| Participants: 30 | Religions Represented: 5 | Nations Represented: 2 |
Jakarta, Indonesia— As Friends Project
Duration: September 27 – October 2
The Religious Youth Service (RYS) has been working on a regular basis in Indonesia since 2000, bringing youth representatives together from each religion and from the various regions of this vast nation for the purpose of developing interracial and interreligious dialogue and harmony.
In moving closer to its hope of creating easily duplicated models of interreligious cooperation, the 5th RYS drew participants together under the theme of “Building a Culture of Peace and Volunteerism.”
The International and Interreligious Federation for World Peace sponsored project drew together in cooperation two especially able partners in the Indonesia Confucian Society and the Lions Club of Indonesia. These organizations helped greatly in providing both human and material resources. Thirty participants worked to help construct a bridge over a river in a low-income area of Jakarta.
While the service work provided a catalyst to draw participants together, it also served as a witness to villagers of the power and potential of interreligious harmony.
To promote the education goals of the project a half day seminar was held entitled, “Living to serve others: A multi-faith perspective”.
Speakers offered the Muslim, Confucian, Christian and Unification perspectives on living a life of service. The common ground shared by the speakers in the seminar and in the additional presentations involving Character Education helped to intellectually stimulate participants on how a wide range of common ground was shared among adherents of each religion. This intellectual understanding was made much deeper through the daily practice of living and working together for a local community.
Co-operating Agencies: MATAKIN, Indonesian Lions Club, Confucius Society
Key Sponsors: IIFWP