ICF INTERFAITH COOPERATION FORUM

2 Origins of ICF  Interfaith Cooperation Forum, or ICF, was initiated at a meeting in Parapat, Indonesia, in April  Thirty-seven participants from 14 Asian countries  Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims and others

3 Origins of ICF  Context of the meeting  Pre-existing “religious” conflicts or tensions in Asia Hindus and Muslims and other religious minorities, such as Christians, in India Muslims and Christians in Indonesia Christians and Muslims in the Philippines  About 1 1/2 years after 9/11 tragedy in the United States and “war on terror” reaction

4 Origins of ICF  Conclusions of meeting  “Religious” conflicts are usually not about religion. Tensions, differences, violence and fear are manipulated by political or religious leaders for their own agenda to create divisions between different religious communities.  Asia’s major faiths share common values that can unite them.  Asia’s major faiths should thus cooperate to resolve the region’s issues of conflict, poverty and human rights violations.

5 Origins of ICF  Supporting organizations  Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs (APAY) in Hong Kong  Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) in Chiang Mai, Thailand  Major donor  Church Development Service, or Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (EED), in Germany

Aim Support an Asian movement for justpeace and transformation that: - is inter-religious in nature; - is regional in scope; - focuses on marginalized communities (the least of these); - confronts the roots of violence; -promotes justice in the economic, political and social spheres; -Emphasizes building up youth to be the vanguard of the interfaith justpeace movement -Avoids focusing on established models of peacemaking and conflict transformation, and rather encourages building new indigenous models based on local wisdom, history, culture and traditions.

7 Objectives  Interfaith networking  Develop a regional network of young people (20 to 30 years old) from different faith backgrounds who are working for organizations at the grassroots level to address issues largely related to poverty, human rights and conflict transformation  Includes Asia’s major faiths—Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam—and the spirituality of indigenous people

8 Objectives  Interfaith networking (continued)  Present network consists of 68 young people from 12 Asian countries  Primary countries (five or more alumni) Burma Cambodia Indonesia Nepal Philippines Thailand

9 Objectives  Interfaith networking (continued)  Secondary countries or territories (less than five alumni) Bangladesh Hong Kong India Laos Sri Lanka Vietnam

10 ICF Staff Members  Max Ediger  Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) missionary from the United States  Hanoi, Vietnam  Paddy Noble  Maori Christian activist from Aotearoa/New Zealand  Phnom Penh, Cambodia  Bruce Van Voorhis  Missionary from the United States supported by the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)  APAY office in Hong Kong

11 ICF Advisory Body  Six-member ICF working committee meets annually to review the work of the past year and to discuss programs for the upcoming year.  Ms. Elizarni, Muslim from Aceh, Indonesia  Mr. Favor Bancin, Christian from Indonesia (Now replaced by Mr. Ebenezer Dharshan from Sri Lanka)  Ms. Halima Abdullah, Muslim from Mindanao, Philippines  Mr. Keo Vichith, Buddhist from Cambodia,  Mr. Saw Mort, Christian/Indigenous from Burma,  Mr. Shree Ram, Hindu from Nepal

12 Past ICF Workshops  Living Our Faiths in Community: Towards Gender Justice and Genuine Partnership of Women and Men held in May 2004 in Thailand  Living Our Faiths in Community: Young People as Peacemakers and Culture Bearers in September 2004 in India  Justpeace Education for Children and Youth in November 2005 in India  Indigenous Spirituality – once in Medan, Indonesia 2007 and again in Kathmandu, Nepal 2008  Tsunami Spiritual Retreat, Malaysia 2005

13 ICF Activities  School of Peace (SOP) at the Visthar training center in Bangalore, India  Held for 14 weeks from February to mid-May in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010  Three modules (one month each) Self, the Other and Community Conflict, Violence and War Transformation—Moving toward Communities of Justpeace  Field visits (one week each month)

14 ICF Activities  School of Peace (continued)  Other sessions Forum Theater/Theater of the Oppressed Understanding the Divine Gender and self Violence against women Global economic issues Community Organizing And many others  Festival of Justpeace  A celebration of people’s struggle for justpeace  About 1,500 to 2,000 people attended the festival in 2010

15 ICF Special Workshops in 2009 For strengthening SOP alumni and expanding the network 1.Drama workshop on Playback Theater and Theater of the Oppressed in April in India 2.Workshop on “Religious Fundamentalism and Reading Our Sacred Texts” in July in Indonesia 3.Human rights workshop in August in the Philippines 4.Organic farming workshop in September in Sri Lanka 5.Community organizing workshop in October in Nepal 6. Journalism for advocacy workshop in November in Thailand

16 Other ICF Activities  National SOPs organized by SOP alumni  Indonesia  Nepal  Philippines  Cambodia  Thailand  Festival of Justpeace on the Thai-Burma border organized by SOP alumni from Burma living in Thailand

17 Other ICF Activities  Internships  Up to four internships per year  Duration of one to three months  A working visit, not an exposure program  Interfaith and intraregional Christian from Nepal working with Muslim organization in Mindanao in the Philippines Christian from Sri Lanka working with Buddhist and Muslim organizations in Thailand Muslim from the Philippines working with Muslim organization in Aceh in Indonesia

18 Other ICF Activities  Internships (continued) Hindu from Nepal working with Muslim organization in the Philippines Muslim from southern Thailand working with Buddhist organizations in Bangkok and northern Thailand  Both the intern and the receiving organization should be part of the ICF network.  The internship should benefit the work of both parties.

19 Other ICF Activities  Mentoring program  ICF staff members maintain relationships with SOP alumni in specific countries.  Help SOP alumni effectively use the knowledge and skills they have attained in their local context  Assist SOP alumni find additional learning experiences through NGO training programs and academic institutions  Support SOP alumni in building a local and national interfaith network for justpeace

20 Other ICF Activities  ICF web site: cp/index.htmlhttp://daga cp/index.html  Information about ICF and SOP  Interfaith resources  E-newsletter faith and peace  Links to other related web sites

21 Other ICF Activities  E-newsletter faith and peace:  Articles and reflections by SOP alumni  Articles by academics, journalists and NGOs about faith, current issues and justpeace  Information about ICF activities and programs

22 Other ICF Activities  Blog for SOP 2010: SOP2010.WORDPRESS.COM 2010.wordpress. com/ 2010.wordpress. com/  Information about SOP  Reflective essays of participants  Photos and video and audio clips  List of SOP alumni from 2006 to 2008, noting their faith and nationality

23 Other ICF Activities  Advocacy  Statements, press releases and petitions  Press conferences  Fact-finding missions  Exchange of religious scholars  ICF national coordinators  Nepal, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia

BOOK PUBLICATION TitleOUR STORIES, OUR CHALLENGES The Search for a JustPeace in Asia Today Publisher s Joint effort of ICF and CJPA Chapters1.In Conflict 2.After Conflict 3.A Vision for JustPeace PagesApproximately 240 Due date2010

25 Future Plans  Three-week SOP in Sri Lanka beginning in October 2010 for members of the APAY, CCA and ICF networks – focus on South Asia  One-year internships for youth from Europe and North America with organizations of the ICF network  Indigenous spirituality writing workshop  Workshops on “Justpeace Education for Children and Youth”  Sub-regional SOP meetings for strategizing and action

26 Future Plans  Possible initiatives by SOP alumni  Community organizing SOP in Nepal and in Burma  Women’s program in East Java in Indonesia  Grassroots program in Mindanao in the southern Philippines  Festival of Justpeace on the Thai-Burma border that will include SOP alumni from elsewhere in Thailand and the Mekong region of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam  Develop SOP alumni as resource persons in important fields:  Community Organizing  Human Rights  Gender  Interfaith Dialogue  Drama for Justpeace  Journalism  Advocacy  Etc.

27 SOP PROGRAM Creating a circle of interfaith light as part of the opening ceremony.

28 In the classroom, participants present country reports and engage in sessions on understanding the divine, gender and self, violence against women, global economic issues, etc.

29 Sessions are also devoted to learning skills that can be used to raise people’s awareness of very important issues. Skills include making awareness-raising posters, drama, structural analysis, photography, dialogue, deep listening, etc.

30 Through field visits, the SOP participants learn about the lives and issues of grassroots people in India and how to relate these learnings to their own situation.

31 During the field visits, it’s important to listen to the voices of...

32... workers who work too hard for too little pay, women’s self- help groups, organic farmers, and to...

33... children of the poor...

34... as well as children at risk of being force into temple prostitution, abused women, and tribals facing discrimination.

35 Field visits provide an opportunity to visit places of worship.

36 There is also time to stop and pray...

37... and to experience and enjoy other spiritual forms of renewal.

38 Creating light is part of the closing ceremony too.

39 THE INTERFAITH JUSTPEACE NETWORK GROWS

ICF THANK YOU

SCHOOL OF PEACE February 1 – May Participants 3.10 Women 9 Men 1.4 Christians 2.6 Buddhists 3.9 Muslims

FESTIVAL OF JUSTPEACE

20O6 – 2010 SOP STATISTICS 12 countries 68 participants 33 women 34 men Faith 15 Buddhists 20 Christians 07 Hindus 02 Indigenous 24 Muslims

12 countries and 68 participants 01 – Bangladesh 09 – Burma 08 – Cambodia 01 – Hong Kong 10 – Indonesia 03 – India 02 – Laos 11 – Nepal 07 – Philippines 03 – Sri Lanka 12 – Thailand 01 – Viet Nam

ICF THANK YOU