**1. Introduction**

*I was recently on a plane with a fellow, and he is a Muslim. And when he said he was a Muslim, the first thing he said to me is, he said, "But I'm really kind of a spiritual but not religious Muslim." He wanted me to sort of know that it wasn't all about Dogma to him but that it was about an experience of God and he explained that to me and then he went on and he said, "Oh but I'm married to a Buddhist." And it just so happened that the fellow who was the spiritual but not religious Muslim was married not only to a Buddhist but a Buddhist whose parents came from Vietnam, and they came here and the parents converted; one became a Catholic and one was a Baptist minister.*

Diana Butler Bass<sup>1</sup>

The above story told by the religion scholar, Diana Butler Bass, in her interview by PBS is not uncommon in today's world, at least in the North American context. People from different faith traditions mingle quickly, work together, play sports as teams, go to schools as peers, and get married. They find all these practical aspects of interfaith relations inevitable (that is, without really thinking hard or seriously about it; it is simply very natural), and religious scholars like Bass anticipate the velocity of this interfaith dimension of society will speed up exponentially in years to come.

However, as the same religious scholars would also agree with no varying degrees, there is one aspect of the interfaith life that, unlike other above aspects, does not really come along easily, even though there have been many attempts to achieve it; namely interfaith or multireligious worship service.2 Simply put, it is very hard to imagine and practice interfaith worship. There are understandably many critical reasons for it, including, but not limited to, theological differences (e.g., monotheism vs. polytheism), ritual differences (e.g., high liturgy vs. minimalist ritual), different cultural contexts (e.g., Euro-American Platonism vs. Eastern Asian Confucianism), historical mistrust (e.g., Christianity vs. Islam), differences in gender roles (e.g., egalitarianism vs. complementarianism), and others. Probably, a more fundamental reason could be that people have and express natural fear vis à vis, if not against, the "otherness" of different beliefs and practices. Even worse, human beings tend to feel threats from "otherness." (Boyce and Chunnu 2020).

With all these difficulties present in creating interfaith worship considered, there have been exemplary cases of it. There have been some, including the interfaith service held on September 25, 2015, at the 9/11 Museum in New York City, which demonstrate much desirable liturgical principles of interfaith worship.3 The example also presents fundamental and strategic philosophical goals of interfaith worship, along with a universally sharable central spiritual (or anthropological) metaphor; that is, *the pilgrim on the shared journey*. In sum, the given 9/11 service showcases the high possibility of interfaith worship and its actual practice in the public arena.

This article is an analysis of the 9/11 interfaith service in both a descriptive and prescriptive sense (Fox10 2015).4 Thus, the article will provide an in-depth description of and annotation on the service, in an attempt to abstract fundamental liturgical principles and philosophical goals that could apply to similar liturgical trials in other interfaith settings. Certainly, we cannot and must not expect these liturgical principles or philosophical goals to be universal in the absolute sense and applicable to all different interfaith settings. But at least we can hope that those goals and principles will provide a guide for many other occasions. Difficulties in creating interfaith worship will still remain, but it should be good and fortunate to have fine exemplars like the 9/11 interfaith service.

### **2. The Interfaith Service Analyzed and Annotated**

For the efficiency of the analysis of the 9/11 interfaith service, I will utilize the basic report toolkit of the 5Ws and 1H; Why, When, Where, Who, What, and How. This toolkit should provide a clear and succinct picture of the service. Each analytic unit, with When and Why combined, has two parts: a brief analysis and a brief annotation.

### *2.1. When and Why*

The service happened on September 25, 2015, when Pope Francis visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City to pay his respects to the victims of 9/11 during its 14th anniversary. This was his first visit to the memorial, and the occasion was used for an interfaith service, inviting faith leaders from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, and Hindu traditions. The Christian tradition included the Protestant, the Catholic, and the Orthodox church.

The grand purpose of the service was straightforward and threefold: (1) to commemorate the fallen ones, both civilians and first responders, during the 9/11 attack in 2001, (2) to promote tolerance and solidarity among different faith traditions around the world while abating each other's misunderstandings, and (3) to pray for the peace of the world. A very significant twofold message throughout the service was that (1) the innocent lives are sacrificed (2) due to the misuse of religion or even God's name. Various prayers offered hoped that the people of the world be united in solidarity in recognizing differences of each other and seeking each other's well-being.

The service showed that different faith traditions can come together (relatively easily) in a faith-oriented event that seeks the common good of the people beyond faith boundaries. The service was more about relationship, community, openness and service, rather than dogma, judgement, authority, and power. Also, the service was designed, through various prayers, to recognize that at the core of each faith tradition, notwithstanding that historically they have been in conflict with each other at times, there is the pursuit of and *actual prayer* for the common well-being of all people. Thus, during the service, participants would recognize that vicious terrorist activities against other human beings under the name of a religion or a god is simply a non-sense and meaningless.

#### *2.2. Where*

The service happened near one of the reflection pools in the memorial building, on a make-shift yet solid marvel stage. On the stage where faith leaders and their English translators sat together (thirteen people in total, including the Pope), chairs were arranged in a half-oval, audience-facing shape, thus creating a sense of welcoming and embracing toward other participants. Surrounding three sides of the stage, except for the backside, were seats for the audience coming from different faith traditions and no traditions (i.e., simply non-religious people). Family members and friends of the victims, city officials, clergy members, and the city's politicians were present.

The reason for the choice of the service space seems obvious. The memorial stands right above the ground where the 9/11 victims were sacrificed. Thus, the symbolic meaning of the place is beyond any description. The raw and vivid nature of the backwall, the original material of which came from the remanent of the fallen World Trade Center, could easily draw the audience in their imagination into the trade building itself where once their beloved victims worked and lived before the fall. In a sense then (especially in an ancient Asian shamanistic sense),<sup>5</sup> the audience was having the service *with* the spirits of the sacrificed victims right in the moment.

#### *2.3. Who*

On the service stage, clergy members and lay representatives/translators from six faith traditions were present with their unique ritual clothes or robes put on. There was a good gender balance, as five women and seven men were seen, although clergy members were all male but one. As the Pope was the main speaker in the middle of the service and the presider a Catholic priest, along with their assistants, the Catholic church's presence felt strong, yet not overwhelming. The pope began his stage appearance by warmly greeting each faith's representative, thus showing his egalitarian approach to the service.

It was highly plausible that several of the world religions were present on the same stage by almost equal numbers of representatives, again, even though the Catholic church's presence felt stronger. The presiding cardinal mentioned Native American people's presence in the service, but they were not represented on the stage. It would have been great for him to briefly make a specific note on their absence on the stage or at least recognize their presence in the audience. As aforementioned, the apparent absence of women clergy members, except for one, was somehow strange given that several lay women representatives were present as translators on the stage; the enhanced presence of women clergy is highly recommended. Also, it would have been great and more welcoming if clergy members with disabilities could have been present on the stage.

#### *2.4. What (Contents of Prayers)*

Throughout the service, several prayers were offered, at least one from each different faith tradition. They prayed according to or utilizing the best of their unique faith tradition, which also included citing their own scriptural sources (e.g., the Quran or the Bible) and invoking their own indications of the divine (e.g., Allah or God). This reliance on their unique traditions seemed to be acceptable—that is, not really exclusive to each other—as the actual content of their prayer was highly invitational toward the common good of humanity. For instance, the Muslim clergy member prayed, "The Quran declares that Allah is with those who are righteous and those who do good. Let us embody their unconditional love, their continued strength, their unwavering hope, and their pursuit of good as we seek to build a much-needed peace ... ", and the Rabbi prayed, "The Book of Psalms teaches us that we should have Shalom. We should love peace and we should pursue peace. Let us honor those killed in this place by becoming in the words of St. Francis instruments of peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. And where there is sadness, joy." In these instances, each faith tradition showed that their faith is and can be very welcoming and inclusive in practice. In many places of the prayers, the petition for

solidarity among religions appeared as an urgent issue of the day. For instance, the Jewish clergy member made a note of *Nostra Aetate*, which is *the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council* (1965), which reveres the work of the Christian God in all the major faith traditions. Similarly, the Imam prayed, "Let us move beyond a mere toleration of our differences and work towards the much-needed celebration of them. Let us be bold enough to build partnerships with new friends and allies and together be the reason that people have hope in this world and not the reason that people dread it.".

The pope's address or homily seemed to be a reiteration of previous prayers. Nothing appeared really new. Thus, it does not merit a separate analysis here. But one thing that is notable about his address is his unapologetic condemnation on religious violence over the innocent and compassionate remarks on the vulnerable and marginalized. He seemed to acknowledge that in a world of violence and chasm, the vulnerable and marginalized are the one who suffer the most.
