Pictured above are Rabbi Danny, Father. Michael McMahon of the Catholic Church & Rev. Maureen Leitch of the Church of Scotland

Rabbi Danny spoke for the first time last tuesday (March 9, 2010) at the council of Christians and Jews.

He was joined by Father Michael McMahon and Rev Maureen Leitch. Each gave a presentation on the chosen topic  "Interpreting scriptures in the 21st century" followed by a Q&A. Around 50 attended. it was also nice to see a few young faces in the audience.

Rabbi Danny explained that in order to reach out to the world  we first need to translate biblical morality into palatable sound bytes that the average person can relate to.  If we talk in archaic terms and biblical cliché then people switch off. Communication is more than just sending a message from one person or group to another, however articulate the message may be. Communication must begin, first by an understanding of the person one is communicating with.

Commenting on the current climate of moral relativism and individualism, Rabbi Danny accepted that the challenge for the voice of morality to be heard was hard but achievable . "Although we are bombarded by a media that is hardly a friend to religion (you can count the number of times G-d is mentioned on radio five live on one hand!), our task is to have faith in people and not cocoon ourselves from the world".

Quoting the Chief Rabbi from Sunday's induction the Rabbi spoke about the subtle distinction between change and renewal in terms of faith traditions. Renewal seeks to re-frame/remodel  the old in ways that invigorate the contemporary.

Rabbi Danny commented "I had a lovely evening sharing ideas and meeting wonderful and sincere people of different faiths. I suggested to the chairlady Isabel Smythe how important it is for the council of C&J to widen their audience beyond those who consider themselves traditionalists as I believe there is a thirst for moral direction in our hazy society today".  I was also delighted to see that the council of C&J are currently reading the Chief Rabbi's book "the home we build together" which they will be reviewing and discussing soon.