Winter journey to Philippines

I was invited by the Southern Philippines Methodist College to speak on the topic at the 15th Foundation Day Anniversary on "The relationship between Christians and Islam in Ghana. The invitation was sent by the Dean of Theology- Rev. Dr. Noel Guzman. I left Japan on the 2nd February, 2009 and returned back on the 16th February, 2009. I spoke at the morning chapel of the College and I spoke about how the technology is creating emptiness within the society.
At the Ecology class, I spoke about the concept of ARI and encouraged them to eat more organic food rather than the so called junk foods. The third speech which was the main topic of the Anniversary. I met the students of the School of Theology and I spoke about the relationship between Christians and Islams in Ghana. I tried not to speak about the theology of the both religion, because my idea was that, I do not want to stand for or against any of the religion. I tried to speak about the practicality of the both religions. We read from Genesis 25:9, which reads " His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite" The emphasis was on the dead of Abraham and his two sons which we believed that they are the Christians and Islam are the descendants of them. I encouraged them that when it comes to critical issues, that can bring both of the religious group together to address, they should put away their religious interest and address it together.
According to Leslie E. Moser, "religion experience has always been deeply rooted in humanperson's nature, through the ages, humanperson has clung tenaciously to his/her religions concepts" this means that we always quest for an explanation of our being and destiny are the products of our superior brains. since humanperson is a thinker being, he/she seeks reasons of existance of all things, therefore, religion becomes one of the results of the ways of seeking for the explanation of mysteries around life such as death and life.If we study religion from free minds we will discover that, religion is not just for meaning and understanding of a searching, but we can find out that religion stands for security. Religion is abviously provides security to it adherances, and perhaps, this might be one of the reasons of the religious conflicts because all the adherances of the both religous groups are trying to protect the security. continue; 3/3/09








Bernard Timothy Appau
Community Life Coordinator/Chaplain
ARI Asian Rural Institute
441-2 Tsukinokizawa, Nasushiobara
Tochigi-ken 329-2703
Tel. +81-287-36-3111
Fax +81-287-37-5833