The Dublin City Interfaith Forum (DCIF) will begin a new interfaith education initiative at Oatlands College in Stillorgan tomorrow .
It will involve presentations from the seven different world faiths to the College's fourth, fifth and religion students in sixth year.The DCIF, whose members include Baha'I, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh members, intend presenting the students with an overview of their religions and will explore some of their main celebrations.
Welcoming the initiative the College deputy principal Caroline Garrett said that "Dublin's religious landscape has changed profoundly in the last decade. This has brought about new challenges and opportunities. It is with initiatives such as Dublin City Interfaith Forum that we dialogue and work together through building relationships that promote integration, nurture harmony, and deepen understanding and respect among our younger generations."
Adrian Cristea, secretary of the DCIF, drew attention to the aims of the interfaith group which set out to "support and strengthen the contribution of faith communities in Dublin city, educate and encourage people of different faiths to dialogue, reflect and work together in matters of policy, strategy and action and challenge all forms of injustice and discrimination. This, together with the need for promoting among schools a spirit of dialogue, acceptance and respect for cultural diversity, has become a very important area of work for the Forum," he said.
Dublin City Interfaith Forum (DCIF) is a network of people from the different faith Communities in Dublin city. It aims to create awareness and dialogue among faith groups through building relationships that nurture harmony, and deepen understanding and respect.
The world faiths currently active in Dublin City and represented on DCIF are: Baha'i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. Recognising the diverse nature of the backgrounds of these residents of Dublin, DCIF aims to provide space and opportunity for faith communities to build relationships with and between other Dublin city communities, statutory and voluntary organisations and the residents of the city.
