It sounds like a riddle: how do you fit the world’s religions into a single building?
For the team behind Berlin’s House of One, it’s not a riddle. It’s real life.
It’s also an immense challenge and a unique opportunity.
Dubbed “the world’s first churmosqagogue” by one Reddit user, the House of One — “the world’s first hybrid church-mosque-synagogue” — will break ground in Berlin on May 27, 2021.
By then, it will have been a project 12 years in the making, at an expected cost of at least 47.2 million euro ($57.2).
Its designers and leaders hope it will be used by Jewish, Christian and Muslim members as a place to pray, worship, gather and, perhaps above all, host a dialogue among their respective religions and with society at large.
Over the last few months, I had the distinct pleasure of getting to know the leaders behind the House of One and some of their partners around the globe.
I also got to speak with some practitioners of interreligious and intercultural dialogue here in Berlin, some of whom are skeptical about the concept and its eventual roll-out.
The result is my latest story with Religion News Service.