A five-day conference to promote inter-religious dialogue between Christians and Muslims is set to begin on Wednesday in Zamboanga City, on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. Entitled "Christian and Islamic Spiritualities: A Dialogue in the Face of Today’s World Longing for Peace", the conference is organised by the Silsilah Dialogue Movement, a movement for inter-religious dialogue founded by the Sicilian Jesuit priest, Father Sebastiano D’Ambra. The Islamic Institute of the University of the Philipines and the Institute of Spirituality of Asia based in Quezon City will be participating in the event.
In a statement to Adnkronos International (AKI) Padre D’Ambra said that "through discussions to be led by the prominent Muslim and Christian scholars who are experts in their own field of assignment, participants [at the conference] will learn from both spiritualities and gain some lessons and inspirations from the mystics of both religions in our longing for peace."
One of the topics to be discussed is: "The relations between Muslims and Christians: Present and Past in the Filipino context". Muslims make up just 5 percent of the 88 million people in the Philippines who are mostly Catholic. The Philippines, and the southern island of Mindanao in particular, has seen a pro-Islamic independence struggle that has lasted several decades.
Some of the other topics up for discussion at the event are: Initiatives of Dialogue and Peace; Spirituality of Christianity and of Islam; Prominent Figures of Christian and Muslim Mysticism; Prominent Historical Christian Personalities Who Encountered Islam and Prominent Personalities Who Encountered Christianity; and Challenges for the Believers of Our Time: A Christian and Muslim Perspective.
The conference is also expected to include open spaces for dialogue, various group discussions and a plenary session at the end to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of Bishop Bienvenido S. Tudtud, considered to be one of the forerunners of inter-religious dialogue in the Philippines.
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