Each year students from all over the world arrive at Bossey near Geneva for a three-month language training course to pave their way for ecumenical studies that follow on straight after. “The title captures the goal of the course,” says Father Lawrence Iwuamadi, the Nigerian priest who studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and is academic dean of the Ecumenical Institute.
As students gathered at the WCC Ecumenical Institute at Bossey for an interreligious summer school, they reflected on what brought them to the institute, and what knowledge and insights they will take home.
“I have an absolute confidence in your youthful and great enthusiasm and your heightened state of awareness that you will be ambassadors of peace, mercy and cooperation among all peoples.” This message, from Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Dr Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, visibly uplifted and inspired young people attending a seminar, “Youth Engagement, Religion and Violence,” in Cairo this week.
Forty young people from 14 countries will meet this week in Cairo for a seminar entitled “Youth Engagement, Religion and Violence.” From 18 to 22 August, participants from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East will focus on topics such as the impact of religious discourse on contributions to peace-building versus creating violent tensions.
Young people are very much affected by the violence and tensions along religious lines that we are witnessing today in the Middle East but also in Europe, Asia, North America. The seminar is an interfaith initiative jointly organized by the Egyptian Muslim Centre Al Azhar (mosque and university), and the WCC.
Members of the WCC Commission on Youth (ECHOS), visited Al Azhar Mosque and University on 12 May for a meeting with the grand sheikh and the Egyptian minister of Religious Affairs.
New members of the WCC Commission on Youth (ECHOS) have gathered for the first time, for a four-day meeting hosted by the Coptic Church in Cairo, Egypt.
Young people of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths have created a unique community during a summer course at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey. Together they seek to break religious stereotypes, promote mutual respect and enhance their understanding of religions beyond the conflict paradigm.