News
Young adults from Asian churches are invited to participate in a two-week-long training programme of the World Council of Churches (WCC) called Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity (YATRA). The project is aimed at promoting and strengthening religious harmony. The deadline to submit applications has been extended to 10 April.
The training will take place from 8 to 21 June in Siam Reap, Cambodia, bringing together young men and women between the ages of 20 and 35.
Initiated this year by the WCC’s programme for inter-religious dialogue and cooperation, YATRA is a response to a call from the WCC Busan assembly last year, inviting churches to undertake a “pilgrimage of justice and peace”.
The term Yatra also means pilgrimage in several Indo-Asian religions and languages.
Addressing the theme “Together towards justice and peace: walking the talk in a multi-religious world”, YATRA 2014 will provide its participants an opportunity to analyze the complex intersections between religion and politics in contemporary Asian contexts.
Training will help participants build peer networks and accompany local churches and national councils in their interfaith engagements while addressing issues of justice and peace.
The participants will also conceive creative and constructive models of inter-religious collaboration and projects. They will engage in dialogue on theological questions related to mission, inter-religious prayer, church, inter-religious solidarity, Christian witness and Christian self-understanding in a multi-religious world.
YATRA 2014 will provide its participants an opportunity to reflect on the diversity of Asian Christian experiences of living in multi-religious societies and discovering rich resources within Asian religious traditions that offer responses to issues of justice and peace.
The training will include theological reflections, workshops, Bible studies, lectures by religious scholars, study of ecumenical documents, analysis, exposure visits and the cross-cultural experience of living together and learning from each other.
Applicants are invited to send a completed application, including all documents mentioned in the participant guidelines, to the WCC programme for inter-religious dialogue and cooperation no later than 10 April 2014.
