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Second World Forum
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Mme. Kurenai Deguchi
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Jinrui Aizen Conference |
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Pray and Act For Peace | |
Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish
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The ICCI has been promoting peaceful relations between people in Israel and Palestine for the past 12 years. In his brief remarks to the World Religious forum, Kronish urged people not to despair or lose hope despite the current situation in the Middle East. We must continue to pray and act for peace, he said. This current impasse [between Israel and Palestine] will endsooner or laterand we will return to the path of dialogue and negotiations. Ultimately there will be no other reasonable choice. In the future, Kronish said the key is how to move from any eventual peace agreements to peaceful relations between Jews, Muslims and Christians living in Israel and Palestine. The ICCI is involved in practical programs to foster dialogue among these people in the hope that they will learn from one another and learn to respect each other. He gave several examples: A Jewish-Muslim dialogue, which is in its third year, brings together Jews and Muslims once a month to discuss each others religious traditions and controversial issues such as war and peace, jihad and martyrdom. A Jewish-Christian dialogue group brings together Palestinian Christian clergy and educators and Israeli Jewish clergy and educators to study each others sacred texts and to form a network of caring and compassion on issues of common concern. A new monthly dialogue group of Palestinian and Israeli womenMuslims, Jews and Christianswas recently formed. Each month more women sign up, said Kronish. It is a small sign of hope for the future. |
Africa Is a Test For The World Community | |
Ven. Gijun Sugitani
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In brief remarks to the World Religious Forum, Sugitani said there is an atmosphere of pessimism since Sept. 11 but urged religious leaders to continue to work through dialogue. After Sept. 11, many times we heard the question: Has the season of dialogue come to an end? What is the use of dialogue among cultures, peoples, and religions? Sugitani said. Sept. 11 would definitely see to have buried the climate of hope. He said it is only natural for some people to become more pessimistic during difficult times. Pessimism can find many reasons to spread. It conquers confused hearts that do not have spiritual points of reference, but are prisoners of a consumers logic: to live is to have and to consume. Sugitani offered evidence he argued goes against this atmosphere of pessimism. He referred specifically to the various grass roots activities of the Rome-based Community of St. Egidio and the now 15-year-old interreligious Assisi dialogue, which was started by Pope John Paul II and is organized and run by the Community of St. Egidio. For three decades, the Community of St. Egidio has worked toward world peace through efforts to help cloth, feed and educate the less fortunate, first in Europe and now spreading to branches worldwide. Today along with the problem of peace there is the problem of widespread poverty, deteriorating environmental conditions, which are tragedies for many and will be so for everyone in the future, he said He singled out the Communitys efforts in Mozambique, where under its auspices warring factions came together and reached a peace agreement over a two-year period, giving that country a chance for democracy. Dialogue is a proposal that goes beyond the religious world and becomes a method for the creation of peace. In closing, Sugitani said Mozambique should be just a beginning for interreligious activity and dialogue. Africa represents a test for the international community: we cannot accept that such a large part of this continent is left at the margins of the world, abandoned to wars and diseases and at the same time called to find an answer to economic problems that it is not prepared to face. |
Something Great | |
Dr. Kazuo Murakami
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In one of the three major addresses at the World Religious Forum, Murakami recounted some of the research done over the past decade into the human genetic code. In a speech entitled Dignity of Life, Murakami, a biochemist, said the genetic code offers scientific evidence that a great power exists in the universe because the code is clearly too complicated for a mortal human being to have invented. I have been studying the research done to decode the human genetic code, he said. I was fascinated by the splendid technology that enabled us to do this research. However, one day I became aware of a much more amazing fact. He continued: It is this: The genetic code is equivalent to the information contained in thousands of books yet it is written in an infinitesimally small space. And still, it can be decoded accurately and ceaselessly by a cell for the purpose of making a living body maintain a life. Murakami concluded that what makes this possible is the power of nature or what he calls something great. Murakamis something great could be considered a scientific version of the teachings of Oomoto that all life comes from the same sourcethe great origin. He also pointed out that we know enough about the human genetic code and the genetic code of all living beings now to understand that all cells have a similar form. Hence, life in any formhuman, animal, plant and even an individual celldeserves to be treated with respect and dignity. |
All Alike On The Inside | |
Archbishop Joseph Pittau S.J.
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Pittau delivered in fluent Japanese one of the three major addresses given at the World Religious Forum. He was a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo from 1963 to 1981. Concurrently from 1968 to 1981 he was also president of Sophia, which is a Catholic university. In his address, Pittau urged reconciliation and solidarity among religions. He said all religious have more in common than they have differences and suggested they focus on what is similar rather than what is different. To illustrate his point he told the following story. A teacher told her students she was thinking about an apple and asked them to guess what color it was. One student said red. Another said green. A third student said yellow. Then one child chimed in: Teacher, every apple is the same color on the inside. So it is with religions, Pittau said. However different they may look from the outside, they are all the same on the inside. They all pray to the same God. |