Dear Friends,
Greetings of Peace! We welcome you to the 2005 Conference on Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace. This is our second annual conference and festival, the latter extending this year over a three week period from 14 February to 6 March.
Among the Festival highlights include: a One World Peace Concert (19 February); a Young People Debate on Peace Education and Citizenship at the Scottish Parliament (24 February 2005); a 4-day Retreat on Jewish and Sufi Spirituality (24-27 February 2005); the Scotland-Middle East Storytelling Exchange (24 February-2 March); a Day of Sharing Spiritual Practice for Peace (3 March 2005); the Festival Lecture by three times Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Abuna Elias Chacour, on Spiritual Approaches to Middle East Peace (3 March 2005); a 2-Day International Conference on Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace (4 and 5 March 2005); and a Closing Concert with Latif Bolat (6 March), among many other events.
Part of our intent has been to Ôde-centralizeÕ the festival, by allowing various partner organizations to schedule events in their own venues. This allows for a wide range of approaches to, and definitions of, Ôspirituality.Õ Indeed, as the wide diversity shows, no one representative or group can claim to speak for the totality of any tradition, and those voices usually unheard may provide missing links on the road to understanding.
We hope that you will join us in affirming the diversity contained within and among the religious and spiritual traditions of the Middle East, as well as those that make their homes here in Scotland and the UK. While most reports from the Middle East may lead us to think that all religious and political positions are fixed and monolithic, we believe that this conference proves otherwise. The representatives who have agreed to share the podium represent, for the most part, unheard voices in the quest for peace and understanding. We hope to discover, over successive conferences, that we have much more in common than what divides us when we view our traditions from the standpoint of spirituality and spiritual experience, rather than from the perspective of fixed custom or belief.
The conference and festival themselves take no fixed position on any political, ethical or cultural question. We intend rather to create a forum in which we can listen to each other more deeply and learn with a more open mind and heart.
This yearÕs conference brings together at least three different kinds of presentations. First, we hope to learn from each other about our shared traditions, as well as those that form the unique voice of any one of us. Second, we will hear from those who have been active in peacemaking and peace-awakening on a spiritual basis on the ground in the Middle East. Third, we invite you to share in the musical and devotional spiritual practice presented, in order to gain an experiential view of the traditions that we discuss.
Next yearÕs festival will run from Monday 13 February-Sunday 5 March 2006. If you have a desire to participate, then please contact one of the organizers.
Yours in peace,
Neill Walker, Edinburgh International Centre for World Spiritualities
Neil Douglas-Klotz, Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning
Co-Directors of the Middle East Festival