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Dialogue Among Religions

Diplomatic Roundtable on Building Inter Faith Harmony Internationally
Welcome by David Kilgour, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Southeast and Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific), House of Commons, Ottawa, ON

March 24, 2003

Ambassadors, High Commissioners, Archbishop Gervais, Imam Solaiman, Colleague from the House, Ladies and Gentleman:

Thank you all for coming to meet the Rev. Mark Lewis, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

He and I are both anxious to hear from you on the need for understanding among religious communities across the world.

Indeed, I’d propose that you do this on a Chatham House basis—that nothing said can be attributed to anyone. I would propose that after hearing form Moderator Lewis we go around the table. Anyone wishing to speak should identify themselves and speak for not more than 2-3 minutes on the first round.

None of you needs to be told that the scourge of spiritual peoples across the globe in the 20th century were those who loathed religion—the Hitlers, Stalins and too many others.

One estimate of the number of believers of all religions who died prematurely while standing up for faith in the century we recently left is a truly dismaying 169 million persons worldwide, including:

  • 70 million Muslims
  • 35 million Christians
  • 11 million Hindus
  • 9 million Jews
  • 4 million Buddhists
  • 2 million Sikhs
  • 1 million Baha’is
  • 5 million other faiths

The problem thus far in the 21st century seems to be more one of inter-faith conflicts. We can all think of countries where believers of one faith are harassing other—or far worse—believers in others—including Canada. In some of these countries, it appears that politicians and/or governments are stirring things up among faith communities.

Finally, a very brief word on Moderator Mark Lewis.

  • He was born in Wales, but raised and educated in Canada
  • He has served as a prison chaplain
  • Currently, he is also the minister of MacNab Street Presbyterian Church in Hamilton and was honoured as the best preacher in a survey in his church magazine.
  • Following 9/11, he stood with leaders of the Muslim, Hindu and Jewish communities to seek peace and reconciliation. His congregation contributed to the rebuilding of the Hindu Temple after it was destroyed by arson. He was present at the inter-faith service yesterday at the Cathedral here in Ottawa.
  • He will probably tell you that the leadership of his church has taken a strong stance against the Iraq war.

Moderator Lewis, please…

 
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