Vicar Apologises for Allowing Muslim Prayers to Be Held at Church

A Church of England vicar has apologised for allowing Muslim prayers to take place in his London church. The Vicar of St John’s, Waterloo, the Canon Giles Goddard, made the apology after he was told that the prayers had infringed Church of England rules, Church Times reported.

The prayers took place on Friday, March 6, and were organized by the Inclusive Mosque Initiative, a group that focuses on gender equality in Islam.

According to the group’s website, they had been “generously offered” the use of the church by the vicar.

This video shows people at the event, and features the vicar addressing the congregation. The vicar read from the Old Testament before concluding, “Allah, God, is always with us and always around us, and is within us. And this is from the Hebrew scripture, so it is our shared, we all share, these great traditions.”

After apologizing for allowing the event to go ahead, the vicar said, “I remain committed to finding ways for Christians and Muslims to acknowledge our shared heritage and history, without minimising the uniqueness of both our traditions. I have assured the Bishop of Southwark of my commitment to work to build good interfaith relations, but to do so within the teaching and guidelines of the Church of England.” Credit: Facebook/Farrukh Younus/Implausibleblog.com