The Archbishop of Canterbury is presently hosting the 10th annual Building Bridges Seminar in Doha, Qatar. which brings together a range of internationally recognized Christian and Muslim scholars for intensive study.
The Building Bridges Seminar, hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is a unique annual series which brings together a range of internationally recognized Christian and Muslim scholars for intensive study. Texts from the Christian and Islamic traditions are used as the basis for discussion in a programme that includes public lectures and private sessions. The 2010 seminar took place at Georgetown University, May 25-27, 2010. A web site hosted by the university (details below) includes information about scholars who have participated, sourcebooks of Islamic and Christian texts assembled for a number of the seminars, and details of publications recording the seminars; pdfs of some of these publications are also available.
History of the Seminar
In January 2002, not long after the events of September 11, 2001 had underlined the need for sustained efforts in developing better Christian-Muslim relations, the first Building Bridges Seminar for Muslim and Christian scholars was hosted at Lambeth Palace in London by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey. One of the first overseas visits made by Dr Rowan Williams, when he succeeded Dr Carey in 2003, was to chair the second Building Bridges seminar in Qatar. Since then, Dr Williams has made a priority of continuing this initiative and has chaired further seminars in Washington DC, Sarajevo, Singapore, Rome and Istanbul. The seminars, each lasting three days, have explored a number of the most significant themes in the interface between Islam and Christianity: scripture; prophecy; the common good; justice and rights; human nature; interpretation; science and religion; tradition and modernity. Proceedings of the first six seminars have been published and others are in production.The series from 16-19 May 2011 brings together a range of internationally recognised Christian and Muslim scholars for an intensive study of relevant Biblical and Qur’anic texts.
The theme of this year’s seminar is Prayer.
http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/networks/building_bridges