"Where we can come together I think we must all come together in unity regardless of religious identity or political persuasion".
For roughly two centuries, Israel had existed as a loose confederation of tribes, dependent for their unity upon bonds of religious faith and covenant that were renewed periodically in cultic ceremonies at the central shrine at Shiloh.
Unitas Fratrum, (Latin: "Unity of Brethren"), Protestant religious group inspired by Hussite spiritual ideals in Bohemia in the mid-15th century.
Egypt's president, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, the former military chief who led Morsi's removal, has vowed to fight extremism and launch a new era of religious unity.
He sought to subordinate the divergent religions of the empire to the cult of the Unconquered Sun (Sol Invictus) and so create the kind of religious unity that came only later with Constantine.
For them, the preservation of political sovereignty took primacy over the preservation of religious unity, and toleration was recommended as a superior policy in a situation of religious plurality and strife.
The temple dates from the 11th century, was rebuilt after an earthquake in 1917, and has always been known as a place of religious unity - the marriage of Buddhist Balinese king Udayana and Hindu Javanese princess Mahendradatta are woven into the legend of its origins.
It is a laudable mission in an environment of heated rhetoric driven by those who wish to squash notions of religious unity.
