WCC FEATURE: Inter-religious youth group celebrates open debate

[WCC Media]

World Council of Churches - Feature
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media at wcc-coe.org


For immediate release - 13/08/2008 10:27:18

INTER-RELIGIOUS YOUTH GROUP CELEBRATES OPEN DEBATE

By Henrik Hansson (*)

During a youth interfaith seminar outside Geneva last month some
participants realized the religious differences are usually
smaller than imagined and cultural differences are often more
significant than expected. 

During three weeks in July 2008, 22 young people from across 4
continents and 3 religions gathered in the Ecumenical Institute
in Bossey, right outside Geneva, to share their thoughts, meals
and prejudices with each other. The seminar was sponsored by the
World Council of Churches.

"I have realized I have much more in common with a Christian
from Palestine than [with] a Muslim from the West" - , said Razan
Abd el Haque, a Muslim from Jordan, when asked what she would
take back home from the seminar. "The differences are mainly
cultural, not religious." 

Olivier Salagi, a Jew from France, appreciated the opportunity
for an open exchange of views: "I think it is important to
discuss about life together, and the difficulties, the problem
for example between Jews and Muslims, Christians and Muslims and
so on. We had discussions, debates and sometimes confrontations,
and I think it is good". Even though he said it was difficult for
him as the only Jewish participant to discuss these issues he
also said he was used to being in the minority. 

Coming from predominantly Orthodox Belorussia, Veranika
Shetskaya thinks this seminar was a good opportunity to discuss
and confront each other, "…because very often in our home place
we can see people, we meet them, but we don’t have a possibility
to talk to them. It looks like a formal discussion,"- she said
when asked what made the experience here different. 

The programme of the 7-30 July seminar included presentations on
inter-religious dialogue by local and international experts from
the three faith communities. Each day started with a moment of
prayer and spirituality, prepared alternately by the Christian,
the Jewish and the Muslim participants.

The goal of this spiritual and academic learning programme was
to build an interfaith community.

(*) Henrik Hansson, WCC Communication intern, is a member of
Church of Sweden.

Listen to the audio interviews (mp3 format):
The interview with Razan Abd El Haque, a Muslim woman from
Jordan:
http://oikoumene.org//fileadmin/files/wcc-main/sounds/2008/Interfaith/Razan_Abd_El_Haque.mp3
The interview with Olivier Salagi, a Jewish man from France:
http://oikoumene.org//fileadmin/files/wcc-main/sounds/2008/Interfaith/Olivier_Salagi.mp3
The interview with Veranika Shetskaya, a Christian woman from
Belarussia:
http://oikoumene.org//fileadmin/files/wcc-main/sounds/2008/Interfaith/Veranika_Shetskaya.mp3



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WCC policy. This material may be reprinted freely, providing
credit is given to the author. 

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363 media at wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.