Religious communities
need to rescue the earth
By Brenda Suderman
WINNIPEG — Although
their stated purpose was to lobby politicians to end poverty and promote
peace, a recent meeting of international faith leaders was valuable
because they simply listened to each other, suggested
the Archbishop of Winnipeg.
“What struck me was
the wonder of having that group (come) together from every religious
tradition, from around the world with the ability to come to a consensus,”
said Archbishop James Weisgerber, a member of the Canadian delegation
at the World Religions Summit, held June 21 - 23 at the University of
Winnipeg.
The summit attracted 80 delegates
from eight faith traditions and 24 countries to Winnipeg just before
the G8/G20 summits held in Ontario June 25 - 27. Another 140 people
attended as observers.
The archbishop also moderated
a panel on peace and security which included John Siebert of Project
Ploughshares, Walter Ruby of the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic
Understanding, and Robert Suderman of the Mennonite Church Canada.
This is the sixth consecutive
time religious leaders have met prior to the political summit in the
same country, if not the same city, as the G8 meetings. The religious
leaders pressed politicians to keep their promises regarding the United
Nations Millennium Development Goals, agreed to by 192 nations in 2000
with a deadline for implementation by 2015.
“We need to rescue
the earth, we need to rescue those in extreme poverty, we need to rescue
the children who are dying,” say Bill Francis, territorial commander
of the Salvation Army in Canada and Bermuda, and co-chair of the Canadian
delegation.
In their statement handed
directly to federal cabinet minister Stephen Fletcher, the faith leaders
asked politicians to close the growing gap between rich and poor, take
bold and decisive action on climate change, and reduce military spending.
The statement also condemned
terrorism motivated by religious extremism and asks faith communities
to stop justifying violence against each other.
Summit delegates also heard
a passionate plea from Sen. Romeo Dallaire, former commander of UN peacekeepers
during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, to do what they can to stop children
being recruited as soldiers.
“We (have) actually
created a weapon system based on our youth, on our future generation,”
Dallaire said in a stirring speech. “This is not now just a crime
against humanity, but it is a sin.”
He said that the challenge
for world leaders — religious and political — is to view
every person as equally human, a lesson he learned first-hand from a
young orphaned boy in a Rwandan village, found wandering near where
his family lay dead.
“His stomach was bloated,
he was dirty, there were rags on him,” Dallaire recalled. “What
I saw in the eyes of that little boy were exactly what I saw in the
eyes of my son when I left for Africa. They were exactly the same.”
Religious communities need
to move well beyond what is politically astute and pursue their dreams
and visions of a better world, one where 30,000 children don’t
die every day, Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners magazine told the delegates.
Wallis said that statistic recently prompted his young son to pray for
a world where children don’t die.
“All I can say is amen,”
said Wallis.
Weisgerber said the summit
showed him that faith groups need to work at issues of poverty and justice
both within their own communities and in the political realm.
“There is a way in which religious groups are being pushed out of the public sphere,” he said. “As believers we have the same rights and responsibilities to determine what the common good is.” (See related story.)
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