It is with great joy I would like to share with you that His Grace Stephan Burger, Archbishop of Freiburg, Germany, invited Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad, Grand Imam of Badshahi Mosque Lahore, and former Global Trustee and fr James Channan OP, URI Regional Coordinator Pakistan, to a five-day visit to his Archdiocese to share about our interfaith dialogue programs in Pakistan.
It was great that the Archbishop of Lahore, His Grace Sebastian Shaw, was also invited. He is also Chairman of the National Catholic Commission for Interreligious Dialogue and Ecumenism. This is the dialogue commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan. It was wonderful that there was a team of three of us.
We had a meeting, exchanged gifts, and had lunch with the Archbishop Stephan Burger.
By the way, this trip to Germany was fully sponsored by the Archbishop Stephan Burger. God bless him and his vision to build bridges among people of different religions, especially among Christians and Muslims in Germany.
A history was created when Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad was present in the Cathedral during the Holy Mass on Sunday, the 8th of November. At the end of the Holy Mass, he gave a very inspiring message about the Christian-Muslim dialogue we are doing in Pakistan. The URI activities were mentioned in a very special way.
We have created a history between the people of Freiburg in Germany and Pakistan.
Long live Pakistan-German friendship!
Below are some photos of this historic visit.
In peace,
fr James Channan OP
URI Regional Coordinator Pakistan
