A GROUP of Catholic and Sikh teenagers from Ireland took part in an international peace festival in India last weekend.
Supercongress 2009 in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu in southern India drew together 2,000 teenagers of Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths from all over the world.
Organised by Christians of the Focolare movement and the Shanti Ashram, a Hindu Gandhian peace organisation in India, the youth festival aims to promote the so-called ‘Golden Rule’ – do unto others as you would have them do unto you – which is present in the sacred books of most world religions.
Since 2007, the Irish group of Catholics and Sikhs have been forging strong bonds of friendship and understanding through a series of monthly workshops in song, dance, art and cookery, originally in preparation for the annual Run4Unity worldwide relay race.
“We want to show a piece of united world in action,” said Focolare’s Catherine Burke.
Miriam O’Sullivan (17) and Catherine Healy (17) from Dublin, together with Preet Singh (16) from Navan and Simran Singh (16) from Lucan, told the conference about the co-operation between the communities and the effect it has had on their lives.
Dr Jasbir Singh Puri, a Sikh representative from Ireland, also addressed the audience, while 16-year-old Rianach Burns from Armoy, Co Antrim, shared her experience of living at home with her grandmother, who suffers from dementia.
“One day we realised that she got very agitated seeing herself in the mirror,” she recalled, “and so my little brothers and I drew pictures and used them to cover up all the mirrors around the house in an artistic way.
“This was a small idea we had so as to love her, but it made her much calmer.”
Two other teenagers from Northern Ireland, Edel McCormick (17) from Belfast and Cormac O’Broin (16) from Ballycastle, also spoke at the worldwide gathering.
