European Council of Religious Leaders is Established
13.11.2002 · English, Архив 2002
EUROPEAN COUNCIL OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS IS ESTABLISHED
The inaugural meeting of the European Council of Religious Leaders was held in the capital of Oslo on 11-12 November 2002.
The Council was formed on the initiative of six religious leaders, who are European presidents of the World Conference on Religions for Peace (WCRP). Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, was among the initiators of the Council, who met in Paris on February 28-March 1, 2002.
Included in the Council at its inaugural meeting were Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish and other religious leaders, including Archbishop Anastasius of Tirana and All Albania, hierarchs of the Orthodox Churches of Constantinople, Greece and Serbia. Metropolitan Kirill was elected co-chairman of the Council.
Mr.Romano Prodi, Chairman of the European Commission, which is the supreme body of the European Council, sent greetings to the participants in the meeting.
The participants discussed the prospects of developing dialogue among religions, cultures and civilizations in the world, which has encountered the threat of terrorism and the danger of global conflict of the philosophies of life.
Metropolitan Kirill in his address spoke of the necessity of overcoming a tendency to ideological, civilizational and cultural unification.
The participants in the meeting adopted the statement, in which they said that the process of European integration should lead to the unity of the continent, based on the respect to diversity, rather than unification on the basis of one culture. It is very important that different institutions, which are responsible for political integration of Europe, take into account the diversity of religious traditions and cultures and the voice of their representatives. We acknowledge the responsible work of the Convention for Future of Europe and believe it necessary to record the importance of religious factor in Europe in the Constitution, which will be adopted in the result of the Convention’s work.
Members of the Council invited politicians on the national and pan-European level to a serious, systematic and permanent dialogue with religious communities.
Participants in the meeting denounced a recent terrorist act in Moscow and other such crimes.
During his stay in Oslo Metropolitan Kirill visited the parish of the Moscow Patriarchate dedicated to the Holy Princess Olga, Equal-to-the-Apostles, where he celebrated a prayer service and met with the parishioners.
On November 12 Metropolitan Kirill was among the guests at a solemn dinner in King’s Palace given on the occasion of the Russian Federation President V.Putin’s visit to Norway.
The Chairman of the DECR MP visited the Church of Norway Council on Ecumenical and International Relations, where he discussed with its leadership the present state and possible development of bilateral relations.
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