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http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/5/12/nation/17707568&sec=nation
By SHAILA KOSHY koshy@thestar.com.my
KUALA LUMPUR: The Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) has appealed to the Government to review the withdrawal of its support for the Building Bridges seminar that had been scheduled for this week.
Its general secretary Rev Dr Hermen Shastri said the organisers at the London office of the Archbishop of Canterbury had not been given any reason.
“They received formal word from the authorities here that support had been withdrawn, barely three weeks before the scheduled dates (May 7-11).
“In respect to the Government, the organisers felt it wise to cancel the seminar,” he said in urging the Government to offer an alternative date for holding the conference here.
The seminar was to coincide with the first visit of the Archbishop, Dr Rowan Williams, to the Anglican Church here recently.
Responding to a May 10 report on the cancellation of the seminar in the Times of London, Rev Shastri said the Archbishop’s office for Interfaith Relations had received a warm reception from the Prime Minister’s office and other Islamic institutions during preparations a year ago.
“The London office received a formal letter welcoming such a seminar which would have brought together over 30 world renowned Islamic and Christian scholars and theologians to deliberate under the theme Humanity in Context: Christian and Muslim Perspectives on Being Human.”
In his statement yesterday, Rev Shastri said the CCM and other Islamic institutions had been approached to host mini-seminars in which Muslim and Christian participants could interact with locals on the deliberations of the seminar.
Building Bridges seminars have been held in London, New York, Qatar and Sarajevo, and the organisers were excited at meeting in Malaysia, as the context would provide the international scholars exposure to the achievements of Malaysia in encouraging inter-faith dialogue at the national and international levels, he said.
He said the CCM had hoped that such a seminar would go a long way in pursuing the path of respectful dialogue and strengthening Malaysia’s claim of being a viable venue to host such global inter-faith dialogues.
