DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The United Methodist Church, the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination, will begin its first official theological talks with Muslim groups next year.
The denomination’s Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns approved the talks during its recent meeting in Daytona Beach, Fla. The dialogue would begin next year and continue for four years, according to United Methodist News Service.
The talks will consist of eight-member teams from the Methodists and the Muslim Public Affairs Council, which is based in Los Angeles and Washington. The Methodists already have similar talks with Catholics and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Anne Marshall, a church staffer who helped initiate the talks, said the dialogue grew out of a visit last October to the Islamic Center of Southern California after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“We were the first (non-Muslim) group they had ever invited into their space,” Marshall told the news service. She said the Muslims appreciated the outreach by the Methodists and have since developed materials for non-Muslims who visit the center.
Bruce Robbins, the commission’s general secretary, said the first meetings will determine what the two groups talk about, but said one area he wants to discuss is “the way we portray each other in the media and in our communities so that we don’t, to use biblical language, bear false witness against each other.
“We’ve been aware in recent years of the significant growth and visibility of the Muslim community and the need to educate ourselves about what conversation and living together with Muslims means,” Robbins said.
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