TOWARDS NEW HORIZONS
TOWARDS NEW HORIZONS
Dr M. D. Thomas
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As I pen my first editorial of Fellowship now, remember the famous English poet Longfellow who exclaims: 'let each tomorrow find you farther than today '. I cannot think of a more subtle and clear way of verbalizing the relation between today and tomorrow than this. Keep going is not treading the same way again. It is traveling new paths. Every step is a new step. Going further explains life the best. It is a search for life in a different way. It is finding a new dimension of life. The horizon does not make one stagnant in life. As one goes further, one does not see the same horizon, either. The horizon is always new, always challenging, always fascinating. It invites one to proceed further. Always being in the search for new horizons is the only proof of a worthwhile achievement in life as well as a meaningful human existence.
Dialogue of religions is a dialogue of faiths. It is more than a conversation. It is an exchangers idea. It is a sharing of experiences. It is a mutual relationship's. It is a joint journey of persons from diverse affiliations of faith towards the same divine. It means to profess a common Origin, a common goal and to live a shared life. It means to recognize the other as a companion in life. It means to accept the other as one’s brother or sister. Dialogue is a never-ending celebration of the spirit of harmony in life. Dialogue is a continuous search for newer avenues of sharing the faith in the human and in the divine dimensions of life.
The Commission for dialogue, between religions as well as denominations, visualizes going further from where it has reached. Every stage is a stepping-stone to the next. The eternal journey of dialogue started from the Higher Power keeps our destination always higher and further. Uncountable are those, who have contributed their mite to keep the dialogue going with I the natural, the human and the divine, from time immemorial. Many visionaries and missionaries have nurtured the activities of the Commission in diverse ways and means down the decades, over the years. The Commission aspires to go further to travel towards new horizons.
My heart is overflowing with fine sentiments of esteem and gratitude to all of them, who have guided the destinies of the Commission, and predecessors in various capacities. I admire the Chairman and Member Bishops of the Commission today, for their guidance and the encouraging support. I appreciate the good will and cooperation of my fiends, well-wishers and collaborators of all faith traditions. I cherish my co-travelers' of other faith affiliations, who have broadened and enriched my own faith. I regard all those, who have been my ever-flowing source of inspiration and strength, as I travel this strenuous path of promoting harmony. I bow before our eternal Master, who keeps us going. I salute all our dear readers. May I take your kind permission to affirm my sincere commitment to and may I invite your kind support in searching for and traveling towards newer horizons on the paths of dialogue between persons of diverse religious and other persuasions, till we are empowered to celebrate a jubilant festival of harmony of faiths…!
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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.
He could be viewed, listened to and contacted at the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’ (p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p) and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’ (o); social media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’ (o), ‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’ (p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’ (p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).
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