MINISTRY FOR INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE
Silsilah Forum Manila
Day 3 Activity: World Interfaith Harmony Week 2017
On February 3, 2017 during the celebration of the World Interfaith Harmony Week 2017 the Ministry for Interreligious Dialogue, Quiapo Church in collaboration with the Uniharmony Partner’s Manila organized the Seminar-Workshop on “The Love, Mercy and Compassion Across the Faith Traditions: Religions and the Millenials” that started from 1:00 pm-4:30 pm, at the 4th Flr. Buenaventura Garcia Paredez, O.P. Building, University of Santo Tomas, Espanya, Manila.
The main objective of this activity is to appraise the relevancy of religion in their own context as youth base on their perception of their own religion, on their perception of other religions, and the same time, to articulate their understanding and appreciation of interreligious dialogue.
There are more than a hundred attended the activity but most of the participants are coming from the SilPeace Clubs under the Ministry which come from the Manuel Luis Quezon University and Ramon Avancena High School. Some schools like the Nazarene Catholic School, University of Santo Tomas, and the Fo Guang Shan College do also sent their representatives.
The First part of the activity is of course started by the “Harmony Prayer” led by Mr. Carl Anrie Romero Franco and Mr. Jonathan Wahab, the SilPeace Club presidents of MLQU and RAHS. Then, the opening remarks was given by Dr. Lilian Sison, the director of the International Studies in the UST.
After that, the different panels were introduced to give some inputs about the basic tenet of each religion represented such as: Rev. Fr. Carlos Reyes, for the Roman Catholic, Dr. Potre Diampuan, for the Islam, Dr. Shakuntala Vaswani, from the Hinduism and Ven. Mioa Jin, from the Buddhist. The sharing of each panel were very concise and enlightening to the younger generation to understand other religions and the challenges being confronted in the interreligious dialogue efforts.
Further, right after the short inputs presented by the four panels (we) the organizer have proceeded to the workshop wherein the participants were divided into several groups for the group sharing, and at the same time, to make a symbol of peace afterwards that represents each group. It’s a worthwhile experience then to see the participants really enjoyed and learned something from the simple activity prepared for them.
At the end of the workshop Msgr. Hernando Coronel, rector and parish priest of the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene was then called to give his closing remarks that challenges all the youth to become more active in promoting peace base on the theme of the WIHW 2017 which is to celebrate life in the spirit of Mercy and Compassion.
On the other hand, the Sira’j Muslim Religious Organization of Xavier University spearheaded a symposium dubbed as Ummah 2.0 bearing the theme: ‘Enlightening the Youth and Reviving the Imaan (aka Faith). The said symposium was attended by some Muslim students form other schools and university in Cagayan de Oro City. One of the remarkable topics that were discussed was the true essence of Jihad that a Muslim and Non-Muslim should know particularly the great Jihad by Atty. Hamid Barra, former co-convenor of the Bishops-Ulama Conference. Some emerging and prevalent issues were also tackled by the distinguished speakers. Moreover, challenge the Muslim youth in Cagayan de Oro to get involve in promoting a culture of peace and dialogue with their fellow youth so as to create more spaces for mutual understanding and respect with one another and the “otherness” of the others.
For introduction, Silsilah Forum Davao Christian Coordinator Fr. Hermes “Larry” B. Sabud, SM with Muslim Coordinator Ms. Nor Asiah Madale Adilao gave the rationale for the WIHW, an explanation to the video presentation of the WIHW proposal to the UN General assembly.
