Archive for June, 2008

THREE FAITHS FORUM

June 20, 2008

Diplomats Discuss Faith and Conflict 

17 June 2008.  Faith and conflict and the growing religious-secular divide were at the heart of a meeting attended by more than 60 diplomats at St James’s Palace yesterday at the invitation of Sir Anthony Figgis, the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, under the auspices of the Three Faiths Forum. 

Topics covered included the problems faced when people confused religion and custom; challenging particular customs that are perceived as antithetical to religion itself; respecting what others believe and that which separates us; understanding why people react the way they do to various stimuli in dialogue and how to teach children interfaith understanding, given the separation between state and religion in Europe.

 Sir Sigmund Sternberg welcomed the visitors and expressed gratitude to Sir Anthony for his encouragement and support in promoting dialogue between the faith communities.

 The keynote speech was given by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor who addressed the gathering on “The Importance of Interfaith.” Another speaker was Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury 

The meeting was chaired by John Battle MP,  and an update on developments in the past year with a focus on youth programmes was given by Mark Ebert, the newly appointed Executive Director of the Three Faiths Forum. 

THREE FAITHS FORUM  

Future leaders act to unite communities 

Students from Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities today became the first graduates of the Three Faiths Forum Undergraduate ParliaMentors programme. A Graduation Reception at the House of Commons marked the culmination of the pilot year of the programme, in which trios of Muslim, Christian and Jewish politics students were assigned a Member of Parliament to mentor them as they constructed a project together to promote political engagement and social responsibility. 

More than one hundred politicians, representatives of NGOs, faith and community leaders were introduced to the diversity of projects developed by nine trios of Muslim, Christian and Jewish participants in the programme. A pioneering initiative of the Three Faiths Forum, Undergraduate ParliaMentors nurtures the next generation of politicians and community leaders, while creating a positive social impact.  This programme creates a new model for interfaith interaction – working at the grass roots and political levels simultaneously.

  The Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP, Communities and Local Government Secretary, praised the initiative, saying,“I am delighted to welcome the work of the Three Faiths Forum. For more than ten years they have been building links between Jews, Christians and Muslims, and helping them explore the far-reaching roots that unite their faiths. This programme provides an exciting opportunity for young people to meet those of other faiths, to get a taste for public debate, and to learn skills and confidence that will help them fight prejudice and build bridges in their daily lives. I am certain that the young people involved have been inspired by the programme and I hope they’ll help us to keep building a mature approach to faith and social change for the future” 

Communities Minister, Parmjit Dhanda MP, congratulating the Three Faiths Forum on the success of its endeavour, noted that “Through this programme, everybody wins. The students have gained a valuable insight into the politics in action from their MP mentors. The mentors have benefited from direct access to future leaders from the three communities.” 

Stephen Shashoua, Director of the Three Faiths Forum said of the programme, “In a short period of time we have achieved a great deal, and established a programme that has been deemed valuable by all the stakeholders involved, including universities, parliamentarians, faith communities, NGOs and of course the young people who took part.” 

The success of the Undergraduate ParliaMentors Programme has paved the way for future mentoring opportunities, including DocuMentors, where students of the three faiths are mentored by leading filmmakers, and Business ManageMentors, for business students to develop enterprises under the guidance of senior executives. 

As the pilot year comes to a close, the second year of the Undergraduate ParliaMentors programme has been heavily oversubscribed.

For more information please contact Daniella Gabay, Undergraduate ParliaMentors Project Manager:Tel: 0207 485 1350 Email: UP@threefaithsforum.org.uk ; Website: www.3ff.org.uk

 

 

Elijah Interfaith Institute,

The latest issue of our Wisdom e-newsletter. is now available.  It includes  

* News Update: Elijah Remembers Krister Stendahl

* News Update: Paris Meeting–Steering Committee of Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders Articulates Vision and Purpose for the Board

* News Update: Towards a Jewish Theology of World Religions – Project Update and Good News

* Sharing Wisdom: The Wisdom of Krister Stendahl

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admin@elijah-interfaith.org

 

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Religious Leaders Call for Cooperation to Combat Poverty

June 14, 2008
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, on 9 June 2008, hosted a meeting of religious leaders of different faiths to discuss the power of multi-religious cooperation to combat poverty and achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“Mobilizing the world’s religious communities in common action is critically important at a time when the human family faces grave threats to peace, such as violent conflict, extreme poverty, and climate change,” Dr Williams said in his address to members of the global Religions for Peace network at Lambeth Palace. “If the international community is to meet its collective commitment to halve poverty and hunger by 2015, religious communities must work together on the basis of shared moral concern and marshal their considerable capacity for advocacy and for service delivery, particularly in the field of education, to alleviate poverty,” the Archbishop said. He noted that UK religious leaders and Anglican bishops from around the world will join in a Walk of Witness in London on 24 July to demonstrate their determination to help end extreme poverty across the globe (See http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1832).

The Archbishop highlighted the potential of faith-based education to create a culture of peace and spoke out against violence targeting religious communities and institutions.

“When prominent religious leaders of all faiths, like the Archbishop of Canterbury, exercise their moral authority by speaking out and acting together, they can have a decisive impact on issues such as violent conflict, extreme global poverty and deteriorating food security,” said the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, Moderator of Religions for Peace and Director of External Affairs for the Orthodox Church in America. “Multi-religious cooperation is essential for building peace wherever it is threatened.”
“Extreme poverty is an affront to human dignity,” said H.E. Sheikh Shaban Mubaje, Grand Mufti of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council and a Co-President of Religions for Peace. “The collective reach and moral authority of religious leaders of different faiths is great, and so is our responsibility to work together to end poverty and achieve true Peace.”
Meeting participants included Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian members and International Trustees of the Religions for Peace network from Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and the Middle East. 
Members and International Trustees of the global Religions for Peace network discussed multi-religious efforts to advance the Millennium Development Goals. The Goals, adopted by the United Nations in 2000, set concrete targets for halving poverty and hunger by 2015, ensuring universal primary schooling, reducing child and maternal mortality and infectious diseases, improving environmental sustainability and achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.
“The injustice of extreme poverty falls most heavily on women – 70 percent of the nearly 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day are women and girls,” noted Mrs. Aruna Oswal, Vice President of the World Jain Confederation and a Co-President of the Religions for Peace World Council. “Supporting the advancement of women and girls is essential if we are to end extreme poverty and achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals.”

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International Association of Religious Freedom

June 3, 2008

 The IARF has reorganised and moves forward to develop a new future.

 

 IARF’s Council met at the Tsubaki Grand Shrine in Mie Prefecture, Japan from 12th–14th  March, to learn of the progress achieved during 2007 and to plan forward for the 33rd World Congress, now scheduled for 4th-7th September 2010 in Kochi (Cochin), Kerala, India.

 

President Abhi Janamanchi reported that the reforms promised to the Annual General Meeting held at Clearwater, Florida, USA from 24-25 July 2007 had been achieved. The administrative office has been relocated from Market Street, Oxford, UK to the Church of Konko in Izuo, Osaka, Japan.

 

Further to the resignation of Abhi Janamanchi at the recent Council meeting (March 2008), Council has voted to appoint Vice-president and Chairman of the South Asia Co-ordinating Committee (SACC), Thomas Mathew, as IARF President from 01 July 2008 until the IARF World Congress in September 2010.

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Interreligious Insight

June 2, 2008

Interreligious Insight Latest Edition

The new edition of Interreligious Insight has the following articles:

Overcoming Twenty Centuries of Christian antiSemitism by Dan Cohn-Sherbok;

Jesus Christ in Rumi’s Poetry and Parables by Rasoul Sorkhabi,

Martyrdom and Nationalism by Shanthikumar Hettiarachchi;

Interview with Dr Riffat Hassan;

and much more.

To subscribe on line, go to www.worldfaiths.org/publications.htm

 

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Tony Blair Faith Foundation

June 2, 2008

 Tony Blair last week launched his faith foundation with a call for the creation of a new coalition to harness the moral leadership of people of faith to do good and to show the relevance of faith to the challenges of the modern world.

The goals of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation are:

  • to promote respect and understanding between the major religions;
  • to make the case for faith as a force for good; and
  • to encourage inter-faith initiatives to tackle global poverty and conflict.

Announcing the launch of the Faith Foundation Tony Blair said: “Religious faith will be of the same significance to the 21st Century as political ideology was to the 20th Century. In an era of globalisation, there is nothing more important than getting people of different faiths and cultures to understand each other better and live in peace and mutual respect; and to give faith itself its proper place in the future.”

Tony Blair has argued that faith has to be rescued from those who would use it to divide and those determined to write it off as an irrelevance. By stressing the values of respect, justice and compassion which the great religions hold in common, he believes faith can help unite the World and shape its direction for the better.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is a response to these opportunities and challenges. It will use the power of modern communications to step up efforts to educate, inform and develop understanding about the different faiths and between them. At the same time, the Foundation will use its profile and resources to help mobilise people of faith to work together in concrete action to build a fairer and better world.

In the first three years of the Foundation, priority will be given to encouraging inter-faith initiatives to tackle global poverty and to improve understanding of the great religions through education at every level.

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