Berlin Prayer House Unites Jews, Christians and Muslims
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
BERLIN, GERMANY (Worthy News)– The possibility of Christians, Muslims and Jews all praying under the same roof in a building so unusual that it doesn’t have an official designation is the hopeful project of a pastor, a rabbi and an imam, according to the Times of Israel.
Neither a church, a synagogue, or a mosque, the proposed “House of Prayer and Learning” to be built in St. Peter’s Square, Berlin, will be unlike any other religious center.
“From the beginning, we wanted it to be an inter-religious project, not a place built by Christians in which Jews and Muslims would then be added,” said Pastor Gregor Hohberg.
The three religions will have equal prayer space on the same floor with each leading to a common room where the different congregations will be able to converse.
However, Hohberg said they had decided against a common prayer room “because that risked putting off more people than it would have attracted.”
Although the $60-million project intends to mirror multi-cultural Berlin, previous attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have “utterly failed,” according to Chancellor Angela Merkel.
As head of the Christian Democratic Union, Merkel had told her party that “Those who want to take part [in our society] must not only obey our laws, they must also master our language”.
Nearly 19 percent of Berlin’s 3.4 million residents described themselves as Protestant; 8.1 percent said they were Muslim and 0.9 percent Jewish, but more than 60 percent said they didn’t subscribe to any religion.