Q. I am chaplain at a College in Switzerland , where we have students who are Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslims. We should like to offer them support and encouragement, perhaps visiting a place of worship if possible, or being visited here by someone who can help them with their own faith. I am, therefore, looking for suitable contacts who I could get in touch with, who do not live too far away and who cold help our students

R.

You may find the Plate-forme interreligieuse de Genève helpful: www.interreligieux.ch/

Perhaps, the NGO on Spirituality Values and Global Concerns at the UN in Geneva might have some good contacts to suit your students or might make an interesting visit: www.csvgc-Geneva.org

Interfaith International is based in Switzerland: www.interfaithonline.org

Religions for Peace has a branch in Switzerland. On their website Hans Ucko is given as the President. Hans used to be responsible for interfaith relations at the World Council of Churches so would know a lot of people in the interfaith scene locally: World Conference of Religions for Peace, Rev. Dr. Han Ucko , President 15, chemin de la Redoute, CH-1260 Nyon. Email: hansucko at gmail.com

You might find this article on Islam in Switzerland interesting: www.opendemocracy.net/faith-europe_islam/article_867.jsp

After looking at that I found this which has a useful list of Islamic contacts: www.switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/religion/islam.contacts.html

I found these two lists of Hindu temples, rather lacking in detail but perhaps a starting place: www.shaivam.org/siddhanta/toi_swiss.htm and http://tamilelibrary.org/teli/temple6.html

A list of synagogues can be found at www.kosherdelight.com/Switzerland_Synagogues.shtml

There is a brief introduction to Buddhism in Switzerland at www.globalbuddhism.org/1/baumann001.html
Some Buddhist centres can be found at this link: www.buddhanet.info

One of the best ways to help your students may be to start a dialogue group at your College where they can meet and learn from one another. Speakers could be invited in from some of the Centres in the lists above and visits out arranged. This not only brings your students into a broader perspective in their country but also bonds them with each other and may stimulate not only responses to other people’s faiths but also deepen insights into their own.