Ten years ago the United Nations launched the World Interfaith Harmony Week for people of all cultures and religions based on the Love of God, the Love of Neighbour and the Love of the Common Good. This initiative is becoming popular in the Philippines, thanks to the Silsilah Dialogue Movement that has popularized it first in Zamboanga City and after in many parts of Mindanao and Manila, and this year in the whole country, on the occasion of the special year of Ecumenism, Interreligious Dialogue and Indigenous Peoples promoted by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) through the Episcopal Commission for Interreligious Dialogue (ECID).
In Zamboanga City the WIHW partners have organized this year a big Symposium with the leaders of Zamboanga from different cultural groups and religions focusing on a DIALOGUE AND PEACE ACCORD among Indigenous peoples, Muslims and Christians, and others. Many initiatives have been conducted by some partners: Hospitals, Universities, Schools, Religious Sector, Security Sector and different NGO’s. In this Oasis News, we wish to give a special attention to the initiative of the WIHW popularized as, “Neighbors in Harmony”.
We know how neighbors are often good neighbors. But also among them, there are often some misunderstandings that can become the cause of conflicts and divisions especially if the conflict happens among people or families of different cultures and religions.
Aware of this reality and at the same time of the reality that neighbours are those who have to practice most the virtue of kindness and build harmony, we have organized, since the beginning of the celebration of the WIHW in 2012, the new initiative called “Neighbors in Harmony”. This activity has to remain simple, organized and sponsored by the people in the neighborhood. This year this initiative became the most popular one in many places of Zamboanga. We observed that even local leaders are willing to participate and be present to share in solidarity with the WIHW. Guided by this spirit of the Neighbors in Harmony, this year also the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) organized the Neighbors in Harmony in many barangays of the city.
As organizer and observer of this initiative we discover how the people need to reaffirm the importance of the neighborhood. In one area of Zamboanga where there is a big presence of Muslims and Christians the activity was done first in a more popular Christian area and they planned to organize another one in the Muslim area. The presence of the priests and the imams in some of these initiatives has given them a deeper feeling that really harmony has to be built based on respect and guided by the spirit of Love of God, Love of Neighbor and Love of the Common Good. But in many places, people organize this initiative even if religious leaders are not around and share the same spirit of the WIHW. It is for them a good occasion to share together the joy to be neighbors and to do more to make their neighborhood more harmonious.
During the WIHW, we do not focus our attention on issues, but on good relation that has to be built on the spirit of harmony that can also help to answer problems in the area to be solved not with arrogance, but with friendship, respect and love. In this way, also, issues are faced with better feelings of forgiving each other.
This year the program of the Neighbors in Harmony was also an occasion to tell people to identify and SHARE GOOD STORIES OF CHANGE. They can also be the initiators of any good story of change that they feel to share.
Thus, this initiative of the neighbors in harmony is a “chain” that does not end with the WIHW, but continues and become a new beginning of a new harmony in the area.
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To know more about the initiative of the “Story of Change”. We hope that you can also share your STORY OF CHANGE, Silsilah will choose some selected stories and put in a book with proper acknowledgement of the author. We wish to say to the world that in our areas there are not only conflicts and problems, but also good stories to remember and to emulate. For more information about this initiative please contact sdambra@gmail.com.