Interreligious Dialogue Amidst Covid-19 Pandemic

Introduction
The world is in trouble today. Nevertheless, according to David Bosch, the word crisis is "the
point where danger and opportunity meet, where the future is in balance and where events can
go either way."1 The situation affects all persons, countries, cultures and religions. Different
organisations and sectors around the world are contributing their expertise and energy to
minimize the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic, if not to fully avoid it. The world has become
modern, and even the global fear caused by this dreaded disease has also become global. A
global village has a global epidemic, and we look forward to a global solution and global
opportunity if the world has a global problem.
Religion will lead society towards the flourishing of the earth and humans. We can still see
light in the gloom brought on by the pandemic. Religion gives life meaning beset with issues that
seem to be without any solution. Humanity has dreamed of a future that is free from all pain and
problems, though modernity has made it more conceivably possible through science and
technology. Yet, mankind faces a threat once more. "It is argued that: "A significant proportion
of these are:
If not for the authoritarian behavior, malevolent choices, greed, contempt, and ill will of others,
misery need not occur." 2 The problem is too big that it is now spreading throughout the global
village." In coping with the Covid-19 Pandemic, interreligious dialogue opens the door to the
possibility of harmony rather than diversity.

Interreligious Dialogue
People from different places have their own cultures and religions that we must respect in
order to preserve peace. We need to understand each other’s culture to appreciate each other.
In order to break down the barriers of division that are at the core of most conflicts, interreligious
dialogue is a difficult mechanism by which members of various religious traditions approach
each other. Peace is the purpose of interreligious dialogue. Some principles for successful
interreligious dialogue include the following: 1. The experience should not be used by
participants in interfaith dialogue as an excuse to justify their own traditions. 2. Neither is
interreligious dialogue a way of commonly defending religion. 3. The possibility of conversion is
present. By the interfaith experience, participants can find themselves transformed. 4.
Participants in the conversation must reveal the values they hold nearest to each other and that
characterize their religious tradition. 5. Interreligious dialogue is not an exercise that is
metaphysical, spiritual or academic. It is an expression of the lives of faith lived by the
participants. Interfaith experiences thus shape communities of understanding.
Guidelines for interfaith dialogue are given by the World Council of Churches, different
theologians and several other resources. Those mentioned above are gleaned from various
sources. According to this author's understanding of the dialogical method, several items were
omitted and others were extended.
 Finally, because the purpose of interfaith dialogue is harmony, the process must be peaceful.
It is necessary to recognize that peace is not easily attained and sustained. It may be a peaceful
operation, but it is kind of like climbing Everest. Peace does not happen in a day, and as intrepid
travelers battle the path to heights where the human spirit can soar, there are obstacles.

Covid-19 as a Driving Force for Interreligious Dialogue

Death and pain are driving people towards fear. Uncertain of the overall consequences of the
Covid-19 pandemic and its conclusion, individuals are moved to ask numerous questions. The
tragedy of death makes people ask for an ultimate purpose other than what is apparent and
tangible. They generally resort to hanging on to a transcendental being who is greater than all
earthly issues, because people have little to hang on to. Therefore, the pandemic of Covid19, a
lethal and contagious illness, increases the understanding of one's relationship with the Divine.
The fact that the vaccine was not produced for the said disease is an addition to its notoriety.
In history, religion's position has been seen in society and culture. While some of them
recanted, some scholars prophesied the natural death of faith. Modernity did not eradicate
religion, but because of migration and migration, sects, worldviews, and values were all the
more plural, varied and global.  About urbanization. As such, without religion, no culture can
exist. It is because religion reacts to what science and technology have not been able to
address.
Without a question, the face of the earth has been altered by the Covid-19 Pandemic. In an
instant, the pandemic stopped the world, and people stopped their actions and movements.
Airports and land transport have temporarily been suspended. Temporary since nations of the
world are already planning to reopen their nations in order to preserve their own Economics.
However, globalization has not been impeded. The new-normal will continue to bind people and
socially isolate themselves. We do this with the use of the internet, and through this we can still
say that "the religious others are in our midst, studying, living and working between us and with
us." It is true that even during the time of the Pandemic through social media, we can still create
and develop friendship. As the Covid-19 Pandemic remains with us, the fact of the use of social
media or the internet characterizes the global and diverse world. The use of the internet is,
indeed, a global solution to a global problem.
As a global phenomenon, religious diversity may also assist man to relieve his nervous
condition. During the time of the Pandemic, each religion had something to add to the world.
Each religion should help each other now and open their doors to learn from the other even
more. Religion has much to contribute because, by describing the mysterious and making it
comprehensible, religions alleviate fear and offer security in the assumption that divine help is
available in times of crisis. However, Christians can learn from others, such as Nostra Aetate,
The Declaration on the Church's Relationship with Non-Christian Religions, The Catholic
Church does not deny all that is real and sacred in these religions. The way of life and action,
the precepts and doctrines which, while differing in many ways from their own teaching,
nevertheless often represent a ray of that truth which illuminates all men and women, are highly
valued.
The Role of World Religions Amidst Pandemic
Today, in prayer and in their participation in fighting the Covid-19, we see citizens of various
religions unite. For example, in Nigeria, Christians and Muslims join together in prayer on
Thursday, May 14, 2020. The Human Fraternity Committee, founded last year as a Human
Fraternity Committee, 2019 During the Pope's Apostolic Journey to the United Arab Emirates in
February 2019, the concrete response to the Document on Human Fraternity signed by Pope
Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, also declared a day of
prayer on May 14, 2020. To combat the Covid-19 Pandemic, the committee calls for "fasting,
acts of mercy, prayers, and prayers for the benefit of all mankind”.
Religion is argued to be an instrument for developing relationships with God and with
individuals. Religion is essentially a community relationship between God and the human being.
It's not just a dogmatic, ritualistic, and institutional framework. The Dialogue and Declaration text
of the Church mentions ways of dialogue, such as: dialogue of life, dialogue of action, dialogue
of spiritual exchange, dialogue of religious experience. Even now, when we face the Covid-19
Pandemic, these four kinds of dialogue may be the foundation of concrete modes of mission
dialogue with non-Christians.
We can still interact and are called to talk with religious-others today, in the midst of the
Corona Virus Disease 19 Pandemic. It is an urgent invitation for all to understand that: "In a
sense, working together is an imperative for the survival of the species and the planet." Not that
we are only participating in conversation, but we are only bound by obligation. We engage in
conversation because, with the appearance of God, we view the other as another self. The
other is a friend one whom we can rely on in good times and poor. In our relationship with them,
Enriquez emphasizes:
The stranger becomes a friend by getting closer, treading on the ground made less
controversial by dialogue. And this friend becomes our teacher, the wise sage, who
teaches us new ways not only to understand and love others, but also to understand
ourselves, to make friends with ourselves. It becomes the cornerstone for the transition
to other relationships, creating international interfaith communities of friendships that are
sorely required today.
Today, people not only pray together, but they also support each other in unique ways.
Action Dialogue no longer acknowledges racial or religious backgrounds. We see that even
frontline employees, such as emergency workers, expand their services to those in need. In the
same way, citizens of various faiths give their services to care for the sick and to provide the
needy with material assistance. Now we see that religions operate for the common good and
are "seen not so much for the service of each religious community as for the service of life and
society in general as an institution."

Conclusion
 Science and religion both offer their own responses to the pain and misery of life. In
collaboration and cooperation, medical professionals, scientists, various religions and all
individuals in the global community should work to face the issue. Nevertheless, people of
various faiths help to relieve misery by their "liberative praxis, promoting human integral human
and cosmic development." They can step away from the issue of the secular world to the
transcendent being, yet religions do not escape from an obvious problem. People of various
faiths are life movers who work the best they can to emancipate men from poverty and
suffering, demonstrating true service to life. As a pandemic, Covid-19 has got plenty to teach us.
Javier says that: “The extent and amount of human and ecological misery shows that dialogue
is imperative as well as imperative.In this war against human and environmental misery, no
religion can possibly do it alone.” Dialogue In facing the fight against Covid-19 as one humanity
in one global culture, interreligious dialogue will unite people together to heal the world.