PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
Armenian version: nian.htm
THE PARTICIPATION OF THE ARMENIAN CATHOLICOSATE OF CILICIA IN AN
INTERRELIGIOUS CONSULTATION ORGANIZED BY THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FOREIGN
AFFAIRS OF AUSTRIA
At the invitation of Dr Ursula Plassnik, Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs
of Austria, 20 Christian and Muslim women from Europe, the Middle East, the
Gulf Region and North Africa met at a three-day workshop, from 23 through 25
June in Vienna in order to share their perspectives on interreligious and
intercultural dialogue. The meeting gave visibility to women’s scholarship
on the topic, and the participants proposed recommendations for future
action to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The women, all of whom represent
different academic disciplines in the social sciences, are experts on
dialogue. Many of them are expatriates and as such were able to serve as
bridges between two cultures.
The Ministry, in partnership with the Europe Desk of the Arab League, will
host an International Interreligious and Intercultural Conference on Europe
and the Middle East in Autumn 2008; the conference will include women’s
perspectives in the plan of action.
Mrs. Teny Pirri-Simonian, the Vice President of the Ecumenical Committee of
the Catholicosate of Cilicia, and Director of the European Project for
Interreligious Learning (EPIL), was invited as an expert who bridges the
Middle East and Europe. EPIL was born in the World Council of Churches while
His Holiness Aram I was the Moderator. The organization held one of its
general meetings in Antelias in 2004.
At the end of the workshop, Mrs. Pirri-Simonian met with the Chief
Representative of the Ministry who informed her of their work with women on
the Armenian Question, and expressed the wish to pursue the matter within
the larger framework of the forthcoming process.
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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.