Faiths meet on day of Pentecost and Buddha's birthday
Hong Kong (ENI). May 19, 2005
Christian scholars in Hong Kong underscored the importance of inter-religious dialogue, especially between Christianity and Buddhism, at a meeting on the feast of Pentecost, the same day as Buddha's birth 2549 years ago was commemorated. "God calls us into dialogue with neighbours of different faiths because God is a God of dialogue," said the Rev. John Lemond, a director at the Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre. "Incarnation is the manifestation of God's desire for us to be in dialogue."
FATIMA TO BECOME INTERFAITH SHRINE
Nov. 1, 2003
Delegates attending the Vatican and United Nations (UN) inspired annual interfaith congress "The Future of God", held during October in Fátima, heard how the Shrine is to be developed into a centre where all the religions of the world will gather to pay homage to their various gods.
The Congress was held in the Paul VI Pastoral Centre and presided over by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon José de Cruz Policarpo. The Shrine's rector, Monsignor Luciano Guerra, told the Congress that Fátima "will change for the better." Addressing Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Orthodox, Buddhist and African Pagan representatives he stated: "The future of Fátima, or the adoration of God and His mother at this holy Shrine, must pass through the creation of a shrine where different religions can mingle.
The inter-religious dialogue in Portugal, and in the Catholic Church, is still in an embryonic phase, but the Shrine of Fátima is not indifferent to this fact and is already open to being a universalistic place of vocation." The Hindu representative Ansshok Ansraj, described how already in the Far East millions of Hindus are getting "positive vibrations" from visiting Marian shrines without endangering their faith. Monsignor Guerra pointed out that the very fact that Fátima is the name of a Muslim and Mohammed's daughter, is indicative that the Shrine must be open to the co-existence of various faiths and beliefs. According to the Monsignor: "Therefore we must assume that it was the will of the Blessed Virgin Mary that this comes about this way." Traditional Catholics opposed to the Congress were described by the Monsignor as "old fashioned, narrow minded, fanatic extremists and provocateurs."
For the first time in the 86-year history of Fátima all of the Pagan and Christian delegates were invited to participate in the Ecumenical celebrations. One of the principle speakers, the Jesuit theologian Father Jacques Dupuis, was insistent that the religions of the world must unite. "The religion of the future will be a general converging of religions in a universal Christ that will satisfy all", he said. The Belgium born theologian argued: "The other religious traditions in the world are part of God's plan for humanity and the Holy Spirit is operating and present in Buddhist, Hindu and other sacred writings of Christian and non-Christian faiths as well."
In an impassioned plea he said: "The universality of God's kingdom permits this, and this is nothing more than a diversified form of sharing in the same mystery of salvation. In the end it is hoped that the Christian will become a better Christian and each Hindu a better Hindu." An official statement put out by the Congress called for a non-proselytising approach by all religions. "No one religion can irradiate another", it said "or strengthen itself by downplaying others and an open dialogue is the way to building bridges and tearing down walls of centuries of hate. What is needed is that each religion be true to its faith integrally and treat each religion on the same footing of equality with no inferior or superiority complexes." It emphasised that the secret to peace amongst all religions is admitting that contradictions exist between creeds but to concentrate on what unites them as opposed to what separates them. Delegates agreed that religious shrines, including Fátima, should be revamped every 25 years to reflect modern day trends and beliefs. The Shrine of Fátima is about to undergo a complete reconstruction with a new stadium-like basilica being erected close by the existing one built in 1921.
Secularism is stifling religious expression Anglican primate warns
ENI - Vancouver, 14 January, 2002
The primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Michael Peers, has cautioned that secularism in Canada is threatening the public expression of religion. In a New Year's sermon at Ottawa's Christ Church Cathedral, Archbishop Peers said that government officials were ridding public ceremonies of religious references for fear of offending someone. He pointed to the national service of mourning held three days after the 11 September attacks in the United States. The ceremony, on the lawn of the parliament buildings, attended by Prime Minister Jean Chretien and other government leaders, avoided any religious reflection, the archbishop said. The omission brought criticism from many quarters and invited comparisons with similar services in the United States and the United Kingdom that included strong religious components.
Canada boasts of its "secularism, pluralism and democracy", Archbishop Peers said, adding that many public officials think that state secularism requires them to purge religious references from public speech.
The country prides itself on its multiculturalism but it is making a mistake if it ignores the faith upon which many of those cultures are based, the archbishop said.
"A culture is far more than simply folklore, and that is especially true for people of faith," the primate said.
The service after the terrorist attack on the US was not an isolated event, the senator said, pointing to the memorial service held after the 1998 crash of Swissair flight 111 off the coast of Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia.
"Christians present [at that memorial service] were instructed not to read Scripture, not to give Christian prayers and not to mention Jesus."
German president calls need for religious dialogue 'ever more urgent'
ENI - Oct. 17, 2001
Geneva (ENI). Visiting the Geneva headquarters of the World Council of Churches today, German President Johannes Rau said that dialogue between the world's religions was essential if the world was to live in peace. "Without peace between the world religions, world peace is not possible," said President Rau, citing the Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Kung.
MULTI-FAITH CORONATION' FOR PRINCE CHARLES
By Rachel Sylvester London Telegraph 4/10/00 -- (Abridged text)
THE Prince of Wales could be crowned King in a multi-faith inauguration ceremony rather than the 1,000-year-old Coronation service, under proposals to tackle "religious discrimination" being considered by the Government.
A report commissioned by Jack Straw claims that the establishment of the Church of England causes "religious disadvantage" to other faiths and Christian denominations. The coronation ceremony, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in which the monarch swears to uphold the Protestant faith, may no longer be appropriate in modern, multi-cultural Britain, it says. The sovereign's role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England and "Defender of the Faith" should also be reviewed. The paper, an interim report on religious discrimination, puts disestablishment of the Church of England firmly on the Government's agenda for the first time since Labour came to power.
The Church of England is itself considering ways to be more "inclusive". The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, is reported to have told an audience in his diocese that he expects the Church one day to be disestablished.
The Home Office report, by Prof Paul Weller and a team at Derby university, says the next coronation will be the next focus of controversy which the Government should tackle as a matter of urgency. It says: "Coronations are state events which, historically, have expressed the close symbolic relationship between established religion and the state.
"The religious composition of society has changed significantly since the last coronation and the next coronation will therefore highlight a series of very important issues and complexities, which it would be best to begin giving consideration to as soon as possible."
Some Anglican bishops, including Dr David Hope, the Archbishop of York, have already been
considering changes to the ritual, which has been a Christian ceremony since 973, when Edgar
was crowned by Archbishop Dunstan at Bath. Proposals, which include involving other
religious leaders, rewriting the oath and abandoning the eucharist, have been discussed.
The Prince of Wales has made clear that he wants to be the "defender of faith" rather
than the "defender of the faith", in order to reflect the number of religions practised
in Britain.
The researchers point out that the Human Rights Act, which takes effect in October, specifically protects people from discrimination on the grounds of religion and could lead to legal challenges if nothing is done. A Home Office spokesman said the report "is being looked at very thoroughly by the Home Office but nothing has been taken on board yet".
LEADERS OF NINE FAITHS STAND TOGETHER
By Victoria Combe, Religion Correspondent London Telegraph 1/4/00
Leaders from the nine religious faiths in Britain stood together in the Palace of Westminster yesterday and made a public commitment to "work together for the common good" in the Third Millennium. The unprecedented event, hosted by the Prime Minister, brought together Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Sikhs, Jains, Baha'is and Zoroastrians in the Royal Gallery of the House of Lords. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, stood shoulder to shoulder with the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, Iqbal Sacranie, and leaders of the other faiths.
Wearing a colourful mixture of turbans, cassocks, skullcaps and saffron robes, the leaders recited together: "In a world scarred by the evils of war, racism, injustice and poverty, we offer a joint Act of Commitment." They committed themselves to "build a better society, grounded in values and ideals we share" and to work together "to help bring about a better world now and for generations to come". The Shared Act of Reflection and Commitment, the hour-long event of music, readings and prayers, dwelt on justice, community, compassion and respect. Tony Blair described the occasion as "progress of a very special sort" for the country which showed how religions, which had often been cause for division, "can reach out across the divide". Dr Carey emphasised the Christian nature of the millennial celebrations, but acknowledged "the increasingly important contribution of other faiths". He said: "This event will, I believe, be seen by future generations as truly historic."
WORLD RELIGIOUS MEET TO DISCUSS PEACE PARTNERSHIP
source "The Times of India"
Nov 25, 1999
AMMAN: More than 600 religious and political leaders from the world's major beliefs, and flashpoints such as Kosovo, Indonesia and the Middle East, will meet here this week to hammer out a partnership for the next millennium.
"Religious, political and civil leaders will seek to forge a dynamic partnership of religions and faiths working in a quest for peace and common living in the new millennium," the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP), which is organising the event, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The New York-based WCRP, which was founded in Japan in 1970, meets once every five years. This week's conference will be the seventh assembly to be held by the non-government organisation, which has members in more than 100 countries to provide "a global level for peace-related activities".
In addition to Muslims, Christians and Jews, those attending the gathering will include Confucianists, Baha'is, Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, Shintoists, Sikhs, Taoists and Zoroastrians.
Ethnic violence in Indonesia, the Kosovo war and the Arab-Israeli crisis that has plagued the Middle East for more than half a century will be among the key issues to be addressed at the conference, whose inaugural session will be addressed by Jordan's King Abdullah II.
A large number of religious leaders from Europe's troubled Balkan region, Bosnia and Kosovo as representatives from more than 25 religious communities in 10 southeast European countries, are expected to attend the conference. (AFP)
FROM BUDDHIST TO BA'HAI, RELIGIOUS LEADERS GATHER AT VATICAN
October 25, 1999 By Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press Vatican City (AP)
Against the backdrop of Chechnya, Kosovo and East Timor, representatives of 20 of the world's religions took up a Vatican invitation Monday for interfaith dialogue on global problems, including conflicts sparked by religious differences. In a message sent for the four-day conference's opening session, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I denounced exploitation of religion for political goals. He urged cooperation among religions as a way to counter the extremism that often leads to violence.
"Killing for religious reasons inspires in the most sensible consciences the demand to shift the confrontations between religions from the realm of brutal violence to that of dialogue and spiritual persuasion,'' Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, said in a statement. Pope John Paul II convened the first interfaith council in 1986 in Assisi, Italy. Its follow-up brings together 200 followers of faiths from Buddhism to Ba'Hai, Zoroastrian to American Indian, Sikh to Protestantism. John Paul is expected to address the conference on its closing day Thursday. The Tibetan spiritual leader in exile, the Dalai Lama, was in Rome on Monday and also was to have some publicly undefined role in the closing celebrations, said Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Vatican's interfaith council.
Other dominant religions, including Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism, are represented, but not by their leading figures. The meeting is hardly on common ground aside from a pilgrimage to Assisi, most of the conference's sessions are to take part in Vatican City, seat of the Roman Catholic Church. While the church chose the universal theme of world peace for the 1986 conference, it picked "On the Threshold of the Third Millennium'' for the follow-up. The date marks the 2,000th year of the Christian era. Arinze, a Nigerian-born cardinal, argued 2000 was a milestone in world history as well, and a time for all humanity to reflect, with a look back and forward. The aim of the conference is interfaith dialogue on all the world's problems. But the problem of interfaith conflict itself quickly came to the fore with bloodshed between traditionally Orthodox Russia and Muslim Chechnya only the latest example of it. The Kosovo conflict pitted Orthodox Serbs against ethnic Albanian Muslims. In East Timor, it was Muslim Indonesia against predominantly Roman Catholic East Timorese.
"To make war, you need only a few. To make peace, the cooperation of all is necessary,'' Arinze said. "If you want peace in the world, you must seek the collaboration of religious leaders, whether you agree with their religion or not.'' At the closing day, the delegates will break from their meetings for an evening of prayer but separately, by faith, rather than together. A common prayer would be "full of theological difficulties,'' and beyond the scope or intent of the Vatican in calling the council, Arinze said. "Prayer depends on what you believe,'' he said. "If we do not believe in the same things, we cannot have the same prayers.''
"Any use of religion to support violence is an abuse of religion,'' John Paul said in his final message to the four-day council, speaking to a crowd of red- and orange-robed Asian monks, Catholic priests in black cassocks, Muslim women in head scarfs and Africans and American Indians in the traditional clothing of their own countries.
Beyond the message of tolerance it produced, the council was remarkable for the scenes it brought to a bastion of Christianity: An American Indian pivoting in the center of the square at sunset, blessing the four corners of the earth from the heart of Rome. Muslims spreading out newspapers in the marble colonnade to kneel toward Mecca and pray. "If you want to know what this accomplished, I'll tell you this,'' said Rabbi Ron Kronish. ``This morning at coffee, a colleague from a neighboring country - I won't say which one, but I'm from Israel - told me, `This is the first time in my life I ever met a Jew.'''
John Paul summoned representatives of the world's religions to the Vatican for one last try during this millennium at cooperation to solve common problems of the world's people. The council is opposed by traditionalists in many religions, made uneasy at seeing their faith put on an equal footing with others. The first Vatican interfaith council, at Assisi in 1986, was a factor in the only formal Catholic schism of this century, when hard-liners in the church in France broke away from the Vatican. This second meeting, 13 years later, stressed the differences between religions - but denounced exploiting them for violent ends. Twenty-six Buddhists from West and East alike were among the believers taking part in the council, but, notably, the list included none from mainland China. Tibet's spiritual leader in exile, the Dalai Lama, joined the last hours of the ceremony, sitting next to John Paul on the steps of St. Peter's in the candlelit closing ceremony.
ANGLICAN BISHOP HOPES TO SET UP "UNITED RELIGIONS" ORG
Thu Jun 24,1999
Leaders of an initiative to set up a united body of the world*s religions, paralleling the United Nations, claim that their campaign is gaining momentum.
The Christian clergyman spearheading the "United Religions Initiative", California-based Episcopal (Anglican) Bishop William Swing, said that religions lagged at least half-a-century behind nation states in establishing international forums to resolve conflicts between different faiths. "As nations have got together for the past 50 years to pursue global good, during the same 50 years the religions have not spoken to each other and have not sat down to figure out what their common vocation is," he told ENI during a visit to Jerusalem during which he, along with the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, attended an inter-faith conference.
"The problems, among religions, and in religions, are everyday problems, and they are not going to be solved, or addressed or helped, until we finally have some kind of 'United Religions', that will parallel the United Nations, so that we can carry out negotiations." His goal is to set up the world body of religions by June next year, and he remains hopeful of meeting the deadline - with God's help. The initiative also has the support of the Dalai Lama, whose visit to Jerusalem this month was sponsored by Bishop Swing's Inter-Religious Friendship Group and the Inter-Religious Co-ordinating Council in Israel.
"The Dalai Lama and I have been talking about this for several years and he is very supportive," said the bishop, who added that he had also discussed his proposal with Vatican officials. "We see Northern Ireland, we see Sri Lanka, we see the Sudan, we see the Middle East, we see religions pitted against each other. And we are going to see more of that, not less. What happens when we have five extremist religious groups in charge of five countries with hands on atomic weapons? "The only answer, he said, was to set up an organisation of world regions bounded by clear structures and principles, agreed by all the participants." To this end, he and others of like mind have been working on a charter that might be adopted by such a body. He stressed that the model should be quite different from the bureaucratic framework of the United Nations. The structural basis for such a body had already been formed thanks to the growing trend to have inter-faith groups, he said.
"In the San Francisco Bay area 19 cities have inter-faith chapters that have just grown up spontaneously, nobody tried to organise them," he said. Bishop Swing said the trends were the result of greater interaction and greater intermarriage between races and faiths. This was in large part due to the process of global integration. "It's going to be a whole new world very quickly, and there are going to be religions living beside each other everywhere," he said. Later this year Bishop Swing will attend an inter-faith forum in Atlanta, Georgia, hosted by former US President Jimmy Carter, who has expressed interest in the project.
"We want to build up a core group of people of many religions, who have great respect for each other, and we will see where it goes," Bishop Swing said. In Chicago, US, a senior staff member of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions (CPWR), Travis Rejman, said that he personally admired many of Bishop Swing's ideas. Stressing that he was not speaking on behalf of his organisation, Rejman said that all ventures to promote inter-religious harmony were welcome.
POPE JOHN PAUL SET TO STRENGTHEN DIALOGUE WITH EUROPE'S MUSLIMS
Warsaw (Ecumenical News Intl) 2/23/99
Pope John Paul II is scheduled to hold his first-ever meeting with Muslim leaders from Eastern Europe during a visit to Poland in June this year. According to Bishop Wladyslaw Miziolek, a member of the Catholic Church in Poland's ecumenical council, the talks are intended to encourage Christians and Muslims to recall their "common spiritual roots" by promoting closer inter-faith co-operation throughout Europe.
LUTHERANS APPROVE END TO 400-YEAR DISPUTE WITH VATICAN
Weekend News Today Source: Nando Times Tue Jun 16 , 1998
The body representing most of the world's 61 million Lutherans approved a joint declaration on Tuesday that aims to end a 400-year doctrinal dispute with the Vatican over the Reformation, Reuters reported. Lutheran officials said the 19-page text, intended to mend the split between Protestants and Roman Catholics, was still being studied by theologians at the Vatican.
In a statement, the Federation said its ruling 48-member Council had unanimously approved the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" after polling its 124 member churches in 69 countries over the past year. "The 'Joint Declaration' ends 400 years of condemnations on the principal doctrinal dispute of the Reformation, that salvation is a gift from God through grace, not something humans earn through good works," LWF said in a statement. "The 'Joint Declaration' asserts that though there still remain some differences on the understanding of justification, the differences are not substantial enough to warrant the condemnations," it added.
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