Interfaith Prayer Service Offends

Would it bug you if your church brought in a Muslim to read from the Koran on Christmas?

Would you be upset if your church brought in a pagan witch to recite incantations?

How about an Indian medicine man who spoke from your pulpit from the ancient "great wisdom" his people claim to have?

Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Haines said: “It was a big multicultural day where lots of people who I had painted for the exhibition were taking part – we had people from pagan rock bands, gospel choir, a klezmer [Jewish folk music] band. We had all sorts of things going on.

“[For] the centrepiece at 4pm we had the local MP say a few words, followed by the bishop of Gloucester, Imam Hassan, and Rabbi Gerrard who were all saying prayers and blessings from their own faith. And then we had a pagan witch, who gave a short reading and quoted something by Brian Cox about how we’re all made from stardust.

“It was a lovely moment where everyone came together and everybody thought it was brilliant, and the afternoon carried on.”

However, people started to criticise the cathedral when it put up a video of the imam reciting the call to prayer on its Facebook page, Haines said.

“The Imam translated what he said to say there was no offence to anybody, which was lovely of him, and then I think there was some trolling from some right-wing evangelical Christians – most of them seemed to be from America. We had huge support from the local area. But unfortunately the cathedral decided to take it down.”

Gloucestershire Live, the local news website, wrote that people had commented on the church Facebook page calling the event inappropriate, and even questioning why a “different God” should be allowed to be worshipped there.

Here:  https://www.buzzfeed.com/aishagani/church-targeted-by-trolls-muslim-verse?utm_term=.skM2ZN9nZ#.mhQagN1Vg