Interorthodox Centre of the Church of Greece

The Holocaust, Genocides and some educational approaches were discussed
in a two days webinar that the Interorthodox Centre of the Church of
Greece ran alongside after an invitation by the French organization
Yahad in Unum on the 14th and 21st of November 2020.
Teachers and educators from all over Greece and specialists from abroad
attended this on line seminar. The subject referred to investigations of
Holocaust crimes that took place in ex Soviet countries, also to
contemporary genocides (Guatemala, Yazidi, Armenia) and participators
discussed about educational scenarios.
We had Mrs. Renata Skunczyk and Mr. Michal Chozak as speakers from
Yahad in Unum.
Mr. Christos Nasios on behalf of the team of Interorthodox Centre
presented the help that Greek clergy (priests and bishops) offered to
the rescue of Greek Jews during the years of the Nazi Occupation in the
Greek territory.
Mrs. Verjin Karabetian who is the secretary of “Hamazkayin”, the Armenian cultural society in Greece, spoke about the Armenian Genocide
in the wake of today.
Mr. Albert Hytry from Yahad in Unum and Mr. Sergios Voilas from the
Interorthodox Centre of the Church of Greece had the responsibility of
the organization.

The European Manifesto for Inclusive Learning final online meeting: learning from each other to rethink education and training.
The scientific team of the Interorthodox Centre, Mr. Sergios Voilas, Mr. Christos Nasios and Mrs. Kalliopi Mavragka, alongside with the ERASMUS+
Partners from Italy, Finland, Poland, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom and Germany, all gathered together virtually at the final online meeting of the ERASMUS PLUS KA2 project “The European Manifesto for inclusive learning”. There was an exchange of good practices and new data emerged now with the appearance of covid -19 and the worldwide pandemic.

Participation in media training course concerning religion and media and
communicating religions’ responsibility for peace in the European area,
took place between 16-21 August 2020 for the member team of the
Interorthodox Centre of the Church of Greece, represented by its
permanent scientific associate and project manager Mr. Sergios Voilas
who was invited as appointed by the Director of the Interorthodox
Centre, Metropolitan Ioannis of Thermopylae.

Such an initiative first occurred in autumn 2016 as part of
collaboration with Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and aiming for
leading representatives of major religions to be given a chance to
promote dialogue and convey the peaceful values of their faiths. This
year DW Akademie media training was held in Bonn with approx. 15 chosen
participants from Europe while having the ability to participate either
via physical presence or online.

Faith representatives who deal with peace processes in each ones society
get the message out to the public, and exchange good practices on
faith-based peace work.

Due to the pandemic of Covid-19 the originally planned meeting in Birmingham was cancelled and the esteemed members of the ECRL Council, among of which His Eminence Metropolitan Ioannis of Thermopylae, Director of the Interorthodox Centre of the Church of Greece, gather for an online meeting on the 25th of June 2020. So, another opportunity was created for reflection and discussion about the new challenges that all communities and religious leaders face through this global crisis. Moreover ECRL with its work and history is evolving, working together with Religions for Peace in Europe and going forward. President Revd Dr Thomas Wipf chaired the meeting.

A first group of people, a team of 35 women and men, dealing with educational matters among which many teachers participated in the program that the Interorthodox Centre of the Church of Greece ran between 19-20 October 2019 in Athens.
The program took place for the first time and was successfully embraced by the participants due to the unique nature of this seminar concerning issues of peaceful coexistence and social cohesion.
On the 19th of October all the participants gathered together at the seminar room of the Interorthodox Centre at the Holy Monastery of Pendeli and were shown two presentations by Sergios Voilas and Christos Nasios. Sergios Voilas presented the nature of the initiative and a guide that is a useful tool for each one who wants to become leader in taking groups to visit religious sites and to take learning experience to another level as field learning opportunity. Christos Nasios shared with the participants various pedagogical tools and information about the visits and the necessary preparations to be made beforehand.
On the 20th of October we visited certain places as part of our program. We visited the Jewish Synagogue in Athens; we attended a scheduled tour at the Museum of Islamic Art and we continued by visiting the Armenian Orthodox Cathedral.

A debrief following the sites visit will take place the days to come at the Interorthodox Centre for every participant to reflect and share their experiences.

The initiative Walking inter-religiously, walk the path of dialogue was implemented with the scholarship of KAICIID International Fellows Programme to Mr. Sergios Voilas and the Interorthodox Centre of the Church of Greece.