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Merrimack College Announces Center For Jewish-Christian-Muslim Studies

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.-(Business Wire)-October 4, 2008 - Timed to coincide with the October 4 feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, a great Christian patron of peace, Merrimack College announces the establishment of a new center to study and encourage the interreligious connection between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

The new Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations will expand on the mission of Merrimack’s Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, in existence for fourteen years.

Padraic O’Hare, a professor of religious and theological studies at Merrimack, will continue serving as director of the Center. “For many years, the Center brought Jews, Christian and Muslims together for appropriate forms of prayer and sponsored a range of outstanding programs of theological, political and cultural content, these include programs on great women in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, common values in assessing war and peace, and many, many others.”

With the expansion of mission, the Center will work to establish broader programs of interfaith study. These include an academic minor in Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations, and educational programs bringing Merrimack College students, who are predominantly Christian, into contact with Jewish and Muslim students in area colleges and universities for dialogue and collaborative work promoting justice and peace.

“We expand our mission to fully integrate Muslims and the study of Islam and its relations to Judaism and Christianity in acknowledgement of the richness of Islam, the need for loving and collaborative relations and, candidly, the burden of stereotype and prejudice under which so many Muslims suffer,” said O’Hare.

Rabbi Robert Goldstein of Temple Emmanuel (Andover, MA), chairman of the Executive Board of the original Center and the expanded program, said “Jews, Christians and Muslims are all the descendants of Abraham. As in many families, we have had our share of rifts and reconciliations. The goal of the Center is to acknowledge our places of disagreement and celebrate our common roots and values with integrity, honesty and respect.”

The mission of the expanded Center also envisions a program of international study and student exchange which avails itself of the opportunities provided by the presence in Muslim countries of the world wide Augustinian Order, which founded Merrimack College.

Father Raymond Dlugos, an Augustinian friar, recently appointed Vice President for Mission and Ministry at the College, said “The expansion of Merrimack’s longstanding engagement in the work of interreligious dialogue to officially include Muslims is essential if people of faith are truly more committed to the light of revelation than to the heat caused by division and misunderstanding. I am delighted to part of this historic shift that I believe will move us closer to the realization of the justice, peace and love that these great spiritual traditions all call us to desire and seek wholeheartedly.”

“We hope this expansion of mission will enhance our contribution to interfaith reverence, to knowledge and appreciation of one another, and to more effective effort in common to promote justice and peace especially for persons who are poor,” O’Hare said. “The decision in no way signals neglect of our unique mission to remember the long history of Christian anti-Judaism. In fact, this function is enhanced by sponsoring study of the centuries of harmony between Jews and Muslims and Christian opposition.”

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