[SAVE THE DATES!!!] Twenty years of commitment to religious pluralism in Barcelona (2005–2025)
Barcelona City Council is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Office of Religious Affairs (OAR in Catalan), a pioneering municipal service that promotes and guarantees religious freedom and manages religious and spiritual pluralism in the city. The OAR is committed to guaranteeing and defending religious freedom as a fundamental right that is basic and essential in a full democracy.
To mark these 2 decades (2005–2025) of work with and commitment to religious and spiritual communities and interculturality, the OAR invites city residents to take part in 2 activities that celebrate a path paved over the course of 20 years, as it continues to deal with challenges and new realities (#20OAR).
Barcelona City Council opened its Office of Religious Affairs (OAR, by its initials in Catalan) in 2005, though it was called the Barcelona Interreligious Centre at that point (CIB in Catalan). It was created to safeguard rights and freedoms of religion and conscience in the city. Since then, it has evolved and sought to promote religious pluralism and create spaces for dialogue with religious communities and city residents in general. Furthermore, as a municipal service, OAR exists to attend to, advise and inform both religious communities and City Council staff, and it establishes stable links and connections with communities and entities of different beliefs and spiritualities, as well as with leaders, in order to guarantee an intercultural perspective and the right to religious freedom.
The construction of the Abraham Centre during the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 and the hosting of the fourth Parliament of the World’s Religions in 2004, as part of the Universal Forum of Cultures, consolidated Barcelona City Council’s commitment to interreligious dialogue, so much so that it created the CIB in 2005. The CIB became the first municipal office dedicated to guaranteeing religious freedom open to city residents, and it facilitated relations with the city’s religious and spiritual communities. This office became the only one of its kind internationally and acted as an example and a benchmark for future bodies and offices within other public administrations.
Three years later, in September 2008, the CIB changed its name to the Office of Religious Affairs (OAR), with a view to better reflecting its day-to-day work with Barcelona’s religious communities and citizens. In addition, the office moved to Carrer de Comerç, in the district of Ciutat Vella – a more central space in the city – in order to provide it with more visibility and highlight its importance. At the same time, the figure of the Religious Affairs Commissioner was created (a role that would evolve over the years).
In 2019, the OAR became part of the Department of Interculturality and Religious Pluralism, in the Area for Culture, Education, Science and Community (now the Area for Culture, Education, Sport and Life Cycles), and management of religious pluralism was consolidated within the city’s intercultural policy, in accordance with the Barcelona Interculturality Plan 2021–2030. Today, the OAR continues to be a leading entity on a local, national and international scale, and it inspires other administrations to incorporate the religious pluralism perspective into their public policies. The OAR actively contributes to Barcelona’s status as a dynamic, diverse, rich, plural city, which is a source of pride for its residents.
To celebrate two decades of work shoulder to shoulder with Barcelona’s religious and spiritual communities, two activities open to the public will take place in June: an institutional conference with various round tables and a guided tour around the city. These activities are designed to highlight the OAR’s work over the years, to raise the profile of the projects it has driven since it was created and to generate a space for collective dialogue regarding the present and future challenges relating to religious pluralism we face in Barcelona. With a perspective that brings together memory, institutional action and the communities’ voices, this anniversary is an opportunity to recognise diversity as an essential asset, needed to build a fairer, more unified city.
On Wednesday 11 June, the Saló de Cròniques will be the venue for 3 round tables, which will provide different perspectives focusing on the history and impact of the office. The celebration will continue on Wednesday 18 June with the guided walking tour ‘Religious pluralism, memory and urban transformations’ around the Ciutat Vella district, led by the sociologist Víctor Albert-Blanco, from the Sociology of Religion Research team, or ISOR (organised by Espai Avinyó and the OAR).