Thursday 16 February 2017

Become an Interfaith Minister: A Life of Awaking Spirituality

Interfaith is for seekers of spiritual wisdom rather than a life regulated by predefined principles or rituals. With that wisdom, an Interfaith Ministers attempts to live a life of compassion and openness to the divine wisdom found in all faith traditions. Interfaith believes that is not a predetermined path to spiritual wisdom but many paths for the seeker to find, embrace, and learn to live their own discovered spiritual wisdom. Interfaith ministers are committed to the study of religions as a source of common wisdom that exists in almost all religions and to help individuals discover their own spiritual wisdom.

Like other faith traditions, Interfaith ministers attend to the spiritual needs of a community and officiate at life transitions such as blessing babies and accepting children into the community, rites of passage into adulthood, weddings, services for the departed, traditional weekly services, individual counseling, and helping others celebrate religious holidays important to them. The path to ordination as an Interfaith Minister includes the practical education on all those mentioned duties but also in-depth training in comparative religion, the philosophy of religion, theology, nonprofit management, and counseling. 

What is particularly important for an Interfaith Minister is building bridges among faith traditions that transcends cultures, liturgies and spiritual paths. Interfaith is not about separativity, not seeing one religion as the only way to appreciate and worship God, or rejecting the faith of others. It is about seeing the beauty within each religion, being compassionate while living the Golden Rule that is common to all religions, always seeking the spiritual wisdom common to all faiths, and spreading the joy of diversity.

The path to ordination is intellectual but it is primarily a matter of developing the heart so that it can inform and guide the intellect. Understanding what is sacred to others is paramount in the heart’s development so that one can be focused on deliberative thought while seeking a holistic spiritual understanding of the process of life that provides lessons, gives us wisdom, and helps us grow into better individuals and societies. The primary role of the Interfaith Minister is to assist others to spiritually grow into the best person that they can become regardless of their faith tradition or even if they have a no faith tradition.

If this path interests you, consider attending the on-line training to become an Interfaith Minister provided by the International Academy for Interfaith Studies. Learn more at the following website: www.interfaithacademy.org.

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