The Youth Interfaith Forum aims at creating a dialogue between young adults and the generations on themes related to religious identities in religiously plural societies and how different generations deal with these issues. Plenary sessions, workshops and informal events will give young people unique opportunities to engage in a dialogue with leaders in the religious and inter-religious fields so as to contribute to building a society more in tune with their spiritual vision.

The following topics will be discussed in three thematic workshops: the transmission of religious identities, the construction of meaning in pluralist societies, and youth's definitions of the spiritual authorities; and three geographic workshops where young people from Geneva, Europe and the Middle East will discuss these topics in relation to their geographic contexts.

It is hoped that these discussions will be open and honest, but also critical; their content will be reported in the plenary sessions and at the international colloquium on 14 November, and a final report drafted.

DESCRIPTION OF WORKSHOPS
Affirming that today’s ultramodern societies are undergoing an acute crisis in the tranmission of their core values has become a common place. According to French religion sociologist Danièle Hervieu-Léger, « each and every institution that ensured a connection between generations, is now losing importance to the profit of shared experiences, direct communication, and ponctual commitment. » As an institution in its own right, religious identity is equally concerned by that observation. Rather than to " the conformity to institutionalized religious truths", current observations point to an evolution in religious identities grounded in personal experience and an authentic quest along four lines : community, ethics, culture, and emotions. When only one axis is followed, the sense of belonging in traditional communities is at risk.

In Western Europe, observers note a deep yearning for spirituality among youth, a tendency not to be understood in a strictly religious sense, but in a wider sense, as a permanent an active quest through the "avalanche of meaning" that caracterizes our societies. Along that quest, young people disconnect their beliefs and practices from institutionalized religion and dogmas, rites and religious practices, following a conscious move towards autonomy.

Young adutls, religious leaders and professionals of interreligious dialogue will address these questions in 6 different workshops. Each participant remains in the same workshop for the whole duration of the Forum.

THEMATIC WORKSHOPS
Religious identity in the making : How do we become who we are ?
What are the creation, stabilisation, evolution processes of our religious identity ? Are religious identities transmitted like heritages, or do we create them freely through our personal affinities for various religious traditions ? Should we understand our religious identities as trajectories along the lines of different communities and beliefs, or rather as fixed conglomerates thereof ? Can we « believe without belonging » or « belong without believing » ? This workshop invites young people and representatives of religious institutions to confront their understanding of religious identity.

Making sense in a plural world : What strategies do we use ?
How do we understand the mundane, the spiritual and ourselves, today ? What questions do we need to address to find meaning in our life, our relationships, our spiritual quest ? At what level(s) – personal, institutional, or universal – do we appropriate answers to these questions ? What role do other religions and their representatives play in formulating questions and answers ? In this workshop, youth and religious representatives will share about how they understand spirituality and how they make sense of the world, based on how they identify questions and answers in this field.

Religious and spiritual authorities : Who are our models ?
Today, what are the sources of meaning (institutionalized or not) ? Do we freely chose to tap them, or to submit to them ? How do we name a religious and/or spiritual authority ? What are our marks of trust and loyalty to the authority ? How do we recognize relevant religious and/or spiritual teachings ? This workshop will give youth and their elders an occasion to come face to face and address the important questions of spiritual and religious affinities and loyalty.

GEOGRAPHIC WORKSHOPS
Similar topics addressed with an emphasis on three different contexts : Geneva, Europe and the Middle East.

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