Reconciliation between peoples, cultures and religions

This book presents an overview of our “European Consultation on Healing and Reconciliation – Cultural and Religious Identity. Reconciliation between Peoples, Cultures and Religions,” held from May 3-6, 2010 in Sarajevo, which brought together representatives from various peoples, cultures and faiths. The idea behind this consultation was to plan an interreligious network on healing and reconciliation, to support each other to become a more efficient and effective resource base for the communities on issues related to the healing of memories. The objectives of this network are: sharing methodologies and key experiences from different contexts, developing common methodologies for “walking together through history,” sharing experiences and developing ecumenical responsibilities of reconciliation, and providing training. This network is being established following the proposal of two “International Consultations on Healing of Memories” held in Dublin/Ireland in 2007 and in the Monastery of Sambata/Romania in 2009, respectively. Other networks are planned for Africa, Latin America, Asia and North America. The work of the Sarajevo conference included, besides greeting words, key reports on “Reconciliation in Interreligious Context,” and on “Responsibility of Christian Churches for Reconciliation with other Cultures and other Faiths.” These papers appear in this volume, together with reports from different regions of Europe, which were presented at the conference, namely from the Central European, Scandinavian, South Eastern European, Southern European, and Western European contexts. Another two very important contributions included are the presentation on “Inter-life learning in new perspectives – Comparing the Balkan context with European-wide experiences” and on “Healing of memories regarding the Roma-Minority” as well as “Conclusions” by Dr. Manoj Kurian and Dieter Brandes from WCC, a Youth report and a report of the “Osservatore Romano”. All these reports and presentations provide insights into the past and present situation in the countries of the participants and show ways of reconciliation, which is not possible without a healing of memories. May the outcomes of our consultation in Sarajevo and the materials presented in this volume offer hope, encouragement and inspiration for any future efforts of reconciliation in our world of today. Bishop em. Prof. Dr. Christoph Klein