Peacemakers' Circle main projects at latter half of 2010

1. The Peacemakers' Circle organized and hosted the workshop-forum on Consulting the People: PEOPLE'S AGENDA FOR PEACE IN MINDANAO at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) last June 21 (Monday). This project was funded by The Asia Foundation. It had Fr. Albert Alejo SJ (and his team from KONSULT MINDANAW) present the results of the series of grassroots consultations--conducted among Muslims, Christians and Indigenous Peoples (or Lumads)--that were held all over Mindanao for the Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC) in 2008. The whole-day workshop-forum yielded inspiring feedback (from the 80 participants representing various sectors of society in MIndanao and the National Capital Region) on how to move the dialogue initiative forward so that it will serve as a guide for the crafting of a peace agenda by the new Philippine President-elect Aquino.

2. On June 15 (Tuesday), The Peacemakers' Circle conducted the first of the series of 20 workshop-sessions for 16 grassroots Muslim and Christian leaders of the communities of Quiapo, Maharlika Village, Culiat and Tala. This was under the Australian Embassy's Strengthening Grassroots Interfaith Dialogue and Understanding (SGIDU) Program. This is The Peacemakers' Circle's 3rd project funded by SGIDU in 3 years. This project is entitled STRENGTHENING MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN PARTNERSHIPS IN GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY-BUILDING, and it aims to develop the community leaders' capacities to inspire the members of their respective communities, supervise and help ensure that the projects they decide to collective undertake (to meet the needs of their respective communities) will succeed. The workshops will be conducted twice a month for 10 months until March 2011.

3. Another project that has been launched recently by The Peacemakers' Circle is the Catholic INTRA-Faith Dialogue Module-Writing Workshop and Consultation Project funded by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP). This is geared towards helping to prepare Catholics for Interfaith Dialogue, particularly focusing on promoting awareness among Catholics of the need to reconcile and heal relationships with Muslims and other people of faith in the Philippines. The writing of the first draft of the training modules is underway, and the first consultation with a select group of religous, clergy and laity is scheduled on July 7 and 8. Part of the consultation meeting will be held at the Loyola School of Theology of the Ateneo de Manila University, through the support of Fr. Antonio de Castro SJ, and the approval of Fr. Mario Francisco SJ (President of LST). This is in partenrship with the Episcopal Commission on Interreligous Dialogue (ECID), and this will run until November of this year. It is hoped that the training modules will be conducted in the various parishes and grassroots communities around the country where Muslims and Christians live together as neighbors.