World Council of Churches - Feature
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For immediate release: 13 August 2008


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 Sayadi, 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.

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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..