Iras Cotis
Iras Cotis is an interreligious working group in Switzerland which, as a national network , promotes exchange, dialogue and cooperation between people with different religious and cultural backgrounds. Its members are around 80 religious communities and organizations that are involved in interreligious and intercultural dialogue . The majority of the religious communities based in Switzerland are represented on the board of the association. The seat of the association is in Basel, the office in Zurich. Iras Cotis is active throughout Switzerland. With its three large projects, the association is represented in French-speaking Switzerland, Ticino and German-speaking Switzerland.
history
It all started with a weekend at the Luzerner Allmend, where people from Vietnam , Cambodia , Laos , China and Tibet presented themselves to around 2500 visitors at stands and with a cultural and religious program. In order to continue the exchange, they founded the association «Interreligious Working Group in Switzerland IRAS» in 1992.
Founding communities were the Basler Mission , the Katharina-Werk , the Christian and Muslim Community, the Tibetan Community, the Cambodian Community, the Jewish-liberal Or Chadasch community , the advice center for foreigners issues of the city of Zurich and soon afterwards the Hindu community in Adliswil. Wolfgang Schmidt, the then President of the Basel Mission, became the first President, Heidi Rudolf took over management on behalf of her community, the Katharina-Werk. In the following year, Peter Wittwer was elected President and Iras Cotis consolidated with many new members and various public and advisory commitments.
In the first few years it was about support, for example, with finding a room and contacting authorities. And there were training events and thematic conferences. Iras Cotis made the experience that authorities at the time often hardly saw religion as important for social development and integration. The importance that immigrants attach to their religion and that they wanted to live it accordingly was ignored.
In 2000 Peter Wittwer resigned. Reinhild Traitler, then head of the Protestant Conference and Study Center in Boldern, was elected to the Presidium in his place. At the 10th anniversary in 2002, in addition to many minority communities and aid organizations, the large number of parishes, cantonal churches and government agencies that have since joined the group took part - the speech was given by the then Chancellor Annemarie Huber-Hotz .
In 2003 Reinhild Traitler resigned as President and Heidi Rudolf as Managing Director. The former church council president and Reformed pastor Georg Vischer was elected president as his successor, and Heinz Haab became the new managing director. Both committed themselves to an annual nationwide "Day of Religions". Inspired by the successful «Week of Religions». Heinz Haab set up a network of people to contact in all cantons, formed a patronage committee, a steering group and a project management team. In 2007, for example, the first national “Week of Religions” was held, which has been held successfully every year with over 100 events throughout Switzerland since then.
During this time, the collaboration with the publisher Editions Agora (at that time Enbiro) was established on the translation and marketing of the German edition of the “Calendar of Religions”. Heidi Rudolf also continued the counseling work until 2014.
In 2012, Rifa'at Lenzin succeeded Georg Vischer as President. With her, a representative of a minority community, namely the Muslims, took over the management of the association for the first time. In 2013 Katja Joho was hired as the new managing director. Iras Cotis set himself the goal of launching a new project especially for young people and young adults and making religions in Switzerland tangible and tangible for the general public. Since summer 2017, «Dialogue en Route» has been inviting people to get to know the religious and cultural diversity of Switzerland. The team around the initiator of the project, Simon Gaus Caprez, prepared offers for encounters, dialogue and learning experiences at religious sites and routes that testify to the eventful history and the pluralistic present. Young people play a particularly active role as guides. Schools and religious instruction classes in particular enable extracurricular learning, the network of young guides is active in many areas of the project and played a key role in the development.
aims
Iras Cotis supports local and regional organizations that work on site for interreligious exchange. The association networks such organizations nationwide, supports them and disseminates their results. Through the work of Iras Cotis, results from research should also find their way into broader circles. Iras Cotis would like to represent a bridge to decision-makers in politics and society. In order to open up the circle of interfaith people, Iras Cotis also tries to build bridges between the religious communities and the general public. Iras Cotis is therefore looking for ways and means to bring the significance of religious traditions as part of Swiss culture into discussion in broad circles with the aim of reducing fears, promoting understanding and paving the way for mutual respect. In this way, Iras Cotis would like to make a contribution to social peace in Switzerland.
Projects
Iras Cotis aims to promote exchange, dialogue and cooperation between people with different religious and cultural backgrounds, to reduce prejudices and fears and thus to contribute to social cohesion in Switzerland. The association achieves this through interreligious projects in the areas of education, encounters and networking.
Religions Week
Iras Cotis is the creator and coordinator of the « Week of Religions ». This cycle of events is the first major project by Iras Cotis. As part of the Week of Religions, organizers throughout Switzerland develop around 100 events every year in the first week of November that invite people to meet and dialogue between the religions and cultures based in Switzerland.
Dialogue en route
The biggest project by Iras Cotis is “Dialogue en Route”. The project coordinated by Iras Cotis aims to address the religious and cultural diversity in Switzerland and make it visible. More than 120 offers invite school classes and other interested groups to discover the diversity in Switzerland. Important cultural and religious sites, educational establishments and cultural institutions convey historical heritage and original encounters with various offers. The mediation takes place through adolescents and young adults who talk about their world of experience and impart knowledge about the religions. The young guides can be asked whether they are attending a school class and they accompany the offers.
Calendar of Religions
The Calendar of Religions is a project in collaboration with Éditions Agora and serves to support the work of religiously mixed teams and schools. It is also aimed at privately interested people or those who move in a multi-religious or multi-cultural environment. The interreligious calendar lists the dates of the most important festivals and public holidays and ranges from September to December of the following year. Every year he treats a topic and every month illuminates it with regard to different religious traditions. In recent years, topics such as rites of passage, prayer and meditation, feasts and holidays, and sacred objects have been dealt with. Each month is accompanied by a large-format picture on a particular tradition along the theme of the calendar.
financing
Iras Cotis is financed by grants from religious communities (52%), membership fees (17%), sponsorship contributions (14%) and donations (17%). The projects are financed separately through grants, mostly from foundations and the public sector.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Intercultural and interreligious communication. In: Series of the Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counseling Association Dr. Karl Federschmidt; Klaus Temme; Helmut Weiß, January 1, 2005, accessed on March 26, 2020 .
- ^ Judith Könemann, Georg Vischer: Interreligious Dialogue in Switzerland: Basics - Focal Points - Practice . Theological Verlag Zürich, 2008, ISBN 978-3-290-20042-8 ( google.ch [accessed on March 26, 2020]).
- ↑ Week of Religions 2019. Retrieved on March 26, 2020 (German, see at the bottom of the website).
- ↑ Dialogue en Route. Retrieved March 26, 2020 .
- ↑ LCH: Article - LCH - LCH, umbrella association for teachers in Switzerland, LCH Central Secretariat, Zurich, media release, education day. Retrieved on March 26, 2020 (Swiss Standard German).
- ↑ Calendar of Religions | Home. Retrieved March 26, 2020 .
- ↑ Financing. Retrieved March 26, 2020 .