THE EUROPEAN INTER-RELIGIOUS ENCOUNTER 2008:

A MEETING FOR MAKING COMMITMENTS

Some 250 participants from 35 countries, members of 11 different religions, met in Rovereto, Italy, from 22 to 25 May 2008 at the invitation of the “Opera Campana dei Caduti”/ “Peace Bell” Foundation” and of “Religions for Peace/Europe”, and under the patronage of the Council of Europe. They addressed the issue of “Shared Values for a Changing Europe: Contributions of Cultures and Religions” as part of the 2008 European Union “Year of Inter-cultural Dialogue”.

Meeting each other from so many backgrounds in a common European home and in the hospitable “city of peace”, participants seized the opportunity to share experiences of mutual enrichment, openness and co-operation in assuming the responsibilities of good citizenship; but they also faced up to the realities of differences, tensions, and double standards, and to painful instances of discrimination, racial or religious profiling, defamation and insensitivity. A delegation from different communities in Kosovo listened to each other's concerns; their presence reminded the whole meeting of the need, in many contexts, to heal memories, to overcome prejudices and to build a more equitable future.

Speakers urged the safeguarding of unity in diversity and appealed for resistance to sometimes growing xenophobia by acceptance and application of the universal ethical values shared by the followers of different religions and of secular life-styles. These values could provide models for respecting shared and distinctive identities in Europe and should go beyond mutual tolerance and respect, to affirm human dignity for all and to inspire struggles, in Europe and the whole world, for peace, economic justice and responsibility for the environment.

Participants welcomed the newly established European Women of Faith Network as well as the development over the last two years of the European Interfaith Youth Network. They also welcomed news of recently established national inter-faith councils ranging from Albania to Belgium. While legal protection and educational provisions are a political responsibility and necessity, it was affirmed that justice and security depend on communities and individuals in civil society where people take their responsibilities to make and implement commitments: these must include the tackling of extremism, not least within one's own community, and engagements to deepen and widen dialogue at many levels and in many contexts.

The encounter enabled leaders and members of different religious communities to come together to pray for peace and justice, each in his or her own tradition, and to bring and share their spiritual visions, energies and motivations to address many pressing issues. There were frank and open discussions on issues ranging from education for inter-religious understanding and for promotion of human rights to asking how to build structures to promote dialogue and how to use dialogue to implement active co-operation. Meeting in project groups in order to address these issues , participants made several commitments and engaged themselves as follows:

1. Welcoming the many interreligious councils which already promote reconciliation and harmony throughout Europe, we wish to expand and strengthen such structures to be representative, action-oriented and sustainable, engaging leaders and members and mainstreaming women and youth.

2. Recognizing that there is no peace among religions without interreligious learning and that places to learn must include religious communities, schools and families, we commit ourselves as religiously rooted people to accompany, encourage and give help to inter-religious education.

3. Valuing the vision of “shared security” to help us all to live and work together, we move beyond the “safe circles” of interreligious dialogue to promote mediation, advocacy and empowerment; we commit ourselves to build “shared security” at every level of society.

4. As European citizens who share our spiritual and religious identities for the benefit of the whole world, we commit ourselves to creatively taking forward an annual Interfaith Week, interfaith educational projects and summer camps, and networking between interfaith associations and politicians.

5. Convinced of the need for human rights education with international, national and local perspectives, we plan an itinerant European forum to stimulate bottom-up sharing of these concerns, for example among Muslim communities - in Belgium and elsewhere, linking with international groups.

6. In order to promote multi faith awareness and to combat prejudice by sharing information across Europe , we plan a trans-European internet database which will focus on local networks and start with people from 8 different faiths in 12 countries who are committed to this positive change.