Building an Interfaith Community- Summer Course 2013

This course is designed to enable participants to encounter each other in mutual respect, to learn together, and to challenge and overcome stereotypes. While fully respecting and affirming each particular faith identity, the overall question to be explored is: What can we, as people of faith, do to respond and to overcome, the pressing challenges of our time as violence and conflict and build together mutually accountable societies based on respect and cooperation?

The course is open to young people between 18-35 years, with a maximum of 30 people to be accepted on the course. Participants should be well grounded in their own faiths and be positioned to influence the thinking of members of their wider faith communities after completion of the summer course. The structure of the programme will include spiritual exposure and sharing reflection on sacred scriptures as well as lectures and workshops on thematic issues.

The cost of the course is CHF 3,300 including course tuition, board and lodging. Scholarships are available to assist participants to attend the course. The Ecumenical Institute is sensitive to special food requirements and will offer spaces for prayer according to the needs of each of the participating faith communities

Application forms and further information is available by emailing Kelly Brownlee at Kelly.brownlee@wcc-coe.org

The structure of the programme

Spiritual exposure and sharing:

Every day will begin with devotion and meditation, for which each faith group will organize its own “sacred” space and taking turns, each will lead morning devotions in the presence of the others.

Study of the sacred scriptures:

Selected texts related to the theme of the course from the sacred scriptures of each faith community will be studied in turn.

Lectures, panels and workshops:

Formal lectures will be given by specialists from Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities. Further

reflections will be done through plenary discussions, through panels, group discussions and workshops.

Participants’ testimonials

“I live in a town of 600 people in South Carolina, USA, where my mother and I are the only Muslims. What I have learned from the course will help me to engage with the people in my community when I return home. I learned a lot of things about Christianity that I didn’t know, even though I’ve spent most of my life living in a Christian country.” (Sarah Abdullah, Muslim, USA)

“It’s important to physically meet face to face. We don’t just study together, go to plenary, and listen to lectures. We’re in residence so we are sharing meals, participating in each other’s prayer lives, playing volleyball and ping pong and having parties together. It’s this holistic approach that causes more of my learning to happen outside the classroom. You can ask things that you just can’t ask in a room full of 40 people and a microphone.” (Rev. Bruce Myers, Christian, Canada)

“My surprise has come from the encounter with the Ecumenical Institute and what’s done here. Specifically with the master students who come from different parts of the world and who tell me of very different experiences in the way they deal with their own situations with religion and how they adapt it in a Post-colonial context. That’s been very exciting for me.” (Jessica Sacks, Jewish, United Kingdom)