WCC NEWS: Online applications open for interreligious summer course at Bossey

Jews, Christians and Muslims up to the age of 35 years are invited to apply for the 2023 Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Interreligious Studies course. Final submission date for applications is 28 February 2023 Interreligious Studies (CAS-IS) Graduation day that took place on Thursday, 21 July 2022 Photo:Gloria Koymans/WCC 16 December 2022 The theme of the 2023 interreligious summer course is “Health and Wholeness of Life in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.”  The theme will address the vital question of the meaning of health and wholeness of life today. The course invites students to delve into the theme from the perspective of the three Abrahamic Religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During the course, the students will also engage with secular perspectives on the theme with workshops offered by people from various international organisations in Geneva. As a human being is commonly believed to consist of body, soul and mind, health can mean the physical, mental and/or spiritual well-being. In other words, health can be understood narrowly from the absence of disease broadly to the holistic care of prevention, restoration and maintenance in the multiple dimensions of physical, economic, social, political, environmental, emotional, mental, and spiritual life. In the Abrahamic faith traditions, health is to be contemplated as the wholeness of life in terms of both the personal life and the communal life. The hallmark of the CAS Interreligious Studies programme is that it comprises an international group of Jews, Christians, and Muslims within the student and teaching bodies. Courses are conducted by professors of the Ecumenical Institute and its academic and interreligious partners. Young people ages 20-35 who are interested and engaged in interreligious dialogue are invited to apply. Applicants may be students, laypersons, or professionals with a suitable level of religious literacy and/or experience in the field of interreligious dialogue and engagement, especially among the three Abrahamic religions. The course encompasses a study period of six weeks, including three weeks of distance learning from 3-23 July 2023 followed by the residential phase from 24 July to 11 August 2023. The residential period includes lectures, workshops, and study visits to places of interreligious interest. The CAS Interreligious Studies is accredited by the University of Geneva under the Swiss Higher Education Programme for Continuing Education (10 ECTS). The prerequisite is a bachelor’s degree (six semesters of university education). A limited number of scholarships are available. Link to the online application: CAS Interreligious Studies WCC’s Ecumenical Institute in Bossey See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC acting general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, from the Orthodox Church in Romania.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland