Commemorating Damietta in Germany and France

“Interfaith dialogue is at the heart of Franciscan spirituality. Therefore it is our obligation as brothers and sisters of Saints Francis and Clare to contribute to it.” It was with this obligation before them that our Brothers in Germany, together with their sisters and brothers in the Inter-Franciscan Working Group in Germany (Interfranziskanische Arbeitsgemeinschaft), developed a special webpage dedicated to the significance of the 800^thanniversary of the meeting between St. Francis and Sultan al-Malik al-Kamal for the world today: www.infag.de/seiten/doku.php/1219_religionsdialog. On this dedicated webpage (available only in German) readers will discover the programs, publications and special events that the Franciscan Family in Germany is organizing to commemorate this special anniversary. As the webpage will be continually updated with new information about events, our Brothers invite you to visit it frequently. Our Brothers in the Franco-Belgian Province have a long history of dialogue with the followers of Islam, and of placing the experience that is the fruit of that history at the service of the Church and the world. In this spirit, our Brothers in France and Germany have prepared a flyer detailing the many programs, publications, and special events that they are organizing to this 800^thanniversary of the encounter between the Saint and the Sultan. On their flyer (in French) our Brothers share such planned activities as a visit of their Dervish friends to France in March, a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in September, and, in collaboration with the French Bishops Conference’s National Service for Dialogue with Muslims, a study tour to Egypt in November. Our Brothers have also developed a Facebook page detailing these and other events. Please see the flyer for more information. Brothers and Provinces throughout the Order are invited to share stories of many ways that they will commemorate the 800^thanniversary of the encounter between St. Francis and the Sultan. These stories, and accompanying photos, videos, etc, should be sent to the General Secretariat for Missions and Evangelization, evangen@ofm.org. [gallery type="rectangular" link="file" ids="21708,21710,21711,21712,21713"]