Feature story
The course, equally divided into three weeks of distance learning followed by three weeks of intensive residential study, offered research opportunities in a community life setting. Students from Africa, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North America came to Bossey to join the course which was coordinated this year by Dr Vasile-Octavian Mihoc, faculty member at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey.
Mahmoud Nazari, a Muslim from the Middle East, said he enrolled in the course to strengthen his knowledge. “I will take back with me the teaching methods,” he said. “I could see some of them being really creative in their teaching.”
He said he also valued the approach of comparative studies in interreligious dialogue. He added that Bossey had the feeling of a perfect city. “Everybody is kind to each other, and they tried to behave as if they were in a utopia,” he said.
Marcelle Al-Zoughbi, a Christian from the Middle East, said she had been trying to find space and time to attend the course since as far back as 2014. “I really believe in interreligious dialogue when we come to meet the person at the level where they’re at,” she said. “We can walk with them and talk with them. We can start the healing and reconciliation process.”
Like Nazari, she marveled at how graciousness and kindness of the staff and students at Bossey. “I didn’t find hardships; it was just beautiful respect and reconciliation,” she said. “I felt heard—and I heard my colleagues.”
She also acknowledged comparative theology as a powerful tool. “If we read someone else’s sacred text, we can have a further understanding of our own sacred text,” she said. “I saw many similarities, and how we build off of each other.”
Elizabeth Breit, a Jewish rabbi from New York City, was recently ordained and attended the course before beginning her first job as a congregational rabbi in August in Atlanta, Georgia (USA). “I think one of the most powerful aspects of the course was the relationships we built with people we wouldn’t have a chance to come across on equal footing,” she said. “Meeting here in Switzerland really allowed us to have a neutral place to build friendships and to communicate.”