DESCRIPTION OF THE "GUIDELINES FOR INTERFAITH CELEBRATIONS"

Patrice Brodeur

PRECIS

The use of interfaith celebrations to mark public anniversaries and to address common human challenges has increased rapidly in recent years. This essay provides a concise set of guidelines along with a detailed description to help organizers, participants, and observers understand the general political implications and limitations of local and international interfaith celebrations. Exploration into the meaning, purpose, actors, planning process, location, content, form, potential backlash, and benefits of interfaith celebrations is provided in light of the important role they can play as bridges across various religious communities, thereby becoming instruments for constructing meaningful and nonviolent pluralistic societies. Suggestions to avoid the two extremes--the lowest-common-denominator approach (reductive particularism) and the uniting approach (imperialist universalism)--pave the way for a middle path that acknowledges the dangers and rewards of interfaith celebrations, while respecting individual and collective religious similarities and differences.

      Historical evidence for multireligious cooperation abounds across the ages. Whether we take, for instance, examples of social, economic, and political cooperation among diverse religious groups during the reigns of Abd al-Rahman II (ruled 822-52 C.E.) and Abd al-Rahman III (ruled 912-61 C.E.) in Muslim Spain or during that of the Buddhist King Ashoka (ruled 273-32 B.C.E.) and that of the Mogul Emperor Akbar (ruled 1556-1605 C.E.) in India--or whether we speak more specifically of multireligious community dialogue at a popular level--religious identity was not constructed to exclude all forms of cooperation with people outside of that religious tradition. Since human identity is made up of multiple overlapping identities, a specifically religious identity cannot exclude those others through which cooperation is often more easily possible.
     To take a contemporary example, cooperation between Palestinian Muslims and Christians from the 1960's up to and including the intifadah has often been possible by playing down religious-identity differences and reinforcing a shared nationalist-ethnic identity for political reasons. If history prevents us from using religious labels--identity boxes separate from other forms of identity (gender, racial, ethnic, linguistic, class-based, etc.) through which multireligious cooperation has been the norm rather than the exception--it also begs us to recognize that multireligious cooperation at the level of our respective religious identities (because of our religious differences) has been less frequent. In fact, it might be argued that this approach has been truly possible only in the context of modernity, which has witnessed the rise of a new kind of multireligious cooperation: interfaith celebrations.
     The beginnings of the modern interfaith movement can be conveniently dated to 1893: the occasion of the World's Parliament of Religions held in Chicago. However, for all practical purposes, it did not really develop until half a century later out of the ashes of World War II, and it has only become more widespread over the last quarter of the twentieth century. This recent history, when compared to the history of religions as a whole, means that the modern interfaith movement is still in its early developments. While many interreligious encounters have taken place, only a tiny fraction of these meetings have taken the form of interfaith celebrations. Yet, this form has become the most visible expression of multireligious cooperation, the one to attract most public attention.
     From Assisi to San Francisco, passing through Kyoto, Delhi, Cape Town, and Copenhagen, there has been a growing interest in consciously bringing people of various religions¹ into the public arena on an equal basis within pluralistic societies. Yet, much integration of the possible meaning and potential use of such interfaith celebrations into a more coherent and self-aware "personality" of the "modern interfaith movement" remains to be done (for example, related yet distinctive from the <169>personality<170> of the Christian ecumenical movement). The 1993 centennial celebrations proved to be a catalyst for a transition from infancy to early adulthood, a kind of bar/bat mitzvah for the modern interfaith movement, despite its limitations.
     It is within this broad ancient and recent historical context of multireligious cooperation in general and interfaith celebrations in particular that the accompanying "Guidelines for Interfaith Celebrations" ought to be situated. While the "Guidelines" are written in a more concise fashion and can stand on their own for broader accessibility, the following description is divided into nine sections to provide clarification for many points in the "Guidelines" as well as a broader historical and geographic framework for making sense of the complexity and history of interfaith celebrations. These nine sections cover the meaning, purpose, actors, planning process, location, content, form, potential backlash, and benefits of an interfaith celebration.
     Through these "Guidelines" and their description here, I hope to help potential organizers of and participants in an interfaith celebration to avoid the pitfalls that underlie such a seemingly simple exercise. From the outset, readers should constantly adapt this basic interfaith-celebration etiquette to the cultural and circumstantial context relevant to their own specific celebration. These "Guidelines" seek to represent one step toward further integrating the multireligious dimension into our increasingly pluralistic societies worldwide, while still respecting the integrity and diversity of beliefs and practices across and within each religious community.

     Let us begin by the via negativa, or what an interfaith celebration should not be. It should not be a replacement of the unique forms of religious worship that can be found within each religious tradition. It should not be a super ritual that transcends or unites all religions. It should be neither a mosaic of unrelated religious pieces put side-by-side nor a syncretistic amalgamation of various religious practices and beliefs. In short, it should not be a show of religious diversity punctuated with applause. What, then, should it be?
     The via positiva is always more difficult to define. An interfaith celebration brings people of various religious communities together in order to share with one another parts of their respective sacred traditions (reading, story, prayer, meditation, chant, testimony, dance, and more). It should be situated somewhere between the above mentioned extremes. It should provide for each participant a meaningful experience of how diverse religious people can come together to share their respective understanding and reactions to a common theme. What makes an interfaith celebration a meaningful experience will probably vary greatly from one person to the next. In fact, no single, superseding meaning can easily be ascribed to such an event, beyond the common theme.
     Because an interfaith celebration is a unique way for people of different religious backgrounds to communicate with one another and beyond, its organizers and participants should communicate with one another on the basis of a mutual recognition of their respective religious quests, even though there may be profound disagreement as to the degree of usefulness or even the validity of each other's chosen path for self-expression. An interfaith celebration is a challenge to the concept that, because we believe and practice differently, there is no possible meeting ground. Creating this meeting ground and learning to actualize its benefits while avoiding its pitfalls is at the heart of preparing any interfaith celebration.
     An interfaith celebration is always made up of two elements: people and communication. Members of various religious traditions (people) come together in order to share some aspects of their religious traditions with one another and beyond (communication). This "beyond" may include the public in attendance at the celebration; the broader public reached through the media; specific individuals or groups of people on whose behalf prayers may be directed; and a divinity or all-encompassing source of power or reality, however this may be defined by the various participants.
     An interfaith celebration is only one kind of multireligious cooperation, albeit perhaps one of its pinnacles because of the sensitivities attached to religious beliefs and rituals and because of its often public nature. Interfaith celebrations are best practiced in conjunction with other kinds of multireligious activities, not as an isolated case of multireligious cooperation. Indeed, the word "celebration" is used here to emphasize how both past and present cooperative efforts have led to the building of enough trust to allow the participants and the public to come together to pray and meditate: two most intimate practices that often lose their profound meaning if put on display for solely media purposes.
     Religious sensitivities vary greatly; all need to be respected to the best of one's abilities. Despite areas of possible mutual exclusion, whether legal, ritual or theological, great care and effort is to be taken to avoid two extremes: the lowest-common-denominator approach (reductive particularism) and the uniting approach (imperialist universalism). Clarifying and respecting the similarities and the differences in the various meanings attributed to a common theme is the challenge not only for interfaith celebrations but also for constructing meaningful and nonviolent pluralistic societies. Interfaith celebrations should therefore be recognized for the important role they can play as an instrument to foster such aims.

     An interfaith celebration is not neutral. The very concept implies an openness to see religious diversity as something positive. Therefore, an interfaith celebration can be seen as a possible sociopolitical tool in the promotion of more tolerant and pluralistic societies, as was the case when Montreal city officials called for and facilitated the initial organizing of an interfaith celebration on March 21, 1995, on the occasion of the United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The purpose for holding an interfaith celebration will vary according to the circumstances that bring the organizers together. The only common denominator is the desire to celebrate together religiously, whatever form and content this intention may eventually reach.
     Furthermore, only part of those various purposes are expressed openly among the organizers. While this tension between the overt and covert expressions of the organizers' intentions is a normal phenomenon and should not be forced beyond what individual organizers feel comfortable sharing naturally with one another, every organizer should be aware of that tension within both him or herself and others. This awareness may help organizers see the broader picture and thus develop more appropriate answers to the many questions that will arise in the course of planning such an event.
     An interfaith celebration serves only a limited number of ends. For example, organizers and participants might come to express a public concern for a given theme, through one's own religious sensitivity, so as to affect change in the direction promoted by the theme; share treasures from one's own religious tradition as a tool for education; gain more factual knowledge about each other's traditions; gain more insight into the sensitivities of each other's religious communities; gain appreciation for different expressions of religious and spiritual worship; develop acquaintances and friendships with people across traditional religious divides; better understand the kinds of overlapping moral commitments that draw participants to support multireligious cooperation; and/or seek opportunities for further multireligious cooperation.
     It is hard to measure the impact of interfaith celebrations beyond the fact that individual participants are moved in different ways that tend to invigorate them in their own beliefs and practices, while gaining respect for those of other human beings. If greater tolerance and appreciation for diversity of religious expressions have been achieved, an interfaith celebration can be understood as successful. If, however, it has led to the strengthening of stereotypes and even to tensions and divisions, then the results may be unsuccessful and even counterproductive, unless clear steps toward evaluating the process and the event are taken, so as to learn from one's mistakes/limitations. Unfortunately, the most sensitive and negative reactions to interfaith celebrations are rarely shared in the open, unless a spirit of trust has been developed among the organizers in the course of planning. This lack of communication may be caused by an unrealistic assessment of the undisclosed purposes on the part of the organizers and participants.

     All who identify themselves with a religious community are potential actors. Depending on the purpose of the event, specific individuals or office-bearers within each religious tradition may play one or more of four roles: initiator, organizer, participant, and audience member.
     The initiators are few in number and, it is hoped, come from more than one religious tradition. They must have the time to visit all the people who may eventually serve as organizers in their own religious space. They must show a great deal of openness and ability to listen with the aim of integrating each religious community's concerns into the planning right from the beginning. In particular, they must learn how others pray and/or meditate. They must empower each religious community to take responsibility for their role in this cooperative multireligious effort.
     Collectively, organizers on the planning committee must represent the broadest possible diversity reflected in the audience they wish to address. An organizer may either be a "representative" of his or her religious community or be self-identified as a member of a religious community; the choice depends on the nature of the event. Individually, each organizer is required to have time not only to implement his or her respective areas of responsibility (which always includes both service to the whole committee in terms of planning the event and service to one's own community by being a bridge between that community and the committee) but also to reach out beyond his or her immediate religious community. Indeed, no committee can claim to represent the religious diversity that exists both within and across religious traditions. If an interfaith service is to be repeated, a rotation in the planning committee helps reach this greater diversity and increases the numbers of those who learn most about this kind of interreligious cooperation.
     During an interfaith celebration, those who have been asked to play an active role in the public program are the participants. Often, organizers are also participants, but many participants, especially if they are dignitaries or artists within their own religious tradition, do not have the time to be organizers; they are invited for the special role and expertise they play within their respective communities. While the participants are normally chosen by the organizers from their own religions, this selection should take place within the parameters agreed upon by the organizing committee as a whole. Limitations in terms of time and money may determine the number of participating religious communities as well as their respective participants.
     Numbers within the audience are normally open, although limitation of space may require developing guidelines to prioritize choice of participants and publicity strategies. The following criteria are useful to keep in mind: diversity of religious representation and participation according to the ratio in existence within the boundaries of the audience (citywide, provincial, national, regional, continental, worldwide); degree of support each religious community plays with regard to the event, whether financial or otherwise; diversity and balance in terms of nonreligious identity factors (gender, age, race, language, ethnicity, class, and others). In fact, these criteria are equally useful in relation to organizers and participants.
     Geography plays an important role in interfaith celebrations. Organizers must delimit the geographic zone from which the participants and the audience will come. Not to delimit this zone may lead to ambiguity that could aggravate potential negative criticism. This danger is especially visible when issues of religious representation arise. Representation implies the existence of religious institutions that truly represent a given community, whether this membership takes the form of annual fees, regular participation in the community's activities, or self-proclaimed affirmation of membership. Since each religious community has a rich diversity of experience as to how it has chosen to organize itself institutionally over the years, the issue of representation is bound to be controversial, especially the less hierarchically minded the structures of communal interaction are. While this problem almost always arises in the process of planning an interfaith celebration (unless the celebration clearly stipulates that each participant shares a personal offering without any reference to the larger community out of which it emerges, which is itself a contradiction for many religious people), it becomes more acute the wider the geographic reference is.

     An interfaith celebration is not only a unique event but also a unique process through which people of various religious traditions agree to share time and space in order to strengthen their collective spoken and respective unspoken agendas, as long as they are not mutually exclusive. Discovering those spoken and unspoken agendas, most often political or theological in nature, and managing them so as to avoid either a pull-out or a takeover by one or more groups are the most important skills to develop. To this end, the skills of listening, honesty, trust, openness to sharing, and patience are essential. The following list of rights and responsibilities may represent a useful consensus on which to base the process of planning an interfaith celebration:

RIGHTS, RESPONSIBILITIES AND SKILLS OF DIALOGUE

For true dialogue to occur it needs to take place within a protective environment of mutually accepted rights and responsibilities, rooted in two fundamental values: respect for the human person and trust in the process of dialogue. Dialogue works best when the participants are willing to develop certain skills that facilitate the process.

     The process during an interfaith celebration should also be clarified at the beginning of the event, either verbally or in writing, the first being preferable. Such explanations may include clarification as to what is expected of the audience, since most people are newcomers to such events. Beyond the practical information that may relate to the specificity of each event, there are a few general points that always recur. First, applause should not punctuate the end of each contribution, as it interrupts the flow and creates an unnecessary theater atmosphere that divides the audience from the participants. Second, the audience should be invited to join in the prayers or meditations to the degree to which they feel comfortable doing so. For this reason, printed prayers and brief explanations about a meditation session may help members of the audience decide in advance whether or not to participate actively. A person who disagrees with the content of a particular contribution may wish to take an observer position during that contribution. In other words, without moving, members in the audience may consciously shift their personal relationship to the various contributions from a position of simple observer to that of a full participant, depending on the nature of that contribution. Besides those general principles that should be explained at the beginning of the event, each participant may wish to add specific requirements for her or his own contribution. For example, taking pictures may be forbidden due to its desacralizing effects.

     Many locations can be used for interfaith celebrations: worship places; public spaces such as town halls, schools, or parks; or private nonreligious places. Each location will have its limitations, so it is best to ask every single organizer on the planning committee what concerns they might have with selecting one place over another. This process must be done both as a group and through individual consultations, since not all concerns can be aired publicly. The religious spaces have the advantage of already providing a religious atmosphere. However, certain members of different religious communities may feel uncomfortable worshiping in a place where religious symbols referring to beliefs other than their own are prominently displayed. The reverse is true of public places; while no one religious atmosphere is overwhelmingly present, the "neutrality" may possibly be perceived as both an emptiness or a fullness of secular symbols that may be in tension with religious ones. In all cases, the space will probably need some adjustments. Any change, whether through subtraction or addition, need to be discussed and agreed upon by the committee as a whole.
     The space needs to be set up so that feelings of inclusion are fostered. The circle may be perceived by some as the best shape, although numbers may prevent the organizers from choosing it. Rows may maximize the seating capacity, yet they create a division between the audience and the stage that may be too formal for others. Chairs may be comfortable for some, but they take time to set up and can be noisy. Removing one's shoes and sitting on the floor (or finding enough carpets) may simply be too much to expect of a general audience in some cultural contexts, while particularly suitable in others for whom praying or meditating requires removal of shoes. Whatever the choices may be, finding creative ways of trying to accommodate the minority position is always a good idea. For example, the majority may sit on carpets, while chairs are left around the walls; alternatively, carpets with pillows are put toward the front, with chairs around them to accommodate different tastes.
     Finally, if a more natural setting is sought, heat, cold, wind, rain, and sun must be taken into consideration in the choice of orientation. For example, for a sunrise or sunset ceremony it may be preferable to place the audience in such a way that it may be the least affected by the rays of the sun. In short, when transforming a secular or religious space for the purpose of an interfaith celebration, attention should be given not to recreate a space that could be associated with only one of the religious traditions involved. The same concern holds for the following section.

     There is no set form or content for an interfaith celebration, nor should there be. Attempts at codifying interfaith celebrations result in excluding the many particular religious variables that communities may wish to include in the context of a mixed religious audience. They represent attempts at building a super ritual that would somehow encompass or supersede all religious rituals. Such aims are not only illusory but also offensive to many people.
     The human senses (five or six depending on the tradition) provide a useful point of departure to select an appropriate content. Since each religious tradition has encouraged (or forbidden) over the centuries a full range of sensual means, and since religious sensitivities are highly linked to those specifics, appropriate time needs to be allowed for developing an interfaith "liturgy" whose content will respect the sensitivities of organizers and participants alike, while providing a creative response to the chosen theme. A symbol used in one interfaith celebration may be perfectly acceptable in that context, due to the nature of the event and its participants, and yet not be acceptable in another context. The key is to avoid any generalization; assumptions of what are perceived to be common points are easily shattered. For example, even silence cannot be assumed to be shared by all traditions in the same way. Some examples that have been used in past interfaith celebrations include light, candles, flowers, incense, seeds, rice, bread, water, or pine cones.
     The content of an interfaith celebration may include music and food. In terms of music, special attention needs to be paid to those traditions, such as Sikhism, in which musical instruments are sacred; they cannot be touched and moved around by organizers or helpers without explicit permission. As for food, it is one of the most powerful symbols to which all human beings must relate in order to survive. The use of food during an interfaith celebration should follow the guidelines mentioned in the previous paragraph regarding symbols. For the use of food as a social postscript to an interfaith event, special guidelines need to be followed; in brief, the vegetarian option is the simplest, although not without its own complexity of interpretation.

Language

     On the one hand, the same words or lack thereof (silence) may be shared, although their meaning may not be the same for everyone. On the other hand, different words may be used to point to the same meaning. The same tension exists for the use of symbols. Moreover, the purpose of accepting to be in the presence of each other, given the various words and symbols used during an interfaith celebration, may vary even though there may be a consensus to use them. In other words, there should be no expectation regarding what the common meaning of the event will be, except for the actual time and space shared by all. Yet, this very time and space shared together is the central building block of dialogue; it thus becomes imperative to ensure time after the celebration for both participants and audience to reflect on the event in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Time

     Although time and our human relation to it may be perceived in radically different ways, both across the world and by different people sharing the same geographic area, organizers may find it a useful exercise to discuss how time is perceived in their respective religious practices. For example, in the Sikh tradition, the musical instrument is sacred and needs a number of minutes to warm up, as does the voice of the singer; only after a rather long period can the real praying begin. In contrast, many Christians may easily find ways of containing their prayers in a five-minute period. This exercise may not only be valuable to determine what the consensus might be to select the ideal program length, but it may also provide important parameters to invite each community to pick suitable contributions for the kind of time allotment they are given in order to avoid cutting them short--an offense to be avoided.
     While some flexibility is necessary, in societies where time is perceived as a rare commodity, the notion of equality will be interpreted in terms of equal sharing of time, irrespective of the degree of sacredness with which the contributors may hold their contributions. Whether it be a Sikh chant or a Mohawk blessing to Mother Earth, once entering into the realm of the sacred, time plays a different role, if any at all. While this may be the perspective of the contributor and some of the audience participants, others may be exercising their rights to be observers and judge the contribution according to their own criteria of time-valued management. At the end, their opinion may be as important as that of the contributors. So, careful time management is crucial to avoid frustrations during and after the event. A general rule of thumb may be that planning for shorter individual contributions and an overall shorter program is an investment toward avoiding dragging celebrations. Another way is to cut down on the number of religious communities participating in the event.

Order

     Two aspects of an interfaith celebration raise the question of order. First, if a celebration includes a procession (and many do), positions within it matter differently from one religious group to another. For example, some may prefer being in the back, while others will be insulted if they are not placed among the first ones. Second, the order in which participants appear in the main program is also a potentially contentious issue. An acceptable system must be adopted and made clear to all participants in advance, such as, for example, alphabetic or chronological order.
     On the three above elements in particular, major compromises will be necessary for everyone who contributes to an interfaith celebration. Respect for one's own sacred tradition and the need to choose the best possible selection from that tradition to share with a broad public may seem mutually exclusive at times. Since a contributor will probably, and rightly so, feel uncomfortable at compromising for the sake of time, organizers may enjoy sharing (and laughing about) their frustration against the common enemy, time. Where appropriate, some organizers may choose to include an approximate beginning and ending time on a program distributed to the audience. However, even having a program distributed to the audience may not be the expected norm, as was my experience in grassroots interfaith celebrations in India.

     In responding to a person who opposes holding an interfaith celebration, an organizer of that person's particular faith tradition and another organizer from a different tradition should together articulate their respective reasons (whether theological, emotional, or political) for participating in an interfaith celebration. Time to listen to an opponent's arguments is equally important, for the quality of listening and understanding you show will greatly help create a pattern of communication that may be conducive to real, transformative dialogue rather than fruitless polemics. Inviting the opponent to attend one of the preparatory meetings may be part of a solution, as long as that person is well briefed in advance and all organizers agree. The tension may be an opportunity for mutual education at best and a reminder of the limits of an interfaith celebration at worst.
     If group opposition arises before the event, sending delegates from the planning committee to explain the purpose of the interfaith celebration is necessary. If group opposition arises at the event, the use of nonviolent conflict-resolution techniques becomes imperative. If any organizer suspects in advance that such interference may occur, it is imperative that a person trained in such techniques be brought into the planning committee to go over the preparation plans and alter them to minimize confrontation and to insure the presence of enough trained people to guide the participants in ways to avoid any conflict. Organizers need to delegate some of their responsibilities to trained people in all aspects related to the security of the event as a whole.

     Given the above complexity, readers may ask why one should bother to organize an interfaith celebration at all. The benefits of preparing and holding an interfaith celebration lie primarily in the field of education. For many people, learning through other people's direct testimonies is more effective than learning through books. In fact, especially in the realm of prayer and meditation, there is nothing more eye-opening than seeing people from a different religious tradition pray or meditate. For more experienced organizers, helping to provide new experiences to a large audience is tremendously rewarding. In short, those who stand to benefit most in decreasing order of educational impact are the organizers, the participants, the audience in attendance at the celebration, the public reached through the media, and the public reached through word of mouth.
     Another important area of social and political benefits is the creation of human interactions across communities that may not always have any direct link. For example, state functions held in a pluralistic society, from opening of parliament sessions to funerals, require that more and more attention be paid to multireligious diversity. Opening new channels of communication, whether across official institutions or in more general terms at the grassroots level, is vital for keeping a society healthy. Constructing bridges of communication across religious divisions, as is true for other identity divisions in any society, is crucial to ensure that, when conflict arises, people belonging to the various sides already have open channels of communication. The rapidity of intervention in preventing the growth of a conflict greatly depends on the trust that may have been developed through various peaceful activities such as interfaith celebrations. For the more politically inclined, then, the interfaith celebration becomes a peaceful tool for social transformation.

     The key word to remember in preparing for an interfaith celebration is "bridging." The possibilities for violence in any community are greatly decreased whenever there exist solid and constantly maintained bridges of communication between the various groups sharing a given space. Interfaith celebrations, like many other cooperative multireligious and multicultural efforts, can strengthen the fiber of society if they lead to bridging gaps between the various religious segments of a population. For those who believe in the power of prayer and meditation, the value of an interfaith celebration may be seen in the substitution of the word "prayer" or "meditation" for that of "head" in the French saying coined when problems need to be resolved: deux tętes valent mieux qu'une (two heads are better than one).

GUIDELINES FOR INTERFAITH CELEBRATIONS

An interfaith celebration brings people of various religious communities together in order to share with one another parts of their respective sacred traditions (reading, story, prayer, meditation, chant, testimony, dance, etc.). Their selection depends on the theme marking the occasion for the event. However different the contexts for holding interfaith celebrations may be, a certain number of recurring points are summarized in the form of the following plan and general guidelines:

     Sharing a common interfaith platform often raises challenging dilemmas. While the aim is certainly to maximize the benefits for every participating religious community while minimizing respective disappointments, the reality often requires the organizers and participants to make various compromises. Compromises are acceptable only if two conditions are met. First, the compromise must be freely chosen, that is, not imposed by the group simply for the sake of reaching a superficial consensus. Second, the organizer who willingly decides to compromise on a particular point should not feel that it compromises her or his own religious integrity.

     Emphasizing the following six points may help avoid conflicts by turning healthy disagreements into creative solutions:

1. Avoid proselytizing through practicing the “golden rule”: “listen to others as you would like them to listen to you.” Encourage in particular the open articulation of the needs of each individual and religious community.

2. Avoid confusing the aim of understanding and respecting the needs of each individual and religious community with agreement.

3. Seek the best possible sharing of responsibilities across the participating religious communities, building on the various strengths of the respective organizing and participating individuals and communities.

4. Respect each organizer’s voice in building consensus, even though various degrees of commitment will soon emerge among the various organizers. More involvement should not translate into more weight in the process of decision-making.

5. Practice fair time-management during both the planning sessions and the celebration itself; no individual or religious community should have more time than others to speak or make their own contribution.

6. In case of tensions, reviewing the initially-agreed-upon guidelines, whether individually or as a group, should help find solutions that will avoid frustrations and feelings of being forced into unwanted decisions.

     In short, at all times in the process of planning an interfaith celebration, initiators and organizers need to recognize and find creative ways to balance a number of different tensions, such as the tension between:

a. intrafaith and interfaith diversity, recognizing that there is a limited amount of time and that not every group can be involved;

b. various collective mechanisms for religious representation;

c. various universalistic tendencies (stressing unity and similarity) versus particularistic tendencies (emphasizing separation and differences);

d. various and often competing identities, be they religious, gender, ethnic, linguistic, class, etc., both across and within different religious traditions;

e. various openly recognized rules of human interaction versus hidden ones, despite having clarified the guidelines for process in the first planning meeting;

f. various openly acknowledged needs/intentions versus unacknowledged ones (hidden agendas) at both individual and communal levels.

     Most important, organizing and participating in an interfaith celebration is a tremendously rich leaning experience at all stages of the process. Every moment should be enjoyed for its unique richness.