Religions for Peace
Religions for Peace (RfP), also known as the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP) , is an international non-governmental organization based in New York City that aims to do peace work through interreligious dialogue . Since its inception in 1961, it has organized nine worldwide conferences of religious representatives and is now networked in over 70 countries.
history
Under the impression of the destructive violence of the Second World War and the nuclear threat of the Cold War , representatives of various world religions began to prepare a "summit meeting" of religious representatives in 1961 in order to mobilize supporters of as many religions as possible to take joint action for peace. This first "world conference" took place from October 16 to 21, 1970 in Kyoto and led to the formal establishment of Religions for Peace as an independent organization.
Since then, nine more world conferences have been held at various locations every five years, most recently in Lindau (Lake Constance) in 2019. In addition, numerous branch organizations have been established at international, national and local levels.
Germany
In 1988 the first German WCRP group was established in Mainz . Thirteen local groups are now networked under the umbrella organization RfP Germany: Aachen, Berlin, Hanover, Heilbronn, Kassel, Cologne / Bonn, Munich, Nuremberg, Osnabrück, Regensburg, Rhein-Main, Stuttgart and Witten.
Austria
Religions for Peace Austria was founded in 1985 and is based in Vienna. The Austrian WCRP group organizes seminars, meetings, conferences with neighboring countries, exhibitions and round-table meetings of religious leaders. The president of Religions for Peace Austria is Petrus Bsteh.
Goals and Activities
The objectives are formulated in the statutes of RfP Germany as follows: “'Religions for Peace / WCRP-Germany' invites people of all religions to work together for peace on the basis of the peace values of their religion. (...) 'Religions for Peace / WCRP-Germany' wants to make people aware of the importance of religions, especially with regard to peace, mutual understanding, justice and ecology. "
The focus of the interreligious dialogue at RfP is less in the area of theological and dogmatic finding of truth than in the area of practical and ethical action. By meeting religious representatives and committed believers from as many different religious communities as possible, a basis of trust is to be created in order to be able to deal with problems together and to be able to react together in the event of a conflict.
Worldwide, RfP works in crisis regions (Iraq, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Israel / Palestine, Korea, etc.) together with local religious representatives on conflict resolution and violence prevention measures.
World conferences
| place | Duration | description |
|---|---|---|
| Kyoto | October 16-21, 1970 | The meeting led to the formal establishment of Religions for Peace as an independent organization. |
| Lions | 1974 | |
| Princeton | August 29 to September 7, 1979 | |
| Nairobi | 1984 | |
| Melbourne | 1989 | |
| Vatican City and Riva del Garda | November 3-11, 1994 | "To wage war in the name of religion is a blatant contradiction," said John Paul II at the opening of the sixth world conference, which took place in the Vatican and then continued in Riva del Garda. The approximately 800 participants included the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu , the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Konrad Raiser , the Roman Rabbi Elio Toaff , the chairman of the Islamic World League, Mohammed al Harkan , and the Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Faisal al Saud and the Chairman of the All China Buddhist Association, Zhao Puchu. |
| Amman | November 25-29, 1999 | The main speakers were the Head of World Orthodoxy, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I , the Anglican Primate Archbishop George Carey (Canterbury), the new Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid , World Bank President James Wolfensohn and President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (Sierra Leone). The closing speech was given by the founder of the Focolare Movement and WCRP Vice-President Chiara Lubich . |
| Kyoto | August 28 to 31, 2006 | More than 800 religious leaders from all over the world attended the four-day meeting. Participants included former Iranian President Mohammed Chatami , UNICEF Director Ann Veneman and the President of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Dialogue, Chief Rabbi David Rosen . The Catholic Church was represented by the former President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants, the Japanese Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao , and the Bolivian Cardinal Julio Terrazas. |
| Vienna | November 20-22, 2013 | Around 600 religious leaders from more than 100 countries took part, including a. the Cardinals Raymondo Assis (Brazil), the Focolare Movement President Maria Voce , World Council of Churches General Secretary Olav Fykse Tveit , Gandhi's granddaughter Ela Gandhi and the UN representative of the "Aliance of Civilizations", Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser. The closing plenary on Friday, on the subject of “Mobilizing Action for Human Dignity”, was attended by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I - he participated in the entire conference -, Grand Mufti Sheikh Shaban Mubajje (Kampala) and Dharma Master Sitagu Sayadew (Rangoon) headed. It was all about best practice models. |
| Lindau (Lake Constance) | August 19-23, 2019 | Around 900 representatives from 17 religions from more than 100 countries took part. The motto of the conference was "Caring for our common future - promoting the common good for all". Two great impulses should come from the meeting: for the protection of holy places and against sexual violence against women. |
literature
- Günther Gebhardt: Moving to Peace. Peace Education in Religious Peace Movements , Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-923002-72-6 .
- Norbert Klaes: Experiences in the “World Conference of Religions for Peace” (WCRP) . In: Anton Peter (Ed.): Christian Faith in Multi-Religious Society (Neue Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft 44). Immensee 1996, pp. 91-108, ISBN 3-85824-078-8 .
Web links
Individual references, comments
- ↑ a b Homepage Religions for Peace / WCRP-Germany , accessed on February 12, 2008.
- ↑ http://religionsforpeaceinternational.org/sites/default/files/pubications/First%20World%20Assembly.pdf
- ↑ http://religionsforpeaceinternational.org/sites/default/files/pubications/Second%20World%20Assembly.pdf
- ↑ http://religionsforpeaceinternational.org/sites/default/files/pubications/Fourth%20World%20Assembly.pdf
- ↑ http://religionsforpeaceinternational.org/sites/default/files/pubications/Fifrth%20World%20Assembly.pdf
- ↑ http://religionsforpeaceinternational.org/sites/default/files/pubications/Sixth%20World%20Assembly.pdf
- ↑ "Religions for Peace" mobilize for human dignity. In: religion.orf.at. November 22, 2013. Retrieved November 24, 2017 .
- ↑ https://www.ekd.de/weltammlung-religions-for-peace-lindau-bodensee-48857.htm
- ↑ World Conference for Peace will meet in Lindau in 2019 | Sunday paper - 360 degrees evangelical. Retrieved April 10, 2019 .
- ↑ Interreligious Dialogue - Federal President Steinmeier opens world conference of "Religions for Peace". Deutschlandfunk, August 20, 2019, accessed on August 20, 2019 .