JCM In Dialogue 2025
Peace in times of Conflict
The Abrahamic interfaith dialogue has been damaged and threatened by the violent attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the - at the time this is being written - ongoing war in Gaza. Of course for most Jews, Christians and Muslims whatever happens in the Holy Land has a special significance and is a challenge to their religious self-conception and ability to move forward. No matter what you call it and where it takes place, violent conflict between or within nations, peoples and religious groups is a challenge for religious communities that believe in God and God's presence and guidance in this world. How can we remain faithful to our religious commitments and obligations to promote respect, love and compassion, to bear witness to a God who cares for all of us and creation?
Both secular and religious groups in conflicts in many parts of the world have - sometimes with little notice paid by the rest of the world - witnessed and worked for peace and reconciliation. What can we learn from those initiatives and the search for peace and justice in other conflicts? (Small) groups of people have come together across religious divides and are looking for ways forward together. What are their motivations? What methods and principles have they developed? What can we absorb into our dialogue efforts?
JCM 2025 tried to evaluate the experience of people who live and have lived in and through violent conflicts and address the challenges that war and violence pose to the dialogue table.
Both secular and religious groups in conflicts in many parts of the world have - sometimes with little notice paid by the rest of the world - witnessed and worked for peace and reconciliation. What can we learn from those initiatives and the search for peace and justice in other conflicts? (Small) groups of people have come together across religious divides and are looking for ways forward together. What are their motivations? What methods and principles have they developed? What can we absorb into our dialogue efforts?
JCM 2025 tried to evaluate the experience of people who live and have lived in and through violent conflicts and address the challenges that war and violence pose to the dialogue table.
JCM In Dialogue 2024
What is home?
According to the UN, more people are currently refugees than ever before. Natural disasters such as drought, floods, fires and volcanic eruptions are some of the reasons that force people to leave their homes. But there are also human causes, such as wars, conflicts, persecution for political, religious or cultural reasons. This always involves a great element of injustice, discrimination and contempt for humanity play a major role. If you look at their history, the three Abrahamic religions have always been confronted with persecution and eviction. And even today, religious minorities are confronted with the pressure to leave their homeland.
JCM 2024 begun by exploring from an interreligious, intercultural perspective the question what home means before trying to give some answers from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions to the loss of home. Through the encounter with our neighbours, how can we work together to ensure that everyone can find a home where they can live in peace and freedom?
JCM 2024 begun by exploring from an interreligious, intercultural perspective the question what home means before trying to give some answers from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions to the loss of home. Through the encounter with our neighbours, how can we work together to ensure that everyone can find a home where they can live in peace and freedom?
JCM In Dialogue 2023
50 years of JCM: Have we failed God? Interreligious dialogue as a Response to a Broken World
In the 1960’s, in the shadow of the Holocaust, Rabbi Lionel Blue and Pastor Winfried Maechler met and decided to establish a Jewish-Christian collaboration in an attempt to facilitate reconciliation between students and future leaders of both communities in Germany and England. This took the form of an annual conference in Germany. Soon after it was decided to broaden the scope of the conference to include the three monotheistic religions. With the first Muslim group joining in 1972, JCM conference was born.
As JCM 2023 looked back at 50 years of encounter and dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims, the participants reflected on being painfully confronted with growing populisms, totalitarianism, human rights abuses, war crimes, abuse of the natural world and the use of religion to justify the unjustifiable. Together, conference participants asked themselves what have they done as religious people in dialogue, what could they have done, and what should they do now and in the future to heal our broken world.
As JCM 2023 looked back at 50 years of encounter and dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims, the participants reflected on being painfully confronted with growing populisms, totalitarianism, human rights abuses, war crimes, abuse of the natural world and the use of religion to justify the unjustifiable. Together, conference participants asked themselves what have they done as religious people in dialogue, what could they have done, and what should they do now and in the future to heal our broken world.
JCM In Dialogue 2022
Stewards of the Earth - Religious Responses to Climate Change and its Consequences
We live in a time when the destructive effects on nature are becoming ever more severe: polluted water, melting glaciers, oceans polluted with plastics, coral reefs bleached by over-acidic seas. Agricultural land is degrading gradually due to non-sustainable use, unhealthy eating habits, exploitative mining for resources, deforestation, desertification and erosion. Worldwide carbon emissions continue to increase, leading to an accumulation of greenhouse emissions in the atmosphere and effects on the climate. Numerous scientists and researchers warn that we could be the last generation able to reverse the trend. If we miss our opportunity, we will reach a point of no return. As people of faith, we believe that humans have been given the task to be stewards of the earth.
The 49th Jewish-Christian-Muslim conference addressed the question how individuals of the three faiths are inspired by their religious traditions to advocate for climate justice and the protection of creation and thus allow for the sustainable use of the riches and resources of the Earth.
The 49th Jewish-Christian-Muslim conference addressed the question how individuals of the three faiths are inspired by their religious traditions to advocate for climate justice and the protection of creation and thus allow for the sustainable use of the riches and resources of the Earth.
JCM In Dialogue 2021
How does the time of isolation change our ideas about religious community?
The pandemic, regardless of whether one counts it as the most relevant crisis of the time or criticises the measures taken to fight it as exaggerated, is having an impact on our everyday life everywhere. In the last months the isolation has led to a changed sense of time, to new types of social contacts and especially for people of faith, to a rethinking in areas of worship, spiritual welfare and coping with contingency. The pandemic is now testing the foundation of every Abrahamic religion, the community. Times of crisis have always reinforced search for meaning. Will the problem of isolation lead in the long term to a reversal of individualisation and will the sense of community regain a higher status in society?
How do our faith institutions respond to feelings of loneliness and alienation? Can faith and religiosity in psychological terms relieve the burden at all, and if so, how? Streaming events by religious communities have drawn greater attendance than local in-person worship. But does it touch people as deeply as an in-person real-life services that allows personal encounter and involvement and do these satisfy religious needs or are they just another means against boredom next to Youtube, Netflix and Co.?
Due to the pandemic, the 2021 conference took place online with participants from across Europe, Israel and Palestine, Tanzania and Indonesia. Together we explored how this crisis challenged and will continue to challenge life and works of our religious communities and how we can sustain ourselves and our dialogue. What will we need to leave behind and what can we learn from and with one another?
For those who missed the conference, you may wish to watch the lectures from the faith groups available on our YouTube channel.
How do our faith institutions respond to feelings of loneliness and alienation? Can faith and religiosity in psychological terms relieve the burden at all, and if so, how? Streaming events by religious communities have drawn greater attendance than local in-person worship. But does it touch people as deeply as an in-person real-life services that allows personal encounter and involvement and do these satisfy religious needs or are they just another means against boredom next to Youtube, Netflix and Co.?
Due to the pandemic, the 2021 conference took place online with participants from across Europe, Israel and Palestine, Tanzania and Indonesia. Together we explored how this crisis challenged and will continue to challenge life and works of our religious communities and how we can sustain ourselves and our dialogue. What will we need to leave behind and what can we learn from and with one another?
For those who missed the conference, you may wish to watch the lectures from the faith groups available on our YouTube channel.