Dialogue and Alliance interfaith circle's 32nd Francophone Scriptural Reasoning

On Sunday December 17, 2023, the Dialogue and Alliance interfaith circle held its monthly meeting, this time on the theme: “Stewardship”.

The main face-to-face meeting was held at the UPF offices in Geneva in conjunction with the “Espace Barrault” in Paris, with Zoom connections from several countries, including Austria, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Congo, Spain, France, Haiti, Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo, Switzerland.

The meeting was moderated by Ms Chantal KOMAGATA, Secretary General of UPF-Switzerland and coordinator of UPF-Central Europe.

The first reading, from Matthew 25:14-30, took a Christian perspective and was commented on by Jean- Claude BASSET, a Protestant minister who initiated the Geneva Interfaith Platform (interreligieux.ch) and founded the “Centre de Liaison et d’Information concernant les Minorités Spirituelles” (Liaison and Information Center for Spiritual Minorities: www,clims.ch).

The second reading brought a Muslim perspective. Verses 30 to 32 of the second sura of the Koran (The Cow) were read and commented on by Ms Naïma SERROUKH, Director of Tasamouh, a Swiss association for living together and inter-religious dialogue (tasamouh,com/).

As a short cultural break, we then listened to the song “Wouldn’t Ask for More”, written and performed by NAELISE.

The third reading brought a Scientology perspective. It was a text entitled “Survival”, by L. Ron Hubbard in Introduction to Scientology Ethics, commented on by Mr Michel RAOUST, a polytechnic engineer and

chairman of the French Committee of Scientologists Against Discrimination (www,scientologie.fr/).The meeting ended with a question-and-answer session and some remarks by Mr Jean-François MOULINET, coordinator of the Dialogue and Alliance circle, who announced that the next meeting would be held on Sunday January 14th on the theme chosen for 2024: “Peace begins with me”.