Representatives of major religions share mystical and spiritual life

The second meeting of the Guerrand-Hermes Forum for Interreligious Study of the Mystical and Spiritual Life, a project of the Elijah Interfaith Academy, was held in March in Marrakech.

The concept for the Forum grew out of the understanding that Mysticism and Spirituality occupy important places in the lives of believers of all faiths. Spirituality and mysticism potentially provide a meeting place for religions in the heart of their religious life, rather than on the common battlefield of life.

They hold the promise of growth and transformation through experience, inspiration and emulation. Little work has been done on spirituality in an interfaith context, exploring its meaning for interfaith relations and carrying over the results of such study into the community.

The Guerrand-Hermes Forum for the Interreligious Study of Mystical and Spiritual Life, made possible through the inspiration of Simon Xavier Hermes Guerrand, seeks to deepen reflection on the range of questions associated with both mysticism and spirituality as bridges and meeting points between religions.

Benedictine Abbott Timothy Wright was invited to participated in the Marrakech Symposium with saw the participation of representatives of the world's six major religions, namely Christianity, Bhuddism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism.

He tells Linda Bordoni that the the participants in the Forum are not simply academicians and theoreticians but exponents and practitioners of these traditions and the aim of bringing them together, seeks to not only cultivate common reflection, but also to be open to practices from other spiritual traditions and to how they may in fact either point to spiritual common ground or enrich the experience of practitioners from other traditions and their religious experience.

Abbott Wright explained that participants were asked to write a short position paper exploring the theoretical significance of mysticism and spirituality.

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