Throughout history, religion, which is intended to guide humans on the road to spiritual enlightenment, has been a source of division and even a justification for violence. In recent years there has been a significant shift however, with religious leaders and their followers coming together to celebrate their commonalities.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Berlin, once the capital of one of the most openly intolerant regimes in recent memory. It is also a city once separated by a wall of opposing ideologies, one of which professed that there was no place for religion in their ideal state.
Today a group of Christians, Muslims and Jews is coming together to build a new structure, the House of One. It is to stand on the site of the oldest Catholic church in Berlin, a structure destroyed in World War II, and then turned into a parking lot by communist East German authorities.
In the House of One, those who want to practice their respective religion will have a separate room to celebrate their historic traditions, but there will also be a room in the centre where all can come together in a spirit of unity. The House of One is not about compromising one's beliefs, it is about respecting our neighbours and celebrating what we have in common.
As a Christian of German and Semitic origin, news of this project fills me with a sense of peace and completeness.
My maternal German grandparents' generation was fed a constant stream of lies which said that Jews were different, were the cause of all of our problems and had no place among us. It was a philosophy which found fertile ground in a world that had been anti-Jewish for many centuries.
My paternal Semitic grandparents fled a part of the world which had grown intolerant of Christians, even though it is where Christ himself lived. Much of this hatred was driven by a belief, still prevalent in the world today, that Christianity was, and is, a threat to Islam.
What is bitterly ironic is that Christianity, Islam and Judaism all share the same spiritual root. Followers of all three religions call themselves Children of Abraham, all share common spiritual writings, and all revere the same holy city of Jerusalem.
The significance of the House of One is profound, and it reflects a world that is learning to see that diversity is an asset. Just as a racist Berlin and then a separated Berlin existed for a time, they have become entities that only exist in history books and provide lessons of the futility of their ideologies.
There are numerous questions that have yet to be answered. There are many diverse groups under the umbrella of each of the three religions in the House of One. There are also many other world religions. In addition, there is the challenge of raising funds to actually construct the new house of worship. People around the world are responding by donating to the building fund, however.
Despite the challenges, if we consider how far we have come in celebrating our common humanity in the last century, it is certainly conceivable that similar houses of worship will be build all over the world. Imagine the significance of such a structure being built in Jerusalem!
As humans we are spiritual beings. We are also social beings. It is natural that many of us seek to practice our spirituality in a communal manner and develop traditions in doing so, and that others develop their own traditions. This does not have to separate us however, because at the core we really are One.
