Religious pathways in Europe – youth exchange in August 2015

The youth exchange called „Religious pathways of Europe” was being fulfilled within the action of the first Erasmus+ program. 33 participants and

4 leaders coming from 3 organizations from Poland, United Kingdom and Italy took part in the exchange. They were people, who are characterized

by openness, creativeness and who have experience in religious life. The project was prepared for the young Europeans who feel increasingly

stronger need to participate in the international dialogue. We have observed that in Europe nowadays, the distance between people of different

religions, believes and citizenships is growing. The project was the answer for those people’s needs. The purposes of the project were developing

and assisting in establishing an international and interreligious dialogue, European integration, making new acquaintances and getting introduced

to and discovering the beauty of other cultures and religions, propagating the idea of international dialogue which is based on respect of the other

person or other nation. Equally important for us was deepening our own identity as well as finding and demolishing the common tough untrue

stereotypes that we have connected to both Jewish and Muslim religion. The work was organized in a form of workshops, during which we were

covering various aspects of the figure of Abraham (as he is the one who joins all three monotheistic religions) but also the whole Jewish culture.

The following workshops were touching on fundamental values, that are common for whole humanity: freedom, dignity of human life, friendship,

dialogue. The methods which we were using during the workshops were varied, as we believe in the creativeness of the participants and we

wanted them to show their full potential. The methods were role playing, working with multimedia materials, talks in smaller groups, brainstorming

ideas, field games. The important parts of the project were the visit to the synagogue and the discussion with the representative of the Jewish

religion. In the long term effect, the young people who participated in the project are accustomed to the international and intercultural dialogue

which will contribute to spreading the peace among the local communities as well as in the whole Europe. During the project the distance that

exists between Christians, Jews and Muslims became broken and this increases the participants’ openness and their will of building the future

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