From Bangalore

Panavelil Ninan Benjamin who is the coordinator of the Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD) encourages us to read the initiative's declaration which is posted here.

Christians who support the declaration may please visit the link and sign it on-line.

The delaration ends:
"While we decry the attempts of religious leaders and fundamentalists of all varieties to convert and re-convert, we pledge to work diligently for inter-faith amity in the best traditions of Indian culture. We hereby call on all Indians to join in our efforts to preserve a pluralist India founded
on secularism and religious inclusion and governed by a Constitution that guarantees all its citizens all freedoms vital to the functioning of a modern democracy."

In a little more about BIRD itself Ninan wrote this:
BIRD is a little lamp, lit and kept burning, by a group of kindred souls and fellow pilgrims who by their conviction, uphold the values of democracy and religious pluralism. Theirs is an inter-faith voyage of discovery, sailing on the winds of near identical views on people and events signifying that whatever the darkness, however profound the sense of lostness, the light of God's love – be it Ram, Allah or Jesus - will continue to shine, for those who have the eyes to see, a heart to love and a soul to believe. BIRD's premise is simplicity itself -striking a match in a dark immense cavern, to dispel the surrounding gloom.

We are convinced that only through inter- religious dialogue can we diffuse the recurring tension between religious groups and communities in this country. We believe in strengthening of inter-faith dialogue in order to elevate communal and religious harmony to the level of a practicing doctrine. In any such dialogues there is need for a full and free exchange of our differing religious experiences, in a spirit of mutual respect, appreciation and sympathy. An exchange of individual or collective experiences will lead to enrichment of each others religious life, purifying and strengthening the religious attitude of mind against irreligious and materialistic attitudes from which stem our personal, social and national problems.

BIRD came into being in 2001 as a response to the growing communal and inter-religious tensions that prevailed in the country at that time. In the beginning we heard a voice - a voice of sanity. That was Mahatma Gandhi telling us: "Show a little humility and a little diffidence about the correctness of your conduct and a little receptiveness. He reminded us "not to seek to satisfy our thirst for ego by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred and jealousy. We should cease to be merchants of hate. We have to teach ourselves that consideration for others is nobler than muscling our way to the front".