More than 220 church leaders representing over 20 churches from Belgium, France, Luxemburg and Switzerland are meeting from 27-31 October in the French city of Lyon for the first Francophone Christian Forum.
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.
For Nigerian Nwankpa Kenneth Chinedu, attending a course on peacebuilding in Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Geneva opened his eyes and helped eliminate stereotypes and myths he had built in his mind about Muslims.
“We’ve seen in the case of refugees, how the church takes a strong standpoint in welcoming those who have fled. But it isn’t always so easy in the congregations. There are many who feel fear, as we receive not only refugees but sometimes also people of other faiths. In this case, we can see a gap between what the church says, and what is actually lived.”