Conferences

A central activity of ICCS is organising a conference every third year. The theme is often suggested by the correspondents and worked out by the board. A local committee of the host country is then asked to undertake the organisation. These conferences are aimed at promoting discussion, exchanging ideas and stimulating contacts on a European level. Since 1958 triennial conferences have been organised. The most recent were:

1979 Liebfrauenberg ( France):'Jesus and the (school) community'

1982 Driebergen (The Netherlands): 'Religious Education in a multi-cultural society'

1985 Loccum (Germany):'Values and Norms in school education'

1988 Chichester (England): 'Teaching the Bible Creatively in the Contemporary World'

1991 Järvenpää (Finland): 'Private, personal and public religion'

1994 Rome (Italy): Christian minorities in a pluralistic world: is confessional RE the answer?

1997 Strasbourg (France): Spirituality and Europe

2000 Trondheim (Norway): The Pluralistic European Society. Opportunities for Co-operation between Church and School?

2003 Budapest (Hungary) - click here for the conference report in English and here for a German report.

2006 Tartu (Estonia) - click here for more details about the conference.

Other activities

"A European Conference on 18/19 September 2008 in Berlin with the theme:

Diversity shapes Europe’s Future

The Contribution of Intercultural Dialogue and Religion to Education for Living together in Europe. The program includes presentation of current European developments with workshops, lectures and speeches. It provides political as well as academic perspective, together with dialogue sessions between representatives of political institutions and networks of Christian churches in Europe."

Sometimes, conferences are organised in co-operation with other organisations, e.g. the International Association for Christian Education (IV), the European Conference on Christian Education (ECCE) or the Council of Europe. In 1990, ICCS adopted a statement on 'European Perspectives of Education' after having held a symposium together with the Loccum Institute of Religious Education (RPI).

In 1998, ICCS supported the founding of the Co-ordinating Group for Religious Education in Europe - CoGREE (http://www.cogree.com) in which six European wide organisations are co-ordinating their common activities as well as supporting each other. CoGREE includes representatives of IV, ECCE, EFTRE (Euro-pean Forum for Teachers of RE), RE Network and EAWRE (European Association for World Religions in Education). ICCS introduced the discussion about European education policies of the Council of Europe and the European Union as permanent working issues to CoGREE.

Usually, reports of ICCS conferences are pub-lished and available to all who are interested.

Frequently a working group is established to work on a certain theme more in depth. These working groups, composed of 8 - 12 participants from different European countries, prepare a publication or a contribution to a conference.