kolkatapost: Fwd: Statement & Recommendation of the Interfaith Roundtable

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Fwd: Statement & Recommendation of the Interfaith Roundtable

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tom Mangattuthazhe <tmangatt@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 10:49 AM
Subject: Statement & Recommendation of the Interfaith Roundtable
To: Tom Mangattuthazhe <tmangatt@hotmail.com>
Cc: Morningkeey Phangcho <phangcho@gmail.com>, Lissy Maru <lismaru@gmail.com>, Arthur Lederer <arthur.lederer@soteriainternational.org>, md thomas <mdthomas53@gmail.com>

Statement & Recommendation of the Interfaith Roundtable

Guwahati from 9-10 September 2010

The Statement
Major Religious leaders from different parts of NEIndia came together for the interfaith Roundtable conference on Peace and Justice, Faith and Culture from September 9 to 10 at Guwahati. The initiative was taken by Interfaith Coalition for Peace (ICP) New Delhi and National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), based at Nagpur.

The participants were unanimous of the opinion that various religious traditions can become promoters of peace in N.E India. We make the following declaration:
• The spirituality of various religious traditions can cultivate such practices that aim at the realization of genuine peace individually and collectively.
• The ethical systems of religious traditions such as human rights, justice, compassion for the poor, care for the environment and commitment to nonviolence are platforms for greater interfaith commitment and action.
• Social infra-structures and structures of religions do provide greater potential for communication of peace building activities.
• Cultural expressions of religions are assets of humanity and the celebration of diversity can ensure peaceful coexistence.

Recommendations
1. We as religious leaders resolve to emphasize and nurture the spiritual resources in our individual traditions to promote peace in the region.
2. We appeal to all religious leaders and followers to address social problems through peaceful means transforming situations of conflicts to opportunities for dialogue and cooperation.
3. We request our governments, policy makers and the politicians to promote policies and decisions to further peaceful coexistence.
4. We appeal to media groups and individuals to promote peace journalism and discourage voices of violence.
5. We also appeal to the politicians not to use religious sentiments as means for their political advantages.
6. We resolve to call Interfaith Guwahati meeting at least twice in year.
7. We express our anguish and appeal to all concerned groups and individuals not to show disrespect to any religious text, such as burning of Qu'ran on September 11, 2010. Such incident can flare up extreme sentiments of religious intolerance and violence.
8. Conversion should be voluntary and personal and should not be imposed or lured on people.

Solomon Rongpi Tom Mangatthuthazhe
Executive Secretary, Convener, Statement Committee
Unity, Mission & Evangelism- NCCI