Diversity in our societies is a fact but how can we actively deal with it as Churches? What are the ways to address these issues in educational settings? And aren’t trust and solidarity key to a successful living together in diverse societies? At least in democracies? These are only a couple of the questions the CEC Thematic Group (TG) on “Education, democracy and diversity” was discussing at its last meeting on 29th and 30th September 2020. Bianca Kappelhoff, ICCS board member and mandated to the group, was chairing the meeting as she had been elected moderator at the previous meeting.

Together with her two co-moderators, Triin Käpp from Estonia and Alexandru Ojica from Romania, she lead through the programme of the meeting, which took place digitally for one afternoon and one morning. Splitting up in smaller groups from time to time allowed intense and rich exchanges among the group members. The aim was to reflect again on the group’s topics – education, democracy and diversity – from all angles in order to set priorities for cooperation. In the end, the group members agreed that there is a need to explore further the richness of experiences and backgrounds already present among themselves. Creating safe spaces to talk about the (in parts) quite sensitive issues of diversity and democracy seems important in order to be able to learn from each other and deepen the exchange. The next meeting will focus on this.

Apart from this, a rather saddening issue came up as well. Arutyun Karapetyan, representing the Armenian Apostolic Church, reported about the violent conflict, which escalated just a couple of days before between his country and its neighbour Azerbaijan. All TG members were dismayed by this news and expressed their compassion with his situation. In order to express European and Christian solidarity, a common prayer and a statement by CEC is going to be prepared on this issue.