bs_bs_banner Go forth... The European Project for Interreligious Learning (EPIL) Teny Pirri-Simonian TenyPirri-Simonian is a theologian and a member of the Armenian Orthodox Church, Catholicosate of Cilicia, Antelias, Lebanon. She is Vice President of the Ecumenical Relations Committee of the Catholicosate. She is co-founder and coordinator of the European Project for Interreligious Learning (EPIL). Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (Matt. 28:19) was one of the early golden verses from the Bible I memorized when I was in elementary school at the Armenian Evangelical School in Lebanon. 1 Who was being addressed? I asked myself. The church, my missionary teachers or me as a girl? The question remained with me until I learned the theology of mission of my church and became involved in the ecumenical movement. Mission: An ecumenical journey While at the Evangelical School, I faced a dilemma: On Sunday I attended the liturgy in the Armenian Orthodox church with my family, and during the week, I attended Bible studies and memorized golden verses at school. My parents explained to me the missionary nature of our church as the eucharistic community where discipleship meant internal conversion, commitment to Christian values of love and justice, and serving the world. My parents explanation of God s mission contrasted with the school s message of repentance and personal salvation. In my mind, I was a sinner during the week and God s child growing up to serve humanity on Sundays. This different understanding of mission made me question the theology of mission of my church. In our history classes we learned that Armenians were the first people to adopt Christianity as national religion in 301 CE. How could the founders of our faith, the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew, who evangelized Armenia, and our church fathers be wrong? How about our Muslim neighbours and friends? While my parents 1 The current narration is based on EPIL documents, evaluations, and my personal notes. Copyright (2015) World Council of Churches 91
International Review of Mission Volume 104 Number 1 April 2015 assured me that my neighbours and friends were not doomed to go to hell, yet I always feared for them. My role as a girl-child having received the message go forth was clarified later when I joined the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) respectively as staff. My ecumenical quest, which led to the creation of the European Project for Interreligious Learning (EPIL), began with my work at the Ecumenical Youth and Students Secretariat of the Middle East in Beirut 2 and as development secretary. The next step was my appointment as executive secretary for Inter-Church Aid and Development Programme, the only woman executive in the newly constituted Middle East Council of Churches in 1974. During the 1970s Paulo Freire was a staff member at the WCC and his pedagogy 3 based on conscientization / awareness building and liberation of the poor and the oppressed through reflection and action in the liberational methodological rhythm of See, Judge, and Act guided our work. As head of the development department, I was further inspired by the WCC Commission on Churches Participation in Development (CCPD) with its emphasis on development as a process to promote social justice, self-reliance, and economic growth. The 1980s brought a new understanding of mission to the ecumenical movement through the WCC central committee s approval in 1982 of the document Mission and Evangelism: An Ecumenical Affirmation. 4 The document included the Orthodox pneumatology and showed the interrelationship between Christololgy and the Holy Spirit, as later explained by the current Catholicos of Cilicia, Aram I: The Triune God is the source of life. The Holy Spirit is the giver of life, the life-giving presence of the Triune God. Like breath, the Holy Spirit inspires and empowers life in human beings and in the whole creation. Without the presence of the Spirit all things in creation die and return to dust (Psalm 104:29). The Holy Spirit is not only the generator of life, but the one who sustains it. 5 The clarification that God is Trinity and the risen Christ is active in the Spirit as manifested through the Pentecost emphasized the cosmic nature of salvation and opened a new way of reflecting on creation, reconciliation, and healing. It deepened ecumenical discussion on the church s commitment to social, political, and ethical 2 The Middle East regional office of the World Student Christian Federation. 3 Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, 1996). 4 Mission and Evangelism: An Ecumenical Affirmation (Geneva: WCC, 1982). Approved by the central committee of the WCC. 5 Archbishop Aram Keshishian, Orthodox Perspectives in Mission (Oxford: Regnum Books, 1992), 56 57. 92 Copyright (2015) World Council of Churches
Teny Pirri-Simonian Go forth... issues, and opened the way for a renewed reflection on the participation of women in church and society. This was the sending of God that I, as a Christian from the Middle East, was committed to. By 1986, we had fled from Lebanon because of the civil war and I joined the WCC, as staff member of the Sub Unit on Education (1989 1998). My work with the churches included helping Orthodox churches in former socialist and communist countries set up their Christian religious education curricula; organizing seminars for Orthodox women at the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, on feminine images and Orthodox spirituality 6 ; coordinating the programme on Christian religious education in pluralist societies, a five-continent programme with emphasis on women; and cooperating with the women s programme on the Ecumenical Decade Churches Solidarity with Women (1989 1998). In the middle of the 1990s, my former WCC colleague Reinhild Traitler, programme director at the Boldern Evangelical Study Centre in Mannedorf Zurich, and I co-founded the European Project for Interreligious Learning (EPIL). The curriculum was a response to the growing gap between Christianity and Islam in Europe, the war in the Balkans, and the situation in the Middle East. Its purpose was to demonstrate women s experiences of living together as it might contribute to the building of a culture of peace. We discussed the project with former WCC colleagues, 7 and they encouraged us to test our curriculum as a pilot project. We then went ahead and registered the project as an association under Swiss law. EPIL: Building the power of women EPIL is a five-moduled roaming college, a travel-study project, which emphasizes identity and respect for difference. Each module runs for one week within a space of six months. The five modules introduce the learner to five different themes linked to the cities where the issues are inherent in the themes and their consequences have been affecting people s ability to live together, both negatively and positively. The purpose of the exposure is to discuss the root causes of the problems and identify examples of good practice as potentials for building a culture of peace. 6 Teny Pirri-Simonian, Feminine Images and Orthodox Spirituality, Ecumenical Review 60:1 2 (2008). 7 Rev. Dr Ulrich Becker, former director of education at the WCC, and Rev. Dr Wesley Ariarajah and Dr John Taylor, former directors of inter-religious relations at the WCC. Copyright (2015) World Council of Churches 93
International Review of Mission Volume 104 Number 1 April 2015 Through their travel, the students build interpersonal relations, become sensitive to changing contexts, build awareness of issues, learn to understand situations, reflect, and discuss strategies for action. During EPIL travels, by living one another s fears and dreams, by living together, and by sharing, the women discover one another, develop partnerships, and learn to build a community and bond. In this travel, the women are hosts in their city-modules and guests in the others. The course is open to Christian and Muslim women irrespective of their confession and community; it is also open to women of no religion. Women of all ages and educational backgrounds may participate, provided that they are committed to building a culture of peace and come from a module country. In rare cases, we accepted women outside the module country. The accessibility of EPIL to all women acknowledges the potential gift of all women to build community and contribute to the birthing of a culture of peace. We invited five Christians and five Muslims from the city modules to accompany the students as a Christian-Muslim academic team. While writing the curriculum we were aware of the power of language and its role in building or destroying communities. We were also sensitive to the possible hegemony of one language over the other. Because we had no English mother-tongue cities, we chose English as the course language in order to put all participants on an equal footing. However, we quickly recognized that some women were more fluent in English than others, and that most women were struggling with the language. We also realized that meanings were changing in translation and these changes were affecting interpretation. Therefore, we had to take time to discuss, arbitrate, and clarify until we reached consensus. The EPIL learning process emphasizes peer learning. During the modules and following presentations, exposure visits, and other collective activities, the women discuss their experience together in groups that changed throughout the exercise: city groups, separate religious groups, and arbitrarily mixed groups. In this way, the students hear different perspectives on the same issues depending on the context. It is also a way of giving each woman the opportunity to express herself freely or take leadership in contexts in which she felt strong and safe. EPIL learning is not limited to the modules only. Important experiences happen in Learning Groups held between modules, when students meet with their two academic team members. During these meetings the group discusses issues that have 94 Copyright (2015) World Council of Churches
Teny Pirri-Simonian Go forth... carried over from the previous module and prepare the next module. In these learning groups, the women organize activities and join advocacy events. EPIL training began in Zurich with the topic Difference and the Search for Identity: Confronting Different Religious, Cultural and Social Traditions. Students tend to be uncertain and timid as they meet for the first time and are introduced to the course and the process. They are introduced to the Swiss model of interfaith living through presentations and visits. The highlights of the module are a presentation on the basics of my faith followed by small same-faith group discussion of the theme. They are introduced to morning meditations as the essential daily practice every day in every module. They are introduced to reading and reflecting on the same story from the Bible and the Qur an. Through exercises, they learn rules of dialogue, changing perspective, and identifying their own prejudices, and they receive sensitivity training to express empathy. The module ends with a Banquet Republicain, where students share their religious and cultural traditions, art, music, and food traditions with the others. This introductory module also teaches women skills for managing conflicts and misunderstandings, facing prejudices and expressing empathy. No longer timid by the end of the module, the students plan for the next modules and promise to remain in contact. The theme of the second module, Historic Memories and Present-day Realities, held in Vienna, is a journey into the past and a return to the present. Students learn about the 1683 Ottoman Empire and its siege of Vienna and they view the negative depiction of the Ottomans in art and sculpture; they also learn the positive examples of enculturation, for example, in their visits to mixed neighbourhoods and schools. At the Vienna General Hospital, they are introduced to a programme in which women who have had stillborn babies are accompanied in their grief and bereavement by pastors, priests and imams. The students attend presentations on food in Christianity and Islam: preparing, eating and hospitality. After this presentation, students go to shop at the local interethnic market, after which they cook and share their traditional meals. Module Three, Conflict and the Potential for Pluralism Analysing the Use and Misuse of Religion, is held in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The journey begins in Sarajevo, where EPIL students are exposed to the early history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the fragmentation of former Yugoslavia, and the genocide. They hear about the history of Christianity and Islam and the testimonies of women rape victims. They learn about rape as weapon of war and discover the resilience of women and their contribution to building a culture of peace. The Muslim and Orthodox Bosnian students walk EPIL women through the city and take them to the mosque and the church, which face each Copyright (2015) World Council of Churches 95
International Review of Mission Volume 104 Number 1 April 2015 other from opposite sides of the road. The group travels to Srebrenica and Potocari and pay tribute to the victims of the genocide; they meet the mothers of Srebrenica, some of whom are still waiting for the result of the DNA tests so that they may bury the remnants of their beloved ones according to their religion and become entitled to social assistance. Module IV, Why Migration is not Migration The Challenge of Migrant Communities, was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Cologne, Germany. This module tells the story of post-colonial migration of Muslims to the Netherlands and the migration to these countries from southern Europe and the Middle East during the post World War II reconstruction of Europe. The women discuss how the issues of assimilation, integration and the new we were experienced in Amsterdam and Cologne. They attend workshops on the following themes: communicating through body language and prayer gestures; diversity in hermeneutic approach; hospitality in Muslim and Christian texts; and expressing Christian and Muslim themes through art. Some of the topics help women to reconfirm their convictions in going forward together. Hermeneutics remains an unresolved issue because of different approaches to reading and understanding the Bible and the Qur an. Protestants use the historical contextual approach, while Orthodox read the Bible in terms of their ecclesiology. In Islam, the dominant view is that the Qur an is the divine word of God and does not need interpretation. Module IV helps women see religious education from both Christian and Islamic perspectives. Module V, Reconciliation : Committed to Staying Together One People, Multiple Confessions, is held in Beirut. In this module, EPIL women discover that Christians and Muslims both belong to the region, and that every religious community is officially recognized as the part of the political structure and the social fabric. Arabic is the prayer language of Arab Christians and Muslims alike, and Christians and Muslims read the Bible and the Qur an. Catholic and Protestant missionaries who arrived in the 19th century and their converts are the indigenous minorities identified as Evangelicals. They learn about the complex reasons that led to the civil war; they hear stories of the war and the courageous actions of Christian and Muslim women who helped one another. Finally, EPIL women understand why Eastern Christian and Muslim women hold similar positions on certain issues during the course and how history, language, and culture has united them. EPIL: A message and a commission EPIL modules helped women to meet new neighbours, state their identity, learn to value and respect difference, and discover prejudices. They learned that religious differences 96 Copyright (2015) World Council of Churches
Teny Pirri-Simonian Go forth... are not in the intrinsic teaching and values of their faith, but often in their application and interpretation. They discovered the constructive, destructive, and healing role of language. They visited historical memories and learned how power relations manipulate and distort memories. They dialogued, healed barriers, and reconciled. They found creative ways to supplicate together in prayer and meditation while remaining rooted in their respective faiths. During the five modules, EPIL women built a community through networking, solidarity and advocacy, and they gained empowering elements of religion and their being as women created by a God of justice and peace. At the end of the course, women submitted diploma work. This was an assessment of their journey and their commitment to living a culture of peace in their personal and professional lives by accepting, respecting, and journeying with those who started as the other including me! Copyright (2015) World Council of Churches 97