Catholics and Muslims unite to celebrate the Annunciation

French Catholics and Muslims held a joint prayer service near Paris to celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation, taking a similar tradition from Lebanon as their model and planning to make it an annual event in France.

Plans for the two-hour service at the Notre Dame de Bonne Garde (Our Lady of Safekeeping) basilica in Longpont-sur-Orge, south of Paris, began last year and took on added significance as grassroots groups sought ways to promote understanding following the Islamist killings at the Charlie Hebdo office and at a Jewish shop in January.

The large church was full on 21 March for the two-hour service of hymns to Mary in French and Arabic, reading of Annunciation accounts in the Gospel and the Qur’an, statements by people of either faith about Mary’s place in their lives, and of silent prayer.

Bishop Michel Dubost of Evry, head of interfaith relations for the French bishops’ conference, and Ghaleb Bencheikh, Muslim chairman of religions for Peace France, were among faith leaders at the “Together with Mary” event. “This communion between the two religions exists in Lebanon and we wanted to establish it here,” Bishop Dubost said. “We’ve been preparing this for a year and it is even more symbolic today given what happened recently,” the basilica’s rector, Fr Frédéric Gatineau, said.