wfn.org | Day of Prayer for Peace: LWF Advocates Interfaith Dialogue

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Acting Together to Promote Justice, Integrity of Creation

ASSISI, Italy/GENEVA 24 January 2002 (LWI)  - On the occasion of
the Day of Prayer for Peace in the World being celebrated in
Assisi today, the General Secretary of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF), Rev. Dr. Ishmael Noko advocates interfaith
dialogue, affirming its role in helping people abandon attitudes
that sanction conflict based on religion.

Noko who is among representatives of world religions invited by
Pope John Paul II to pray together for global peace, challenges
the United Nations, honored with the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, to
promote further the concept of nations working together to promote
"international justice, peace and the integrity of God's
creation."

Noko, accompanied to Assisi by Bishop Munib A. Younan of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan, underscores the role of LWF
churches as dialogue partners with representatives of other faiths
in realizing human fellowship and justice in their different
regions. It is his hope that all people through "worship and
prayer" would contribute toward God's work "for the healing of the
world."

The full text of Dr. Noko's statement follows:

Statement by Rev. Dr. Ishmael Noko
General Secretary, The Lutheran World Federation

Day of Prayer for Peace in the World
Assisi, 24 January 2002

This is a day in which we turn to God, our mighty divine life
source with many names, with our pleas for the future of the
world. It is an occasion for reflection on what religious faith
means in a world of violence. The question before us is: Where is
our ultimate loyalty? How can we bear witness first and foremost
to a God who loves the whole world, rather than to one who is
bound to certain national, cultural, or political allegiances?

Interfaith dialogue and relationships between people of different
faiths are themselves expressions of genuine faith in God. They
build bridges of mutual trust and respect and break down walls of
hostility. Interfaith relationships cannot be isolated from their
social and political implications. Through dialogue,
self-examination, prayer and reflection, we may better understand
and be empowered to respond to the conditions of desperation in
many parts of the world that help to fuel hatred and violence.  I
pray that, through these means, we may find the right ways to
alleviate the poverty, economic disparities, human rights
violations, abusive power relationships and other underlying
injustices that deepen that desperation.

With the world shaken by the ferocity of hatreds fanned by
religious fundamentalism, interfaith dialogue has received a
renewed focus and priority. The ultimate purpose of such dialogue,
and of the prayer and reflection, in which we now engage, is to
hear what God has to tell us - through our different traditions.
In this way we can discover the grace and the will of God and
renounce attitudes that legitimize religiously based conflict.

The United Nations, which deservedly earned last year's Nobel
Peace Prize, must continue to develop further into what it was
designed to be at the outset, so that it may more and more promote
the fellowship of all nations, committed and able to act
decisively toward international justice, peace, and the integrity
of God's creation. The role of diplomacy must be strengthened in
order to relate directly to the underlying causes of terrorism and
violence. The purpose of diplomatic relations in the present
situation is a higher one than the building of an alliance for
military action. It must contribute in substance to the rectifying
and healing of past injustices, as well as to building common
visions for a better future.

Heavy responsibility weighs presently on the world's politicians,
as well as on the religious communities, the financial
institutions, the scientific and educational communities, the
institutions and agencies of information and the world of
entertainment. The globalized world cannot simply be an arena for
brutal competition, but one for the search of humankind's common
future.

At this critical juncture, the churches of the Lutheran World
Federation will seek to fulfill their role as partners for human
fellowship and justice in their different regions, especially
through dialogue and common action with those of other faiths.

May we all, through our worship and our prayer, be means by which
God may work for the healing of the world.

Geneva, 24 January 2002

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 133 member churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5
million of the 64.3 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted,
material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the
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