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In the Phillipines, URI's Peacemakers' Circle participated in a conference directed at building dialogue and interfaith work among youth. With the guidance of this circle, youths from very diverse faiths came together with open minds to build relationships and engage in dialogue.
The Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in the Philippines played host to the C.I.A.O. (Conference Interispettoriale Asia Orientale/Inter-Provincial Conference of East Asia) first Asian Youth Camp. Over 400 youths, representing 14 countries from East Asia, participated in the event on August 10 to 14, 2007. The SYM organized various simultaneous activities for the delegates, including the Dialogue for Building Relationship Workshop and the Interfaith Youth Encounter conducted by The Peacemakers’ Circle CC and the Y4U (Youth for Unity) Interfaith Youth Circle.
On the second day of the camp, The Peacemakers’ Circle conducted a half-day workshop on Dialogue for Relationship Building for 60 participants (among the 400 delegates), held at the Don Bosco College Campus in Canlubang, Laguna. In line with the overall theme of the camp, the workshop, “Life: A Treasure Received, to be Given to the Full,” engaged the participants in experiential activities and exercises to help them deepen their basic understanding of relationship-building and conflict management through dialogue and heart listening.
On Sunday, August 12, 2007,the same batch of participants were engaged in the Y4U Interfaith Youth Encounter held at the Mornese Center of Spirituality in Pansol, Laguna. This was facilitated by core members of the Y4U Interfaith Youth Circle under the guidance of The Peacemakers’ Circle. The whole-day event gathered together youth representatives and adult speakers from the Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh, Baha’i and Wiccan faiths who gave presentations on the basic teachings of their respective traditions. The participants were engaged in an encounter with the different faith traditions through the experience of interfaith prayers, mini-exhibits, videos, forum and interaction with the faith representatives.
Click on the following link to view a blog of one of the youth participants, Sharon Vaswani, who shares her thoughts on the event. http://youth4unity.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
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