Jews, Christians and Muslims Build Abrahamic Partnerships

Twenty-nine students came together at Hartford Seminary during the week of June 19, 2016, to participate in a unique course called Building Abrahamic Partnerships (BAP). The course, which has been offered since 2004, was the brainchild of Prof. Yehezkel Landau, who will retire from the Seminary this summer.

An eight-day intensive training program, BAP offers a practical foundation for mutual understanding and cooperation among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Participants learn about the tenets and practices of the three faiths, study texts from their respective scriptures together, attend worship at a mosque, synagogue, and church, and acquire pastoral skills useful in interfaith ministry.

Combining the academic and the experiential, the course includes ample time for socializing over meals and during breaks. Building on Hartford Seminary’s strengths as an interfaith, dialogical school of practical theology, this team-taught program is a resource for religious leaders who are grounded in their own traditions while open to the faith orientations of other communities. Though Prof. Landau won’t be leading the course next year, the Seminary plans to offer it again in the future.

Two students who attended the course, Vjosa Qerimi and Ameer Muhammad, contributed these photos from the experience.