Save this date for the Fourth Annual Interfaith Retreat:
Healing for Body and Soul.  July 13-15, 2012

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A Longing in Our Hearts:
Celebrating the Holy Resonance in the Mystic Traditions of Islam and St. Francis of Assisi

People from across the country traveled to the Christine Center in Willard on August 13, 2011 to deepen their understanding of their own religious beliefs as well as those held by others. For the past three years, the Christine Center has held the Interfaith Weekend as an opportunity to unite religious traditions. This year, the Center celebrated the traditions of Islam and Christianity.

"It's always the most remarkable exchange," said Jean Feraca, the event's facilitator and host of Wisconsin Public Radio's "Here on Earth." "It's a discussion of the heart and how to live out of our traditional practices. It's a sort of dance, because there's an energy that involves some form of harmony and brings us into oneness." The event included discussions about the history of Christian-Islamic relations and a friendship that began between St. Francis of Assisi and Sultan Malek al Kamil in the 13th cntury.

Last year, the event brought in a Jewish Kabbalist and a Paulist priest who practices yoga. "There is a sad rate of religious illiteracy," said Jamal Rahman of Seattle. "We don't have an appreciation of others' faiths. Every part of the world is multi-religious," he said. Rahman, a Sunni Muslim, is also a Sufi minister. "That lack of understanding of others' faith has made it easy to dehumanize and denounce people who are different from ourselves," Rahman said, "especially after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks."

"The Christine Center has always embraced people of different faiths and offers them a sanctuary for spiritual deepening and global transformation," said Gabriele Uhlein, a Franciscan sister. "The people here are praying side-by-side to be in the same experience of God," Uhlein said. "It was St. Francis who boldly visited the Sultan in the 13th century and wanted to make his enemy his friend." The weekend and the Center doesn't work to convert people, Uhlein said, adding that like St. Francis and the Sultan, it's about retaining the roots of your own religious traditions, while learning about and respecting the traditions of others. "There is this common feeling people have with interfaith, that when you leave your faith, it will be diluted," Rahman said. "But when I'm open to the beauty and traditions of other beliefs, I become a better Muslim and a better human being."

Janet Suhr, of Bloomington, Illinois, started attending the Interfaith Weekends last year as part of her search for religious meaning. "What I like about this is being with like-minded people," Suhr said. "You might see someone and make assumptions, but when you get to talking with someone, you find we may be more alike than different."