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This year, in a rare confluence, Ramadan and Lent unfold at the same time.  This uncommon calendar convergence highlights a shared period of discipline, reflection, and devotion across both faith traditions. To mark this rare overlap of religious calendars, Pastor Vida together with Marcia brought greetings to our Ismaili neighbors at the Jamatkhana. Ismailis, like other branches of Islam observe Ramadan, but put emphasis on the inner fast - from anger, greed, injustice, etc. rather than strictly fasting from food from dawn until sunset. 

Both Ramadan and Lent invite believers to repentance - to turn again toward God and toward our neighbour with renewed compassion - but for different reasons. Lent commemorates the Passion of Christ, while Ramadan is observed because it is the month in the lunar calendar in which th Qur’an was sent down as a guidance for mankind.   The two faiths also have fundamental differences in their understandings of God.  

Islam worships one God existing beyond human history, while Christianity worships one God who is also incarnated in human history. For Muslims, this life and human history prepare us for the next life, while Christians, because of incarnation, see the world and history as holy and significant, not just as a testing ground for heavenly bliss.

While Muslims see Mohammed as a human being like everybody else, Christians consider Jesus not only a prophet but a divine prophet. In him and in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity of God meets and transcends human experience and history.

Christian theologians describe this back and forth between time and eternity, history and eschatology, as the living tension between the transcendence (beyond human experience) and the immanence (within human experience) of God. Is God involved, removed, or both? Is our religious pilgrimage in this world only toward God, or, as Christians would describe it, is it also through, with, and in the God we see incarnated in Jesus and animated in the Holy Spirit? (from "What Ramadan Taught Me about Lent") 

In spite of doctrinal differences, the shared spiritual values emphasized in both traditions during Lent and Ramadan are opporutnities to grow in shared understanding of each other's traditions, and to encourage one another in our efforts to serve the common good.