Summer Fellowship: Paying Attention through Interreligious Dialogue

Submitted by Rhonda Jackson on July 3, 2008 - 9:59pm.

This summer, we (Parliament interns and employees) were was asked to read Diana Eck’s book, Encountering God. My favorite chapters was entitled Attention to God because it best describes my process within this placement. The Council for a Parliament for the World’s Religions has been one of the richest experiences I’ve had in seminary. Meeting and speaking with people of different faiths as well as my own, has opened my eyes to a larger world. How might we begin to integrate our class work, spiritual and religious lives into the real world?

Perhaps one of the key benefits of a summer internship with the Beatitudes is that these fellowships offer a type of “work release” program for seminarians who, like me, have been buried in the library. The Parliament has become my transitional space back into the real world.

I salute those organizations that provide such engaging work like the Council for a Parliament of the World Religions. I’ve been challenged to assess my theological beliefs around pluralism. I’ve examined questions like why do we need inter-faith and inter-religious dialogue on our Christian path? How can it benefit us in our local churches and/or parish ministries?

This placement at the Parliament encourages this type of wrestling and attention. It’s a fun and challenging process to begin to wake up!

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