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: info@armenianorthodoxchurch.org
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

LIVING IN COMMUNITY: THE GOAL OF CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM DIALOGUE

"Living together in community must take the centre stage of Christian-Muslim
dialogue," said His Holiness 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 His Holiness
Aram I, head of the Armenian Apostolic Church (See of Cilicia), in
delivering the key-note speech of the consultation.

For His Holiness 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, His Holiness 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 His Holiness 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.

Full text of the keynote lecture delivered by His Holiness Catholicos Aram
I:
English/messages60.htm

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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.