I've just returned from the National Workshop on Christian Unity, an event I attend every year. The most recent Workshop, held this time in Charlotte, N.C., had a distinctly interreligious emphasis. The interreligious input is always welcome. Most people who are active in ecumenism — that is, work for unity among Christians — also find themselves involved in enhancing relations among people of the various religions of the world.

We Catholics must remember that, this year, we observe the 50th anniversary, on Oct. 28, of the Vatican II declaration "on the relation of the church to non-Christian religions" — a declaration known by its initial Latin words Nostra Aetate (In Our Age). Fifty years on, people of various religions look with great thanksgiving upon Nostra Aetate, because it opened up many possibilities for building up mutual appreciation among religions, following a long history of unpromising encounters.

It was helpful to hear, from a Catholic speaker at the workshop, some clarification of some of the language of Nostra Aetate. Many have been disturbed with the seeming naiveté, in the section on our relationship with Muslims, of the exhortation to (in a popular English translation) "forget the past" and the centuries of rancor and violent hatreds. It was explained that "forget the past" is better translated as "lay the past aside." Certainly we understand that, if peoples are to achieve the mutual appreciation and esteem which are worthy of fellow children of Abraham, we do not act as if the evils of the past never occurred; we must, however, do what we can so that past events do not impede us from welcoming the possibilities of the present.

We heard as well from an imam who challenged us to see current American bigotry against Muslims as parallel with our well-known racial issues and with anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism. The listeners recognized the appropriateness of these parallels.

A Jewish speaker declared that, if Christians wish to assert (as indeed we do in our theological understanding of what Jesus did in his self-offering) that Jesus is the unique Savior of humanity, she has no problem with this, provided that Christians not presume that we know who is going to experience salvation. This sentiment is entirely in keeping with sections 15 and 16 of the Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.

In the ecumenical realm, Lutherans and Catholics took some time to consider the coming 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of debate topics on Oct. 31, 1517; Luther's act is commonly looked upon as the beginning of what came to be called the "Protestant Reformation" and the great split within Western Christendom. In small-group interaction, we were to state what we wanted to receive from the other Christian group during this commemoration. We ended up expressing thanks for gifts already received from the others. I said I was thankful for Davey and Goliath. I was not being facetious. It has been many, many years since I have actually viewed one of these Lutheran-produced stop-motion animations about a boy and his dog. I do remember, vividly, however, that these children's shows went very deep in exploring such tough issues as diversity.

Next year's workshop will be relatively close by, in Louisville, Ky. I don't have the exact dates yet. You can check nwcu.org, where information on the upcoming workshop will be posted.