LIVING IN COMMUNITY: THE GOAL OF CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM DIALOGUE
media@wcc-coe.org

Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (Comunicados de prensa)
gement/eng/a/article/1722/christians-from-many-tra d.html
20 de octubre de 2008
Switzerland

"Living together in community must take the centre stage of
Christian-Muslim dialogue," said Catholicos Aram I at the opening of
an 18-20 October ecumenical consultation aimed at developing a common
Christian theological understanding of dialogue with Islam.

"The prevailing misperceptions, ambiguities, polarizations, tensions
and collision [of values between Muslims and Christians], hijacked and
sharpened by politico-ideological agendas and geo-political strategies,
can be transformed only through a shared life in community," stated
Aram I, head of the Armenian Apostolic Church (See of Cilicia),
in delivering the key-note speech of the consultation.

For Aram I, such a "community building must take place on the basis of
equal rights and obligations, as well as full and active participation
in all aspects of society life, including decision-making". It
"presupposes a quality of integration that provides equal
opportunities, ensures diversity and enhances mutual acceptance".

Among the "divisive issues" to be addressed, Aram I listed how
both religions deal with the relationship between faith and reason,
the response to secularism, the concept of mission and the tension
between human rights and Islamic law.

Having a "rich history" of Christian-Muslim dialogue, the ecumenical
movement needs to keep pursuing it with a "more focused" agenda,
"touching on issues that pertain to the life of the people," said
Aram I.

Organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC), together with a
number of Christian world communions, the World Evangelical Alliance
(WEA) and the Roman Catholic Church, the consultation has gathered
some 50 church leaders and experts on Christian-Muslim dialogue in
Chavannes-de-Bogis, outside Geneva, Switzerland.

The consultation emerged from an ecumenical process launched by the
WCC in response to "A Common Word Between Us and You," a letter signed
by 138 Muslim scholars and addressed to Christian leaders around the
world in October 2007.