wfn.org | Adventists to Attend the UN Millennium Assembly

[APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com]

August 20, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD

Adventists to Attend the Millennium Assembly of the 
United Nations

New York, N.Y., U.S.A.            The world's major 
religions - including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism 
and Hinduism - will be represented at the first-
ever UN-sponsored religious summit to be held at the 
United Nations on August 28 in New York. For the 
Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Christian World 
Communion, Jonathan Gallagher, Associate Director 
for Public Affairs and Religious Liberty will 
participate at this meeting.

"With approximately 83 percent of the world's 
population adhering to some formal religious or 
spiritual belief system, religion and  spirituality 
is a dynamic force that the (so-called) ' World 
Peace Summit ' will seek to develop for peace 
advocacy and conflict prevention and resolution," 
the organisers say.

The Adventist Church will also be present as 
observer at the Millennium Assembly of the United 
Nations, billed the largest gathering of heads of 
state in the history of humanity.

The event to be held September 6 to 8 is the 55th 
session of the U.N.'s General Assembly, and the 
Summit "will be a historic opportunity to agree on a 
process for fundamental review of the role of, and 
challenges facing the United Nations in the new 
century," according to a U.N. press release.

"The occasion of the third millennium presents a 
timely opportunity for the only global organization, 
in terms of its membership as much as of its areas 
of work, to identify the challenges that it will 
face in the future and to engage in an imaginative 
exercise to enhance and strengthen a unique 
institution," says Kofi Annan, U.N. Secretary-
General.

"This event is one which brings great interest from 
people all over the world," says Jonathan Gallagher, 
U.N. liaison director for the Adventist World 
Church. "It's important that the church be there and 
make its own contribution at the highest level of 
international affairs. As a church, much of our 
practical work is supported by the U.N. since it 
involves many areas of great humanitarian benefit 
such as education, health, personal development, aid 
and relief work, women's issues and so on."

Adventist observers to the Millennium Summit of 
world leaders are Jonathan Gallagher, Dr. Lisa 
Beardsley, Vice-President of Adventist Loma Linda 
University and Gaspar Colon, representing Adventist 
Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA).

Article 1:3 of the U.N. Charter identifies one of 
its primary purposes: "To achieve international 
cooperation in solving international problems of an 
economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian 
character, and in promoting and encouraging 
respect for human rights and for fundamental 
freedoms for all without distinction as to race, 
sex, language, or religion."

The four-day summit, which will hold its concluding 
sessions at  the New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel, 
is expected to be attended  by about 1,000 of the 
world's religious and spiritual leaders,  according 
to organisers of the meeting.

The summit's outcome - a declaration for World Peace 
and the proposed establishment of an ongoing 
International Advisory Council of Religious Leaders 
- will serve as a resource for Secretary-General 
Kofi Annan in his efforts at conflict  resolution.

The protestant Seventh-day Adventist Church is 
officially recognized by the U.N. Public Affairs 
Department as an Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) 
and has  through its Public Affairs and Religious 
Liberty Department an United Nations liaison office 
in New York. (239/2000)