13.02.2024

JCM Europe: Home between Harmony and Hospitality

From left to right: Reverend Monika Doering (JCM Team member, Christianity), Matan Rubenstein (speaker of the Jewish lecture), Karima Paustian (JCM Team member, Islam)

Taniya Hussain giving the sermon at the Friday Prayer. The weekly celebrations of all three faiths are part of the conference. Everyone is welcome to participate or observe.

Also an important part of the Friday Prayer: the group photo afterwards.

With the "Havdalah" ritual, Shabbat is ended on Saturday evening, as the new week begins.

"Peace" in Hebrew and Arabic. Especially in times of conflict, the conference provides a common space to reassure people: You are not alone in your longing for peace. All images by: Katarzyna Kowalska NDS

What does Home mean in our religions?

The 51st International Conference on Dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims (JCM) brings together people from different religions in Rwanda, Germany and the Philippines. The theme of the conference is the question: What is home? Each of the three local conferences will take place independently on site, but certain lectures and films are broadcast internationally. The heart of the conference are the "discussion groups". Here, the conference participants talk about what they have always wanted to ask each other but perhaps never dared to ask. Everything that is said in these groups is confidential.

Prof Issa Ziddy answers the conference question as follows: "In Islam, home is both a physical place and a spiritual and emotional space to find peace, security and happiness." He teaches Islamic religious education at the State University of Zanzibar.

For Matan Rubenstein, a humanist, zionist Jew from Israel, it means domestic harmony on the inside and hospitality on the outside. Whether it refers to individuals, family relationships or entire nations: For him, the meaning of home lies between these two aspects. Repairing this home, this world, is part of his duty as a Jew, he says. That is why he is committed to justice and reconciliation between Israel and Palestine.

Norita Sembiring, Head of the Education Department at the United Evangelical Mission, describes home in transition: natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions cause humans to lose their local homes. After relocating to areas away from volcanic activity, they find home more in processes than in places. Home becomes a pilgrimage in which the community carries the individual, says the pastor from Indonesia.

With a total of 100 participants from all three continents, this year's conference is somewhat smaller than in previous years. UEM supports the conference for many years already: financially, with Human Ressources and by providing its international networks in Asia, Africa and Europe. Interreligious Dialogue is partof the mission and identity of UEM.

The next conference is planned for 16 to 22 June 2025.