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peace
Interfaith Peace Initiatives
One attempt to facilitate peace and reconciliation is the creation of the International Peace Council which brings together a small but diverse group of religious and spiritual individuals who are internationally known and respected. The authority of the Peace Council depends upon the moral authority of its members, who include HH The Dalai Lama, Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda, supreme leader of Cambodian Buddhism, Archbishop Desmond Tutu , Dr Dalil Boubaker, Rector of the Islamic Institute at the Paris Mosque and Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, who has worked for peace and justice in the Chiapas region of Mexico. Together the Council has spoken out against violence and abuse of human rights and it arranged a series of interfaith prayer services during the various conferences that led to the treaty to band Landmines.
The long established World Conference on Religion and Peace, which seeks to be representative of the world’s major religions, initially brought to bear the voice of religions against the dangers of nuclear weapons. Recently it has been given much attention to conflict resolution and has been particularly active in Sierra Leone and in the Balkans.
The International Interfaith Centre at Oxford has devoted several conferences to identifying what faith communities can actually do in the midst of conflict. They can try to keep lines of communication open.
The Millennium Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders is actively engaging women, youth, business and government leaders from every faith and region in the world to forge a partnership to reduce conflict, violence and religious hatred. It is also forming a World Council of Religious Leaders to serve as a resource to the United Nations and its agencies around the world, nation states and other international organizations, offering the collective wisdom and resources of the faith traditions toward the resolution of critical global problems.
Interfaith organisations may be able to provide a neutral venue where those on opposite sides can meet. Members of different faiths can join together in prayer for peace, as they did during the Gulf War, affirming thereby that our God-given humanity overrides national division.
Above all, religions, as the United Religions Initiative seeks to show, should be a voice pleading for the victims of violence and the abuse of human rights. If there is a clear sense that a war is pointless or immoral, faith communities may become a mouth piece for protest, as happened in the USA during the Vietnam War. Christians in the USA who opposed the war found allies in Buddhist monks in Vietnam.
Contents / Introduction / Prayers / Peace or Conflict / Peaceful Relations / Peace Issues / Conflict / Reconciliation / Peace Initiatives / Messengers of Peace / Summary / Inspiration / Real Peace / Resources
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interfaith organisations network 2003 |