wfn.org | World's religious leaders join World Economic Forum for talks

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ACNS 2855 - ENS - 2 February 2002

World's religious leaders join World Economic Forum for talks

by Jan Nunley

[ENS 2002-029] More than 40 representatives of the world's religions will
meet at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2002, held at New York's
Waldorf Astoria Hotel from January 31 to February 4. The Religious Leaders
and Experts group will seek to confront some of the challenges facing the
world in the aftermath of the tragic events of September 11.

A smaller number of religious leaders participated in last year's meeting in
Davos, Switzerland. At the request of those who attended, religious leaders
will be fully integrated into the program at this year's meeting, with the
hope that closer ties between and among the major faiths will be created.

"It is clear that the world's religions play a central role in societies
around the world," said Klaus Schwab, president of the World Economic Forum.
"We believe that religious leaders can make an invaluable contribution to
our multi-stakeholder dialogue as we address the major challenges on the
global agenda," he said.

Work with stakeholders
The Religious Leaders and Experts group will explore ways the world's
religions--and religious leaders--can work together with other stakeholders
in society to advance the public good.

Issues under discussion include as the role of religion in using moral
resources internationally to build a genuine culture of dialogue, searching
out common values to bridge divides among communities; and addressing the
priority issues on the global agenda. Additionally, the issue of bridging
cultural and religious divides will be one of the six major issues addressed
by all of the participants, and religious and cultural leaders will be asked
to join in these discussions and will be integrated into workshops related
to this theme.

Special attention will be paid to the conflicts in the Middle East, Eurasia,
Northern Ireland and other global hot spots. In each session and workshop,
the Religious Leaders and Experts will be asked to consider ways the world's
principal religions can contribute to conflict resolution and political
reconciliation.

Anglican participants in the meeting include George L. Carey, Archbishop of
Canterbury; Frank Griswold, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal
Church; Njongonkulu Ndungane, Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South
Africa; John M. Templeton, president, John Templeton Foundation; and Desmond
M. Tutu, archbishop emeritus, South Africa.

Nine-point program
At last year's annual meeting, the assembled religious leaders endorsed a
nine-point program designed to bring the moral authority of religion to the
global agenda. The program called for initiating and continuing dialogue
between leaders in religion, business, politics and civil society about the
issues of globalization and its effects on humanity. "Partly because
spiritual values have not been given due consideration, globalization has
produced environmental degradation, sharpened disparities between 'have' and
'have-nots,' and thereby diverted national priorities away from basic
services and threatened to homogenize local traditions into a global
consumerist culture," the statement said. "Our goal is to inspire a spirit
of universalism while respecting the integrity of particular traditions."

The World Economic Forum, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is an independent
organization, funded by the contributions of 1,000 of the world's foremost
corporations, which serves its members and society by creating partnerships
between and among business, political, intellectual and other leaders of
society to define, discuss and advance key issues on the global agenda.

[The Rev Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News Service]

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