Interfaith Collaboration - The Shared Space Between You and I

“God has given us many faiths but only one world in which to co-exist. May your work help all of us cherish our commonalities and feel enlarged by our differences.”

- Lord Jonathan Sacks

In multi-racial and multi-religious Singapore, we’re comfortable with all faiths, and live together in harmony. That’s a great first step. How do we strengthen these social bonds to move beyond conversations to collaborations, from interactions to engagement? 

When we dig a little deeper, we realize that our society remains very siloed. We function very much within the structures of our faiths and ethnicities, never really crossing outside of these boundaries in any meaningful way. At the TBNA Conference in Sep 2024, our interfaith collaboration panel concluded that this is largely due to a lack of opportunities in the interfaith space. Why is this so? 

Perhaps there’s a fear of losing or diluting our identities if we work with other communities, or we perhaps we are afraid of compromise? While these fears are real, they can be managed through understanding and mutual consensus. Interfaith collaboration can actually help us to mature in our own faiths, by forcing us to address the taboos we often avoid. What we avert our gaze from, could be a strength of another community, and when we collaborate, we can see how they handle such issues, and learn from them.

Our panel wasn’t just shooting the breeze. They are collaborating together on an interfaith project called Kampong Palliative Care (KPC). In Singapore’s aging society, KPC aims to address a gap in holistic palliative care support, and to provide a compassionate, as well as comprehensive end-of-life experience. 

The Pope made it to CNA’s top 10 list of inspirations for 2024 because during his rare visit to Singapore, he inspired interfaith dialogue. In an increasingly complex world, there’s never a better time to reach beyond ourselves and step into the shared space to form community with our neighbours. In these shared spaces, our vision aligns, we have common denominators, and our purpose to serve the social service space converges. You don’t have to look for these shared spaces, they are there, you just have to be willing to embrace them. From these shared spaces, a strong foundation can be built from which we can stand on to better collaborate, and unite as one humanity. Ultimately, the value that each of us adds, and the collective impact that arises, can only multiply. It. Can. Only. Multiply. 

At the heart of every faith is love. Even if you are not religious, spirituality is part of our human make-up. In this religious/spiritual dimension, we all want the same thing. World peace, end poverty, fight injustice! Interfaith collaboration is a powerful model to achieve all the above. But first, look to your right and look to your left. Do you love your neighbour? Start from there and work your way up.

Redemptive Philanthropy #FaithBasedGiving

At the TBN Asia Conference 2024 in September, there was a plenary session on “Redemptive Philanthropy”. While you may roll your eyes at yet another seemingly new name to describe philanthropy, if you’re a faith-based giver, think about this a little deeper, because which faith doesn’t have a redemption element to it? 

Charitable giving has been called a zero-sum game. Newer options like trust-based philanthropy evolved to the “win-win” mentality. Redemptive philanthropy, is the “I serve, we win” mentality – moving away from the scarcity mentality to one of abundance. Redemption is the act of restoration. Through the transformative act of philanthropy, both the giver and the receiver are restored to wholeness, or what is oftentimes referred to as human flourishing. 

In redemptive philanthropy, the power dynamic is upended as the giver not only gives resources, but also gives of themselves. As redemptive philanthropists draw near, instead of dispensing philanthropy from a distance, they understand that it’s not just about deploying capital from the top down, but also serving from the ground up. The redemptive philanthropist builds enterprises, not buys outcomes. 

They say money is power, we often forget that knowledge is power too. Giver and receiver each bring their form of capital to the table – none is more powerful than the other, because success depends on both forms of capital. Through humility and grace, the playing field is levelled and strengthened.  

“Not transactional, but transformational…” we hear this phrase being thrown around a lot. Theoretically, it makes total sense. Practically, how does that work? Try redemptive philanthropy, you might surprise yourself. I serve, we win. It doesn’t get any more transformational than that.