Cambridge Inter-faith Programme Summer School
This July, the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme will bring students from Islamic, Christian and Jewish backgrounds to Cambridge University's beautiful Madingley Hall, for a three-week programme of immersion in inter-faith education and encounter. Students will benefit from a series of lectures delivered by specialist academics and peacemakers from around the world; they are given training in the practice of inter-faith Scriptural Reasoning and are facilitated through a process of teaching one another about aspects of their traditions. The Summer School also includes visits to religious communities around the UK. Most importantly, participants benefit from opportunities to get to know and learn from their fellow participants, who come from a wide variety of countries; relationships which last well beyond the Summer School itself.
The Summer School will be an opportunity for inter-faith engagement that adheres to CIP's ethos. We will explore the resources that each tradition offers for peaceful and serious engagement with the others, and look for the forms of coexistence and friendship that are possible between traditions that remain distinct and different. Coming to agreement on theology, politics or any other subject is not our aim, nor is the creation of some neutral middle ground; rather the aim is to learn to live well with disagreement, and to disagree more fruitfully and intelligently.
"The Cambridge Inter-faith Programme Summer School honestly
changed my vision on interfaith experiences. I had never before
encountered an interfaith program quite like it. The ability to live,
dine, converse, become friends, and network with a global connection of
people from the three Abrahamic religions in such a fantastic, peaceful
environment is not something that can be easily replicated. If I were an
Imam and facing a problem in my community, I would turn to the close
friends I made on the Summer School to
seek their advice before turning to other Imams, because they have a
different view and are a resource that is trusted and invaluable. This
alone is tribute to the success of the program: the fact that people of
different backgrounds and faiths can genuinely form friendships and care
about one another and trust them enough to seek their advice."
Muslim student, USA, CIP Summer School 2011.
APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2012 SUMMER SCHOOL HAVE CLOSED. TO FIND OUT ABOUT THE 2013 CIP SUMMER SCHOOL, SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER, OR WATCH OUR WEBSITE IN JANUARY 2013.
For more information, see the Summer School webpage and our Summer School film.