Source: Religion News Service
http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8732&Itemid=53
A Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist and an atheist walk into a prayer meeting.
Any number of punch lines could follow. But the members of Faith House Manhattan have serious business in mind. They want to create an unconventional spiritual community for people from any—or no—religious tradition.
The fledgling group of about three-dozen regular participants is overseen by Samir Selmanovic, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor for whom interfaith ideals come naturally: He describes himself as a former “atheist Muslim” who converted to Christianity during his military service in the former Yugoslavia.
“I wanted to build a church where Christians are not in charge,” he explained after a Saturday afternoon gathering of Jewish prayers and Beatles music.
“We wanted to include all the people who have a right to belong and be partners in the discussion, not as outsiders that need to be converted, but as insiders that we need to be interdependent with.”
Similar interfaith centers are on the rise across the country, according to the Pluralism Project at Harvard University, which reported a surge in the years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There are now more than 550 such groups in America, with the largest numbers in New York, California, Massachusetts and Illinois.