Al-Liqa’ Center for Religious and Heritage Studies in the Holy Land
Celebrates the Silver Jubilee 1982-2007
Mdm Irmgard Icking
External affairs in MISSIO-Aachen, Germany
Your Beatitude, your Excellencies, Sisters and Brothers,
From Germany I bring warm regards, heartfelt congratulations and prayerful wishes from Fr. Hermann Schalück ofm, who is presently travelling in Africa. I bring all the very best regards and wishes from my colleague Dr. Harald Suermann, whom many of you know personally and whom we in Missio are happy to have with his expertise but more so with his love for the Middle East Region he is dealing with in our partner relations and project work.
I bring you sincere congratulations in tribute to the wonderful achievements of Al-Liqa’ Center in the field of theological reflection, inter-religious and intercultural dialogue from Dr. Richard Brosse, the Director of the Institute of Missiology affiliated to Missio in Aachen.
From these my colleagues I have learnt so many positive, inspiring things about Al-Liqa’ Center, that I feel highly privileged to represent Missio on this auspicious occasion, the 25th Anniversary of Al-Liqa’ Center!
It is a great joy for me to be with you, and I thank you for the warm welcome!
Al-Liqa’ means encounter! Thus the name is programmatic. The programmatic expression of Al-Liqa’, encounter, responds to the historic place where you realize this vision,” The venue where the great encounter between God and man took place”; The venue where the incarnation of Gods encounter with mankind came to the world.
At the same time Al Liqa’ Center arose from the initiative of persons from different traditions and religions, inspired by a common vision: To create a venue for encounter in order to promote peace, to passionately opt for mutual respect and understanding, for dialogue and cooperation as the path into the future. A path preserving what is most precious in the great religious heritage of mankind. It is with deep respect and appreciation that we in Missio and in the Institute of Missiology have experienced how this vision has born fruit in many ways and through in-depth reflections, a broad variety of actions and offers for so many men and women to join in.
And let me say with all honesty that we are proud that we, over 25 years now were able to journey with you. We in Missio drew enormous encouragement from your partnership while our own membership has often been a reluctant pilgrim in the inter-religious and intercultural dialogue road.
We, together with the Institute of Missiology, have always learnt from the encounter with you, from your patience and prudence, from your courage and your openness to “the other”.
In the mirror of your vision we were able to discover our common mission, as expressed in our mission statement, which we have re-formulated on occasion of our own Jubilee last year.
It says: “We at Missio feel privileged because through the encounter with and relationship to men and women in other regions of the world we repeatedly become witness to the infinite wealth of living forms of the faith. We would like to draw from theses sources and help to weave a network of spirituality, which enriches one’s own faith through the encounter with expressions of faith of other religions and cultures, a network which remains open to the encounter with others and their faith experience.
We comprehend this spirituality as a vital source for expressing solidarity with those in needs, for creating a world according to the Good News of the gospel that the promise of Life in Fullness is a reality and true for all people and the whole of creation.”
We share your vision and mission, that faith in the one and loving God can create a better world. And, that we can give and share, because we are receivers ourselves. This is what mission means. : We receive blessings and conversion from the joys of faith and life of others!
Also in future we would like to continue to journey with you, as, like the Holy Father John Paul II has once expressed: “It is a sign of hope that the religions of the world are becoming more aware of their shared responsibility for the well-being of the human family. This is a crucial part of the globalization of solidarity which must come for the future of the world to be secure!” (Pope John Paul II, New Delhi, India; November 7, 1999).
The world needs men and women, who are witnesses of a lived faith and a firm hope. It has need of prophets and poets of a God who is present in the midst of the lights and shadows of history, a God who wants life and future for all.
The God who is LOVE involves us in His mission of transforming His creation into what it is meant to be: a home with one table, where the gifts of creation are enjoyed together by all its inhabitants in peace.
Bound together in this hope we may travel in confidence, discerning here and now the signs of life which give us courage and the possibility of a fruitful response to new times and places. Let us together experience what is real and true: the humble God living among us or in other words: We living within HIM, joining in His call, so that the name of the one God can become increasingly what it is: The name of peace and a summons to peace.
Let us engage together also in future in this dialogue of life, faith, prayer and solidarity!
May the loving God bless you always!
Irmgard Icking/13.2.08