Moving clockwise from top left corner, the images are 1: Switzerland, 1994: Ecumenical Institute of Bossey (Peter Williams/WCC); 2: Switzerland, 1995: Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, Graduate School (1994-1995) (Peter Williams/WCC); 3: Tachai, China: Soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army receive their political education (Peter Ibbotson/Camera Press/London); 4: Switzerland, 1994: Ecumenical Institute of Bossey (Peter Williams/WCC); 5: Berlin: The loneliest garrison in the world (Stuart Heydinger/Observer Camera Press/London).
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With its peaceful setting overlooking Lake Geneva, in the midst of woods and fields at the foot of the Jura mountains, Bossey is an ideal site for reflection and discussion. But the people who come there, the wealth of experiences they bring and the topics they discuss have also ensured that Bossey is a place of lively exchange, sometimes sharp disagreement and discovery. Idyllic though it may seem, Bossey is never insulated from the realities of the world around.
The growth of the ecumenical movement depends on committed persons. For many people over the years, Bossey has been a special place for building such commitment. A report by its director in 1989 captured this vocation of the Ecumenical Institute:
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Since then thousands of women and men from all over the world and every Christian confession have come to Bossey for seminars, conferences and the graduate school. Through their encounters Bossey has become a "laboratory for ecumenical life".
The uniqueness of Bossey is its situation, the beauty of the place, the space around it. It is a space that invites the participants to open themselves to one another, to make the discovery of the richness of the gifts that God bestows on us in the encounter with those who are different from us. But Bossey is also a fragile, vulnerable place. All conflicts that arise here as well..