The members of our URI MI Philippine Team—Lee Collano, Akmad Wahab, Dr. Abdulhusin “Jo” Kashim and I—collaborated to help ensure the success of the program. Lee helped our Peacemakers’ Circle CC staff make sure that the workshop ran smoothly. Although Akmad could not be part of the facilitating team due to the constraints of his schedule, he was able to participate in the workshop for the most part. Dr. Jo and I served as program designers and facilitators.  

Module I: Introduction to Muslim-Christian Dialogue (April 20-24)

This was attended by thirty (30) Muslim and Christian participants from various sectors. Twenty six of them were from Metro Manila, and six came from Mindanao. Among them were representatives from the academe, the religious sector, the media, the government (with representatives from the Department of Interior and Local Government, National Security Commission, and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process), non-government organizations, people’s organizations, the culture and arts sector, and the police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. There were also youth representatives from the grassroots, and nine women. The Christians were mostly Catholics, but there were also two wonderful Protestants among them. Although this training program was designed for Filipinos, a Swiss Protestant missionary based in the Philippines, and a Muslim woman from Indonesia (doing research in a Jesuit university in Manila) were given the chance to participate due to their engagement in grassroots Muslim-Christian Dialogue work here!

The Moral Imagination* methodologies were integral to the entire training process. Creative expression approaches to the cognitive yielded amazing results! The participants engaged in role playing and drama, some wrote poetry, others drew beautiful pictures that we hung on the wall, they sang and danced, played games, and at the end everyone seemed deeply moved by the experience! Some men shed tears; and during our solidarity evening it was a big surprise to see Muslim men (and imams!) dancing and singing with the rest of us! 

As a prerequisite to Module II this module focused on “seeing” the world and how to be the change that we wished to see. It touched on dialogue as a means to an end and an end in itself; on how to dialogue and listen with the heart, and how to perceive differences among people. It integrated the principles learned from the Moral Imagination Training, and Dr. Jo Kashim, our very able speaker on Islam, presented a talk on "Finding Place for Moral Imagination in the Peace Process in Southern Philippines" which ended the module on a high note.    

Module II: Building Bridges of Muslim-Christian Understanding (April 27-May 1)

The same participants who attended Module I attended this second module. We had highly qualified Resource Persons from the Catholic Church--Archbishop Antonio Ledesma (President of ECID-CBCP), Fr. Carlos Reyes (Executive Secretary of ECID-CBCP), Fr. Leonardo Mercado, and Fr. Andre De Bleeker. Dr. Jo Kashim was the sole Resource Person for the topics on Islam and his presentations were very well received. 

This module focused on the respective histories, teachings, beliefs and practices of the Christian and Islamic faiths. It was an intensive course in five days, but it was heartwarming how well the participants seemed to have appreciated gaining a deeper understanding of Islam vis-à-vis Christianity. In the course of the training, tears were shed once again, and an embrace between Dr. Jo Kashim (our Muslim speaker) and Dr. Ed Domingo (our Catholic Christian participant) brought this module to a healing end.     

As we said our goodbyes an imam (from the Chaplain’s office of the Armed Forces of the Philippines!) asked me for a hug! He had a big smile on his face that was truly disarming, and it was then that I humbly realized how powerful the experience must have been to have such strong bridges of friendships and trust built among us in such a short period of time!

A couple of days later, Pastor Noeh Vios, our amiable Protestant participant (who volunteered to do simultaneous translation for our Indonesian and Swiss participants during the workshops) created an e-group he named "Moral Imagineers." So inspired was he by the principles and teachings of John Paul Lederach’s Moral Imagination, that he suggested we call ourselves moral imagineers and not just moral imaginers! He said that “imagineers” were people who could really make things happen!        

One of our participants, Marlone "Bok" Araneta (from Mindanao), wrote a poem for our Peacemakers' Circle CC entitled, “Doves without Wings.” He read this with flute accompaniment during our solidarity evening last April 30. This poem, he said, was his first in many years and it was inspired by his experiences with us during the training workshop.

* The Moral Imagination is an innovative approach to peacebuilding presented by John Paul Lederach in his book, Moral Imagination, the Art and Soul of Peacebuilding.  It focuses on cultivating our spiritual and creative capacity as a critical tool for effective peacebuilding in situations of conflict.  John Paul is working with URI pilot groups to develop the ability to see ourselves in a web of relationships that includes our enemies, to live in paradoxical curiosity that holds competing experiences of reality, to value creativity, and to take the risk of letting go of the known situation of conflict to step into the unknown of peace.