Ecumenical conference in Bangladesh

May 6, 2014: An inter-religious seminar was recently held in Bangladesh to promote cooperation and dialogue among ‎the country's various Christian denominations with greater ecumenical spirit and true Christian unity as ‎its goals. The Commission for Christian Unity and Inter-Religious Dialogue of the Catholic Bishops' ‎Conference of Bangladesh (CBCB) organized the conference in which representatives, both men and women ‎religious, from seven Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church took part. The ‎Commission has been promoting greater understanding among members of different religions of their ‎different spiritual values for several years. During the seminar, participants presented their pastoral ‎work in various fields like education, health and social work. "Our shared goal is to preach the word of ‎God," and for this "we are all working hard," said Auxiliary Bishop Lawrence Howlader of Chittagong, who organized the conference. "This seminar will help us build good relations ‎among the various churches," he said, adding, "If the Catholic and Protestant Churches worked more closely ‎together, both could benefit from the results that would be obtained."