London Inter Faith Centre

London Inter Faith Centre is Christian hosted. Christian prayer is offered to God through Jesus Christ. The Centre respects the boundaries of the mainstream positions of the main religions (often traditionally exclusivist) including its own. We thus generally do not engage with what is often described as multi-faith worship. However we affirm the centrality of the spiritual in human life (”We are not human beings on a spiritual journey, we are spiritual beings on a human journey” as a Hindu expression has it) and as such we recognise the desire for those even of traditionally exclusive positions together with those who are pluralist, to explore the spiritual together.

The Centre approaches this in a number of ways (occasional Quiet Days etc) including via Sacred Silence on the first Sunday afternoon of every month 3-5pm and every Wednesday in term time 10-11am. These occasions are faith neutral shared explorations of structured silence, punctuated by brief repeated readings from a particular tradition, as often as not read by a member of that tradition. Thus the respective separate integrities of all present are acknowledged and honoured, with those who attend commenting on the power of the experience of sharing silence with others, whose spiritual way may or may not overlap with one’s own.

Silence is the gateway to the inner world
We cross this threshold to our benefit and to our peril
In silence we reveal outselves to ourselves
Through silence we expose ourselves to ultimate reality
Silence is the soul’s honesty, and its power.

We thank Sr Regina of Brahma Kumaris for tracing the above quotation, used often by us in these sessions.