| Are cultures bound to clash? Russian Metropolitan Asks |
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| Written by Christian Roar Pedersen | ||||
| Thursday, 16 February 2006 | ||||
 Porto Alegre, Brazil, Feb 15. The pivotal question of the 21th century is if secular values can coexist together with religious values. The recent debate about the Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten is just one example of that question. A brief report from the press conference on clash of cultures hold by bishop Kyrill of Smolensk during his short visit of the General Assembly.
This was the message from Metropolitan Kyrill of the Russian Orthodox Church as he visited the Assembly of the World Council of Churches. He stressed that Russia is placed in the middle of two cultures and has throughout history witnessed many wars and a lot of suffering due to this fact. He claimed that no wars in the history of Russia were religious wars. In today’s Russia however there is peaceful coexistence between the different religions, but it is a fragile balance of values which must be kept. Today the values of the secular western society seem to be bound somehow to collide with the religious values of other people around the world. The Metropolitan stressed that it is not just a question about Muslims, but it is seen in other religions as well. Kyrill thinks that the most important question facing humanity today is how these two set of values can coexist. It was revealed that a parallel meeting of religious leaders from around the world will be set up before the coming G8 meeting which is going to take place in St. Petersburg, Russia, in July 2006. It is expected that Buddhist, Muslim and Christian leaders will gather and work together to reach a statement to be presented to the G8 leaders. Kyrill hopes that the statement will be a well-adjusted one which seeks to balance secular and the religious values. In a particular moment of frankness, he expressed his disappointment with all the inter-religious summits held after September 11, 2001. Many statements had been made, he said, but none of them helped people to build a new world, pointing to the fact that relevant messages would have done more to prevent and overcome the religious violence these years. “We have no other choice, but to build a new world” he ended. Earlier in the day, the moderator of the Central Committee Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian Church, also stressed the importance of religion and prompted the churches to engage in dialogue with other religions. “While the need for religion to speak together on issues of common concern from the perspective of common values is growing with acute urgency, the ambiguity of religion’s role in society and the misuse of religion are ever increasing. The churches are caught in this dilemma. This ambivalent situation makes interreligious dialogue even more imperative”, he stated in his report delivered to the plenary of the Assembly. It is expected that the World Council of Churches will issue a statement in relation to the current cartoon crisis in the coming week. This has already been pointed out in the opening press conference (see our Habitus report). Friday, February 17th, is the day dedicated to religious diversity in the programme of the 9th Assembly. Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto:             
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 19 February 2006 ) | ||||
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