International Scientific Committee on Places of Religion and Ritual
The International Scientific Committee on Places of Religion and Ritual (PRERICO) is now officially established, following the decision of the Advisory Committee, together with the ICOMOS Board, on 7 March 2017, accepting its bylaws and appointing its first Bureau.
The first Bureau is confirmed as:
- Hae-Un Rii, Korea, President
- Henrik Lindblad, Sweden, Vice President
- John Hurd, UK, Vice President
- Britta Rudolff, Bahrain/Germany, Secretary
- Vita de Waal, UK, Treasurer
Other members of the original Committee include:
Erik Anderson – Sweden, Dinu Bumbaru – Canada, Yonca Erkan – Turkey, Michael Mail – UK, Giora Solar – Israel, and Michael Turner – Israel.
PRERICO has been established to research, and provide specialised interests in Monuments and Sites of Religions and Ritual, including places of world religions and local traditions and beliefs, religious heritage and sacred places including their intangible significance.
The first meeting was held at ICOMOS headquarters in Paris on 6 -7 March. The purpose of the meeting was to establish and trigger the activity of the Committee and develop an action plan. The action plan will include the development of membership at expert and associate levels and collaborate to achieve the mission, following consultation with the Scientific Council and the ICOMOS Board. A provisional calendar of PRERICO work, events and scientific meetings was part of the outcomes of the March working session.
PRERICO recognises the hard work of several ISCs and National Committees who work on related topics and we look forward to co-operating with these and others, in the future.
PRERICO will communicate soon with all ICOMOS committees as part of an effort to develop the membership of PRERICO and hope members will accept to contribute their expertise to this important thematic work.
Applications from all members both expert and associate are governed by the selection criteria in PRERICO’s by-laws and need to reflect diversity in region, culture, religion or belief, profession, gender and age.
