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s2smodern

Nearly 2000 people - including 200 Syrian refugees – gathered in Namur for the 3rd edition of the RivEspérance Forum. They lived there a time of enthusiasm and reflection. “Vitamins before the winter”, according to a participant. The first evening, facing three inter-connected audiences counting 1100 people, Frédéric Lenoir declared: “What will cope with religious fanaticism, is spirituality. ” According to the bestseller writer, spirituality is the antidote to both main threats of today: fundamentalism and materialism.

On Saturday morning, Mgr Josef De Kesel urged the claim of a same freedom for all religions, Islam and Christianity alike, in stressing the need for a dialogue between religions. He also proposed to reopen the research on the question of married men’s ordination. The islamologist Rachid Benzine (The Walk, with Christian Delorme), Émeline De Bouver, Bernard Feltz, Bichara Khader each developed the topic: “To live in our common house”, in the respect of nature, cultures and religions.

Were also part of the program:  well over thirty workshop-debates, animations for children and teenagers, an OXFAM breakfast, the presence of Guy Gilbert and his homily in the cathedral, one convivial evening, a round table animated by Jean-Pierre Martin (RTL/TV), with Laurence Flachon a lady-pastor, Clotilde Nyssens the honorary senator, Rik Torfs the rector of the KUL, Fr. Charles Delhez s.j., times of prayer and a farewell celebration …. Some more precise figures: 1714 registered participants with 200 Syrian refugees in attendance, 70 exhibitors in 40 stands and a hundred volunteers. Thanks to you all, RivEspérance 2016 was one big hit. We hope that this edition brought to a greatest number, one moment of pause in their life, new ideas and especially, a breath of hope for the future. Our great celebration closed with these few words: “If RivEspérance 2016 has closed its doors, RivEspérance did not stop here. We again set out enriched with interventions in each conference or workshop, nourished by all our exchanges of views in this convivial environment and filled with wonder to discover or rediscover that we are not alone, but that, together, we form the Church. We set out again with a new energy, wishing to change the world where we are. Let us not stop when this celebration ends, but lets us carry on and make our common house a house where it feels good to be alive together and where each one feels at home. ” 

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s2smodern