In his speech to open our first International Consultants Conference in September 2004, Lord Hurd made a statement that goes directly to the heart of the TICC's vision. "We cannot fight terrorism with bullets," he said.

Lord Hurd with Nadim Nassar

Hostility, fear and ignorance can be eliminated only by changing hearts and minds. Our troubled world lacks the necessary education not only to cope with diversity, but more important to learn that difference must be valued. The world has become a global village in which we are all neighbours, which raises the question, "What does it mean to love my neighbour as myself?"

The TICC has made a first response to this challenge by bringing together twenty-five Christian leaders, lay and ordained, representing various cultures and traditions of East and West. Consultants from the Middle East, Europe and North America entered a space of dialogue and, more important, a space of listening to each other and to God the Holy Spirit. That historic encounter has become an opportunity for a new era of relationships between the East and the West based on the desire to learn from each other. The addresses given at the Conference reflected the eagerness of these leaders to engage with the TICC in taking the first step of our long journey together.

Over the three days of the conference, the Consultants shared the challenges facing them in their own regions and together formulated action plans to make the TICC vision truly international, seeking out the best ways for TICC to be relevant and effective in both East and West.

The International Consultants at the conference

The TICC was founded in a European context that is increasingly multi-faith, multi-cultural and post-Christian, with a distinctive mission to educate Christians to be more knowledgeable and confident in their faith and, on that basis, more aware and appreciative of other cultures and other faiths.

However, the conference brought to light the need to apply TICC's "education with a difference" in many other contexts. In the East, for instance, Christians have been living side by side with people of other faiths for many centuries. Their urgent need is encouragement and support to remain in their own lands in Christian witness. North America, on the other hand, presents the problem of encouraging and educating Christians to hold the embattled middle ground between conservative biblical literalism and a diluted gospel wedded to shifting cultural pressures.

As a direct result of the conference the major task of writing a TICC Training Manual is now being undertaken, with input from North America and the Middle East, so that its courses can be taught appropriately around the world. All TICC material is now being translated into Arabic. A regional meeting took place in Beirut on 10th and 11th December 2004 to review the translation and to prepare for a Middle East TICC activity. In North America the Consultants are planning their own regional meeting to discuss the way forward. And in Europe Canon Bruce Duncan is coordinating the International Consultants work supported by the TICC office in London.