Rev. Fr. Efren "Peng" Reyes, MJ is the Regional Youth Director of the Mindanao-Sulu Youth Apostolate and concurrently, the Executive Secretary of the MSPC-YS office. He belongs to the religious congregation of the Missionary of Jesus.
Fr. Peng divides his time between serving the youth of Mindanao and attending the needs of the Catholic lay faithful in the Our Lady of Peace Parish in Malabang, Lanao del Sur.
“Shared Treasure on Inter Religious Dialogue from
Experienced Pillars of Dialogue
Rufus Halley, a Columban Missionary from
The former was killed on his way back to Malabang from Balabagan on motorbike on
The person behind the two influential people mentioned above was a silent guy by the name Bienvenido Tudtud. He died on a plane crash in the mountainous region of Cordillera twenty years back and left no trace of his body. He once jokingly says: “When I leave, you won’t find even a single strand of my hair”. Yet his spirit lives on in the heart of many of us, Muslims and Christians alike. He is our beloved Tatay (Father), We fondly call him Tay Bido, the late bishop of Marawi. We acknowledged him as the author of our vision-mission in the Prelature ,i.e. “Dialogue of Life and Faith”- that served as impetus for Christians and Muslims as well to transcend the familiar walls of our space and the routine clock of our time. This upsurge turn as a movement and later became institutionalized in the Catholic Church as backbone for Inter- Religious/Faith Dialogue all around the globe. He once uttered, “The question is to go on towards the unreachable dreams because it is God’s will”.
Young People on the Journey towards Dialogue
Almost every year or two, for the past twenty years or so, the Prelature of Saint Mary traditionally held a big gathering of youth during Christmas or summer vacation. We called this Prelature-wide youth encounter participated in by Christian delegates from the different parishes- “PANAW”.
(‘Panaw’ is a Visayan word which means Journey or Pilgrimage). It’s duration normally lasted for three full days without counting the travel time spent from their parish of origin to the venue of panaw and back.
Compared to other youth encounters usually held in the parish or even in the Prelature, ‘Panaw centered’ on the integral formation of the young Christians. During the three full days, masses, reconciliation, and creative liturgies are celebrated. Social issues and concerns are discussed by invited speakers. I was still graced to organize together with the youth core group the last two of the ten panaw. One was held in Malabang in April 2004; the other in Sultan Naga Dimaporo in December 2007.
Major shift from Panaw to Peace Camp
In April 2003, during the 7th B.E.C. Prelature Pastoral Assembly held in Balabagan, Lanao del Sur; there was a proposal from the participants to organize a Prelature Youth Core Group whose task would be to craft an activity that would engage in a more regular encounter the Christian youth to dialogue with the Muslim youth. This recommendation faved the way for the 1st Prelature-wide Muslim Christian Youth Peace Camp.
The theme of the 1st Muslim Christian Youth Peace Camp was “Youth, Instrument of Peace and Reconciliation”. It was attended by around 80 Muslim and Christian delegates from six areas in the Prelature. This camp was for me a humbling and learning experience. It’s enchanting, at the same time nerve racking; full of surprises and breath-taking. Will we be able to enter into real dialogue with the Muslim youth? If there would be catharsis and traumatic experiences among both groups of Muslim and Christian that could be triggered by this camp, can we handle them professionally? To tell you frankly, I knew nothing then in the field of Inter Religious Dialogue.
One big enemy: bias or prejudice. One common sin: generalization
The first thing that we tackle during the workshop was the airing out of their youthful experiences, both positive and negative. Muslim says something about Christian and Christian about Muslim. The assembly found out that we all have a common experience of being victimized by our one big enemy- our own biases and prejudices against the opposite partner due to each group stereo-typing of the other. This simplistic categorization oftentimes lead to generalization of one group toward the other. Secondly, the majority of the group realized that these wrong ideas were handed down to them by their parents, relatives, elder and friend. Some have heard them over the radios, others have seen them on television. Still others have read them on newspapers. Nonetheless, there were also few stories they narrated that really happened in real life. Here are some of the lively and colourful pictures of stereo-typing they portrayed of the other which came out during the small group sharing:
The Visayan settlers (Christians) are afraid of the Maranao because of their ‘rido’ (family feud). The Visayan settlers don’t want to be part of the problem so they avoid befriending the Maranao. The settlers are being called by the Maranao as koper (pagan) because they eat pig that is forbidden by Qur’an. The female settlers wear sexy dresses and dance invitingly in public during fiestas. They are prostitutes and selfish. They are cowards. They do not help one another when one of them is being victimized by a Maranao.
On the other hand, the Maranao (Muslims) are tagged by the Visayan settlers as murderers, robbers, kidnappers and even terrorists. They have ill manners and bad attitude. Maranao are also naughty, hard headed and trouble maker. They easily get jealous. They are traitor or back fighters. They are not good losers. They are united against common enemy- the Christians.
Try hard to forgive and even harder to forget
Once finished journaling their negative experiences about the other, they were all asked to burn what they wrote on papers. Many readily gave in to the instruction and easily burnt what they scribbled on papers. Some hesitated to put their papers on fire. Still others had really a hard time following the simple instruction. Only Allah-God knew the reason why!
After the burning ceremony, all the Muslims went to a makeshift tent to do the act of ablution in the Islamic way. The Christians had in the open air the palina (fumigation practised for treatment or for various rites of purification) and then the washing of both hands on a big basin of warm water with boiled guava and lemon leaves.
When both had finished their respective rites of purification, reconciliation ensued. The heavy atmosphere turned lighter. By this time, they were no longer afraid or inhibited to approach the other. Peace and tranquility reflected visibly in their eyes and in every heart. We are one with the Psalmist in his song:
“How good, how delightful it is for all to live together like brothers: fine as oil on the head, running down the beard, running down Aaron’s beard to the collar of his robes…” (Ps. 133:1-2)
The recently concluded 2nd Muslim Christian Youth Peace Camp last
Let’s do the talking!
First was the fostering of families. The Muslim delegates will be housed in Christian families. And Christian families will be staying in Muslim families for four nights and five days. We call this integration. Let’s WALK the TALK. It seemed scary for those who were not exposed to mixed Muslim and Christian communities. But for those who grew up in communities of Muslim and Christian, the proposal sounded exciting! During the first night, a young man complained of mosquitos. He can’t sleep during the night without mosquito net. Three young ladies grumble regarding food. They were not used to drink coffee and eat pandesal. Aside from these problems, there were no other difficulty that arise during the integration.
We processed their experiences at the end of the camp together with their foster families. A mother who adopted three males- a Muslim, a Christian and a Mestizo, was so much impressed by the bonding and discipline of her adopted sons. They were together in all household chores, in suroy-suroy (promenade) and even on bed. Another father testified that the family was very thankful for receiving two females in their home. He said that their presence added more happiness and blessing in their midst. His youngest daughter was touched by their presence that she could hardly accept her two new sisters bid her farewell. More or less, the great majority of delegates were very happy and contented undergoing this integration part. Foster parents were so thankful for receiving new members of the family. One of our speakers and visitor during the last day, Bob Anton, from the famous Zone of Peace in Maladeg, even suggested to seal the bond of new relationship created during the integration period.
Our dream Muslim-Christian community
The second feature of the second camp was the construction of the youth dream of a Muslim Christian Community. The seven groups with 7-8 Muslim and Christian members and two facilitators-a Muslim and a Christian, were given a task to make a miniature Masjeed (Muslim place of worship), Church, Muslim houses, Christian houses, Muslim people, Christian people and ‘Kinaiyahan’ (creation). After forming their obra-maestra separately from other groups, we called them all to assemble at the big tent which served as our conference room and to put together within a 5m.x 5m.square their works of art. With full concentration and creative visualization, they step by step install what is in their minds and hearts.
One group, who constructed the mosque, arrange their work at the edge of the square in mutual agreement with a group (the one in-charge of creation) who made a sea. The former placed their mosque near the sea of the latter and explained to the assembly that Muslims, whenever they pray, would do the ablution first.
Another group who built a church place their piece a little bit at the center, in the midst of houses and described that churches are normally built in the midst of population to make them accessible to all Christians.
But what struck me in this activity was the one arrangement of people at the heart of the many structure of houses and places of worship and people. It was a gathering of three people- a Muslim, a Christian and the image of Abraham in between. The ones who arranged them declare: we want to dialogue because we are all brother and sisters under the one father of all believers- Abraham.
Let’s do it hand-in-hand
The last added flavour and I guess the most exhausting was the real bayanihan-style construction of a payag dubbed “Panday Payag sa Kalinaw”(Construct a Native Hut of Peace). The Christian delegates in seven areas of the prelature, together with their Muslim partners, raised fund to procure materials for construction. When camp delegates arrived, they brought with them these materials for construction such as cement, woods, bamboos, nails and strings. During the daily camp schedule, we allotted an hour for this activity. Each group spared 30 minutes for the Payag sa Kalinaw during dishwashing at
Hopefully, among these new breed of young Muslim and Christian men and women, a new Rufus, a new Mitchel and even a new Tay Bido would come out to cherish and treasure the hard won unity, mutual understanding and valuable respect earned by these bronzed dialoguers for Peace and Reconciliation.
