wfn.org | WCC UPDATE: Visions for the future of interreligious dialogue

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 10/06/2005

HOW CAN INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE PROGRESS?
PARTICIPANTS SHARE VISIONS AS "CRITICAL MOMENT" CONFERENCE CLOSES

	Free photos available see below

The future will see the World Council of Churches (WCC) more courageously
challenging its members to take up interreligious tasks in their own
contexts, and practitioners of interreligious dialogue committing
themselves to enlarging their community.

An attitude of healthy self-criticism, as well as humility and gratitude
for the other, will inform interreligious relations and dialogue, while
passionate rejection of all forms of violence together with the recognition of the complexity of religious realities in today's world will be at the
core of this endeavour.

These were elements of the vision shared by panellists at the final
session of the 7-9 June "Critical moment in interreligious dialogue"
conference hosted by the WCC in Geneva.

"The Council will need to be more courageous in the ways we encourage and
challenge our member churches to take up the interreligious tasks in their
own churches and their own settings," said Dr Marion Best from Canada,
vice-moderator of the WCC central committee. Best also expressed her hope
for more dialogue opportunities and networks between women of different
faiths.

Reminding the participants of one of his grand-father's teachings, Msgr.
Chidi Denis Isizoh from Nigeria, a member of the Pontifical Council for
Interreligious Dialogue, urged them to commit themselves to enlarge the
"dialogue community" back home. "If you learn something and keep it for
yourself, you are selfish and useless to the community, but if you share
it, you become a worthy member of it," he said.

For interreligious dialogue to progress, self-critique grounded in a
theology of humility is needed, according to Rabbi Rabbi Ehud Bandel from
Jerusalem, vice president of the International Council of Christians and
Jews. "We need to engage in soul-searching, examining our history and
asking ourselves whether we have lived up to what we preach," he said.

For Professor Anant Rambachan, a Hindu scholar from Trinidad, recognition
of the need for the other is essential to the interreligious endeavour.
But caring for the other is denied by violence. "There is a crying need
for our traditions to passionately reject violence inflicted in the name
of the state, religion or ideology," he said.

Since interreligious dialogue doesn't happen in a vacuum, the changing
world landscape has to be taken into account, Professor Tarik Ramadan, a
Muslim author and university lecturer based in Geneva, reminded the
conference. "Our current discourse of love and peace is often perceived as
naïve and simplistic," he said. "We need to reconcile ourselves with the
complexity of our world, moving away from simplistic statements and
building local spaces of trust to counter the new global ideology of
fear."

The complexity and interdependence of the world were also highlighted by
Venerable Bhiksuni Chuehmen Shih, a Theravada Buddhist monk from Taiwan
who is chief executive of the International Buddhist Progress Society.
"The 9/11 disaster" didn't make only Americans suffer. "Other countries
from our global village were affected too," she emphasized. Shih stressed
the need for interpersonal relationships in interreligious dialogue,
"building positive friendships, understanding and cooperation".

Speeches, documents and free high resolution photos are available on the
conference website:
http://www.oikoumene.org/interreligious.html

This material may be reprinted freely.

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

Sign up for WCC press releases at
http://onlineservices.wcc-coe.org/pressnames.nsf

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.