wfn.org | World Social Forum: What Comes First? Inter-Faith Dialogue or

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

What Comes First? Inter-Faith Dialogue or Resolving Differences
Inter-Denominational Approaches to Conflict Discussed at World Social Forum

MUMBAI, India/GENEVA, 21 January 2004 (LWI) - A member of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) delegation participating in the Fourth World Social Forum
(WSF) in Mumbai welcomed an LWF initiative on inter-faith collaboration to
resolve peace in Africa. But he wondered whether individual religious groups
were ready to receive and work with such a model.

Rev. Jairo Suarez, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia, while commending
the work begun in the context of the Inter-faith Action for Peace in Africa
said he considered the inter-religious approach as rather complex for
participating Christian networks. Should it not have started by first
focusing on peace efforts by individual religious groups such as Christian
churches before combining such efforts with those of other faith communities?
he asked. "Many of the churches do not agree on their approach to conflict.
Are they then ready and equipped for an inter-religious group approach?"

Suarez was responding to a presentation by the coordinator of the inter-faith
initiative Sheikh Saliou Mbacki, who was the main speaker at the
LWF-organized WSF seminar on inter-faith action for peace in Africa.

Roman Catholic priest Bernard Janicot from Algeria welcomed the inter-faith
approach but was concerned about its role in his country where society is not
only faced with an intra-state conflict but also conflict within Islam, the
predominant religion. He concurred with Suarez that religious groups had
serious internal problems that hindered their effective participation in such
a well-meaning inter-faith process.

A number of WSF participants in the LWF seminar expressed concern that women
should be part of the process at both the leadership and grassroots level. In
his presentation, Mbacki had pointed out that women and women's peace
networks were actively engaged in peace efforts in conflict situations, and
their presence was notable in the first summit and sub-regional conferences.
But an inter-faith delegation to Liberia in October 2003 included only one
woman representative. Women and youth, he stressed, played an important role
in peace making in Africa. The plan of action mandates their involvement and
full participation in inter-faith peace efforts on the continent.

Ugandan Anglican Bishop Baker M. Ocholla II commented on the situation of
women in conflict using the example of northern Uganda where he is actively
involved in the peace efforts of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace
Initiative (ARLPI). "Conflict has brutalized women so much that they have
become weapons of war," he said. Not only are an increasing number of women
becoming widows because their husbands have been killed at war, many of them
have been raped by armed militant groups, often in front of their families.
For Ocholla II, participating in the WSF as an ARLPI representative, the
issue of violence against women during war is an urgent task for religious
leaders in the inter-faith initiative for peace in Africa. Ocholla II
represented ARLPI at the summit in Johannesburg.

Rev. Monika Matthias of the Martha Protestant congregation, Evangelical
Church in Berlin-Brandenburg and the Silesian Oberlausitz, Germany, commented
on the need to involve ordinary church-goers in dialogue and conversations on
an inter-faith basis. The average person, she noted, asks very basic
questions about the faith of the other, and this was a very critical level in
an inter-religious process such as the one Mbacki had presented. In her
pastoral duties, Matthias also works with groups that focus on
inter-religious issues and women's empowerment.

Mr Jules Wahare from Togo, representing the International Movement of
Catholic Students at the WSF, noted that from a local perspective, an
inter-faith process can be viewed with suspicion by people whose religious
opinions are limited to "my religion's world view." "I can't imagine a
Christian entering a mosque in my own village," he observed.

Islamic scholar Prof. Farid Esack, director of the Center for Progressive
Islam in Cape Town, South Africa, wondered whether the approach to involve
religious leaders in the inter-faith process was not too elitist. Such a
process should involve the grassroots at the very initial stages, he argued.

Concluding, Rev. Dr Piri Rasolondraibe, the seminar's moderator and head of
the LWF delegation to the WSF, emphasized the need to work with religious
communities at all levels if the trend of conflict in Africa was to be
changed.   (715 words)

[The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now has 136 member
churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7 million of the 65.4 million
Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas
of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology,
humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless
specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or
opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article
contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with
acknowledgment.]

*	*	*

LWI online at: http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html 

LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION
PO Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: (41.22) 791.63.54
Fax: (41.22) 791.66.30 
Editor's e-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org