The meeting at Mülheim was just part of an on-going process of consultation which has involved both the Unit on Education and the Office on Interreligious Relations of the WCC for the last years. This on-going consultation, involving women and men involved in education, is in response to a commitment by the WCC to make Christian religious education in religiously and culturally pluralist societies a priority concern.

What follows are the stories that each woman and participant brought to the consultation, an introduction to the topic, ‘the story of the consultation’ and two reflections on the meeting.

The final section is a ‘statement’ of the consultation, which all the women felt able to subscribe to. In order to arrive at this agreed statement the women worked in small groups over a period of two days and this final document was put together by a participant from the United States.

This document does not pretend to be scholarly, nor to offer solutions to questions; nevertheless it touches upon the most basic and fundamental questions facing educators today and contributes to the ongoing process of education for a religiously plural world.

The women came from varied backgrounds, ages and contexts. There was also a variety in the amount of experience they had had in the field of inter-religious living and dialogue. But from whatever background, almost without exception, there was a realisation that they had learned from the experience of spending these days together.

For some women this was just the beginning of an encounter with women from another faith tradition. Those women who were more experienced in dialogue felt refreshed through sharing in the excitement and enthusiasm of those new to the venture.

The over-riding feeling at the end of the five days was that this is just the beginning. Expressing the desire to meet again, many women returned to their homes with an increased commitment to working for a greater awareness of the educational needs in a multi-faith society. All the women had made new friends and had learned more about themselves, their own faith tradition and that of the other.

The voices of the women of Mülheim will be taken back to the WCC and offered as a significant contribution to the ongoing process of education and ecumenical learning in religiously and culturally plural contexts.

Anne Davison is Inter Faith and International Adviser to the Church of England Diocese of Chelmsford. She is also the Deputy Moderator of the Advisory Group on Interreligious Relations of the World Council of Churches.