Dialogue
Among Religions
Diplomatic
Roundtable on Building Inter Faith Harmony
Internationally
Welcome by David Kilgour, Member of Parliament
for Edmonton Southeast and Secretary of
State (Asia-Pacific), House of Commons,
Ottawa, ON
March 24,
2003
Ambassadors,
High Commissioners, Archbishop Gervais,
Imam Solaiman, Colleague from the House,
Ladies and Gentleman:
Thank you
all for coming to meet the Rev. Mark Lewis,
the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church
in Canada.
He and I
are both anxious to hear from you on the
need for understanding among religious communities
across the world.
Indeed,
I’d propose that you do this on a Chatham
House basis—that nothing said can be
attributed to anyone. I would propose that
after hearing form Moderator Lewis we go
around the table. Anyone wishing to speak
should identify themselves and speak for
not more than 2-3 minutes on the first round.
None of
you needs to be told that the scourge of
spiritual peoples across the globe in the
20th century were those who loathed religion—the
Hitlers, Stalins and too many others.
One estimate
of the number of believers of all religions
who died prematurely while standing up for
faith in the century we recently left is
a truly dismaying 169 million persons worldwide,
including:
- 70 million
Muslims
- 35 million
Christians
- 11 million
Hindus
- 9 million
Jews
- 4 million
Buddhists
- 2 million
Sikhs
- 1 million
Baha’is
- 5 million
other faiths
The problem
thus far in the 21st century seems to be
more one of inter-faith conflicts. We can
all think of countries where believers of
one faith are harassing other—or far
worse—believers in others—including
Canada. In some of these countries, it appears
that politicians and/or governments are
stirring things up among faith communities.
Finally,
a very brief word on Moderator Mark Lewis.
- He was
born in Wales, but raised and educated
in Canada
- He has
served as a prison chaplain
- Currently,
he is also the minister of MacNab Street
Presbyterian Church in Hamilton and was
honoured as the best preacher in a survey
in his church magazine.
- Following
9/11, he stood with leaders of the Muslim,
Hindu and Jewish communities to seek peace
and reconciliation. His congregation contributed
to the rebuilding of the Hindu Temple
after it was destroyed by arson. He was
present at the inter-faith service yesterday
at the Cathedral here in Ottawa.
- He will
probably tell you that the leadership
of his church has taken a strong stance
against the Iraq war.
Moderator
Lewis, please…
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