The International Council of Christians and Jews is broadening its focus to include Muslims
By Dave
On my way back from the Jewish Christian Muslim Association’s annual conference, I received an email from Rev Dick Pruiksma, the General Secretary of the International Council of Christians and Jews. This email was sent out all of the the ICCJ’s constituent organisations, including the Wellington Council of Christians and Jews, of which I am the secretary.
The letter states that at the 2007 Annual General Meeting in Sydney, the ICCJ’s constitution was altered with a new statement of purpose of the organisation:
a) To support and promote the endeavours of its national member organisations in the international field and to contribute to solve problems in interfaith, interracial and international relations, taking into account the religious and moral principles that form the basis of the Jewish and Christian traditions.
b) to undertake and promote activities in the field of Christian-Jewish as well as Christian-Jewish-Muslim cooperation that combat anti-Semitism, racism, discrimination, aggressive nationalism, theological and other prejudices, and their consequences
c) To foster religious liberty
Rev Pruiksma’s letter includes a questionnaire on the relevance of trilateral dialogue to member organisations, any existing initiatives being taken by member organisations, and how ICCJ can help enable trilateral dialogue.
This is a very exciting development. I’ve often wondered why we have both a Council of Christians and Jews, a Council of Christians and Muslims, and no Council of Muslims and Jews. In the past it has seemed like a missed opportunity, duplicated effort, and Yet Another Set Of Meetings. There are ad-hoc trilateral discussions happening in a number of places, and it would be good to get some academic oomph behind them as well as respectability at the top levels of the constituent religions.
There trilateral approach is not without risk though.
One nice thing about bilateral dialogue is that there is no chance of a two-on-one beat-up at an organisational level. If one party ever feels marginalised in the organisation, then the organisation will collapse.
Another risk is loss of focus. There are plenty of unresolved issues between each of the religions that need to be worked through bilaterally, in which the presence of a third party could be distinctly unhelpful. I would hope that the organisation would make room for these discussions to continue, as well as open up a space for direct Jewish-Muslim discussions.
A third risk is the baggage carried by the old organisation. Can the existing Christian and Jewish members of the various CCJ organisations really deal with Muslims with the same openness as they’ve dealt with each other? It’s going to be a very big ask for some people, and unless all three view each other with a sense of absolute equality, it will be difficult to make real progress.
It’s a bold move, and not before time. Sure, there are risks, but we should be looking at ways of mitigating and managing the risks, rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Good work, ICCJ!
Add comment May 30th, 2008