For the first time in its history, Washington’s National Cathedral hosted a Muslim prayer service on Friday during which time a Christian woman stood up and proclaimed Christ until she was escorted out of the venue.
Christian News is reporting that an unidentified woman attempted to disrupt the prayer service before it even began by standing up in front of the worshipers and saying: “Jesus Christ died on that cross over there. He is the reason why we are to worship only Him. Jesus Christ is our lord and savior!”
When a man attempted to reach for her arm, she pulled away and continued: “We have built, and allowed you here in mosques across this country. Why can’t you worship in your mosque, and leave our churches alone?”
She was eventually escorted out of the building.
While the National Cathedral is not an official government church, which is prohibited by the Constitution, it has great symbolic value and has been the scene of numerous presidential inaugurations and funerals.
This is why so many Christians were upset to learn that for the first time ever, the Episcopal Cathedral would allow Islamic Jumaa prayers to be presented in its worship space.
Apparently, the idea for the historic service came during the planning stages for a memorial service for South African president Nelson Mandella when the Cathedral’s liturgical director, Gina Campbell, met with South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool. Both believed an ecumenical service of this kind would be a “powerful symbolic gesture” between Christians and Muslims.
“Leaders believe offering Muslim prayers at the Christian cathedral shows more than hospitality,” said Cathedral representatives in a press release about the event. “It demonstrates an appreciation of one another’s prayer traditions and is a powerful symbolic gesture toward a deeper relationship between the two Abrahamic traditions.”
Rasool, who was in attendance at the service, called it a “dramatic moment in the world and in Muslim-Christian relations. This needs to be a world in which all are free to believe and practice and in which we avoid bigotry, Islamaphobia, racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Christianity and to embrace our humanity and to embrace faith.”
To accommodate the Muslims, prayer carpets were arranged diagonally in the transept to the side of the sanctuary so that worshipers could face in the direction of Mecca without seeing any crosses or Christian icons. Muslims are not permitted to pray in view of sacred symbols which are alien to their faith.
According to Voice of America, Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool’s sermon praised religious freedom in America and condemned the extremism taking place in many Muslim countries today, specifically mentioning Islamic militants who have slaughtered Christians in the Middle East.
“If we do not stop them at the monasteries, they will make their way to the mosques,” he said.
Not everyone was pleased with the service, however. Franklin Graham, son of the great Christian preacher, Billy Graham, noted on his Facebook page that is was “sad to see a church open its doors to the worship of anything other than the One True God of the Bible.”
The National Cathedral is not a stranger to controversy and most recently inspired the ire of millions of American Christians by coming out in support of same-sex “marriages” and for allowing their facilities to be used for these unions.
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