“Dear members and friends of ENORB,

In just a few weeks we will close the page of what seems to have been the most unexpected and unprecedented year of the century. No doubt, 2022 changed so many things: from the violent Russian war in Ukraine to global migration, from continuous coronavirus pandemic to protests against systemic racism and police brutality, from ever changing global leadership to the effects of climate change.

This year is often referred to as a year that let people down, time of loss and grief, restrictions and lost opportunities. And yet it is a year that raised more awareness about the speedy and fast times we live in, the value of peace, social contact and importance of solidarity and human interactions. It gave us an opportunity to reflect and act.

In nearly each of these themes religions and religious controversies shape our points of view. Some see religions as a major part of the problems, whilst others reach out to spirituality and religiosity for key solutions to various social ills.

As sources of belief, moral vectors, cultural and traditional practices, despite secularisation narratives, religions prove to be relevant and important in many European post-secular societies. We find ourselves living at the crossroads of cultures amid astonishing differences, which contradict, complement and often merge. We witness and contribute to the creation of a new kind of social order and multicultural living, based on the realistic mutual acknowledgment of each other’s vulnerability and a need of each other in our journey towards the genuine wellbeing, peace and harmony for all. With or without our approval this change is already happening.

The encounters with the differences of the others necessarily challenge own fundamental views and ethical convictions. In confrontation with someone who holds to different points of view we discover our strong viewpoints and notice the weaker or less firm ones. Perhaps, it is precisely the others who by their presence are calling us to review our convictions and identify the authentic core of our beliefs to be able to enter into a serious and respectful dialogue?

It is precisely this task of creating safe and brave space for encounter and genuine dialogue amongst various worldviews that the European Network on Religion and Belief is aiming to accomplish. I am very honored to be part of this dynamic network and together seek better ways to promote mutual flourishing of various religious and philosophical traditions.

More than ever, we are now in need of a more inclusive, more complex and more attuned to human historical context view on social and interfaith relations. Many seem to agree that only by means of dialogue, combining discernment and mature conviction, cooperation and integration, some progress in peaceful multicultural and multi-worldview living together can be attempted and hope to be achieved.

One of the major difficulties in this discourse, however, lies in the fact we learned to listen in order to respond, rather than to understand.

I step into my new role in this Network with a conviction that we need to learn to be a gift to the other and to accept the other as a gift, as a witness against contemporary materialism.

The gift is what we, human beings most need from each other, and it is a means of rediscovering our own dignity and a positive self-identity. It is fundamentally a mission of reconciliation and building a civilization of love, not as a mere activism, but as a genuine testimony of God’s undivided, unrestricted and universal love to humankind.”

Maryana Hnyp

President, European Network on Religion & Belief