To expand the imagination, to experience at close range what it means to live and wonder and pray from within a religious tradition other than one's own. As the snug neighborhood anywhere broadens into a global village, its skyline will be dotted with a richer montage of church spires, mosques, synagogues, and temples. I yearn for the moment when a religious stranger no longer surfaces as the feared and hated other, but someone to befriend on a common pilgrimage.
— Vernon Ruland, Imagining the Sacred