Matthew

Brighton and Hove Interfaith Contact Group AGM
19 April 2026

Brighton and Hove Interfaith Contact Group AGM

19 April 2026

Is interfaith dialogue relevant in troubled times?

My response to the question that has been put to us in a nutshell:

Interfaith dialogue is essential in troubled times. It is essential for at least four reasons:

Because the history of the major religions is a history of domination and subjugation, of the persecution of the marginal and vulnerable by the powerful.

Because so many of the conflicts that scar the world today are fuelled by religious hatred.

Because so many people of all faiths believe that their truth is the only truth.

Because the hatred between different religious groups is fostered by ignorance of other faiths, and a lack of contact with people of other faiths.

The only antidote to conflict and division between faiths is for people of faith to encounter one another. For forty years, I have been fortunate to be engaged in interfaith encounters with Christians and with Muslims, in which participants have demonstrated a commitment to learning about one another. In my new book, Breaking Binaries. A progressive Rabbi engages with contemporary issues,^[1] I devote a chapter to interfaith dialogue in which I speak of ‘journeying in the borderland’. The interfaith encounters I have experienced were profound because those involved were prepared to move from the centre of their respective traditions to a borderland, a marginal terrain occupied by those who participate in interfaith work. It is a marginal terrain because in order to engage in interfaith encounter, individuals have to be prepared to move from the centre ground of their faith or tradition to the edge, to the borderland between the faiths and traditions. In that borderland, each participant with their experiences, convictions, and assumptions is in a position to look over the border to the land of the other, with their experiences, convictions, and assumptions. The hope is that those who have inhabited this borderland will think and act differently about their own faith and tradition and the faith and traditions of others when they return to their own country, aware that truths are plural and perspectives are multiple.

During the twenty years that I ministered as rabbi to Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue, I was a member of the Executive of the Brighton and Hove Interfaith Contact Group. In addition to focusing on my experience of in-depth Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Christian-Muslim encounter, the interfaith chapter in my new book also highlights the importance of dialogue at the local level, which is exemplified by the excellent work of the IFCG. To mark my impending retirement as rabbi of Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue, with the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, the Executive held a zoom event in February 2021. These are the thoughts I shared that evening about what my experience has taught me about the ingredients of meaningful interfaith encounter. The ingredients are:^[2] Listening; Sharing; Giving; Receiving; Acknowledging and respecting our differences; Caring, both, in the sense of caring for one another, and taking care in how we communicate with one another; Learning; Celebrating.

Listening

As we all know, listening is not the same as hearing, which is a physical capacity. Listening means paying attention. It means making space in one’s head to take in the experience of the other; what they are saying about themselves. So many of us have assumptions and projections about the other. Listening involves absorbing and processing what another person has to say about themselves in their own terms.

Sharing

When we are engaging with people of other faiths, it is so important that we do not just listen, but are also prepared to speak and share our truths, our understandings, our experiences. If we are not prepared to share and enable someone to listen to us, then encounter cannot take place. Of course, such sharing requires trust, mutual trust.

Giving

Giving is related to sharing, but unlike sharing, which can be motivated by our own needs, giving is usually a response to the needs of others, rather than the need to express ourselves. Giving requires generosity of spirit and a preparedness to forge, maintain, and cherish relationships. It is an essential aspect of interfaith encounter.

Receiving

Some people who are prepared to give to the other, find it more difficult to receive from the other. But, without the willingness to receive, giving can become a form of condescension. A fundamental component of interfaith encounter has to be equality. That does not mean that the parties to the encounter are treated equally in society at large. The experiences of someone who is part of majority culture are very different from those of someone who is part of a minority, in particular, a minority that has been subject to persecution and abuse. Nevertheless, for interfaith encounter to be a genuine exchange, we need to consciously meet one another as equals.

Acknowledging and respecting our differences

When people of different faiths meet, there is often a powerful urge to look beyond our differences and find common ground. We want to look at the other and say, ’how wonderful, we are really the same’. Of course, it is true. Thinking in religious terms, as we read in Genesis chapter 1.27, each human being is an image of God, and so we are essentially, the same. But our urge to look for similarities can often overlook important differences. Often, what we are doing is trying to find ourselves in the other, a reflection of ourselves, so the other feels less other, less alien. But, when we do this, we are not so much encountering the other as trying to bolster up our own sense of ourselves.

Perhaps the most important thing I have learnt from four decades of interfaith work is to value the differences between us. The differences that make us who we are as Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Pagans, alongside all the different denominations within each faith or religious grouping. Interfaith encounter is successful when it enables us to acknowledge our differences and respect our differences while recognising our common humanity.

Caring – both, in the sense of caring for one another, and taking care in how we communicate with one another

Caring for one another is essential to interfaith encounter. If we do not care for one another, then we will not care to do the work of listening, sharing, giving, receiving, and acknowledging and respecting our differences. The other aspect of caring that is equally important and is actually fundamental to our capacity to care for one another is taking care in how we communicate with one another. Taking care in this way, encompasses the language we use, the way in which we refer to each other’s religions and faiths, and the way in which we talk about our own. For example, speaking from my own personal experience, when someone who is a Christian, talks to me about the ‘Old Testament’, rather than the ‘Hebrew Bible’ or the ‘Hebrew Scriptures’, however friendly they are to me, they demonstrate a lack of care. Taking care involves informing oneself. ‘Old Testament’ means ‘Old Covenant’, an appellation that carries the understanding that the ‘Old’ has been superseded by the ‘New’. Speaking of the ‘Hebrew Bible’ or the ‘Hebrew Scriptures’ is also a way of acknowledging the primary sacred text of the Jewish people on its own terms. For those who wish to refer to the Hebrew Bible in relation to the ‘New Testament’, the best term to use is ‘First Testament’.

Learning

People sometimes think of interfaith encounter as a quest for ‘understanding’. Of course, we may grow to understand one another, but that is an outcome of the work we do together. Interfaith work involves learning about one another. I have used the word ‘work’ a few times. In Hebrew, sacred work is spoken of in the language of ‘service’, Avodah. Interfaith encounter requires work: sacred service, avodah, service to one another, and ultimately, service to the Eternal that is within and beyond us.

Celebrating

When we can enter the borderland between us and celebrate together, celebrate what we share and also celebrate our differences, then we know that we are engaged in a real encounter.

Of all the ingredients of transformative interfaith encounter, perhaps the most important is learning. Being open to learning from and about the other involves us in moving towards the other and into a liminal space between the clearly demarcated borders of each faith. Let us hope that, as humanity faces so many global challenges in the coming years, not least climate change, the abuse of ‘faith’ as a vehicle for dominating and supplanting others, may be replaced by borderland encounters between people of different faiths, religions, traditions, and cultures, for the sake of all our lives and the planet which is our shared inheritance.

And a final thought: Rabbi Lionel Blue, Zikhrono livrakhah, may his memory be for blessing, my tutor and ordaining rabbi, who was one of the founders of the Jewish-Christian-Muslim conferences in Germany, was at his happiest when he was engaged in interfaith encounter. Rabbi Blue, used to say: ‘Judaism is my religious home, it is not my religious prison’.^[3] How can we really learn about one another and the religious homes we inhabit, if we are not prepared to leave our familiar surroundings and venture into the unknown? If we are not prepared to discover what makes another person’s heart sing, what motivates their devotion, what inspires them, and what gives them consolation? Ultimately, what makes interfaith engagement vital in our troubled world in these troubled times is that, rather than difference being divisive, it can enable us to share our particular passions and truths and become more whole in the encounter with one another.

Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah

1. Sarah, Elli Tikvah. 2026. Breaking Binaries. A progressive rabbi engages with contemporary issues. Seaford: Unusual Publications ↑

2. Brighton and Hove Interfaith Contact Group gathering via Zoom, 16 February 2021. I have edited out references to IFCG activities. ↑

3. Sadly, Rabbi Lionel Blue died in 2016. My tribute to him is included along with the tributes of others in a special issue of European Judaism (2018). Rabbi Lionel Blue Memorial Issue, 51(1), Spring. https://www.jstor.org/stable/e48504771 (Accessed: 10 November 2025). ↑