ComUnitySpirit and Interfaith Council of the City of Graz

Interreligious initiatives of the City of Graz

Initiators
The Interfaith Council of the City of Graz was founded in 2006. It consists of high-ranking representatives of the City´s Legally Recognized Churches and Religious Communities and is called by the mayor as an advisory body. Ideas generated in the meetings are carried forward through the project ComUnitySpirit which has been brought into being as a result of the Interreligious Conference in Graz in 2013. ComUnitySpirit also coordinates the Council´s main office.

Occasion
Religious diversity in Graz. Increasing diversity requires dialogues which reach beyond ethnic, religious, language and national boundaries.

Target Groups
ComUnitySpirit emphasizes inclusion, its program is therefore not limited to a specific target group but is open to all people involved or wishing to get involved in interreligious and intercultural dialogue and to those generally interested in the topic. The project is therefore intended to appeal to people of all ages, genders, social groups and religious affiliations.

Depending on the type of event target groups consist of various religious communities, students, young adults, persons in process of integration, civil society organizations and a public interested in dialogue.

Objectives
The project aims at contributing to a peaceful living together of religions and cultures in Graz, through the analysis of commonalities and potentials in religious communities, to foster “mutual appreciation, acceptance, tolerance, reconciliation and cooperation of the religions and cultures in Graz and Europe”.

Topics

  • Together instead of against each other
  • guilt-punishment-karma; war-peace-nonviolence; creation-nature-compassion
  • Religious diversity in school and society ‒ disturbing factor or chance?
  • Radical against extremism
  • What religions can learn from each other in terms of peace

Duration
The Interfaith Council of the City of Graz exists since 2006, the project “ComUnitySpirit – Religionen und Kulturen im Dialog” since 2013.

Activities
Events (selection):

  • Buddhist Activity Week 2021
  • Online Climate Slam ‒ Poetry 4 Future
  • Interreligious hiking and picnic
  • The annual Interfaith Mountain Prayer
  • Interreligious City Walks
  • Interreligious conferences: Religions for Future
  • The interreligious conference 2013, during which the Graz Declaration on Interfaith Dialogue was compiled
  • Interreligious education and encounter trips (p. e. to Sarajevo during Oct 2019)
  • Interreligious workshop series “Mit Format” for students (on the themes: guilt-punishment-karma; war-peace-nonviolence; creation-nature-compassion), ongoing, during winter and summer semesters
  • Interreligious sports day Meet & Move 2019 – soccer games between representatives of political parties and religious communities of Graz
  • Quarterly meetings of the Interreligious Council of the City of Graz
  • Interreligious Iftar – ComUnitySpirit and the Islamic Religious Community in Graz sent out invitations to an interreligious fast-breaking (2019)
  • Short film "Und was glaubst du?" (What do you believe? A portray of religious diversity in Graz.)
  • Event series FILM.SCHAUEN.INTERRELIGIÖS
  • Tea & Talk (interreligious dialogue group)

Form of Organization

The Interfaith Council of Graz is not a working body but assumes purely advisory as well as networking and mediation functions. It has no statutes, no executive management and no budget. The project ComUnitySpirit and the Interfaith Council are located at the Afro-Asian Institute Graz and coordinated by Lisa Weichsler, MA.

Funding
Funding bodies include the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe and International Affairs, the Federal Chancellery of Austria, the City of Graz (Mayor´s Office and Magistrate for Education and Integration) and the Archdiocese Graz-Seckau.

Products
“Multireligious Calendar”, annually, available digitally and in print: https://comunityspirit.com/calendar/

Website | Social Media | Contact
ComUnitySpirit:
https://comunityspirit.com/
Interreligious initiatives of the City of Graz:
https://www.graz.at/cms/beitrag/10203674/7771635/interreligioese_Initiativen_der_stadt_graz.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ComUnitySpirit

Afro-Asian Institute Graz
Leechgasse 22-24
A-8010 Graz

Tel. +43 316 324434

Project management and coordination of the Interfaith Council of the City of Graz:

Lisa Weichsler, MA
E-mail: l.weichsler@aai-graz.at

 

editor: kg / update: bs 2022