The community of Missionaries of Africa and MSOLA sisters at Lavigerie’s house in Karlsruhe, is formed by a Nigerian, a Rwandese and a German Missionaries of Africa and two MSOLA.
Our Mission is to live and promote interreligious and intercultural Dialogue, and to accompany the refugees who are our sisters and brothers.
We contact families, single persons, and some victims of human trafficking: accompany them to offices, to doctors and hospitals and help them to fill out their many papers and even to participate in social activities.
Every Thursday and twice on Saturdays we have a cooking program with refugees from the camps. They are very happy to cook their own food!
One of us helps in the Caritas fabric shop selling cheap clothes or even giving them free of charge.
During the interculturality week we opened wide our doors and invited refugees for a culinary feast. Refugees from Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Tunisia, India, Afghanistan, Haiti, and people from Karlsruhe accepted our invitation. Some cooked their favourite dishes in our house, others brought some tasty food from home.
We danced and drummed till late afternoon. It was a wonderful intercultural experience. And the little ones enjoyed drawing on the board and experiencing interculturality in a natural way.
The “Garden of Religions” organized a bike tour from one prayer house to the other. We also took part in an interreligious prayer. Starting with drumming, it ended with a prayer with texts from both Muslim and Christian traditions. Sr. Kordula played the flute to create a silent atmosphere.
The week of Silence is an interreligious and ecumenical event, with many activities. The silent walk for peace through town, or an early silent walk in the forest invites to a contemplation of creation. The opening prayer at the labyrinth in front of our Parish Church was an interreligious event. 14 persons answered our invitation to an evening Christian/Buddhist Prayer in our Lavigerie’s house.
After the prayer we spent some quality time around a cup of tea. The exchanges were very animated and interesting. Another day, 20 persons took part in the Christian/Muslim Prayer in our chapel. The silent atmosphere during both of these prayer times was impressive. Some women had come earlier during the day and prepared some finger food for the get-together after the prayer.
All enjoyed the goodies and a dance to the drums brought joy to all. It was a very good experience of brother and sisterhood.
Karlsruhe community (Germany)
