header pic header text

Religious Gathekas

(To be read at the Service of Universal Worship)

Religious Gatheka Number 37

The Church of All

This service of the Church of All is a universal worship. In this service a Christian service, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu service – all services are included. Therefore the blessing of Christ is given from the altar to the seeker of Jesus Christ's blessing; the one who seeks for the blessing of Moses, to him the blessing of Moses is given, the one who seeks for benediction of Buddha, for him there is the benediction of Buddha.

But those who seek the blessing from all of these great ones who have come at different times, they are blessed by all. This service, therefore, is the fulfillment of the desire of Christ; this is, therefore, the service which Moses would have had, if he could at those times; and this is the service which Muhammad had intended, for Islam was meant for all religions in the world. No great teacher ever came on earth with the thought of dividing people into different sects and communities.

Our Movement, therefore, is busy rendering our service to God and humanity in this direction, without any intention of forming an exclusive community, but to unite in this service the people of all different religions. This Movement, in its infancy, is commencing its work, but its culmination will be a world movement. It is the World Message and that religion which will be the religion of the whole humanity; a religion which does not distract the mind of any person from his own religion, but makes it more firm and enlightened, more sympathetic to his own religion; a religion which teaches tolerance towards the faith of another; a religion which opens a person's heart to the words of wisdom, no matter what direction they come from.

This is not only a Church, but this is a school for us to learn, to learn the lesson of tolerance, a lesson for us to learn to adhere to all teachers and to respect all scriptures, a lesson which teaches us that we need not give up our religion, but we must embrace all religions, in order to make the sacredness of religion perfect.