Nairobi — The Catholic Archbishop of Mombasa, Boniface Lele, has said that in order to maintain good relations between Christians and Muslims, clerics from both religions need to be trained on peace, coexistence, conflict resolutions and management.

Archbishop Lele said this during a Heythrop Conference in the UK on Islam - Christian relations in Africa, sponsored by the aid and development agency CAFOD.

The archbishop whose archdiocese is predominately Muslim further illustrated his point by giving an example of the already existing Coast Interfaith Councils of Kenya (CICC), with funding from the Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

"We should nevertheless remain realistic that we shall always have a certain amount of skeptics among Christians when it comes to Christian-Muslim relations," Lele said.

All Christian-Muslim forums must schedule adequate time for each religious group to undertake guided intra-religious dialogue sessions where religious homogeneous group positions can be given a chance to develop, the archbishop suggested.

He said that the existing good working relationship among Christians and Muslims has enabled a number of people from both religions to benefit from health, water, sanitation and education services through assistance from partners who cherish serving fellow brothers and sisters without discrimination on the religious basis, CAFOD being one of them.

However, he said, "pluralism in Catholic-sponsored schools with majority Muslim students and teachers remain a challenge in the archdiocese owing to loopholes inherent in the Education Act of Kenya.

"Recently the issue of the wearing of Hijabs (Muslim head gear) by girls in Catholic-sponsored schools has sparked heated debate. We as Catholics say it is divisive between male and female students with Muslims saying it is part of their faith."

Lele said a comprehensive government policy on student's religious dressing code, diet, sharing of desks by male and female students is needed and policies on how to accommodate multiple religious calendars, daily and weekly prayers and worship in Kenya without disrupting learning.

"Head teachers also, who take positions according to their conscience or choose to exercise their religious freedom by holding different views with their employer need guidelines on how to express their opinions without risking their jobs," he advised.

Still on challenges the archbishop said, "There is little agreement and sometimes open disapproval on the need for the Church to reach out to Muslims in dialogue among senior church leaders."

Lele said, "To date the activities regarding Christian Muslim Dialogue are handled by interested bishops, individual priests and religious institutions with little co-ordination between them.

However, he reiterated that individual initiatives by a few bishops, priests and religious institutions has generated local available theological resource people now available to facilitate interreligious dialogue training.

He mentioned that the Kenya Episcopal conference (KEC)-Ecumenical Commission has begun to consolidate individual bishops, priests and religious institutions activities and with time they look forward to a fully fledged KEC-Interreligious Commission.

"We should be witnesses of Gods indiscriminate love. After all people of all cultural and religious dispositions are made in the image of God," he said.

He said to manage relations with Christian groups that take a very different view on relations with Muslims communities, "We need to look deeply within the Catholic fraternity and acknowledge the various divergent views among Christians as far as Christian Muslim relations are concerned."

He said, "Then and only then can we credibly engage other Christians groups that take a very different view on relations with Muslims communities."

We all know that negative "Christian" behaviour towards people of different religions is fuelled by a parochial theological world views faithfully transmitted by theological mentors to theological novices.

He added that without solid ecumenical relations among Christians, the mission to dialogue with Muslims will be fragmented.

"I hope gradually the same clerics will overcome the attitude of defending one's own religion when ever it's accused of violence and instead jointly divulge into the murky waters of history and theology to understand better their mutual role in past violence and their joint responsibilities to be witnesses of peace in the world today," the clergy said.