Photo: Leo Janssen

CEC President Rev. Christian Krieger and CEC Executive Secretary Rev. Sören Lenz recently participated in the Klingenthal colloquy, a biennial event held from 1 to 5 October in Alsace. The event was organised by the Inter-European Commission for Churches and Schools (ICCS) and the Coordination Group for Religion in Education in Europe.

The colloquium brought together around twenty-five experts on education and religion from CEC Member Churches and universities across Europe, addressing the theme "Religion and Education - Dialogue, Values and European Integration".

CEC President Rev. Christian Krieger shared information about CEC’s work following the Novi Sad General Assembly held earlier this year. He stressed the need for “churches to take action against existing Euroscepticism and the image of Europe as a fortress.” He encouraged churches to raise their voice in advance of the European elections to be held in May 2019.

Rev. Sören Lenz introduced initiatives of the Council of Europe on competences for democratic culture essentially linked to the inter-cultural dialogue. He said that churches and religious communities have a responsibility to participate in such dialogue.

“At CEC we hope to actively contribute to the inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue. Our observer status at the Council of Europe education committee affirms the significance of CEC’s participation in shaping such dialogue initiatives,” added Rev. Lenz.

ICCS President Dr Peter Schreiner underlined the willingness of ICCS to collaborate with CEC as an Organisation in Partnership, especially in the field of education. Dr Peter Schreiner has presided CEC Thematic Reference Group on Education for the last five years.

The colloquy gathers every two-years, researchers, education policy-makers, teachers, representatives of Christian educational institutions and universities from Europe.