The Silsilah Dialogue Movement will launch the new partnership program, “We Serve” on December 30, this year. It isa new dream that Silsilah presents inviting partners to join us to “Dream Together” .
After some steps of reflection and sharing, we identified partners and launched this new program, “We Serve”, at the end of this year that will be remembered in history as the beginning of the COVID19 year.
Pope Francis envisioned in his new book, “Let us Dream”, a new cry for humanity, listening to the lesson learned during this time that hopefully brings us to a new “ecology of the heart and of the society”. The “We Serve” program is a simple dream that needs a big heart to move and Silsilah is ready to start this program in a form of partnership, initially with groups linked to Silsilah with the hope that other partners will join us.
The three partner groups are:
- The Emmaus Dialogue Movement (EDM), a movement part of Silsilah formed by Catholics with different vocations in life, but all committed to grow together spiritually bringing and promoting the spirituality of life-in-dialogue, Path to Peace.
- The Young Leaders for Dialogue and Peace (YLDP), a new group formed by Muslim and Christian young professionals, who started to be part of the different Silsilah youth programs during their high school or college years and now they, with other young leaders interested to be part of the YLDP, are moving with different plans as YLDP.
- The Council of the Greeks (COGs) of the Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) that represents the recognized fraternities and sororities in the university. In the past, Silsilah has been linked to them and guiding them on the path of peace reaffirming the positive aspects of their organizations and help to remove some negative practices. A MANIFESTO that was prepared by Silsilah in 2003 became the point of reference that now the Council of the Greeks wish to deepen and to share with others in the new set up of today’s situation, especially after a negative experience of the death that happened a few weeks ago during the “invitation” of members of a fraternity in Zamboanga City.
The “We Serve” program is an answer to the new emerging needs of many in this new reality of COVID19 that urges us to build solidarity and help many starting from a spiritual approach offering all possible help, without barriers of religions, cultures and social status, starting from those most in need.
Silsilah believes that this new partnership program is possible after the experience of 2012 when the Silsilah Dialogue Movement invited partners in Zamboanga to answer to the initiative of the United Nations of 2010 “to support, on voluntary basis, the spread of the message of interfaith harmony and goodwill in the world’s Churches, Mosques, Synagogues, Temples and other places of worship during a week (February 1-7 every year) based on the Love of God , Love of one’s neighbor each according to their own religious traditions or convictions.”
This invitation was taken with joy by Silsilah because it reflects the spirit and mission of Silsilah and we started to identify partners. It was, and still is, a great experience that Silsilah promotes in Mindanao and on the national level inviting many partners. See more details in our website, http://harmonylink.info/ / FB page, https://www.facebook.com/wihwphil .
This simple beginning of this new partnership program “We Serve” is open to other partners who wish to join us. The three groups identified in this new beginning will recommend new partners based on their credibility in society and the desire to move in autonomy, but with the proper coordination making the new “We Serve” as a mission that each partner can implement with proper coordination and some common activities in a special week of the year that will be decided by the partners.
The experience of Silsilah of the UNI HARMONY PARTNERS (United Nations Interfaith Harmony Partners) of Zamboanga, Manila and other places is considered as a good model by Silsilah and we try to adapt it in this new program, “We Serve” starting from Zamboanga.
We know that it is a simple step, but we hope that this will be a new beginning of a long and inspiring journey for those who will benefit from this program and those who will join us.
We are convinced that the challenge is big and we wish to start with a spiritual approach to be able to move forward together.
Silsilah Dialogue Movement