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August 31st, 2001
During the meeting of the Inter-religious College of the Alliance, more than 50 people met at the Oecumenical institute of Bossey, in the surroundings of Geneva, from August 20 to 25. They stressed a central issue : "The responsibilities of religious families towards Humanity".

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The meeting of the Inter-religious College of the Alliance
by Henri Bauer

One enriching aspect was due to the diversity of participants. First, confessional plurality. They belonged to different religious families: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Sikh, Baha'i, traditional Religions, Zoroastriens. Then, to a diversity of situations : they came from very different countries, as India, Costa Rica, China, Italy, Indonesia, Brazil, Switzerland, Algeria, Russia, etc. As well as to the diversity of milieux, of experiences, etc.

The meeting didn't take place according to the classic linear method, following which there are some proposed topics of discussions, a discussion focused on pre-established topics and a final approval of texts. It took place creatively. The interventions of Pierre Calame brought a lot of opening to the meeting giving new perspectives. Several processes took place during the meeting, making it evolve day after day towards interesting results. Two among them must be underlined:

A process on the content of the meeting. The organizers had proposed 3 themes of reflection: cross-culturalism, internationalisation and peace. Thanks to the conferences of the morning, to the groups' work, to the plenary in the afternoon and testimonies in the evening, other important questions emerged. The three proposed themes served, in fact, as entrance doors to tackle other questions that, from the concrete situations of participants, proved to be essentials : the biosphere and the environment, challenges of global governance, bioethics issues, phenomena of domination or war where the religion is used as a justification to mobilize people, etc. The exercise of the CARTOGRAPHY of the alliance proved to be an efficient tool to open the reflection to the complexity and the interaction of challenges of tomorrow's world. From a thematic approach as a "list of problems", the meeting passed to a complex approach emphasizing interactions between problems, actors, proposals, etc.

A process on the method of the meeting. From a theoretical approach of questions, by which participants were going to think about precise themes, the meeting passed to a strategic approach where participants, discovering themselves committed to the future of the humanity, stood in terms of action. The primary question was expressed according to the formula
"Why do these problems exist ?", at the middle of the meeting the question had taken the formula of "How do we answer to these challenges ?". For most participants the issue was not exclusively about defining problems of humanity and giving them an explanation. It was about looking for the possible ways to answer them. The theoretical understanding path gave place to the ethics of the responsibility.

These two processes had the consequence that participants didn't adopt a thematic process and didn't place themselves in a position of autonomy. On the one hand, establishing that this are not the only theories but actions that have transforming capacities, they put the necessity of an active engagement of their part forward. On the other hand, noting the links and the complex interactions of the challenges for the future of humanity, they emphasize necessity to commit together, in a perspective of alliance with believers of all religious families as well as with non-believers, for the construction of a responsible, plural and united world.

As we shared a delicious raclette at the end of the meeting, two sentences came back often: "To be religious is to be inter-religious ". "To be religious it to be responsible ".