a- month Saturday morning dialogues with “Al Fatiha,” the opening prayer of the Quran, and ended with the Lord’s Prayer.
After meeting for three years, they crafted a joint response to “A Com- mon Word between Us and You,” an open letter from 138 Muslim schol- ars. The letter was sent to leaders of Christian church bodies around the world, including ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson. The original invitation and its many responses can be read at
www.acommonword. com.
ELCA pastor Dan Jungkuntz (left) attends Friday prayer with Mourad Amer at a mosque in Hampton, Va.
Finding a common word C
Virginia dialogue pairs Lutherans and Muslims By George Kegley
hristians and Muslims “share more than 95 percent of their religion,” said Mourad Amer, a Muslim engineer committed to a joint dialogue in New- port News, Va., that has sought common ground among the two religious bodies for three years.
In a search for mutual understanding, several Lutherans, a Roman Catho- lic, an Episcopalian and five Muslims began the dialogue several years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Known as the Common Word Inter- Faith Group, members have focused on what they have in common rather than the differences, Amer said.
Group leader Dan Jungkuntz is a pastoral counselor and ELCA pastor. “I am so touched by what I have learned about Islam,” he said. Each week,
Kegley is The Lutheran’s correspondent for the Virginia Synod. 16 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
In their response, the Newport News group shared reflections fol- lowed by “intense conversation.” Challenges to understanding and appreciating each other’s traditions primarily stem from theological differences, group members say. They placed obstacles to the com- mon word into three categories: theological differences, human will- fulness and the current geopolitical situation.
Preparing the response was “spiritually deepening for all of us,” Jungkuntz said. He suggests people interested in a similar dialogue could begin by visiting a mosque and invit- ing the imam to come to their place of worship to make a presentation on Islamic tradition. There are differences, Jungkuntz said, “but we both believe in the one God and that God commands us to love God above all and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.” Amer, a native of Egypt who came to the U.S. 38 years ago and works for a ship-building company, said Muslims and Christians learn more about the other’s religion from meeting face-to-face than from just reading about them.
On Saturdays, members of Com-
COURTESY OF DAN JUNGKUNTZ
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