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leaders at WEF

February 5, 2002

2002-033

Episcopalians: Global leaders warned and encouraged by
religious leaders at WEF

by Jan Nunley

(ENS) Global leaders gathered at the 2002 World Economic Forum
(WEF) in New York January 31-February 4 were warned that
corporations and international organizations must become more
accountable to the countries and peoples of the world.

Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey said the collapse of
energy trading giant Enron raised fundamental questions about
honesty and accountability within capitalism. "There's a big
question mark over capitalism today. It's one word, and it's
Enron," Carey said. "And what is that challenge? Capitalism has
to act within boundaries."

But the leaders also heard good news. "In the end goodness
prevails over evil, right prevails over wrong," Desmond M. Tutu,
archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, told the gathering in an
opening plenary entitled "For Hope." He added, "I believe that
this is something all of our major faiths are seeking to say to
people. Fundamentally people are good."

Mahathir Mohamad, prime minister of Malaysia, told a session on
"Sharing Values and Respecting Differences" on February 3 that
violent Islamic groups were actually making it more difficult
for Islamic nations to develop, as well as distorting religion
for their own personal goals. "If today Islam is perceived to be
a religion of backward, violent and irrational people, it is not
because of Islam itself as a faith and a way of life," he said.
"It is because Muslims have deviated from the fundamentals of
Islam and have abused the teachings in order to justify their
personal greed and ambitions."

Religious leaders said they were pleased to be invited to the
annual event, but would like a bigger role in the discussions on
business and politics as well as religious issues. "You cannot
separate faith from the world that we live in," Carey said.

An Associated Press report quoted the Rev. John T. Pawlikowski,
a professor of social ethics at the Catholic Theological Union
in Chicago, who said that unless religious concerns "can be
truly integrated into the WEF, I think the potential for the
contribution of religion will be muted." Otherwise, ''we will
become the chaplains to the WEF," he added.

Klaus Schwab, president of the forum, promised that religious
leaders would be better represented in other panel discussions
"if possible and if relevant."

The official agenda for the session with religious leaders
called for discussions addressing anti-Western sentiments and
responding to the backlash against modernity; reducing sources
of religious and ethnic conflict; broadening support for
universal rights and civil liberties; highlighting shared
transcultural values; and broadening citizen participation in
civil society and government.

Religious leaders speaking at the WEF included Francis Cardinal
Arinze, president of the Vatican's Pontificium Consilium pro
Dialogo inter Religiones, Italy; George L. Carey, Archbishop of
Canterbury; Margot Kaessmann, bishop, Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Germany; Israel Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Israel; Swamiji
Chidanand Saraswati, president and spiritual head, Parmarth
Niketan Ashram, India; H.H. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani,
emir of the state of Qatar and chairman, Islamic Conference
Organization, Qatar; and Sheikh Fawzi El-Zafzaf, president,
Permanent Committee for Dialogue among Monotheistic Religions,
Al-Azhar al Sharif, Egypt.

The meeting was held just three miles north of the debris of the
World Trade Center towers destroyed in the September 11 attacks,
and protests by thousands of anti-globalization demonstrators
were largely peaceful.

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Compiled from press dispatches.

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News
Service.