Religious Affairs Office

Schools are a reflection of society and the dynamics of culture and coexistence, which occur both on a global scale and inside the classroom. The religious beliefs and practices of pupils and their families are therefore part of life in the school, and it is necessary to find a place for all choices regarding faith, in a context of non-discrimination and respect. In pursuit of this, in 2022, the Office for Religious Affairs created its learning and community service project “Discovering the diversity of beliefs in your area”, in order to meet a need for facilitating knowledge about, and recognition of, the city’s religious plurality. The project aims to generate local spaces for training, participation and dialogue between the various beliefs and the general public, taking into account the specific needs of each neighbourhood. the project also aims to break down negative stereotypes in regard to the various religious and spiritual traditions. As Lídia, one of the students taking part in this year’s project, affirmed, this activity “has helped us to know each other, recognise each other and respect each other, and it has made us stronger as a group.

After visiting various centres of worship, interviewing people from those centres and creating a dynamic (teaching briefcase), the project undertaken by 3rd-year secondary school (ESO) students from the Sagrat Cor Besòs school, concluded in a ceremony that brought together all the parties involved to share its results. The APS/SC closing ceremony took place on 10 June at the Besòs-Maresme Civic Centre, attended by all the students and teachers who took part, along with representatives from the religious and spiritual communities or organisations who were interviewed in order to draft the teaching briefcase, including Marga Echezarreta, from the Nagarjuna Buddhist Centre, Jorge Burdman,from the Barcelona Israelite Community, Mario Condón, from the Krishna Awareness Association and Josep Morell, from the Jehova’s Witnesses. They also listened to the words and reflections of leading people from Barcelona City Council and the Education Consortium, including Robert Hernández, an Interculturality specialist from Besòs-Maresme and Francesc Vila, the coordinator of the LIC (Language and Social Cohesion) teams, respectively. Along with two representatives from the students and one representative from the religious communities, they took part in a round table which discussed the importance of respecting the right to religious freedom and managing religious diversity in education in order to improve social cohesion both inside and outside the classroom. At the event, the school also presented a video featuring the students, where they explained the knowledge they had before the project started, the nature of the learning process during the project and what they have learnt now that it has finished. After this interesting round table, the students who took part in the APS/SC project presided over the teaching briefcase game with some 6th-year primary school students from the same school, in order to show the audience the work carried out during the school year and the result of the project. The closing ceremony concluded with some words of thanks from Inmaculada Bajo de la Fuente, the District Councillor for Sant Martí, who stressed “the importance of young people as a he focus for municipal initiatives”.

This consolidated project has been a success for both the school’s students and teachers, and in general for the entire education community. During the closing ceremony, the students were able to convey and contribute the knowledge they had acquired during the activity, the close relationships they had formed with representatives from the participating communities and the local area, as well as sharing the results of the process. As Hamza, one of the students, explained “the experience has worked, because now, instead of making fun of someone, we put ourselves in their place”. The religious communities taking part also expressed their gratitude for the recognition and visibility of religious diversity fostered by this project, and its contribution to normalising religious faith in the educational sphere. For all of these reasons, this APS/SC project will be continuing in the 2024-2025 school year, with the aim of also reaching out to state schools.

Over the years, aware of the need to provide tools so that students and teaching staff can work on religious plurality in the classroom, and in society in general, the Office for Religious Affairs (OAR in Catalan) has worked on and consolidated various projects, materials and proposals in the area of education, which you can see HERE.

Gallery of images from the APS/SC closing ceremony.