Wyoming Interfaith Network welcomes Muslims, Jews, Unitarian Universalists, those who practice Native American traditions, and other non-Christian participants.

Kahlil Gibran said, “I love it when you bow in your Mosque, kneel in your temple, or pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is of the Spirit.”

The Wyoming Association of Churches has made an historic decision. During its annual meeting this coming weekend in Cheyenne, it will become the Wyoming Interfaith Network.

The group has long been an ecumenical Christian voice in Wyoming. Its membership has included Presbyterians, United Methodists, Disciples of Christ, American Baptists, the Friends, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of North America, the United Church of Christ, Episcopalians, and others from time to time.

Now, as the Wyoming Interfaith Network, it will welcome Muslims, Jews, Unitarian Universalists, those who practice Native American traditions, and other non-Christian participants.

The organization began as the Wyoming Church Council in the 1960s. In 1976, it became the Wyoming Church Coalition. They called themselves the Wyoming Association of Churches (WAC) in 2003.

The group’s website says that membership is “based on a commitment to come together with others, putting aside our differences to advance our mission.” The “others” will now include those of our friends and neighbors who worship different from Christians. Together, they will all pursue a mission that includes the promotion of spiritual growth, responsible stewardship of God’s creation, and social justice.

The decision to open its uniquely Christian voice to the voices of non-Christians is a matter of significance. There are people in our community who call themselves Christians who will not be a part of anything that includes Muslims, Jews or others. The Wyoming Interfaith Network will offer testimony that exclusionary practices do not serve God’s hopes for the world.

The WAC decision is a recognition that the world’s great religions have in common far more than that which divides them. The fundamental belief shared by each is expressed by Christians as “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

The Quran of the Muslims says, “Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself.” The great Rabbi Hillel taught in the Talmud of Judaism that, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This, Rabbi Hillel exclaimed, “is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary.”

The same theological thread runs through Hinduism, Confucianism, the Baha’i Faith, Taoism, and Sikhism, which teaches, “I am a stranger to no one and no one is a stranger to me. Indeed, I am a friend to all.”

We live in times when the failure to understand the way in which others come to understand the divine threatens the well-being of the world and the security of our fellow human-beings. While covering one of the hundreds of international crises on which Walter Cronkite reported, the iconic anchorman said interfaith dialogue and respect were necessary for the survival of democracy. He said “never before has the need for interfaith commitment been nearly as great as it is at this very moment.” The same is perhaps more urgent in our troubled times.

The world needs to grow quickly beyond employing varying perspectives on God to justify hatred. Replacing fears about the religion of others with facts and understanding is the best chance the world has to save itself from the sort of violence currently engulfing much of it.

Theologian David Smock has studied interfaith dialogue and has written extensively on the subject. Smock says, “It is only when participants have a deep understanding of their own religious traditions and are willing to learn and recognize the richness of other religious traditions that constructive cooperation can take place between those of different faiths.”

An interfaith encounter should not be seen as an opportunity to convert the other person to your religion. Neither does it require that you relinquish your own beliefs. It simply demands an openness and a curiosity about what sustains someone who worships and serves the divine in a manner with which you might not be familiar.