Participants in an international conference on the topic of religion in the quest for justice and peace heard speakers saying that we are facing a derailment of faiths in the present time.
Filled with hopes we searched in our faiths for alternatives. We found despair and desperation. We met with a multiplicity of new approaches, from inter-faith dialogues to a desire for letting distinctness in our faiths to remain. “Who has the right to speak for the different religions” still remains a big issue. A realisation dawned after a while that if religion does not provide the answers then what will?
Inter-faiths dialogues is already one alternative. In their workshop sessions, the participants pondered on the role of education, the new media, governments, the community and the family. A special emphasis was put on getting the youths involved. They also moved to us the medium of the performing arts to transmit the messages of peace further afield. The conference agreed on a 12-point Plan of Action that is going to involve all levels of the society.
The poem below encapsulates the sense and the drift of the discussions:
OUR QUEST LAY NOT IN THE
CLOSING OF MINDS
BUT IN THE OPENING
ALONG THE WAY WE WITNESS A DERAILMENT
RECOGNISE MULTIPLICITY
DISTINCTNESS
HOPES
WE LOOK AT THE EYE OF OUR SOUL
WE SHOWER FLOWERS AT THE FOOT OF OUR ENTERPRISE
DEAR GOD
TIP THE BALANCE IN OUR FAVOUR
FOR THOU ART ALL FORGIVING
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