The General Council of the Order has approved the Working Group and Liaison Persons for Inter-Religious Dialogue in the Order.
After the conference on dialogue at Indonesia last August, the Working Group was set up to promote inter-religious dialogue in the Order. To assist the Working Group, liaison persons were chosen from each region. In addition to the Journes Romaines Dominicaines (JRD) conference which is held every four years, this group will take the promotion of inter-religious dialogue in the Dominican family a step further.
The members of the group are:
Sr Marie Therese Clement, OP Coordinator of the Dominican Sisters International.
fr Martin Ganeri, OP Province of England
fr Darren Dias, OP Province of Canada
fr Jean Druel, OP Province of France
fr Robini Marianto, OP Province of Philippines
fr Prakash Lohale, OP Province of India
fr Michael Mascari, OP Socius of the Master for Studies
The liaison persons are:
fr James Channan, OP Province of Pakistan for Asia-Pacific
fr Srecko Koralija OP Province of Croatia for Europe
fr Gustave Ineza OP – Vicariate of Rwanda-Burundi for Africa and
fr Scott Steinkerchner OP Province of St Albert the Great, USA for North America.
The convenor of the group will be the Socius for Apostolic Life. He will ensure regular correspondence and communication and will convene meetings of the working and liaison groups whenever needed.
The objectives of the Working Group will be to organize the once in four years IRD meeting (formerly called JRD). It will also encourage regional conferences, symposiums and meetings with the assistance of the liaison persons. The Liaison persons will assist the Working Group by providing contact persons for each region, by disseminating information and by organizing regional meetings.
Other tasks of the Working Group are
to encourage and support regional meetings and foster on-going projects of its members
to be responsible for the e-journal, a web-based forum on inter-religious dialogue produced by the members of the Order
to continue to promote dialogue with the Muslim religion and academic studies about Islam and Muslim cultures in the world in collaboration with other institutions as far as possible
to encourage and propose concrete ways to ensure that there will be on-going dialogue and study of other religions like Buddhism and Hinduism
to encourage discussion and study of the traditional religions in Africa
to give a report to the Master of the Order once a year
fr Bonaventure Agbali, OP
(02 October 2014)