An Oasis in the desert?

Part of living in Christian community is relating to the broader community of humanity in friendship and dialogue. I’m pleased to share with the readers of this blog my discovery of an initiative from the Patriarch of Venice to encourage contact between Christians and Muslims. It is called OASIS.

Christian-Muslim contact has not exactly had a very positive history, although there have been moments of rapprochement and friendship even in such a troubled past. These are like oases in a desert — places of refuge when we’ve been scorched by a hostile environment. As you can imagine, I find the title of this new initiative to be very à -propos.

That being said, it is possible to travel through the desert, see an oasis, and later discover that it was only a mirage. Let us pray that this Oasis is real, a means for peoples to gather and drink from a common source.