RELIGION

WCC, IJCIC strengthen communication ties

&NewLine;<p>The World Council of Churches &lpar;WCC&rpar; and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations &lpar;IJCIC &rpar; have met formally on 25-27 June in Paris&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In a release sent to OpenLife&comma; this meeting&comma; under the theme &&num;8220&semi;The normalization of hatred&colon; challenges for Jews and Christians today&comma;&&num;8221&semi; took place at a time of challenges both to religious life in general and to each of our communities in their various contexts&comma;&&num;8221&semi; reads a communique released by the two groups&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Among&NewLine;the issues that informed this gathering were&colon; the rise of xenophobic&NewLine;nationalist movements in much of the world&semi;&nbsp&semi; suspicion of the agendas of&NewLine;religious communities and institutions&comma; especially in Europe&semi; the resurgence of&NewLine;overt antisemitism&semi; the prevalence of Islamophobia&semi; newly emerging&NewLine;anti-Christian attitudes&semi; the continuing non-resolution of the&NewLine;Israeli-Palestinian conflict&semi; worldwide hostility to vulnerable minorities&semi;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;and the shocking erosion of civil society in many places and ways&period;&&num;8221&semi;&NewLine;reads the communique&period; &&num;8220&semi;We are particularly horrified by the recent&NewLine;increase in murderous attacks on places of worship in different parts of the&NewLine;world&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In&NewLine;discussions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict&comma; it was recognized that&NewLine;there have sometimes been very real tensions between the positions of the WCC&NewLine;and IJCIC&period;&nbsp&semi; &&num;8220&semi;This meeting took place with acknowledgment of the&NewLine;development in both more constructive communications and the way that&NewLine;differences are conveyed publicly&comma;&&num;8221&semi; the communique reads&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;These&NewLine;discussions in Paris were characterized by openness&comma; honesty&comma; and an attempt to&NewLine;fully empathize with how profoundly important these issues are to Jews and&NewLine;Christians alike&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The&NewLine;groups also focused on their shared challenge to address injustice in the&NewLine;world&period; &&num;8220&semi;Our religious traditions mandate that we honour the integrity and&NewLine;humanity of all&comma; welcome and care for the stranger&comma; and resist evil&period;&nbsp&semi; We&NewLine;are living at a time when this demands our courageous attention&comma;&&num;8221&semi; reads&NewLine;the text&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The&NewLine;two groups also explored ways in which&comma; working together&comma; &&num;8220&semi;our advocacy&NewLine;and interventions may be forces for good in the world&period; We are committed to&NewLine;addressing and opposing all forms of normalization of hatred&comma; including&NewLine;antisemitism and attacks on religious communities&period; Areas of possible&NewLine;collaboration included&colon; mutual education&semi; environmental concerns&semi; and gender&NewLine;justice&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This&NewLine;historic meeting concluded with a shared commitment to continue to communicate&NewLine;openly and regularly&comma; to facilitate the joint efforts to affect change&NewLine;identified by the meeting&comma; &&num;8220&semi;and to reconvene at regular intervals so that&NewLine;we can advance our respective and mutual responsibilities to our own&NewLine;communities and the world at large&period;&&num;8221&semi; concludes the text&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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