Europe of Dialogue

*VI Gniezno Convention – main message *
“The Europe of Dialogue“ is the motto of the forthcoming, sixth Gniezno Convention. Leaders of the laity of the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations from many European countries will gather in Gniezno at the tomb of St. Adalbert, the patron saint of European unity, in September 2005. They will learn the prerequisites of the dialogue between Christianity and contemporary culture and other religions. Of special significance will be also the question of the dialogue between the Churches and the institutions of the European Union, guaranteed in the new Constitutional Treaty for Europe. The Congress of Gniezno is a reference to the millennium history of Gniezno Conventions. It will be an ecumenical gathering of Christians who assume responsibility for the spiritual countenance of the Europe of the future.
The Convention has an ecumenical, international and multicultural character, and as such is a reflection of today’s Europe. It will gather over 800 representatives of numerous movements and associations from the East and the West, the two lungs of Europe, whose integration is an express wish of John Paul II. Among the invited guests there will also be an over 80-person strong group of participants from the countries of the former Soviet Union, the majority of whom have Polish roots.
Openness to dialogue with other religions, namely Judaism and Islam, will constitute a new element of the Congress, unprecedented in the millennium tradition of the Gniezno Conventions.

*Practical School of Dialogue*
Today’s Europe is and will remain pluralistic. Dialogue, which in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council was defined as an indispensable precondition for the presence of the Church in contemporary world, requires not only apostolic zeal, but also competence and respect for the Other. That is why the forthcoming Gniezno Convention was conceived as a “school of dialogue” for widely construed circles of laity from many countries of Europe, primarily of Central and Eastern Europe.
How to conduct the dialogue? How to respect others and at the same time be faithful to one’s own tradition? – these are the key questions of the “Europe of Dialogue” Congress. It aims at working out a model of dialogue which would not consist in the loss of one’s identity but in meeting one another in truth. Europe, like a desert thirsty for water, is in need today of a witness to truth that brings hope. The Congress will be opened most probably by Cardinal Chrisoph Schoenborn, archbishop of Vienna, who will speak about the most fundamental prerequisites for the dialogue of the Church with contemporary Europe and its many and manifold cultural and spiritual trends.
The lectures and addresses will be supplemented with direct witnesses: how to conduct dialogue on a variety of levels of ecclesiastical, social and political life. “Masters of dialogue” from diverse countries and parts of the world will share their experience of conducting dialogue in the family, in the parish, between nations and representatives of dissimilar cultures, and finally in the most discordant and conflict-ridden parts of the world.

*Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue *
Reintegration of the continent should urge Christians to take strenuous efforts to rebuild the unity of the divided Church. Otherwise our witness will rather bear marks of anti-witness. “Such dialogue, says John Paul II, represents one of the chief concerns of the Church, especially in this Europe, which in the last millennium witnessed the rise of all too many divisions between Christians and which is today moving towards greater unity. We may not halt on this journey nor may we turn back!” (Ecclesia in Europa, 31). Signs of our desire to rebuild the unity of the divided Church will include, among others, the ecumenical Feast of the Bible, celebrated on the second day of the Convention within a group of clergy of various denominations. It will be attended by Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, bishop Hilarion, the representative of the Moscow Patriarchate and the president of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, bishop Wolfgang Huber.
The ecumenical dimension of the Convention will be this time extended with a dialogue with the faithful of other religions. This will find its manifestation in the prayer for Europe by representatives of Abrahamic religions : Christians, Jews and Muslims. It will be a joint prayer for Europe’s fidelity to its religious roots and for peace, in the name of commonly shared, universal values. The prayer will be attended by the Christian hierarchs present at the Convention, including Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Dr Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, and Mustafa Cerič, Great Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Reis ul-Ulema.
The prayer will be accompanied by debates on the form and perspectives of ecumenical and interreligous dialogue in today’s Europe.

*The Church-Europe Dialogue*
This dialogue is of tremendous significance for the future. Its legal bases are defined in the Constitutional Treaty for the European Union. The present-day state of the dialogue between the Christian Churches and the EU institutions and its weighty issues, such as the Constitutional Treaty, will constitute other priority issues of the Congress in Gniezno.
The current state of the dialogue between the Christian Churches and the European Union institutions will be presented in Gniezno by, among others, Fr. Noel Treanor, Secretary-General of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community COMECE, Fr. Aldo Giordano, Secretary-General of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences CCEE, and Rudigger Noll, Director of the Church and Society Commission, representing in the European Union the Conference of European Churches CEC, gathering 126 Churches of the reformed and Orthodox tradition.

*How to be a Christian in a Pluralist Europe?*
The participants of the Convention will reflect on how to give a joint witness in the conditions of democracy and pluralism, in response to the questions posed by the Europe of “today and tomorrow”. The fundamental question of the “Europe of Dialogue” Congress will be one related to how Christians should carry out their evangelical mission in the Europe characterised by democracy, pluralism and coexistence of diverse cultures.
It is a major objective of the Congress to awaken a new apostolic dynamism towards Europe in the participants, both those from the East and those from the West. It is also vital to awaken the “sleeping giant” of the laity in today’s Church, to discover multiple levels of responsibility (including the political sphere) in the face of a new challenge, posed not only by the responsibility for one’s own Christian identity, but for the future of the unifying continent.

*Debate, Witness and Prayer*
These are the three pillars that the “Europe of Dialogue” Congress is based on. Thus the Convention will be not only an event, but also an experience. It will be an experience of a spiritual, social and visual nature. The spirituality of the Convention rests not only on attentively listening to the witness of others, but on common prayer, singing and the Holy Mass. All of this takes place in the spirit of sharing and exchange of gifts. The multiplicity of movements, nationalities, denominations and religions represented will contribute to the Convention being an event where the participants will be able to get to know one another better, also on a social basis. It will furnish an opportunity for becoming familiar with other countries, Churches and for making contacts; in short, for finding inspiration to spread the “Europe of dialogue” in respective individual circles. We wish the VI Gniezno Convention to be also a cultural experience. We therefore want the idea of the Convention to be expressed by a “Music of Christians – Music of Unity” concert, during which the prayer and singing of choirs of different denominations will be accompanied by testimonies of present-day great witnesses to faith.
Of singular significance will be the public debate of leading politicians from the Vyshehrad countries: Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, which will be devoted to the contribution of the societies of Central Europe to the construction of a united Europe. The debate will be likewise attended by representatives of Ukraine and Germany. This discussion will be a direct reference to the millennium tradition of the Conventions of Gniezno, which have been not only religious events, but also places for taking historic decisions related to the presence of the countries of our region in a broadly understood community whose name is Europe.

*Participants of the Convention*
The “Europe of Dialogue” Congress is geared to the leaders of over 250 Christian organisations from Poland and other countries of Europe (inclusive of Central and Eastern Europe, especially the countries of the Vyshehrad Group). We extend our invitations to Austrians, Belgians, Belorussians, the British, Czechs, Estonians, the French, the Dutch, Spaniards, Lithuanians, Latvians, Germans, Poles, Russians, Romanians, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Hungarians, and Italians. We anticipate a total of around 800 participants, including over 100 persons from the territory of the former Soviet Union. Citizens of the countries of the Vyshehrad Group will constitute the majority of the Convention participants.
The organisers of the Convention sincerely hope that it should not be limited exclusively to the present-day European Union Member States, but that it should be a major bridge to the East, facilitating dialogue with the Christian elites of those countries.
Participation of major celebrities of Church life, culture, politics, local government authorities, etc., has been confirmed.

*Projected Effects of the Convention*
The Conventions is meant to contribute to the development of an active evangelical attitude among leaders of Christian organisations in Europe, an attitude both open to European issues and to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. The Congress is also to facilitate an even greater openness of Christian circles to the need for a dialogue with contemporary culture and to the realisation of one’s responsibility on the social and political level.
In its public message, the Convention is to be one of the major events in the area of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue in Europe. It is to show the responsibility of Christians for the ideological countenance of today’s Europe, as well as to present the role of Christianity as an important factor in the process of the continuing integration of the continent.

*Projected Media Response*
Similarly to the V Gniezno Convention, we anticipate intensive media coverage. The “Europe of the Spirit” Convention in March 2004 was covered by 214 journalists representing the most influential Polish media. Polish Television sent a 60-persons strong team. Therefore, since Gniezno Conventions have become a permanent event in the calendar of major public events in Poland, a similar or greater interest on the part of the media is anticipated.
All contacts with the media, including the press conferences, etc. will be conducted for the benefit of the Convention by the Catholic Information Agency KAI, which has gained its expertise in the coverage of big events through the media coverage of visits of the Holy Father in Poland. One may expect that all these actions will result in an extensive media response, including reports and live broadcasts on television and on the radio as well as press coverage.

*St. Adalbert’s Forum – Organiser of the Convention*
St. Adalbert’s Forum, which groups Christian movements and associations that want to contribute to the creation of European unity, is a direct organiser of the Convention. St. Adalbert’s Forum gathers over 20 organisations, movements and associations, including some from other Christian Churches. The Council of St. Adalbert’s Forum selects the Organising Committee of the Convention, composed of experienced representatives of diverse movements and associations. This year the work of the Organising Committee has been joined by representatives of other Christian Churches from Poland: the Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession.