The 2-page handout

The reading

A new project has started in Germany to build the world's first building where Christians, Jews and Muslims can pray. It is called the 'House of One'. The project's leaders hope it will open in 2016. They are asking people to donate money to help build it. The project will cost €43.5 million to finish. The idea started in 2009 after archaeologists in Berlin were digging and found the city's earliest church, called the Petrikirche. An architect called Wilfried Kuehn decided it would be a good idea to build a multi-religion building on the same site. Mr Kuehn said: "We quickly agreed that something visionary and forward-looking should be built on what is the founding site of Berlin."



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The project's Jewish leader, Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin, said Berlin was the best place for the building because of what happened to millions of Jews during World War II. He said: "Berlin is the city of wounds and miracles. It is the city in which the extermination of the Jews was planned. Now, the first house in the world for three religions is to be built here." The Christian leader, Gregor Hohberg, agreed, saying: "Berlin is the city of the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful coexistence of believers from different faiths." Muslim leader, Imam Kadir Sanci, hoped the building would let people from different religions understand each other better. He said: "We want our children to have a future in which diversity is the norm."

Sources:

  • http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/welcome-to-berlins-house-of-one--a-church-synagogue-and-mosque-9507002.html
  • http://www.onislam.net/english/news/europe/473515-germany-gets-first-multi-faith-prayer-site.html
  • http://freepressjournal.in/where-jews-christians-muslims-unite-in-prayer/

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