Thandanani is a forum on YahooGroups for Christians of different backgrounds and traditions to learn more about each others faith traditions in an atmosphere of mutual respect and friendliness.

"Thandanani" is a Zulu word that means "love one another", and signifies the love and respect that we hope participants in the forum will show for each other. We hope it will be a place where people can give and receive information about the beliefs and practices of the Christian groups they belong to, without polemics.

Thandanani is an explicitly Christian forum, and for the purpose of this forum, "Christian" means those who believe in the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is not, therefore, an interfaith discussion group -- there are other forums for such discussions. You do not have to be a Christian to participate in the forum' you just need to be interested in the topic: the theology, liturgy, worship and practices of different groups within Christianity.

A friend once told me how the first Buddhist missionaries who went from India to China approached their task. To begin with, they confined themselves to two kinds of statements:

1. This is what we do.

2. This is what we do not do.

I suggest that this is a good approach for discussions in this forum. Explain your particular faith tradition by saying "we do this because...." or "We do not do this because...". If you disagree with the beliefs or practices of others, do not criticise them by saying "You should not do that", but rather "We do not do that because..."

While discussions should be polite, and there should be no personal attacks, that does not mean that they can not be vigorous. People may disagree, and disagree strongly. But it should be possible to disagree without being disagreeable.

This forum had its origin in a similar forum on the FamilyNet BBS network, called PHILOS -- from the Greek word meaning "friendship".

Steve Hayes
Moderator of the Thandanani forum