A Study Day
Result of the Survey titled “The Arab Christian Youth in Galilee: Where to?”
Theological Department, Mar Elias
Educational Institutions / ‘Ibilin
May 1, 2010
Al-Liqa’ Center, the Galilee Branch, held a workshop on May 1, 2010 at the Mar Elias Educational Institutions in ‘Ibilin which focused on the analysis of the survey carried out among The Arab Christian Youth in Galilee, and presented at Al-Liqa’s annual Palestinian Contextual Theology Conference which took place in February 2010 in Haifa.
The study day focused on how we should deal with the results related to the daily life relations with Muslims, Druze and Jews, the educational role of the Christian private schools and the parishes in crystallizing the youth identity.
Dr. Geries S. Khoury, Director of Al-Liqa’ presented a paper on the results of the survey and was followed by a long discussion and comments by the participants and among them was Fr. Ibrahim Da’ud, Rev. Fu’ad Dagher, Ms Ibtisam Mu’allem, Attorney Badira Khouriyya, Mr. Yousef Matar, Mr. Ziyad Shleweit, and Mr. Samer ‘Azzam.
At the end of the day, the participants at the workshop / study day, recommended the following:
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A letter to be sent to the Bishops of the various Churches in Galilee urging them to introduce to the curriculum in their private schools material on the role of the Arab Christians in Arab civilization and history, and to teach catechism to the Christians and religious culture to all students.
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Pressure must be exerted on the Ministry of education to introduce the above-mentioned history in the curriculum.
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A meeting with religious and Academic Arab Druze and Muslim personalities to be arranged soon to let them know the results of the survey and to examine with them the possibilities of organizing surveys among their youth and to ascertain their thoughts concerning “Shared Living”.
- The need to organize panels, workshops and open gatherings to discuss the results of the survey in all cities and villages.