Good news amidst bad news

Marawi is bad news. EJKs is bad news. Commission on elections scandal is bad news. Corruption in Bureau of Customs is bad news. So was said by media reports.

A University of the Philippines doctoral candidate came to interview me on history of interfaith dialogue from the grassroots—that’s good news. Another doctoral student from the Philippines Defense College writing on interfaith dialogue on a new involvement of the Armed Forces came also to interview me—that’s really good news. Last week August 21-25 at Apo View Hotel the Catholic Relief Services and Tanenbaum Group sponsored a “Conversations on Peacemaking through Interfaith Dialogue” with Muslims and Christians dialogue practitioners from Nigeria, Indonesia, and Mindanao—that’s also good news.

Next month on September 21 the Bishops-Ulama Conference and World Vision, Inc. will sponsor a “Conversation on Forgiveness in Islam and Christianity” with a Christian scholar from Syria and a Muslim scholar from the Mindanao State University—that’s good news also. And on 1 and 2 October 2017 in the Manila Hotel the International Red Cross and the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process will sponsor an international symposium on “Convergences of Respect for Humanitarian Law, Religious Principles and Customary Practices.” The international conference is a project of the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation. I will be one of the presentors for the said event—this too is good news.