{"id":1784,"date":"2015-06-01T17:26:52","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T22:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/?page_id=1784"},"modified":"2016-02-14T14:22:54","modified_gmt":"2016-02-14T19:22:54","slug":"guidelines-for-arranging-group-visits-to-houses-of-worship","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/interfaith-dialogue\/principles-and-guidelines-for-interfaith-dialogue\/guidelines-for-arranging-group-visits-to-houses-of-worship","title":{"rendered":"Guidelines for arranging group visits to Houses of Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"
By JW Windland<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Download this document in PDF Format<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For the past 40 years, I have been visiting houses of worship in various North American cities. My visits to mosques, synagogues, gurdwaras, temples, meditation centers and churches have proved to be a wonderful complement to my many years of studying and teaching world religions.<\/p>\n One cannot really understand a faith tradition without entering into some kind of experience of that tradition. A house of worship site visit allows for just such an experience.<\/p>\n Inside the house of worship, one experiences the tastes, sounds, sights and smells of a faith tradition and its heritage. Here one encounters the tradition’s unique culture – its music, its prayer, its beliefs, its practices, its foods, its rituals, its people. One of the benefits of such visits is that not only does one learn more about another faith tradition but one also learns about oneself and about one’s own religious tradition.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Because visiting houses of worship was so meaningful and helpful to me, I decided it would be a good idea to share this experience with others. In 1994, I began organizing group visits to houses of worship in Toronto, Canada. Since then, I have organized literally hundreds of such tours.<\/p>\n In recent years it occurred to me that it might be helpful for others if I further shared my experience by developing a set of guidelines for arranging houses of worship site visits. I felt this could be helpful for people not just in North America but also in other parts of the world.<\/p>\n Because more and more regions of the world are becoming environments of multiculture and multifaith, there is now occurring a meeting of religions, an encounter of religions that is patently new to history. Religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue constitute the future of religion. The growing demand for visits to houses of worship is part of this planet-wide phenomenon of interreligious encounter.<\/p>\n It is my hope that the guidelines outlined below will be helpful to all who want to organize site visits to houses of worship. There are variety of audiences that show interest in site visits – high school classes, university classes, continuing education classes, congregations of any given faith tradition.<\/p>\n There are a number of schedule models for site visits. On a given day, the visiting group may wish to visit only one house of worship; on the other hand, it is possible for the group to visit three or four sites in one day. Through the Encounter World Religions Center in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, we sponsor an annual week-long world religions program in which the student group visits fifteen houses of worship.<\/p>\n Efforts to prepare the visitors prior to the site visit are essential. Preparation needs to occur on two levels: 1) visitors should receive some general introductory information about the faith tradition they are visiting; 2) visitors should receive an orientation to the etiquette of the particular house of worship – this will enable them, as guests, to be sensitive to the cultural and religious sensibilities of the given tradition.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Native Canadian drummers in Regina, Canada. Photo credit: Greg Harder<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Muslim Mosque in Krekelstraat, the Netherlands. Photo credit: Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Baha\u2019i House of Worship \u2013 New Delhi, India <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Buddhist Temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photo credit: Wikimedia<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shinto Temple in Kyoto, Japan. Photo credit: Wikimedia<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Synagogue in St. Petersburg, Russia. Photo credit: Wikimedia<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Catholic Church in Roanoke, USA. Photo credit- Wikimedia<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jain Temple in Ranakpur, India. Photo credit: Wikimedia<\/p><\/div>\n JW Windland<\/b> (1949 \u2013 2014) made a major contribution to world religions education in North America. A comparative mythologist, JW founded the Encounter World Religions Centre in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The Encounter Centre is an internationally recognized educational organization designated as a \u201cGift Of Service To The World\u201d by the Parliament of World Religions.<\/span><\/p>\n JW had more than 40 years of experience in the study, teaching and first-hand experience of world religions. In addition to his academic background in religious studies, he regularly attended mosques, synagogues, gurdwaras, churches and temples as a testimony to his appreciation of world religions. This background gave him a perspective that was unique and tangible. He had genuine friendships with the practitioners of these traditions, joined in their rituals and introduced thousands of people to the winnowed wisdom of diverse communities. JW was a specialist in interreligious dialogue and created comfort across religious and cultural borders. He also lectured internationally to universities, churches, community groups and professional organizations. JW brought a familiarity and a deep knowledge of the many religious traditions that make up the North American mosaic.<\/span><\/p>\n If you would like to learn more about the Encounter Center, here is the contact information:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sikh Temple in Amritsar, India. Photo credit: Wikimedia<\/p><\/div>\n Scarboro Missions encourages the reproduction and use of this document for educational purposes for limited distribution. For permission to reproduce this document for commercial use or large-scale distribution, contact Encounter World Religions Centre\u00a0at tel. 519-822-0099 or e-mail encounter@worldreligions.ca<\/a><\/p>\n Published by Scarboro Missions<\/b> (Toronto, Canada) Scarboro Missions is grateful for the skilful efforts of JW Windland and his willingness to post this useful multifaith document on the Scarboro Missions website.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By JW Windland Table of Contents Introduction Initiating contacts Developing relationships Making arrangements Preparing the visiting group Getting there During the visit Follow-up About the author Permission to reprint this document Download this document in PDF Format Download this document in DOC Format <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1793,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-interfaith-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1784","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1784"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3582,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1784\/revisions\/3582"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Table of Contents<\/h3>\n
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Introduction<\/h2>\n
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Initiating contacts<\/h2>\n
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Developing relationships<\/h2>\n
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Making arrangements<\/h2>\n
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credit: Baha\u2019i World Center<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Preparing the visiting group<\/h2>\n
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Getting there<\/h2>\n
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During the visit<\/h2>\n
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Follow-up<\/h2>\n
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About the author<\/h2>\n
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\nPeople Places Practices Philosophies<\/b>
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