The second commandment, ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ (Luke 10.27) has always raised the question : Who is my neighbour? Of course Jesus told the famous parable of the Good Samaritan to try and help his followers extend and expand their understanding of this question. For Jesus, a neighbour is anyone with whom you come into contact. ‘Being a neighbour’ goes beyond the bonds of kinship - whether Jew, Samaritan or Gentile. Jesus was illustrating that there should be no limits to our responsibility. No-one should ever exercise compassion or justice exclusively.

With that in mind, there will be a conference from Monday 9 April – Sunday 15 April at St John’s College, Oxford. The conference is called ‘Beyond the Headlines: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Traditions Learning and Encounter’. The aim is to encourage us to reach out to those of other faiths - to learn about them and share with them aspects of our own scriptures, traditions and practices. We can love our neighbours better if we know our neighbours better. So please do look on The Oxford Foundation website (www.theoxfordfoundation.com) for details of the full programme. 

If you can attend - for the full week or a few days - that would be wonderful. There are bursaries available especially for any students interested in the programme. For any further information, please do email me on charlottebannisterparker@gmail.com. This will be a unique opportunity to take the conversations and friendship which have built up on the annual interfaith friendship walk one step further.

The Revd Charlotte Bannister - Parker

Director of Outreach